Why does the gospel stir up so much trouble?

In Acts 17:1-15, the message of Jesus turns whole cities upside down. Dr. Toby Holt explains why the good news unsettles the world — and why that is exactly what it is meant to do. In Thessalonica, Paul reasoned from the Scriptures for three Sabbaths that Jesus is the Christ who had to die and rise. Some believed, but jealous opponents stirred up a mob, accusing the missionaries of proclaiming "another king — Jesus." Holt notes the real opposition is spiritual, and contrasts the angry crowd with the fair-minded Bereans, who searched the Scriptures daily.

Questions this study answers:

1. Why did the gospel cause such an uproar? Because it announces "another king, Jesus," and challenges the world's idols and power. A message calling for full allegiance to Christ always unsettles the way things are.

2. What was the real source of the opposition? Holt points beyond the angry crowd to a spiritual enemy. The struggle over the gospel is ultimately not against people but against spiritual darkness.

3. What made the Bereans different? Instead of reacting with anger, they searched the Scriptures daily to test whether Paul's teaching was true — showing us how to weigh everything by God's Word.

"These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." — Acts 17:6 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In first century Greece, the angry mob didn't accuse the Apostle Paul of threatening their pagan gods.

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Instead, they claimed that he was defying Caesar and turning the world upside down.

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In today's study of Acts 17, we'll consider why the gospel is a direct threat to the world's status quo, both then and now.

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For many centuries, God's people were not engaged in any kind of worldwide evangelism.

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Now, what do I mean by that?

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Well, if you look at the Old Testament, there's no record of Israel's widespread outreach to the pagan nations.

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Now, why not?

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Well, here's the thing. It wasn't their mandate.

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They were called throughout the pages of the Old Testament to be set apart from the pagans.

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They were called to be set apart, and they acted accordingly.

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If you remember the movie Fiddler on the Roof, the rabbi is asked in Fiddler on the Roof,

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in Anatevka there, he's asked a question, and the question is this.

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Rabbi, is there any blessing for the Tsar?

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Is there any blessing you can give to the Tsar?

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Now, the rabbi thought about that, and what was his response?

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Well, he said this.

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He said, yes, certainly, certainly.

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May the Lord bless and keep the Tsar far away from us.

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in a nutshell that was the approach that the jews had for centuries and centuries and centuries

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towards the gentiles they were not treated as a mission field if you were to go into the courts

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and the temple there in jerusalem there was no bulletin board hanging on the hallways there in

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the temple courts of jerusalem with a sign-up sheet for the youth mission trip to cairo there

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was nothing like that why they did not see this as part of their mandate and in fairness scripture

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not recorded as part of their mandate with that said everything changed in matthew 28 and matthew

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28, after the crucifixion and after the resurrection, Jesus gives what is recorded as the

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great commission, the great commission to the apostles, the great commission. Go therefore and

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make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy

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Ghost. The great commission was given to God's people that they would take the hope that they

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had been given, the gospel that had been sown into their heart, and not restrain it within the

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boundaries of a singular nation state, but rather take it to the entirety of the globe. This is the

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Great Commission. Now, in the historical and cultural context in which that commission was

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given, it was revolutionary. Why? Because they didn't do that. As we said, pagan nations were

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to be avoided. Ministry there was unthinkable. And if you doubt that, read the book of Jonah.

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Jonah's one prophet that was sent to a pagan nation, and he hated it. Why? Because he hated

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the people there. His approach, pardon the phrase, was that the people in Nineveh could go to hell.

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That was his approach, and he was angry when God had other plans. So with that said, in the

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historical and cultural context of first century Israel, what Jesus told them to do was unthinkable,

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and yet it had always been part of God's plan to take the gospel out to all the nations. When you

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go all the way back in the book of Genesis, you'll see embedded in his instructions and promises and

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covenant with Abraham was this idea that through Abraham, through his progeny, all the nations of

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the world would be blessed. It was always God's desire to take the hope of the seed of the Messiah,

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of the Christ, and to extend that hope to the far corners of the world. You see it in Genesis,

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you see it in Isaiah, you see it in the Psalms, you see it throughout the Old Testament. However,

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it's not until you get to the book of Acts that you see God's plan to take the gospel, to take

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the good news to every tribe and tongue on the planet. It's not until you get to the book of Acts

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that you see this plan begin to unfold at warp speed. In Acts, we see God sending people

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deliberately, intentionally to the Gentile nations, most notably the apostle to the Gentiles, who was

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Paul. However, when they went to the Gentile nations, Paul and others would face great resistance,

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particularly in Paul's first visit to Greece, as we see in this text. Let's return now to verses

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1 through 4 of this reading and see what that resistance looked like. Verse 1. Now when they

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had passed through Amphipolis in Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue

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of the Jews. Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them and for three Sabbaths he reasoned with

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them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer

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and had to rise again from the dead and saying, this Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.

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Now, some of them were persuaded, and a great multitude of the devout Greeks,

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and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.

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All right, in verse 1, Paul had previously arrived in Greece there,

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just a few paragraphs earlier, but here in verse 1,

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they had passed through a couple of towns, and they came to Thessalonica.

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Now, why did he stop in Thessalonica?

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Well, verse 1 suggests that there was a synagogue there,

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and that was the principal reason why he stopped there.

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This was probably, you know, expats, this was probably Jewish expatriates, so to speak,

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or at the very least, Jewish merchants who had lived in this area because Thessalonica was a

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more cosmopolitan town than some of the other towns there in Macedonia. Now, of all the people

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in Thessalonica that Paul could take the gospel to, that he could minister to, those who theoretically

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would be most receptive to the gospel would be those most familiar with the scriptures,

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who would be the Jews in the synagogue. So for three weeks, Paul goes to the synagogue there

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in Thessalonica and shares the gospel with the expectation or the hope or the desire that the

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people who were already familiar with scriptures in the synagogues would be receptive would be

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receptive his instruction with regards to Jesus Christ so that's why he was there and that's what

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he was doing specifically we see in verse 2 that he was there to reason with to reason with them

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and some were persuaded by that reasoning but not all now let me suggest to you you can you can

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reason from Scripture. It is its own best witness and authenticator. But furthermore, you should

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reason from Scripture. You know, sometimes people get in the habit of doing theology apart from

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biblical studies. Sometimes people get in the habit of shooting from the hip with regards to

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their understanding of what this book conveys. But that's not the model that Paul used, and it's not

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the model that Jesus used. Here in Acts chapter 17, Paul says, all right, let's reason from Scripture.

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let's open the book, let's open the scrolls there in the synagogue, let's see what it says. And as

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we see what it says, I'm going to show you how what it says points to the person and work of

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Jesus Christ. This is something Paul did, but guess what? It's something Jesus did too. You

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remember after Jesus' resurrection, he's on the road to Emmaus there in Luke chapter 24. He

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encounters some guys who don't know what's happened, you know, and he pretends he comes

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alongside them. What's going on? They say, don't you know? Don't you know what's happened in these

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days that Christ, this one, came and was crucified and he's buried and now we don't know what's going

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on. And it's said there in Luke chapter 24 that beginning in the law and the prophets, beginning

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in this book, beginning in scripture, Jesus began to explain all that the prophets and the law, all

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that the Old Testament said about himself. Jesus reasoned from scripture. Paul reasoned from

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scripture. If you want to be an effective minister of the gospel, even to the people in your own

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family, use this. Don't just trust on your ability to weave a tale together. Reason from Scripture.

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Now, what sort of passages would Paul have reasoned from? Well, there's all manner. One of my favorites,

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let me quote it for you briefly. One of my favorites comes from the Old Testament book of Isaiah,

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written 700 years before the time of Christ. So what Paul does, he goes to the synagogue and he

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takes scrolls just like that. Give me Isaiah. Let's turn to Isaiah 53, such as it was there in the

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scrolls. Let me read to you this, oh people in the synagogue here in Thessalonica. I'm going to read

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you this text, and I want you to hear these words, and let's see if we can identify together who these

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words are talking about. Now, you and I in Gulfport, we can play that same game too right now. Isaiah

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chapter 53, the first few verses say this, who has believed our report? To whom has the arm of the

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Lord been revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry

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ground. He had no form or comeliness, and when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire

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him. He was despised, rejected by men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and we hid, as it

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were, our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs

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and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, afflicted. But he's

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wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace

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was laid upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We

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have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity, the sin of us all.

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Let me stop there. Who's that talking about? I could read that exact text on any street corner

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in the country and ask, who is this talking about? And people, even if they haven't been in church in

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20, 30 years, they'll still know that's a reference to Jesus Christ. What Paul did, what Jesus himself

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did, what the apostles routinely did, was they'd go to texts like that and they'd reason. They'd say,

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hey, hey, hey, you understand that way back in Genesis 3, there was a promise that a seed would

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come. That was the first prophecy ever, the euangelion, the promise of good news. Someday,

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one is going to come to do what Adam failed to do. Someday, one is going to come to restore the

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relationship we have with God. Someday a seed will come and he will crush the serpent under his feet.

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Genesis 3.15, throughout Genesis and Exodus and Leviticus and on throughout the entirety of the

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Old Testament, there's passages and prophecies and promises that when the one came, when the seed

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came, when the Christ came, when the Messiah came, that he would do and say certain things. He would

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certain behaviors and ultimately he'd die bearing our sins. There's all manner of prophecies that

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explain that this is what would happen. Well, when Paul went into the synagogues in Thessalonica,

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in one sense, he was telling them what they already knew. He was reading passages they'd

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read before. But he's saying, I'm going to tell you who this is about. Let me tell you a story

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about Jesus of Nazareth. And he would unpack how Jesus fulfilled the promises, fulfilled the

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prophecies. He'd say, hey, let's turn over here to Micah. You remember this text that talked about

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who would come out of Bethlehem? Well, guess what? He'd go to the various prophecies and explain

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from Scripture. The passage is written hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus ever walked

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planet Earth. He'd say, these things pointed to one guy. And the good news is that the one we as

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a people have been waiting for for centuries to show up, he has. And he did exactly what Scripture

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said he would do and the exact order Scripture said he would do it. And because he has done that,

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it does not matter if we're under the foot of Rome or Egypt or anyone else. Because he has done that,

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We have been saved and spared from the greatest enemies we'll ever face, that of sin and death.

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We now have hope that we did not previously have.

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Rejoice in this good news.

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That's what he came to share.

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And notice, he didn't just shoot from the hip.

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He went to Scripture to do it.

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He reasoned with them.

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If you're on the outside looking in, and you don't know if you believe the Bible to be true,

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I would encourage you to look at passages like Isaiah chapter 53, written 700 years before the time of Christ,

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verified in things like the Dead Sea Scrolls

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to have been recorded ages before Christ came on the scene.

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And tell me, if they're not talking about him,

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then who are they talking about?

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There's only one man who has ever walked the face of the earth

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who can justifiably be explained to be the fulfillment

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of what all these promises and prophecies spoke about.

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Only one guy. His name is Jesus.

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No one else is even close.

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If you're wondering whether all this is true,

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whether what we believe is valid,

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whether our hope is just hope and hope or faith and faith,

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No, it's hope and faith in something verifiable in which there is truth and facts and history and

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archaeology to support what we believe. We stand on faith. We also stand on facts. And that's what

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Paul did. He says, yes, I have faith in Jesus. Absolutely. Amen and amen. But let me explain to

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you that faith is based on facts and history and prophecies and things written in this scroll

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that point to this reality. This is what reasoning looks like. This is what we're encouraged to do.

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and this is the model that we see here, Paul, in Acts chapter 17. All right, let's look now at

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verses 5 through 9. Verse 5. But the Jews who were not persuaded became envious, and they took some

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of the evil men from the marketplace. Boy, that's interesting. They went and sought evil men from

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the marketplace, and they gathered a mob, and they set all the city in uproar, and they attacked the

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house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they

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dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, those who have turned the

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world upside down have come here too. And Jason has harbored them, and they're all acting contrary

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to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus. And they troubled the crowd

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and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security or a bond

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from Jason and the rest, they let them go. All right. In the previous verses, we saw that some

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individuals responded well to the gospel. Why? Was it just because they were smart or proficient in

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these things? Not necessarily. They might have been smart, they might have been proficient, but that's not

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the means by which hearts are converted. Hearts are converted because the Spirit enters in and

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changes our hearts and enables us and persuades us to believe that which we hear. So on some level,

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that occurred with some who were there, but not with everyone. And those who were not enabled and

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persuaded, they became envious, they became angry, and they responded with anger, and they sought out

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evil men from the marketplace. There's a sense that they themselves were evil. It's the company

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they sought out to chase Paul and the others out of town. They sought out evil men. They formed a

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lynch mob, so to speak. And when they couldn't find Paul and the others, they settled for Jason.

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They figured this guy, he's probably hosting the people there and we're going to get some security

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from him and the like. So they were very, very angry, very, very upset. And the thrust of their

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anger was this. They had heard what was going on in Jerusalem. They had heard what was going on in

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judea they had heard what had happened there and their concern was that the world was being turned

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upside down in jerusalem and now now it was going to happen in thessalonica too the very ones who

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turn the world upside down they've come here and they're looking to do the same thing now if you

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were to go several chapters back in the book of acts way back to chapter five peter and the other

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apostles were brought forward to the jewish council to the high leaders to the high priest

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in jerusalem at that time and at that time when they encountered the high priest the high priest

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was furious. Remember, when they killed Jesus, they thought that would put the end to things.

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They thought that was it. We done killed him. So this is going to put an end to this rebellion and

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his disciples will disperse to the winds. But that's not what happened. Rather, there was reports

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that the one they'd killed didn't stay dead. They didn't know quite what to make of that. But on top

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of that, on top of that, his disciples were now empowered. They were going everywhere. They were

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sharing what they had heard. They'd even gone in the temple in order to express their faith in this

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Jesus Christ. So the high priest in Acts chapter 5, he's just absolutely furious, livid, red-faced,

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and he practically screeches at Peter and the others, and he says this. He says,

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did we not command you? Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name,

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not to teach in the name of this Jesus Christ, not to share this gospel that you have? Did we

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not command you, tell you, instruct you not to do this? And then he said this. He says, now look,

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Now look, you have filled the city with your doctrines.

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You have filled Jerusalem.

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You have filled the city with this teaching of Jesus Christ.

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And we don't like it.

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We told you not to do it.

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And because you've done it, you have filled the city.

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You've leavened the city.

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You've saturated the city.

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It's what everyone's talking about.

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Our world has been turned upside down.

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And that was his problem.

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The high priest's biggest problem was not the nature of truth versus untruth or what have you.

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His biggest problem was that the status quo had changed.

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Up until that point, being the high priest or the leaders of the Jewish council,

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you were in charge.

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You ruled things.

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If people had questions about theology and faith and religion, they came to you.

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Now you've got fishermen in the temple talking about this Jesus,

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turning things upside down?

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To them, it was unacceptable.

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Whether it was true or not was not relevant.

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What they knew was that they were threatened.

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This was a threat to the status quo.

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Well, what happens in Thessalonica?

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What happens?

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the Jews go there and they say, hey, these envious Jews that sought out the evil men,

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they tell everyone, hey, here's the problem. Here's the problem. It's not so much whether

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Paul and these others are telling the truth or not. That's not the issue. The problem is that

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the status quo is being disrupted. And so they go to the rulers and they say, hey, these guys are

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not just teaching about different gods. You know, in Greek, they had lots of gods. They could talk

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about gods all day long. We'll see that next week. They love talking about gods. It wasn't a problem

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of the theology. It really wasn't. That wasn't the main issue. And the evil men knew that. So they go

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to the rulers and they say, here's the problem. It's not simply that they're teaching about some

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other god or what have you. They're teaching about some other king. They're teaching about some other

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king. We bend the knee to Caesar, to the empire. Well, they're talking about a king and his name

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is Jesus. Someone else to bow the knee to. Now that got the ears of the rulers. Why? Because it

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threaten the status quo. It threatened their political reign, the socioeconomic stranglehold

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that they had. We cannot have anyone talking about another king other than Caesar. So that

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was the nature of the accusation. They're turning the world upside down. Now, let me ask you, would

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you say that the spread of the gospel is a good thing or a bad thing? You don't have to answer.

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We all know. If it is good news, then it's also essential news for people to hear. That's what

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Paul was attempting to do. But he was threatening not only the rulers in Jerusalem and not only the

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rulers on Thessalonica, he was threatening the prince of the power of the air, the lord of this

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world. And the lord of this world had a stranglehold on Macedonia, on Greece, and all their idols. This

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was an idol factory. So when Paul and the others brought the gospel into Greece, they were bringing

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light into the darkest of places. It's no wonder they faced opposition. And it wasn't simply from

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evil men, those evil forces that were hell-bent on their destruction and their prison. And they

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would get chased from place to place to place to place to place, as you read through the book of

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Acts. And yet, their work and their words would turn Greece upside down. Because that's the nature

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of the gospel, like a mustard seed. You can martyr the people who preach it, it won't matter. If it's

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true, and if it's spirit-aided truth, you cannot stop it. And truly that's what happened. You could

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not stop the gospel. You could not stop it. Truly the world was being turned upside down, and for

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what it's worth, that's the nature not only of the gospel, that's the nature of Christ. He wants the

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world turned upside down. You doubt it? Think what he did when he showed up in his own temple. He

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looked around and says, the money changers? All right, what am I going to do here? What did he do?

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He flipped tables. If he flipped tables in Jerusalem, they were going to get flipped in

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Thessalonica. And they will get flipped years later, centuries later, in places like D.C.

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and Gulfport. All right, let's look at our final verses, verses 10 through 15.

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Then the brethren, notice there's brethren, there was brothers and sisters who were looking out for

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their welfare. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. Now when

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they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Remember, this was the custom. And they were

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more fair-minded. Those in Berea were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that

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they received the word with all readiness, and then they searched the scriptures daily to see

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whether these things were true. The synagogue in Berea, the people there had evidently been trained

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by a better rabbi, and they were trained to take the truth of that which was proclaimed, or whatever

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was proclaimed from pulpits or soapboxes throughout the area, and to take what they heard and match it

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up against what this says. This is good practice. You should do it too. Take what is said and say it

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is only true to the degree that it reflects what this says. It is only true to the degree which it

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echoes and reflects the words of this book. So that's what they did there in Berea. They took

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the word and mashed up scripture to find out whether these things were so. In verse 12,

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therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

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It's interesting, both women and men here are noted regularly as those who are responding.

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So the Spirit is changing the hearts of men and women throughout this region. Verse 13,

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But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned, remember the evil men and the lynch mob?

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When the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea,

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they came there also, and they stirred up the crowds.

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Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away.

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Brothers and sisters once again came alongside them and gave them safe harbor.

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Sent them away to go by the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remained there.

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So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens.

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Receiving command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed, they departed.

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In verse 10, the brethren, the believers in Thessalonica, sent Paul and Silas by night to Berea.

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And as we saw in verse 11, the reaction they had from the saints in Berea was far better than what they had received elsewhere.

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And it's principally because the people in Berea were trained to take the words that they heard and match it up against Scripture.

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Remember, theology on its own is dangerous.

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Everyone's a theologian.

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Everyone in this world has some sense of God, and they define that God on their terms.

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Everyone's a theologian.

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The problem is that most of their theology is bad.

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Theology needs to be wedded to a source of truth.

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And that's why the Bereans were better stead and better equipped and better prepared to respond to what they heard than the others.

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Because they took that which Paul was teaching and they matched it up against the Word.

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They searched the Scriptures daily.

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There was a continuity.

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They searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

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Now, as we said before, the Jews had centuries of prophecies.

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Centuries and centuries of prophecies written across multiple, multiple books.

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it could apply to any messianic claim. Now there had been other messianic claims. There was other

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people that said, I'm the Messiah over the ages. And yet those individuals, their story didn't

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match up to this. What was interesting and fascinating to the people in Berea was that

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the story of Jesus did. What they were hearing about this Jesus of Nazareth, as they looked to

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the scriptures, as they looked to Isaiah, as they looked to Micah, as they looked to the Psalms,

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as they looked all the way back to Genesis 3.15, as they looked to these things, they said, wait a

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second. The guy you're talking about sounds an awful lot like he who was promised here. And many

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of them, both men and women, responded through faith. God took the truth that they had heard,

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married up to the word that he had given them, and through his spirit convicted them that it was so.

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And they responded through faith. In closing this morning, because I want to transition next week,

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next week again we're going to build on the story. Paul's been dropped off, deposited in Athens here

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at the end of this text. Next week we're going to pick up exactly right there. We're going to pick

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with Paul in Athens and his adventures there. But what we see here is that Paul had been committed.

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He had committed himself to ministering the gospel into regions that were dark. And the response of

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those regions was to respond negatively to what they heard and to chase Paul from town to town.

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He was routinely beaten, caned, imprisoned, and the like. And yet, because of his love for the gospel

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and his love for people, he wanted to share it with them, irrespective of what response they would get.

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In 21st century North America, we do have trouble relating to some of that.

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Our difficulty sharing the gospel usually boils down to the awkwardness we have

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of just teaching other people about our faith.

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What are the two things you're not supposed to talk about at the holidays?

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Religion and politics.

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Well, we're taught that, and we're taught it's hard, it's difficult.

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Well, it's also necessary.

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You and I have trouble sharing these things at the Thanksgiving table.

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Paul went into the very heart of darkness to share them.

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Why? Because people were dying there, and they needed to hear it.

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And the reception he would get would be very difficult.

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I only have one experience sharing the gospel in a region

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that was adamantly opposed to that which I was sharing.

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It came in Egypt.

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And what's interesting, when you teach there in Egypt,

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it's a little Christian conference center on the Mediterranean Sea.

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It's very beautiful, all things being equal.

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And yet, its beauty is somewhat obscured by the fact

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that there are tall barbed wire fences that surround this Christian compound.

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We're taken from the airport there in Cairo,

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and we're driven up to Alexandria, and it's nice in many respects, and it's safe in many respects,

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but at the same time, you never lose sight of the fact that you are in a place where the majority

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of the people are opposed to that which you have come to teach. In their context, it is very

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difficult to be an ambassador for Christ because the world around them is adamantly opposed to

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Christ. We don't have that experience, but we should be sending teams and people to regions

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where the world needs to know that which we hold,

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that which we hope in.

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Today's text, we see this in one setting, Thessalonica.

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Next week, we'll see it in Paul's ministry to Athens.

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Let's pray.