It's sometimes said that a person's reputation has gone before them. That certainly seems to be true in this passage for Paul and his friends. They are described as "These men who have caused trouble all over the world."
In some cases a reputation, whether good or bad, is deserved. Why does this crowd make such a claim? We're going to see that the answer lies in a confrontation that challenges us and is the forerunner of further conflict.
1. Confrontation
It all begins when Paul and his friends arrive in Thessalonica from Philippi. When they got there, they went as usual into the synagogue to speak to the Jews there, along with non-Jews who had attached themselves to Judaism.
During the course of 3 Sabbath days, Paul "reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead" (vv.2,3). And having shown that, he told them, "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ."
He has a message that the Jews could follow, based on their own scriptures. He endeavoured to explain the text and show how the OT prophecies about the Messiah had been fulfilled in Jesus, the one who had died and rose again.
There is nothing here to suggest that Paul was whipping the crowd into a frenzy, that he played on their emotions or tried to exploit them. So why the accusation about causing trouble? Why the big scene in the town?
The trouble arises on 2 scores that are, in essence, the same. Paul's message confronts both the Jews in the synagogue and the non-Jewish crowd in the town. In terms of the Jews, Paul is explaining that God's promised Messiah had come. He is able to show quite definitely from the OT scriptures that the Messiah had to die and rise again. This was God's plan to rescue a world lost in sin. And the Jesus he is proclaiming fits the bill perfectly.
This is confrontational because the Jews and those who had given their allegiance to the Jewish faith were waiting for the Messiah. If he had really come, then they needed to pledge their allegiance to him. But for many of them, this picture of the Messiah didn't fit with their expectations.
And there's the rub. What would they do with the one who God had shown was the true Messiah? To hear this message left them with a profound choice. Some responded positively to what they heard. But some of the Jews decided this Messiah was not for them and went to make trouble for Paul and Co.
On one level, this looks like just another argument over religion and further proof you shouldn't raise the topic in polite company. But if this is simply about religion, why is the whole town in uproar over it?
The crowd clearly sees what has been said by Paul as having deep implications for them too. Listen to what they accuse them of: "They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus."
You see, this is not simply about religious preferences. The coming of Jesus and his dying and rising again has profound relevance for the whole world. In raising Jesus from the dead, God has declared him to the rightful ruler of the whole universe and so the gospel message calls all people everywhere to turn from their own ways and to worship him as Lord.
Why is this so upsetting to the Thessalonians? For some time, the Roman Emperor had been venerated as a god and, since he brought a certain amount of peace and prosperity to the empire, he was declared to be a saviour. His rule had brought a lot of material prosperity to Thessalonica.
The message about Jesus as Lord and Saviour directly challenged that whole way of thinking. The town was worried that any challenge to Caesar's rule would bring trouble, disturbing their peace and robbing them of their properity.
The message about Jesus confronts Jews with the promised Messiah and confronts all peoples with one who stakes a claim as rightful Lord of the whole universe.
But this confrontation is not limited to the first century. Each of us is being called today to follow Jesus as Lord and to turn away from all that challenges his lordship, whether that is material security or human relationships. The true Lord must come first; genuine peace and prosperity are only found in him as the one Saviour of sinful men and women.
But to believe this message and to genuinely embrace Jesus as Lord means trouble. It upsets the status quo, at work, in the home, in society at large. Each of us is confronted with the same choice that the people of Thessalonica faced: will we put our faith in human beings to bring us peace and prosperity or will we trust Jesus as Lord and so find in him genuine peace and a prosperity that is more than material?
2. Challenge
That confrontation brings a real challenge with it: will you take the time to evaluate what is being said? Will you come to this message with an open mind, ready to check out the claims of Jesus? No message could be either more demanding nor more rewarding.
We need to learn from the example of those in the next town Paul visited, Berea, who "were of more noble character than the Thessalonians". What that is saying is that they were more willing to learn than the others had been.
We live in the information age and all too often suffer from information overload. It's easy to dismiss something we aren't all that interested in. Please don't reject this message out of hand. It deserves your closest attention. You owe it to yourself to investigate it personally. Why not try reading one of the gospels and asking God to show you the truth about Jesus as you read. Are you willing to take that challenge?
3. Conflict
If you are willing, I need to be very straight with you from the evidence not simply of this passage but of the whole NT. All who see that Jesus is the rightful King and only Saviour and put their trust in him won't have an easy ride in this world.
That was true for Paul and his friends and, when Paul wrote to the young church in this city, it's clear that they too had suffered at the hands of their neighbours (1 Thes. 1:6). Maybe for some it had been at work, for others at home. But wherever it was the suffering was real.
It's the same today. If you're going to follow Jesus as Lord, you need to count the cost of doing so first. But that cost pales beside the wonder and the glory of knowing God personally, of knowing that Jesus died to save you and that in him you have genuine peace and eternal prosperity.
May the description Paul gives of the response of some in Thessalonica be true for each one of us: "You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead - Jesus who rescues us from the coming wrath." (1 Thes. 1:9,10)
