If you have served in almost any leadership position you have dealt with accusations. This verse just came up in my reading this week so thought I’d talk about dealing with accusations for a minute.
People often will bring accusations against anyone who will not “dance to their tune”
In Matthew 11:16-17, Jesus said, “to what should I compare this generation? Like children sitting in the marketplaces who call out to other children: ‘we played the flute for you, but you didn’t dance; we sang a lament, but you didn’t mourn.’”
Then he says that they called John the Baptist a demon because he didn’t eat or drink with them, but Jesus DID eat and drink and they called him a glutton, drunkard, and friend of sinners.
So, in Acts 21, Paul comes to Jerusalem to give testament to what God was doing among the Gentile converts to The Way of Jesus. He gave witness, he was respectful, but religious leaders started a riot with intention of killing Paul. For his own protection, he was put into custody.
While in Jail in Jerusalem, the Lord appeared to him and said, “Have Courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”
Let me say, it’s always important to know what God’s saying and where he is leading. Sometimes he says, “do not go”. Sometimes he says, “be silent”. But other times he says, “go, speak, do.” Follow Him.
Well Paul is transferred to Caesarea and his accusers come with diligence and they say to the Roman Ruler in Acts 24:5 “this man is a plague, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the Roman world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarene”.
Accusations:
- a Plague – loismos = most simple a pest. In Acts 16:6 they said of them, “these men who have turned the world upside down…
- an Agitator – kineo stasis = mover, shaker, insurrectionist. He had been here accused of bringing Gentiles into the Temple – Truth was that Timothy, whose Father was Greek but Mother was Jewish – AND he had as a young man been circumcised so that there would be no accusation.
- a Ringleader – protostates = one who stands first among soldiers –
Well – they accused Paul of being a moving, shaking, pest who leads a group of soldiers – I can think of worse things to be called.
Even IF we follow Jesus – well – Especially when we follow Jesus, we will be accused of the like, by those who do not.
They will say, as they did of Jesus, “you don’t dance to our tune, you don’t sing our songs, you don’t celebrate what we celebrate, you don’t mourn what we mourn”
Accusations come – let me just make these short observations of encouragement
- Let us be sure we are following Jesus
- Let us be sure we do what he says
- let us be willing to suffer the consequences
- Then be satisfied to reap the “well done” of the Father one day
As for me: I will Dance to Jesus’ tune. I will Sing his song. I will Do his work, will, and for his fame and glory.
