Do you ever wonder why people are so disinterested in religion? Especially if you have been brought up in the church, it is hard to understand those who don’t attend regularly.

In reading through the first part of the book of Acts, we can see how rapidly the church grew. It started with 3,000 on Pentecost (Acts 2:41), and the Lord added to the number daily. The church grew quickly; and keep in mind, it was only Jews who were obeying the Gospel. It had not yet been preached to the Gentiles.

The apostles were busy preaching and teaching, and they were overwhelmed with requests for healing. They became so popular that the high priest and the Sadducees were filled with jealousy, attacked them, and put them in prison. During the night, an angel of the Lord opened their prison doors and let them out. Then they were given this charge. “Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life” (Acts 5:20).

So, here are the apostles, thrown in prison for preaching the Gospel; and the angel of the Lord commands them to go stand in the temple and preach. What do you think they did? Of course, at daybreak they went straight to the temple to preach.

When the high priest came back the next day, he and the council called for the prisoners to be brought to them. When the officers arrived at the cell where the apostles were being kept, they found them missing. Someone told them that the men they had put in prison were in the temple teaching the people. What brave men they were. They defied the high priest and the Sanhedrin, and preached the Gospel.

The captain of officers was sent to bring them to the council, but he was careful not to take them by force. He was afraid of the people. The Gospel was so powerful that the people wanted to hear what the apostles had to say. They could give eyewitness accounts of having seen Jesus after He was raised from the dead. They could testify to the miracle of receiving the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, and they could perform miracles and speak in languages unknown to them as proof of their being qualified to deliver the Gospel message.

A man named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, a Pharisee, and a man honored by all of the people offered the council some advice. He told them not to worry about the teaching of these twelve men. He explained that they had been presented with a similar situation twice before. Men were able to draw large crowds of people to their way of thinking. He said that if this teaching was just the ideas of men, it would not last. But, he said, if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

So, the council decided to beat them and demand that they teach no more in the name of Jesus. Then, they let them go. What do you suppose they did? They went back to the temple, and even went house to house, and preached that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God.

Now back to our original thought. How can people not be interested in the church, the Bible, even the destination of their souls? They are like these Pharisees and Sadducees. They are more interested in their positions, their jobs, their families, their activities, their hobbies, and many other worldly endeavors. Many can’t take time to attend worship, study the Bible, or share the Gospel with a lost world. When the world is falling to the modern version of idolatry, we are living our lives as though we are going to live forever.

Though we say all the time that things are different for us, we need to realize that things are still the same as they have always been. There is nothing new today. Man still ignores the message of the Word of God. Man still ignores the commands laid out for us to follow. Unfortunately, we are a lot like the Jews. They tried to worship God and idols. That is exactly what man does today. We want to consider ourselves Christians, yet we put ball games, vacations, and many other modern-day idols before worship and serving the Lord. May we wake up before we experience the same end as the Jews.

Sandra Oliver