29 Bible Verses about Popularity

and so many people gathered there that there was no longer any room even around the door. He was telling them His message.

For He cured so many people that all who had ailments kept crowding up against Him to touch Him.

So He went off with him, and a great crowd kept following Him, and jostling Him.

Once as the crowd was pressing against Him to hear the message of God, He found Himself standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret.

His mother and His brothers came to see Him, but they could not get in touch with Him, on account of the crowd.

So great crowds followed Him, from Galilee and Decapolis, from Jerusalem and Judea, and from the other side of Jordan.

And the crowds that gathered about Him were so great that He got into a boat and remained sitting in it, while all the crowd stood on the seashore.

and great crowds came up to Him bringing with them the lame, the crippled, the blind, the deaf, and many others. They laid them at His feet, and He cured them,

and the whole town gathered at the door.

He went out of the town again and along the seashore, and all the people kept coming to Him and He kept teaching them.

Meanwhile as the people had gathered in tens of thousands, so that they were trampling upon one another, He began to say, first of all, to His disciples: "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is, hypocrisy.

for they loved the praise of men instead of the praise of God.

A curse on you when everyone speaks well of you, for this is the way their forefathers used to treat the false prophets.

Slaves, practice obedience to your earthly masters in everything, not as though they were watching you and as though you were merely pleasing men, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

About that time Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, in order to do them violence. He had James the brother of John murdered with a sword, and when he saw that this was agreeable to the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too -- it was at the time of the feast of Unleavened Bread.

But at the close of two whole years Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and as he wanted to gratify the Jews, Felix left Paul still in prison.

Then Festus, as he wanted to ingratiate himself with the Jews, said to Paul, "Will you go up to Jerusalem and be tried on these charges before me there?"

For consider, brothers, the way God called you; that not many of you, in accordance with human standards, were wise, not many influential, not many of high birth. Just the opposite: God chose what the world calls foolish to put the wise to shame, what the world calls weak to put the strong to shame, what the world calls of low degree, yea, what it counts as nothing and what it thinks does not exist, God chose to put a stop to what it thinks exists,read more.
so that no mortal man might ever boast in the presence of God.

Yet, when among mature believers we do set forth a wisdom, but a wisdom that does not belong to this world or to the leaders of this world who are passing away; rather, we are setting forth a wisdom that came from God, once a covered secret but now uncovered, which God marked off as His plan for bringing us to glory.

What are we then to conclude? Is the law sin? Of course not! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I should not have learned what sin was, for I should not have known what an evil desire was, if the law had not said, "You must not have an evil desire."

Those who are guilty reprove in public, so that others may be warned.

If we claim "We are already free from sin," we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in our hearts.

Thus many of the Jews, who came to see Mary and who saw what Jesus had done, believed in Him; but some of them went back to the Pharisees and told them what He had done. So the high priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and began to say, "What are we to do? For this man is certainly performing many wonder-works.read more.
If we let Him go on this way, everybody will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and blot out both our city and nation."

Now just about that time a great commotion arose about The Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, by manufacturing silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing in great profits to his workmen. He called together his workmen, and others engaged in similar trades, and said to them: "Men, you well know that our prosperity depends on this business of ours,read more.
and you see and hear that, not only in Ephesus but all over the province of Asia, this man Paul has led away a vast number of people by persuading them, telling them that gods made by human hands are not gods at all. Now the danger facing us is, not only that our business will lose its reputation but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be brought into contempt and that she whom all Asia and all the world now worship will soon be dethroned from her majestic glory!" When they heard this, they became furious and kept on shouting, "Great Artemis of Ephesus!" So the whole city was thrown into confusion and with one impulse the people rushed into the theatre and dragged with them two Macedonians, Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions. Paul wanted to go into the assembly and address the people, but the disciples would not let him. Some of the public officials in Asia, who were friendly to him, also sent word to him, begging him not to risk himself in the theatre. So they kept on shouting, some one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority of them did not know why they had met. Some of the crowd concluded that it was Alexander, since the Jews had pushed him to the front, and since Alexander had made a gesture of the hand as though he would make a defense before the people. But as soon as they saw that he was a Jew, a shout went up from them all as the shout of one man, lasting for two hours: "Great Artemis of Ephesus!" At last the city recorder quieted the mob and said: "Men of Ephesus, who in the world does not know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of the image that fell down from heaven? So, as this cannot be denied, you must be quiet and do nothing rash. For you have brought these men here, although they are not guilty of sacrilege or of abusive speech against our goddess. So then, if Demetrius and his fellow-workmen have a charge against anybody, there are the courts and the judges; let them go to law. But if you require anything beyond this, it must be settled in the regular assembly. For we are in danger of being charged with rioting for today's assembly, as there is not a single reason we can give for it."

Now the high priest took a stand, and all his friends, the party of the Sadducees; and being filled with jealousy, they had the apostles arrested and put into the common jail. But in the night the angel of the Lord threw open the jail doors and let them out, and said to them,read more.
"Go and take your stand in the temple square and continue to tell the people the message of this new life." So they obeyed, and about the break of day they went into the temple square and began to teach. The high priest and his party arrived and called a meeting of the council and the whole senate of the sons of Israel, and sent to the prison to have the men brought in. But the attendants who went for them could not find them in the jail, and so came back and reported, "We found the prison safely locked and the keepers on duty at the doors, but on opening the doors we found no one on the inside." When the military commander of the temple square and the high priest heard this, they were utterly at a loss to know how this might turn out. But somebody came by and reported to them, "The men that you put in jail are standing right here in the temple square, teaching the people." Then the military commander went with his attendants and brought them back, but without any violence, for they were afraid of being pelted with stones by the people. So they brought them and had them stand before the council. And the high priest asked them, "Did we not positively forbid you to teach anymore on this authority, and yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and now want to bring on us the people's vengeance for this man's death!" Peter and the apostles answered, "We must obey God rather than men. The God of our forefathers raised Jesus to life after you had hanged Him on a cross and killed Him. God has exalted to His right hand this very One as our Leader and Saviour, in order to give repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel. We and the Holy Spirit that God has given to those who practice obedience to Him are witnesses to these things." When they heard this, they were furious, and wanted to kill them. But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, highly respected by all the people, got up in the council and gave orders to put the men out of the council a little while; then he said to them: "Fellow Israelites, take care as to what you are about to do to these men. For in the days gone by Theudas appeared, claiming that he was a man of importance, and a considerable number of men, about four hundred, espoused his cause, but he was slain and all his followers were dispersed and as a party annihilated. After him, at the time of the enrollment for the Roman tax, Judas the Galilean appeared and influenced people to desert and follow him, but he too perished and all his followers were scattered. So in the present case, I warn you, stay away from these men, let them alone. For, if this program or movement has its origin in men, it will go to pieces, but if it has its origin in God, you can never stop it. It is to be feared that you may find yourselves fighting God." They were convinced by him, and after calling the apostles in and having them flogged, they charged them to stop speaking on the authority of Jesus, and then turned them loose. So they went out from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer disgrace for Jesus' name;

As the seven days were drawing to a close, the Jews from Asia caught a glimpse of him in the temple and began to stir up all the crowd, and seized him, as they kept shouting, "Men of Israel, help! help! This is the man who teaches everybody everywhere against our people and the law and this place; yea, more than that, he has actually brought Greeks into the temple and desecrated this sacred place." For they had previously seen Trophimus of Ephesus in the city with him, and so they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.read more.
The whole city was stirred with excitement, and all at once the people rushed together, and seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and its gates at once were shut. Now while they were trying to kill him, news reached the colonel of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in a ferment. So he at once got together some soldiers and captains and hurried down against them, but as soon as they saw the colonel and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the colonel came up and seized Paul and ordered him to be bound with two chains; he then asked who he was and what he had done. But they kept shouting in the crowd, some one thing, some another. As he could not with certainty find out about it, because of the tumult, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. When Paul got to the steps, he was actually borne by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, for a tremendous crowd of people kept following them and shouting, "Away with him!"

As He was again starting on a journey, a man ran up to Him, and knelt to Him, and was asking Him, "Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?" And Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me perfectly good? No one is perfectly good but God Himself. You know the commandments: Do not murder. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Do not defraud. Practice honoring your father and mother."read more.
But he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these commandments ever since I was a child." Then Jesus looked at him and loved him, and said to him, "You lack one thing. Go, sell everything you have, and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come back and follow me." But his countenance fell at that command, and he went away in deep distress, for he owned a great deal of property. Then Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, "How hard it will be for those who have money to get into the kingdom of God!"