The Acts of the Apostles 83

Subtitle: Showdown in Jerusalem IV

Acts 22:22-23:5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 6, 2024.

Last week, we stopped right as the crowd listening to Paul begins to riot again.  Paul is on the northwest side of the temple courtyard of the Gentiles and is standing on the steps that lead up to bridges, connecting to the Antonia Fortress.

The final straw is his depiction of the Lord telling him to leave Jerusalem because they wouldn’t listen.  Instead, Paul was to go to the Gentiles.  Regardless of whether or not they believed the Lord actually spoke to him, the message is that God’s grace would be taken from them and given to the Gentiles.  This ignited a new flurry of rioting.

Let’s pick it up there and look at our passage.

Paul is taken into the fortress (v. 22-29)

The Jews had been under the dominion of Gentile powers for a very long time, just over 600 years.  It started with Babylon, then Persia, then Greece, and finally the Romans.  There was a brief period of throwing off dominion under the Maccabees, but that was short-lived.

At the same time, they had a promise from the prophets of an Anointed King of the line of David that would set all things right in Israel and in the world.  The prophecies have a mixture of judgment and salvation that would go to the ends of the earth.

The unique position of having great things promised to you and yet enduring great persecution can breed bad things in your heart.  The average person would generally give up on such prophecies, or at least, treat them as never happening in your lifetime.  It can also create an overdeveloped sense of entitlement to being on top.  Yet, anger that it is not happening.  It can lead to an inability to see God’s love for those others, especially those who have dominion over you.  However, it also happened among themselves.  It can lead to having great zeal and passion, yet without the wisdom of God.  It can lead to a person becoming unable to hear and follow the Holy Spirit.

Do we have some of this in our hearts and denominations within Christianity?

This crowd is angered by the idea that they had crucified the Messiah and that Messiah would send grace away from them to the Gentiles.  We have to be careful as Christians that we don’t develop that same entitled attitude that ends up raging against the work of the Holy Spirit.

As Pentecostals, we can look back to the Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox splitting and see a lack of following the Spirit of God.  We can look back to the Protestants and the Roman Catholics and see it again.  We can even see it among Protestant groups that railed against Pentecostals.  Can we be doing it again among ourselves?  Are we filled with a sense that we are the ones on the cutting edge of God’s work, and yet stand in the way of the Spirit in the name of God?  Of course, we can!

At this point, the Roman commander has Paul brought into the fortress to the shouts of, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!”  It is not likely that the commander understood Paul’s speech, at least immediately.  But, he could read the reaction of the crowd, and it wasn’t good.

The commander then gives the order for Paul to be interrogated under scourging.  Paul has been beaten in the past.  He was beaten with rods in Philippi.  However, the scourge was basically what they did to Jesus.  It had metal and bone tied into a leather flail.  This would easily break the skin and even tear off chunks of muscle.  Scourging often left a man maimed for life, and could even lead to death.  At this point, the commander will be absent, as a centurion has Paul tied to what is probably a post.  The centurion will run the interrogation while soldiers do the whipping.

It is at this point that Paul reveals his Roman citizenship.  He warns the centurion that he is about to break the law.  Of course, he is talking about Roman law.  No Roman citizen could be bound, much less beaten without a proper trial.  This piece of information brings the proceedings to a screeching halt as the centurion makes sure that the commander is aware of the full weight of his command.  This leads to the commander coming in to question Paul himself.

It is not clear exactly why he makes the statement about having obtained his citizenship with a large sum of money.  He could be implying that anyone with money can obtain citizenship (though it was technically illegal.  Roman citizenship was not officially for sale.)   It may be a derisive statement that doesn’t see Paul as capable of having citizenship.  Yet, Paul answers that he has Roman citizenship by birth.

This brings up a question.  Is Paul’s motivation purely out of fear of scourging?  Is he trying to get out of pain and suffering?  He hadn’t brought this up in Philippi until after his beating (Acts 16).  Of course, there is no indication that Paul ever pressed charges against any of these breaches of Roman law.  I believe Paul’s statements stand for themselves.  He is ready to suffer here in Jerusalem.  It was the Spirit of God that had led him to come.  Thus, it is very likely that the Spirit of God is moving him to plead citizenship.

Since we are on the subject of governments and rights, let’s notice that Roman rights were given by law, and they could be taken away by a change in the law.  Whereas, in these United States of America, our history has always held that these are from God and unalienable (at least without breaking the law).

We Americans love to holler about our rights, but we haven’t thought this all the way through. 

If God has given us rights, then he has a purpose a good effect in mind.  If we exercise those rights, then we have a duty to work towards the good He intends.  Take rearing children for instance.  The government doesn’t give you the right to have children.  It is given to you by God.  However, if you exercise your right to have a child, then you have a duty to raise that child for the good thing that God desires out of it.  Essentially, you are to raise up godly offspring to be a source of God’s love and truth into the next generation.  Thus, there is a flip-side to the coin of rights and it is called Duty, or Responsibility.  Precious few Americans are screaming about their duties.

Yet, even duties are intended to lead to a good effect.  That good effect then brings joy both to the duty-bound person and the recipient of that duty.  When the good fruit comes, it is a time of rejoicing. 

We must keep our eyes on God’s good purpose and the joy it brings while we are doing the duties.  You could lose heart, but to do so would be to give up on the joy.

In fact, Paul purposefully chose to endure rods.  Why?  Well first of all because he knew that Jesus had given him the right to take a beating for the Gospel.  I am not being funny.  The elders of the city took a completely different view of Paul and his teachings when they realized that he could take them before Caesar and they would not fare well.  Paul was working and enduring much difficulty for the joy of souls being saved from darkness.

Paul faces the Sanhedrin before the commander (22:30-23:5)

At this point, the commander has Paul’s bonds loosed, though he is still in custody pending investigation.  He is not condemned yet, but there are charges against him.  What are these charges?  This is what the commander wants to find out.  Thus, the Jewish legal body, the Sanhedrin, is called to answer for the treatment of Paul, and so that they can clarify the charges.

Paul is allowed to speak first, and he opens by declaring that he has “lived in all good conscience before God.”  This is not a statement of perfection, but of a lack of guile and intent to offend on his part.  Paul will later explain this in Acts 24:16.  “I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.”  He doesn’t believe that he has done anything that he feels should offend them.

However, notice his point.  We shouldn’t purposefully offend people, but we should even more so not offend God.  Have you ever noticed that choosing to please God can tick some people off?  It is impossible to please all people while pleasing God.  Some of the things that I would have to do to keep from offending you may offend God.  In his conscience, Paul has worked through this and believes that he has done a good job.

The high priest is offended that Paul would present his claim this way.  Most likely, he believes that Paul of all people should know that his actions are offensive to them.  Does the high priest actually believe Paul brought a Gentile into the temple?  That is not clear.  Is he more concerned about Paul pushing Jesus, who was condemned to death as a heretic by the Sanhedrin?  Or, is he thinking about Paul stirring up trouble in the synagogues within Gentile lands?  Regardless, the high priest calls for Paul to be struck on the mouth, and he is.

Commanding Paul to be struck in the middle of his testimony, i.e., no trying of the facts that could lead to a true judgment, demonstrates just how comfortable this man has become with having power and abusing it.

What he has commanded is against the Law of God.  Deuteronomy 25:1-2 says, “If there is a dispute between men, and they come to court, that the judges may judge them, and they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked, then it shall be, if the wicked man deserves to be beaten, that the judge will cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence, according to his guilt, with a certain number of blows.”

There has been no presentation of evidence and dispute between the parties.  There has been no trying of the facts and judgment of the judges.  Paul has just opened his mouth to give testimony and he is struck.  Does not this kind of thuggery create the affect of squelching testimony?  It is not enough to demonstrate that you rightly have power or position (though that is questionable in this case).  One must also exercise the power of the position rightly, or justly, as God would have it done.

Of course, it would have been illegal for them to strike Paul as a Roman citizen, but he would have never held that over his own people.

Paul turns and rebukes the man who gave the command.  “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law?”  This rebuke may have been led by the Holy Spirit, but it is also possible that Paul simply lost his temper.  Who could blame him?  Paul was not a perfect man like the Lord Jesus.  He may have spoken to soon out of anger.

It is interesting though that Paul’s declaration that “God will strike you…” did happen.  Ananias would later be assassinated by rebel Jews for working with Rome.

Why does Paul call him a whitewashed wall?  Jesus spoke of a whitewashed tomb in Matthew 23:7.  It looks clean and nice on the outside, but inside it is full of rot and corruption.  It is a picture of a man who uses the color of law and the color of morality externally to cover up their internal lawlessness and immorality.  This man purports to sit in the judgment seat of God, while breaking God’s command for there to be a trial of the facts first.  Intimidating a witness in the middle of their testimony is a age-old act of corruption.

Of course, they can’t see the irony.  A rebuke comes back to Paul that he is speaking ill of the high priest, contrary to the law.  There is an unequal weight and measure here, as they seem to have a big problem with verbal abuse, but none at all with physical abuse.

Yet, notice that Paul backs down and apologizes for his outburst.  Did he really not know that this was the high priest or did he lie when he said that he didn’t?  I don’t think that Paul is telling a lie.  In any address, a person is often looking to the larger group.  He could have easily not seen who gave the command.  Plus, it is clear from his letters that he does have eye-sight problems.  Between not expecting to be interrupted and poor eyesight, it is quite feasible, if not probable, that Paul did not know who had given the command.

It is also possible that Paul is making a back-handed point.  I didn’t know he was the high priest (stated) because a true high priest would never give an unlawful command (unstated).  At the least, we should recognize his heart.  He backs down and he apologizes.  He even quotes the passage that backs up the point of his enemies.

The wicked will always do wickedly.  Yet, the temptation is for us to respond in kind.  Paul isn’t this kind of man.  In the middle of this antichrist group, he models true repentance, acknowledging that he went too far.

Just as Paul’s accusers weren’t so kind and fair-minded, so our accusers may not be so kind.  No matter how well you do in trying to love others and not be an offense to them, many will be offended anyway.  We will be challenged to be about the purpose of God, rather than about our rights.  In fact, sometimes it is the very abuse of rights that opens people’s eyes to wickedness that is parading as righteous.

May God strengthen our hearts to stand with Him in this day, while being a light to all we come in contact with.

Showdown IV audio

The Acts of the Apostles 81

Subtitle: Showdown in Jerusalem II

Acts 21:31-40.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 22, 2024.

Last week, we ended with Paul being seized in the temple and dragged outside into the surrounding courtyard.  He was accused of bringing a Gentile into the courtyard, which would defile it.  This was a capital crime.

The temple building had warning signs along with a fence around it.  This warned Gentiles not to come any closer or their death would be upon their own head.

Paul of course is a Jews and has the right to be in the Temple.  Yet, the accusation is that he is against the Temple and has brought a Gentile into it on purpose in order to defile it.  We can notice that no one has seen this Gentile in the Temple, and no one has this “Gentile” in custody as proof of Paul’s alleged actions.  This is all angry speculation against one that is viewed as an enemy.

Well, let’s look at our passage.

Paul is arrested by the Roman Commander (v. 31-40)

From this point forward in the book of Acts, Paul is going to be under some level of arrest.  He has been sharing the truth of Jesus Christ for at least 20 years.  As best we can tell, this is around A.D. 57 to 58.  For perspective, we know that Nero is Caesar.  The Jewish revolt that will begin in A.D. 66 is only 8 to 9 years away.  The destruction of Jerusalem that will occur in A.D. 70 is only 12 to 13 years away.

Even though Paul is not in control of where he goes, God is orchestrating this to give Paul opportunities to share the Gospel in places that were opened up by his arrest.  His imprisonment is ironically accompanied with more freedom than most prisoners.  He is generally allowed to receive any visitors, as well as sending and receiving letters.

Of course, at the moment, we have Paul being beaten in the Temple courtyard.  The Jews from Asia have stirred up a mob, and one would presume that it is they who have taken the lead in beating him.  They have a vested interest in this.  Paul had been an annoyance to them back home.  He had  come into their synagogues and preached Jesus as Messiah.  This had ended up splitting many of the synagogues, causing the converts to Jesus to leave.  They also wanted to look zealous in the eyes of the Jerusalem Jews who would see them as sub-par.

Meanwhile, the Romans had a military compound that connected to the north wall of the temple.  It was called the Antonia Fortress.  It had towers that enabled the soldiers to look down upon the Temple courtyard and surveil its activity.  It also had two large bridges that connected to the northern porch.  This porch  went all they way around the Temple Courtyard had a flat roof that allowed soldiers (Roman soldiers) to quickly surround the area and back up any troops going down to the courtyard level via stairs.  Thus, at the time that Paul was being beaten, news of a disturbance had reached the commander of the fortress, and he quickly descended upon the scene with a show of force. 

We will see later that the governor is currently in Caesarea, which is the Roman headquarters for governing Judea.  Thus, this commander is responsible for the peace of Jerusalem while the governor is gone.

Those who are beating Paul stop once they are surrounded by Roman soldiers.  But, I would note that Luke describes them as “seeking to kill [Paul].”  This isn’t explained completely.  It is possible that they had sent people to the high priest in order to get permission to kill Paul.  However, it is also possible that they were in the act of beating him to death.  These are not men who are accustomed to killing another.  Though they are passionate and in a large group, there was probably enough fearful restraint to give time for the soldiers to arrive.

The commander immediately puts Paul in two chains.  A chain in such a situation would normally be connected to a Roman soldier.  Even if a riot occurred, Paul wouldn’t get far.  The two chains demonstrates extreme security.  It would signal to the Jews that Paul is not going to get away.  However, it would also signal to the Jews to calm down.  To strike Paul now would be to strike the Romans themselves because they have taken custody of him.  He belongs to them now.  The commander does this to dissolve the commotion.

We should recognize that the Romans are not wonderful, God-loving people who just want to “give peace a chance.”  The Pax Romana was a Roman boot in the face of other nations.  When the boot is removed, the people are expected to remain in a subjected attitude and activity.  If you do not, the boot will return quickly and harshly.  As long as you respected the Roman rules and decrees, you would have “peace.” 

One of the reasons that the Romans didn’t allow any mercy for riots is that riots often were the start of military uprisings.  Their job was to keep everyone in line so that there was no uprising.  Thus, their jobs were on the line.  If Caesar thought that they couldn’t keep things under control, he would have the leaders removed.  On top of this, there was always someone working to make you look bad so that they, or their man, could be put into the position of authority.  It was a dog-eat-dog world.

When he questions the people about the commotion, there is no clear answer from those who respond.  The commander decides that the best course of action is to bring Paul back to the fortress and question him there.  It would remove the “fuel” from the fire of this riot.  Yet, as he takes Paul along, the Jews are continuing the disturbance and shouting, “Away with him!”  By this, they mean that he should be killed.

Let’s take a moment to speak about being a person led by the Spirit of God rather than our flesh.  Both the Jewish crowd and the Roman’s are being led by their flesh, by the spirit of this world.

The crowd is led by passionate emotions, which generally overwhelm rational thought and righteous judgments.  There is no sense of a trial and evidence, only of lynching.  They have heard stories about this scoundrel, Paul.  Have you been hearing stories about people in our society?  It is easy to get worked up in our emotions and be led by the flesh to do wickedness.  God’s people should never be involved in such things.

Paul’s annoyance of these Jews of Asia Minor is more about Jesus than it is Paul.  Jesus is a polarizing individual.  The cross is an offense to those who are full of self-righteousness.  However, others realize the powerful truth behind it, and they learn to embrace the One who went to the cross for them.  Self-righteousness is not a Jewish problem, it is a human problem.  We all have it to one degree or another.  Jesus is the test to whether it rules us or not.

Communism loves to pit two groups against each other.  One is called the victim, or oppressed, and the other is called the victimizer, or oppressor.  Of course, they don’t just stop with one group dynamic, such as the poor versus the rich.  They continue to work their discontent between group after group.  At this point, you can have people who are members of a greater number of oppressed groups versus someone who is a member of a greater number of oppressor groups.  Of course, most of these distinctions become yours at birth and require no choice from you:  women and men, black and white, poor and rich, 3^rd world country and 1^st world country, transgender and cisgender, and it continues ad infinitum.  The goal is to keep us divided and subjugated.

Yet, this battle regarding what the Bible calls sin is not about these groups.  You might be in one of those groups and don’t understand how others see you in only one way.  But, the brights, the brilliant ones, of our society use these dividing lines to manipulate us along the path of their designs.

Do you want to know where the real dividing line is between victim and victimizer?  It is right down the middle of each and everyone of our hearts, your heart and my heart.  The question is always in front of our heart, “Am I going to follow my flesh, or am I going to follow the Spirit of God.”  The Spirit of God comes and convicts us of our own sin, but we too often only shout louder about the sins of others.

The person and work of Jesus confronts every single one of us with this question.  Am I going to be me, living for my selfish self, or am I going to die to my selfish desires and live for the righteous purposes of Jesus? 

Well, we see how the Jews are following their flesh, in their emotional rage against Paul.  However, passionate emotions are not the only way to follow your flesh.  We can also follow our flesh by being extremely rational and using our power to exercise our will upon others.  Of course, this describes the Romans in this passage.

The Romans are used by God to spare Paul’s life in the moment, but that does not mean that God thinks they are righteous.  Yes, we must guard against being a person who is easily manipulated through our passions.  Yet, we must also guard against being a person who is captured by the rationales of the spirit of this world. 

There are rationales going on throughout the Church, lots of them.  The fact that many of them are contradictory shows that it is not all led by the Holy Spirit.  The spirit of this world does not care about you being a Christian.  It only cares that you don’t actually follow Jesus.  Think of it.  In the name of following Jesus, a person can have a rationale that is actually self-serving, or serving some other brilliant, religions genius.  If you don’t see that, then think about the high priest Caiaphas.  In the name of following Yahweh, he worked to put Yahweh to death.

So, how can we guard against becoming such a person?  You can only do this by becoming a person who studies the word of God, prays daily for wisdom,  seeks the leading of God’s Spirit, and then walks out by faith what He is saying.  This is what Paul was doing.  He was a man being led by the Holy Spirit.

Our flesh will protest in such moments.  Surely, if God was leading me, it would end up in a bad place, would it?  Our flesh loves to be at the Red Sea and have God split the waters and drown the armies of Pharaoh.  However, it hates to be in line for crucifixion on a cross.  In Christ, we are to learn the joy of dying to ourselves and living for Christ by His Holy Spirit.  In fact, following the flesh only brings pain and sorrow in the end regardless of momentary pleasure up front.  Suffering is the reverse of this.  Our sufferings are only for this moment.  However, we shall have joy in the presence of God for eternity!

Paul has had a bad day.  Yet, in a beaten and arrested state, he has the wherewithal to speak to the commander.  In this moment, God provides him the opportunity to give one last testimony to his people in Jerusalem.

Paul speaks to the commander in polished and polite Greek.  This obtains a double-take from the commander.  He was operating under the working assumption that Paul might be an Egyptian Jew who had led 4,000 men against the Romans previously.  Josephus mentions this story.  The men were destroyed by the Roman legions, but the leader was never caught.  The commander’s response is more of a recognition that Paul isn’t this Egyptian. 

In this moment of being caught off guard, Paul asks to address the crowd.  He tells the commander that he is a Jew from Tarsus of Cilicia and wants to address the people who are even then shouting, “Away with him!”

It is not clear why the commander permits Paul to speak to the crowd.  It could be that he is caught off guard by Paul’s demeanor.  In the end, I believe that it really was God who helped him to do it.

Paul as a person caught a lot of people off guard.  He was Jewish, but also Roman.  He was schooled in all the ways of the Pharisees, and yet, he could speak in Greek.  Paul is going to address the crowd and the same way that the commander lets him speak, the crowd quiets down and let’s Paul speak.  What is he going to say?

When tough things happen, when we are treated unjustly and brutally, we can be too focused on challenging God.  Why is this happening to me, God!  Really, we should be looking for opportunities to share the Gospel and glorify Jesus.  Paul could have been wrapped up in fighting for himself.  It is very hard to let people publicly lie about you.  Yet, there is no sense that Paul, and his companions for that matter, were fighting back against the crowd.  He was surrendered to God and had an awareness of what God could do in the situation.

A person led by the Holy Spirit will not be about justifying themselves.  They will be about pointing others to Jesus.  May God help us to do the same.  The noise and the fear in our society is used by the enemy of our souls to capture us in differing modes of living for our flesh.  God help us to reject them, no matter how tempting they are.

Let’s live for Jesus!

Showdown II audio

The Acts of the Apostles 80

Subtitle: Showdown in Jerusalem I

Acts 21:15-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 15, 2024.

Paul will now leave Caesarea on the coast and travel inland to Jerusalem.  It is clear that Luke has been setting up what will be a showdown in Jerusalem.  There will be a clash of the Gospel of Jesus with those who refused to accept it.  We are going to take several weeks to look at this clash.

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul meets with the elders of the Jerusalem church (v. 15-25)

As Paul leaves Philip’s home in Caesarea, we are reminded that he not only has a group of men with him who are both Jews and Gentiles from both Greece and Anatolia, but that he picks up some believers from Caesarea who are also traveling up for the feast of Pentecost.

Luke doesn’t tell us how close to the feast it is, and when these coming events happen in relation to the feast.  Regardless, there are a lot of people showing up in Jerusalem every day. 

We are also told that a man named Mnason of Cyprus travels with them from Caesarea.  They will be staying at his place in Jerusalem.  Mnason is not named again in Scripture, but we are told that he was an early believer in Jesus.

When Paul arrives in Jerusalem, verse 17 tells us that they are received gladly by the believers.  This doesn’t necessarily mean that he met with all the believers of Jerusalem.  Jerusalem was a large city.  It is tough to know exactly how many believers were there.  But, we do know that it is in the magnitude of tens of thousands.  Note: The word “myriad” (NKJV) in Acts 21:21 literally means 10,000 and it is in the plural.  However, it also can be used metaphorically to mean a great number.  We also know that persecution has come in waves that has caused some to move on, but others to believe.  Regardless, I do not believe Paul has somehow met with all the believers, but a select few that Paul had good relationship with.

This is a good start.  Have you ever been in an environment where you knew it was going to turn bad, but at the moment things were good?  We need to learn how to enjoy the good that God gives us in the now, even when we know that difficulty is coming.  We will talk more about how to do that, but let me say up front that the answer is not in ignoring the difficulty that looms ahead.

We can be this way throughout our life, where we are always waiting for the other shoe to drop, and we are never embracing the current blessings of the Lord.  Of course, the opposite can be true as well.  I can be thinking that now is always bad or imperfect, and always looking ahead to when it will be “better.”  People who become stuck looking to the horizon of life can lose the peace and rest that God is trying to give to them in the present.  More than just living in the moment, we want to live in connection with The One who is giving us this moment, and to be thankful for the goodness in it.

The next day, Paul meets with James and the elders of the Jerusalem church.  Peter and John are not mentioned in this account so it is likely that they are not there.  The apostles often traveled.  Paul details for them everything that God was doing among the Gentiles through his ministry and the ministry of the people with him.  Of course, the book of Acts is such a detail.

The response of the elders and James is to glorify the Lord (v. 20).  There are some today who would malign the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It is generally pictured as a destroyer of wonderful cultures.  There is a certain narrative that is pushed in which Christians are spoken of as oppressors and the cultures they interacted with  are spoken of as victims.

Let me just say up front that not all in the Church were truly saved and understood the message of Jesus Christ.  Even some who were saved were trapped in traditions that developed over long periods of time.  No matter how much truth a community has, there will always be a difficulty in keeping the foundational principles of the group in place due to the tension created by those who are following their flesh and do not believe.

Yes, we all want to be brothers and sisters.  Yet, we know the reality.  Some are wolves who were never saved, and some are believers who have perverted the truth and are apostatizing from the ways of Jesus.  However, none of this changes Jesus, the Christ, who is the hope of glory.  Our hope is not based upon a pastor, a bishop, a patriarch, or a pope.  These can all fail, but Jesus never fails.

The true story is not the destruction of wonderful cultures by Christians.  These cultures were at the end of a long time of descent into ruin.  What started at the Tower of Babel as mere rebellion led to the casting off of truth and exchanging it for a lie.  Of course, each of these cultures were not completely darkened.  Some more than others had remnants, splinters of truth in their mythologies or traditions.  It is a common story for Christian missionaries to come to a particular culture and discover these splinters of truth that are truly God’s grace.

We must understand that any people, or even a single person, that we go to with the Gospel, has been prepared by God to hear it.  He was there before you working in their life.  There are things in their life and experience that can help them to understand the Gospel.  It is through real relationship that we can discover these things and use them to present the Good News about Jesus.

Does this mean that they will always be saved?  Of course, it doesn’t.  What if I do a perfect job in presenting Jesus, would it guarantee their salvation?  You could be the perfect picture of Jesus and share perfectly his message.  You could even lay your life down on a cross for people and yet, many of them will still reject you.  No one is saved by a perfect witness (unless you are speaking about Jesus himself).  Rather, they are saved by accepting the grace that God is giving them.  That grace includes the imperfect men and women sharing the Gospel.  It includes the imperfect societies that they created along the way, or at least were created by a clash of prior cultures with the Gospel.

This is what Paul is doing here.  He is doing this for Jesus.  The Gospel of Jesus goes forth to redeem people and their cultures.  It goes forth to rescue them from the darkness and slavery they have fallen to, even the inheritance that they have lost.

After glorifying God, the elders warn Paul of rumors that are being spread in Jerusalem about him.  I will point out up front that the elders concerns are with how the believers in Jesus will receive Paul, i.e., unity within the church, than they are about how the unbelieving Jews will respond to him.

These believers were very zealous for the Law of Moses, and have been hearing rumors about Paul that somehow he is not zealous for the law.  They have heard that he actually taught Jews in Gentile lands to forsake the Law.  In Particular, the had heard that he was teaching Jews not to circumcise their children nor to follow the customs, traditions of Israel.

Of course, this is a perverted reading of what Paul taught.  In Galatians, Paul warned Gentiles against being circumcised because they were doing so out of fear.  Jewish people were telling them that they had to keep the Law and believe in Jesus.  Paul is telling them that this is not true.  Circumcision cannot save you.  Only faith working through love.  Thus, the real point is not circumcision, whether you do or don’t.  Rather, it is about faith working through love.  It is somewhat unclear what Paul would say to Jews.  However, his point would be similar.  If you are looking to the Law to draw the grace of God, then you have walked away from Christ.  However, if you continue in the traditions out of faith in Christ and seeking to love your fellow Jews, then it is fine.

Ultimately, Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Law points to.  In fact, even Gentiles can fulfill the Law, not by trying to keep it, but by obeying the same Spirit of God that was the source of the Law.

Regardless of these misunderstandings, the elders realize that word will spread among believers that Paul is in Jerusalem, and it will cause no small stir within the Church community.

At this point, they present a plan to Paul for nipping this issue in the bud.  They counsel him to assist four men who were completing a Nazirite vow.

The mention of shaving the head is the clear sign that this is a Nazirite vow.  A person would vow to separate themselves from three things and unto God for a particular period of time.  It was usually at least 30 days, but could be longer.  The Nazir (person doing the vow)  would separate themselves to God by not eating nor drinking anything from the fruit of the grape vine.  Secondly, they would not touch any dead bodies, even if it was a close relative that needed burying.  Someone else would have to do it.  The third thing was that they would not cut their hair during the period of the vow. 

It sounds like these four men had come to the end of their vow and needed to go to the temple to present themselves to the priests, do the particular sacrifices, and thereby complete the vow and be officially released from its obligations.

So what are these elders thinking?  Paul would attach himself to this group by purifying himself and then going to the temple with them to cover the expense of the sacrifices.  This would involve three animals for each person (a yearling, male lamb, a yearling, female lamb, and a ram).  It was considered an act of righteousness to help cover the cost of someone’s vow-completion sacrifice.  This would openly demonstrate to the believers that Paul didn’t have a problem with Jews doing things from the Law of Moses.

Of course, the elders are quick to state that they are not calling for Gentiles to obey the Law, as was determined in Acts 15 during the Jerusalem Council.

Let’s move on in our passage.

Paul goes into the temple (v. 26-30)

Luke is not always clear on the details that we may want.  Part of this is due to the fact that he is writing in an environment where people are not so removed from the cultures as we are.  We miss things that he assumed people of that day would know.  Also, part of this is due to the fact that Luke is focusing us on what is important, not satisfying our every curiosity about the story.

I say this because in acts 27:21 it speaks of the ending of seven days.  Is this in regard to the purification of the men?  It wouldn’t seem to be about the feast of Pentecost because this feast happens on a particular day.  It is not like the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of Tabernacles, which both last 7 days.  It could, however, be a reference to the counting of the seven weeks.  Perhaps this is the ending of the 7^th week and the 7^th day of the 7^th week, etc.

I won’t go into the details of how this might connect to the purification because it is clear that this is not what is important to Luke.  What is important is that Paul and these four men have cleansed themselves, and they are in the temple to complete their vows to God.  Thus, they are righteously fulfilling the requirements of the Law regarding a vow.  It is in this environment that Paul is going to be seized and dragged out of the temple.  In short, Paul will be treated extremely unjustly.  There was no call for what they would do.

There would be lots of people in the Temple compound.  Verse 27 has Paul being recognized by some Jews who were from the province of Asia (the area around Ephesus).  The seize him and create a commotion around him by hollering for help.  This leads to the whole city being stirred up as word quickly spread.

Let’s first look at the content of their cries.  “This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place.”  Of course, Paul did not teach against these things.  He did reveal that the Law by itself could not make any man righteous.  He did teach that those who rejected Christ would find no righteousness through the temple sacrifices.

The second thing they cry is this.  “[F]urthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”  This was completely fabricated, and was based upon an assumption.  They had seen him earlier in the city with Trophimus and Ephesian Gentile.  They assumed that Paul had brought Trophimus into the Temple in order to defile it.

We do a similar thing all of the time.  We can make quick judgments about people we disagree with that we would not like being done to us.  We can stretch the truth and assume the worst case motivation for them and not worry about how much evidence we have.  We can act as if we have a gift of intuitively knowing what is in a person’s heart.  This is unjust and against the commands of Christ and the Law of Moses.

Of course, maybe you would never do this.  However, if it was done to you, what then?  We can sometimes feel justified to give back to people what they have given to us.  God will surely understand!  Of course, Jesus rebuked his disciples with these words.  “You know not what manner of spirit you are.”

Is it possible for a person who is following Messiah and being led by the Holy Spirit to end up in a place where they are responding to an antichrist spirit, the spirit of this age?  Yes, it is.  This is the testimony of Scripture.

James and John wanted to call fire down on a city.  Peter rebuked the Lord for talking about being killed.  Judas betrayed the Lord for thirty pieces of silver, and then he hung himself.

It is not enough to be on the right team.   You need to decrease and Jesus needs to increase.  That is our battle that we will need to armor up to do.  We need the armor of God, which starts with the Belt of Truth!

We are told that Paul is dragged out of the temple and the gates are shut.  This would place them in the large plaza area around the Temple, whether to the north or to the south of it.  The area to the east was not as large, but they could be there too.

I am going to press pause on the story at this point.  But, I want to take some time to ask some questions about the choice of Paul and the advise of the Jerusalem elders.

I mentioned last week that I do not believe Paul made a mistake coming to Jerusalem.  He had “purposed in the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem at a particular point in time.  This reminds me of Jesus who did the same thing.  Jesus purposed to go to Jerusalem knowing he would die there.  It was not a mistake it was the will and the love of the Father.

The will and love of God can sometimes take us to some tough and harsh places.  Places that our flesh would complain about.  “God, you can’t ask me to do this!  It’s not fair!”

I use the word “ask” on purpose.  God forces nobody to do anything.  He is not a tyrant.  Some will try to complain that the restraints of the laws of nature and creation are themselves a tyrannical straight-jacket.  This is just silly.  There has to be some basis of reality for anything to happen.  We can look God’s grace in the face and claim it is a tyranny, but none of us can create a different reality.  Our problem is not the laws of physics and the nature of man’s mortal being.  It really is the problem in our heart.  We are willing to redefine good things as bad in order to satisfy the lust of our flesh, instead of accepting the goodness of God.

Were the elders wrong to suggest their solution to Paul and was he wrong to go along with it?  Did Paul compromise with the Jerusalem leaders?  First, I remind us that the elders’ concerns were with church unity.  However, this is not the problem.  No matter what they did or didn’t do, the problem would always be the jealousy that the Asian Jews had towards Paul (as well as some Jews from Jerusalem and elsewhere).  These elders are doing their best to keep the peace among believers.  That is good.  However, God doesn’t solve every problem.  Leaders need to keep this in mind.  There is a problem already, and Paul’s coming into Jerusalem only brings it to a head.

How might God be using this event?  He is challenging those in Jerusalem who refuse to believe that Jesus is Messiah.  He is also giving Paul a platform to preach the Gospel one last time to Jerusalem, and to dignitaries and kings.  He is also inviting Paul into a special relationship of suffering with Jesus for His cause.

When things go wrong, even Christians start looking for who is to blame.  Is it Paul’s fault because he didn’t look exceptionally pious when he entered the temple?  Is it his fault because he didn’t foresee the foolishness of having a Gentile with him in the city during a feast?  Could he have done a better job preaching among the Gentiles so that no rumors would have come back to Jerusalem about him?

Listen, there will always be rumors about you.  And, some of them will be true because you are human and not perfect.  But, the reality is this.  Some people do not like what you are doing.  The real question is not whether people are against us or not.  It is about whether or not you are with Jesus.

I may have fallen down, skinned my knees, and broken my arm, but am I with Jesus?  That is what really matters.  Paul was on a mission with Jesus Christ, and it brought him to some tough situations like this one.  Is not Jesus a stumbling block to all people?  We are all going to trip over Jesus.  It will hurt when it happens and part of you will want to shrink away from him.  But, I challenge you.  If you fall and are hurt on the Rock, the Lord Jesus, He can heal you.  If you don’t look to him for healing, then the day of judgment will become a day of crushing.  However, if by faith you call upon him for his grace, he will lift you up.

There are things that we need to do for and with Jesus.  Some of those things require a choice that will bring hurt to you.  Didn’t Jesus make choices that hurt?  Yes, but he did it out of love for the Father and out of love for you and me.

Paul’s heart can be summed up in 1 Corinthians 9:19-27.  Go ahead take the time to read it right now and then come back to this.

What matters is that Jesus be presented to a person in a way that they can understand.  You will have to do this over the top of obstinance and hard hearts.  If Paul needed to refrain from eating particular foods to share Jesus with someone, then he would.  That is a really small sacrifice.

Notice that Paul is not talking about sinful things.  You cannot sin with people in order to save them from sin.  Yet, you can lay down your right to make certain choices that will bring good to you, in order to help others.  This is what Jesus did, and this is what Paul is doing in this moment.  Let’s go forth and be like Jesus.

Showdown I audio

The Acts of the Apostles 79

Subtitle: Warnings through the Spirit

Acts 21:1-14.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on September 8, 2024.

It is becoming clear by this point that the Holy Spirit is warning Paul about what will happen in Jerusalem.  Yet, that is where he is intent on going.

We left Paul at the coastal city of Miletus, after talking with the elders of Ephesus.  He will now continue on his trip.

In our passage today, we will be given some examples of what it looked like for the Holy Spirit to warn Paul through other believers.

Let’s look at our passage.

A warning is given in Tyre (v. 1-5)

Let’s quickly walk through the geographical part of this passage.  Miletus is on the southwest coast of what we call Turkey today.  Cos and Rhodes were well known islands in that area.  They then put in at Patara.  They then get on another ship that is headed to Tyre.  This brings them to the south of the island of Cyprus as they land in what is still called Lebanon.  They will stay in Tyre for seven days, and then, they will sail south along the coast to Ptolemais (modern day Acre/Akko).  Their next stop will then be Caesarea on the coast.  As the headquarters for the Roman governance of Judea, there were good roads up to Jerusalem from there.

In Tyre, Luke gives us some specific details.  Particularly that the disciples there tell Paul “through the Spirit” not to go to Jerusalem.  Scholars differ over whether Paul is making a mistake, refusing to listen to the Holy Spirit, or simply being faithful to what God has told him.  I do not believe that Paul is ignoring these warnings, nor do I believe he is making a mistake, but more on this in a bit.

The wording of verse 4 is important.  What does it mean that they told Paul through the Spirit?  This has to do with spiritual gifts, such as: prophecy, words of knowledge, words of wisdom, etc.  Yet, it doesn’t say that the Holy Spirit told Paul.  Rather, “they” told Paul not to go.  It is important to be careful when these spiritual gifts are exercised.  We can be guilty of assuming why God tells us what He does.  We need to discern carefully where God’s message ends and where our thoughts about that message begin.  These should never be confused.

Not every warning is to keep us from doing something.  When you tell your kid that they will be grounded for a week if they get into the cookie jar, that is a warning intended to keep you from doing something.  It is prohibitive in its intent.  However, when you tell your kid not to spend all their money in one place, the intent is more about being wise.  It is preparing them for the reality of not getting the money back once it is spent.  It is less about prohibiting a behavior and more about preparing them for the realities of spending money.  I believe that God is not prohibiting Paul, but rather, making him abundantly clear on what he is choosing to do.  This will have him prepared both in knowledge and in fortitude of heart.

These Christians have become aware of Paul’s situation because of the Holy Spirit.  However, their human love for Paul has kicked in, and causes them to counsel him not to go.

Now, God doesn’t tell us everything that lies ahead of us.  However, He does tell us to pick up our cross and follow him.  It is going to be difficult ahead.  Your flesh won’t want to keep following.  Thus, you are going to need a cross on which to put your flesh to death, so you can follow me.  Sometimes the cross is about a literal death.  Many martyrs have walked this path.  Yet, at all times the cross is metaphorical for the parts of our inner man that we will have to die to.  It won’t be easy to follow Jesus, but we can do it, if we put our trust in Jesus.  He can get us there!

As Paul leaves, they all follow him to the shore and pray with him.  No matter what we do for the LORD, it is good to pray over our plans.  May God lead us in His way for us through the good and the difficult that lies ahead.

A warning is given in Caesarea (v. 6-14)

Paul and his fellow-travelers travel by ship down the coast to Ptolemais and then Caesarea.  This is where Luke describes another scene in which Paul is warned about going to Jerusalem.

Paul stays with Philip the Evangelist.  This is the Philip of Acts chapter 8 who was a deacon in the Jerusalem Church, one of “The Seven.”  Of course, Philip then went on to minister in Samaria, to the Ethiopian eunuch, and then ended up in Caesarea.  This is the first time Luke has mentioned him since Acts 8:40, where it says that he was preaching in all of the cities near the coast up to Caesarea.  It is clear that God’s work in Philip (as well as Stephen) had moved him beyond being a deacon in the Jerusalem church.  He now lives in Caesarea, and, no doubt continues to minister and preach in the area.

Luke also mentions that Philip had four virgin daughters.  This would mean that they are of marriageable age, but not married.  He also says of them “who prophesied.”  It is unclear if this is only a general statement of the spiritual gift of prophecy in their lives, or if it specifically means that they prophesied about Paul.  Regardless, it is another prophet who will be the focus of Luke’s account.

The prophet Agabus from Jerusalem has been introduced already in the book of Acts (11:28).  God used him to make the church in Antioch aware of a coming famine in Judea.  The other churches would need to help the Judean church, which is a challenge that Paul took up with great zeal.  In fact, part of Paul coming to Jerusalem was to bring more donations from the Gentile churches to share with the believers of Judea.

Agabus too prophesies regarding the difficulty awaiting Paul in Jerusalem.  Here is Luke’s description of this prophecy.  “He took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, “So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.” ’ ”

Again, we can look at the question of what the Holy Spirit is really trying to say to Paul.  Notice that there is no mention of forbidding, prohibiting, or strongly exhorting regarding whether he should go or not.  It is only a warning (information) regarding what will happen.  We know from Acts 16:6 that the Holy Spirit is quite clear when He is forbidding something.

When God speaks to us, whether through a prophecy or an impression during prayer, we must be careful that our response is not about trying to avoid hard and difficult things.  If my prayers are all about God buffering my life from any, then I am still living at a young spiritual level.  God uses life and its difficulties to help us to grow spiritually. 

Paul has come to grips with the fact that he needs to go to Jerusalem regardless of what happens.  Along the way, the Holy Spirit is being faithful to inform and to confirm what Paul has come to know.  This is more about preparing Paul, preparing the believers to whom he has been ministering, and testing him to make his sacrifice even more valuable to God.

Of course, the disciples respond to the prophecy of Agabus by pleading with Paul not to go.  Notice that Luke uses the “we” pronoun here.  I am sure that Paul has talked about this with his companions, but a prophecy from Agabus seems to put them over the top.  His companions join in with the believers of Caesarea in trying to dissuade Paul from going up to Jerusalem.

It is a fair inference from all the warnings Paul has received to assume the warning is to keep you from going.  Yet, Luke describes Paul sharing his heart with them all.

He tells them that their weeping was breaking his heart.  Their pleading and weeping was pressuring Paul to back away from a course that he had already committed himself to do.  It is as tough for the person choosing to go forward into persecution as it is for those they love choosing to let them go and support them in the choice.  We can become guilty of trying to talk our loved ones out of a reward from the Lord.

It is similar to a parent who hears from their teenage child that they want to go serve Jesus in a far off country.  Part of us recognizes that this is a wonderful work for anyone to choose.  Yet, part of us fears for them and wonders if they are really doing the right thing.  Parents have to learn to let go and become that person who is always praying for those they love serving elsewhere.  It isn’t easy, and we should be careful of undue influence in these situations.

Paul then explains that he is not only ready to be bound and arrested, but that he is also ready to die for the Name of the Lord Jesus!  Of course, there has been no mention of his death in any of these prophecies.  Also, Paul has been in prisons and jails already.  He is not a greenhorn unaware of the dangers ahead.  He is a seasoned veteran who can say “bring it on,” without being arrogant.  If my Lord died in Jerusalem, why would I not be prepared to die there too? 

How does a person get to the place where they are okay with being persecuted, even killed, for the Name of the Lord Jesus?  You get there through times of prayer and communion with the Lord who bought you with His own blood.  You get there through a life of listening to the Holy Spirit and keeping in step with His lead.  You get there through God’s gracious supply of strength in the Spirit as you step forward in loving faith.  God help us to be a people who are ready to go through anything for the sake of the glory and reputation of Jesus.

For those who claim that Paul is making a mistake by ignoring the warnings of the Holy Spirit and going to Jerusalem anyways, I would point out verse 14.  Luke clearly shows that the group became submitted to the “will of the Lord.”  All of the prophecies were true.  There were no false prophecies in this situation.  However, the will of the Lord is never so simple as receiving a word from one or more people.  What we see is that Paul had already “purposed in the Spirit” to go to Jerusalem before all of these prophecies cropped up.  However, even if a prophecy is given to you first, you are primarily accountable to what God is saying to you within your own heart.  If a prophecy catches you by surprise, then maybe God is having trouble getting something through to you. 

The next step is to get in your prayer closet and seek God’s direction for yourself.  God often confirms His direction through spiritual gifts from a variety of people.  Yet, a person ultimately must be confident in their own heart of what God is asking them.  Don’t be traveling around the region to find that special prophet who can give you a directive from the Lord.  Spend that same energy on your knees in prayer.  If God needs you to receive a prophecy from someone, then He can tell them to find you and give it.

Paul’s assurance of what he needed to do did not come from Agabus or any of the other prophets along the way.  It came from the Spirit of God in prayer, and so must it for us.

Warnings audio