Paul Defends His Ministry

Transcript

GR1630
2-19-12
Paul Defends His Ministry
Acts 21:27 – 22:21
Gil Rugh

We are going to Acts 21 in your Bibles, Acts chapter 21. We come to a turning point, if you will, in the book of Acts in chapter 21. From chapter 13 down to chapter 21 where Paul completes in the first part of the chapter his third missionary journey and comes to Jerusalem, that great section in Acts on the expansion of the Gospel to the far reaches of the Gentile world of the time. With chapter 21 there is a change in the focus of Luke’s record because there is a change in what the Apostle Paul’s situation will be. The last part of chapter 21 Paul is going to encounter the opposition of the Jews in Jerusalem, going to end up taken prisoner by the Romans and the rest of the book of Acts will be a record of his imprisonment and the events associated with that as he eventually ends up being transported to Rome. So as far as the book of Acts is concerned, the missionary travels of Paul are over from the standpoint of his determining to go to this place or that place. His missionary travels are not over because everywhere he goes he will be sharing his testimony but the emphasis in what is recorded in Paul’s speeches, if you will, through this last portion of the book of Acts is more on the defense that he presents in that he presents the truth of the Gospel. But, he is defending his ministry and what God has called him to do. That will become clear as we move into chapter 22.

Paul came to Jerusalem with the highest of intentions. He had been traveling in the Gentile parts of the world where he had traveled before and established churches and he is there ministering the Gospel, encouraging believers and collecting an offering for the church in Jerusalem. Remember Paul’s intention was to help solidify the bond between the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and these Gentile believers in other part of the world. It is an opportunity for the Gentiles to show their love for these Jewish believers and their appreciation of what the Jews brought in a unique way, their heritage and all that God had promised to them and now Gentile are privileged to share in the blessings that God had promised through father Abraham to whom God said in the Abrahamic Covenant: “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”

At Jerusalem Paul meets with James and the elders of the church. They tell Paul of the thousands of Jews that have responded to the Gospel so there has been a great response. In the Day of Pentecost back in Acts chapter 2 we saw three thousand Jews saved. As we moved along we saw the number grow to five thousand but that response has continued and so they shared with Paul the many thousands who have in verse 20 of chapter 21 Paul has shared what God has been doing among the Gentiles and they share with him how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed and they are all zealous for the law because coming out of the Jewish background they understand as saved Jews the law doesn’t save them but as part of their heritage as Jews they continue to be concerned, to honor God with the keeping of the law as His people, Israel. There is a division there so Paul is not being welcomed with opened arms completely and his concern has been well placed. To try to bring the believing Jews in Jerusalem and the Gentile believers in other places to appreciate one another, recognize the common salvation they share because verse 21 says that James and the other there tell him that “they have been told about you that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to their customs.” We noted what the rumor is that Paul now is telling Jews in the Gentile parts of the world you have to abandon your Jewishness. We talked about the fact they had the debate – do Gentiles have to become Jews to be saved? The Jerusalem Council resolved that – no, but the other side is true. The Jews don’t have to become Gentiles to be saved and the rumor among even believing Jews in Jerusalem and probably fomented by unbelieving Jews. When Paul travels to the Gentile parts of the world he tells the Jews, “No, you can’t circumcise your sons at eight days of age. No, you are not allowed to observe any of the dietary laws. You have to live like Gentiles.” That is not what Paul taught. So James and the others recommend that Paul show his support for Jewish practices and we noted Paul himself had done that. He had taken a vow and had come to Jerusalem to fulfill it as recorded earlier in Acts. Paul has no problem with practicing what Jews practice. We looked at passages. Among the Jews I can be a Jew. The message is for Jew and Gentile alike. Not the Jews have to be like Gentiles or Gentiles have to be like Jews. So that issue here, fomenting.

So Paul agrees to join supporting some men from the church at Jerusalem who have taken a vow that he would help underwrite the cost of that vow which would demonstrate that he has no problem with Jews continuing to function as Jews. He is not blurring the issue of salvation here because James is clear on that. The leaders of the church at Jerusalem are clear on that. These are not requirements for salvation. Salvation was never by keeping the law so that it not the issue so that it the setting. This takes place over a week’s time and Paul comes to the temple supporting these men and so on.

Verse 26: “Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself along with them went into the temple, giving notice of the completion of the days of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.” Verse 27: “And when the seven days were almost over…” So you see, it has been a week and there has been some undercurrent going on and unbelieving Jews are stirring up other unbelieving Jews to try to remove Paul. The animosity of the Jewish community, the unbelieving Jewish community toward Paul has not changed. They have not been impressed with the transformation of his life although they are familiar with it. He will refer to that, so verses 27 and following tell the account of the Jewish uprising against Paul. These would have been unbelieving Jews so don’t get confused. It’s not the believing Jews in the church at Jerusalem but, “When the seven days were almost over…” that would complete the requirements for the fulfilling of the vow of these men. “…The Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the multitude and laid hands on him, crying out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people, and the Law, and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” “For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.”

Two charges made against Paul. He preaches against the Law and the temple and he brought a Gentile into the Jewish only part of the temple. There were outer courts were Gentiles were allowed but he had brought a Gentile into the inner temple. It is similar to the charges back in chapter 6 that were brought against Stephen who preached against Moses, against the temple.
Now these Jews were from Asia so they knew something of Paul’s ministry there in Jerusalem. For whatever reason they have experienced Paul’s ministry in other places so they know Trophimus. Trophimus is one of Paul’s travelling companions coming to Jerusalem and he is from Ephesus, a Gentile, an Ephesian so they start to cry out and you know how it can be that you have a crowd of Jewish people at the temple. All of a sudden you have these Jews grabbing on to Paul and saying, “We need your help. We need your help. This is the man who preaches against the Law, against the temple and he brought a Gentile into the temple and that is a capital offense.” And the Jews were supported in that by the Romans. The Romans didn’t have any particular interest in supporting Jewish religion but they did support the Jews in certain practices because their goal was to keep peace, keep the Jews tranquil. So this is serious charges against Paul.

Verse 30: “Then all the city was provoked and the people rushed together, taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple and immediately the doors were shut.” You know, these kinds of crowds get stirred up. We see it in parts of the world even today where somebody spreads a rumor and all of a sudden you have a riot and people are being killed and buildings are being burned and it’s all of a sudden, somebody starts a rumor and it spreads through the crowd and things are soon out of control. Of course you have the unbelieving Jews here that are happy to jump and have an occasion to have the crowds turn against Paul. It’s amazing how passionate they can be about the physical things. It always happens in religion when the attention turns from the reality to the physical. They are ready to commit murder against Paul over what they think is defiling the physical precincts of the temple and saying something against the law. The total focus becomes on these external things and like Jesus told them during His earthly ministry, “You are of your father, the devil. He’s a murderer, you’re murderers.” And yet, they see themselves as holy and pure because they are maintaining the sacred site. They are going through the forms. They are a pitiful state that Israel has come to.

So, they drag him out of the temple area, Jewish area and close the doors. So this is like we are protecting the temple from this man who would defile it by speaking against it. They are not saying he speaks against it here but everywhere he goes, other places, he’s been preaching against the Law and the temple and then just to show that he has no respect for the Law and the temple he brought a Gentile in where Gentiles are not allowed.

Note verse 31: “While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.” Herod had had a fortress as it would be called, fortress of Antonia built next to the temple precinct area. It had a 100 foot tower. The point being, that the soldiers could watch over this area. From there they also had access, had other entrances and exits to Jerusalem itself. They would have access also into the temple precinct area in case anything happened. This is a serious matter. The Romans were concerned to keep things under control here. The Roman cohort was someone in charge of 1000 Roman soldiers, divided into 760 infantry men and the rest cavalry. You can see you’ve got a 1000 Roman soldiers stationed here. This is a powerful enough force to come in and put down a rebellion. You just don’t send out a few soldiers, a few policemen. These are men, Roman soldiers who can come in and take charge. So, you have a riot taking place in the temple precincts so the Roman commander gets a report: “All Jerusalem is in confusion” because this spreads out from the temple, I mean it ripples through the city. Someone, you know, is preaching against the Law and the temple. A Gentile has been taken into the temple. It wouldn’t take much to throw the whole city into confusion. So, he took along some soldiers and centurions. Don’t get the idea that he just took a handful because centurions here is plural so there is at least 200 soldiers because a centurion was in charge of 100 soldiers and “he took along with him centurions.” So, there are at least 200. We don’t know whether there was three or four hundred but he is going out with a significant show of force here to take control of this because if you go out with a weak force and it continues to grow pretty soon it becomes almost impossible to bring it back under control. So the thing you do is take a large enough, powerful enough force to take control of the situation. “He took along some soldiers, centurions and ran down to them. When they saw the commander and the soldiers they stopped beating Paul.” Their intention was to kill him. Luke doesn’t give a description of Paul’s condition here. He is not rendered immobile because he is going to give a speech in a little bit but they are trying to give him a good beating. Their intention is to kill him because the Romans would accept that. That don’t like the riot but if Paul did what he is accused of doing, the Romans accepted that as a capital offense. So if the Jews could kill Paul here the Romans could say, “You shouldn’t do that.” “Well, he did this and our law says he has to die and the Roman law says that you support us in that.” So then it just becomes a technicality, who killed him. So they could have gotten by with it but the Lord intervenes on Paul’s behalf here to rescue him. So when the Roman commander comes with several hundred soldiers they stop beating Paul. “The commander came up and took hold of him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.” Now he doesn’t come to rescue Paul. That is not his goal. He doesn’t have idea who Paul is. He is stopping a riot here and if Paul caused the riot he’s in trouble so he arrests Paul in effect, puts him in chains. He had to quiet the people down. There is no possibility that Paul is going to escape into the crowd or anything like that here. He is just going to let him go and now he is asking him what have you done? The Jews are obviously shouting charges and so he wants Paul to tell him what he has done, but, too much confusion. “Among the crowd there were some shouting one thing, some another. When he could not find out the facts because of the uproar he ordered them to be brought back into the barracks.” You can’t make heads or tails. You’ve got mob action going on here, everybody shouting and hollering one thing, another, different accusations so he decides I will take him back to our fortress, to our barracks and we will interrogate him there. So he is taking him back to the fortress and this is adjacent to the temple area. “When he got to the stairs that would take him up into the fortress he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, for the multitude of the people kept following and shouting, “Away with him, away with him.” We have a situation like Stephen who ended up stoned to death by the Jews. There is no indication of any Roman repercussions for that because the Romans don’t particularly care if someone dies in that sense unless he is a Roman citizen which will become key here. Other than that, these are infant Jewish squabbles and if they kill off another Jew well, so be it as long as things don’t get out of hand here and we can settle down again.

So, they have to carry Paul. I mean the soldiers just have to literally pick him up and carry him because you can picture the soldiers forming something of a protective barrier as the other soldiers carrying Paul get him back to the fortress here.

Romans could come with devastating force for the goal of the commander is not to come in and slaughter a number of Jews because he doesn’t know what the problem is. You’ve got a real criminal here, the Jews are trying to kill, he doesn’t want to create the kind of uprising among the Jews because he just came in and indiscriminately killed the Jews so he tries to deal with it in this way.

“As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek?” So he speaks to him in Greek and the commander is surprised because he thinks he got a Jew here that would not be fluent in Greek and you are not the Egyptian who, sometime ago, stirred up a revolt and led the 4000 men of the assassins into the wilderness. He thought maybe he had been an Egyptian who had come and stirred up the Jews and ended up with a number of people being killed. There was an uprising but that Egyptian, this happened about three years prior to what is happening with Paul here, himself, escaped in all the confusion and the mob as there was fighting. What this Egyptian had said was, “It’s going to be like in the days of Joshua. And on this given occasion I will speak the words and the walls will fall down where the Romans are and we will sweep in and overwhelm them.” But that day came and it didn’t and the Jews were all ready and launched their assault to nothing and that man escapes so this man thinks that maybe that Egyptian is back.

Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.” Now I realize he is not an Egyptian, not a Jew, a Jew from an important city. He is a citizen of that city. This just isn’t a rabble-rousing nobody. “I beg you, let me speak to the people.” Well the commander, all he cares about is peace so maybe this guy can quiet the people down. Maybe there has been a misunderstanding. I mean, he’s here, he knows what it’s like to deal with the Jews. He is given permission. “Paul, standing on the stairs motioned to the people with his hand. When there was a great hush he spoke to them in a Hebrew dialect.” So now he is speaking to them in their language that they use and now they are interested to hear what he has to say. Everybody quiets down because what is going to happen here?

Now Paul is ready to give his defense. He starts out, “Brethren and fathers, hear my defense,” and we get the word apology, an apologetics of this particular word, “apologia.” He is going to give his personal testimony. “Hear my defense.” He is going to talk about what it was like before his conversion, how his conversion came about and what God commissioned him to do in a ministry to the Gentiles which will stir the riot up all over again.

So Paul’s life before the conversion: “Brethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you. When they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet. And he said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city…” So he was born in Tarsus but we are not told the details but at an early age he came to Jerusalem, raised in Jerusalem. He was “educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers…” And the Jews were well familiar with Gamaliel and great teachers of their law. They had no problem with Gamaliel so that Paul was trained by Gamaliel, that is significant, “Being zealous for God, just as you all are today. And I persecuted this Way.” We looked at it earlier in Acts, one of the names for Christianity at the time was the Way. This Way, the Way to God. “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify.” So Paul is well known among the Jewish leadership still in Jerusalem, unbelieving Jews. They could testify to his zeal for the Law and God and the intense persecutions he carried out against Christians. “From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished.” The brethren there are fellow Jews and remember Paul had letters. So, he was traveling to Damascus so he could have any believers there arrested and brought back, believing Jews, to Jerusalem where they could be put on trial.

What happened? Why the change? Verse 6: “And it came about that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me.” He is going to repeat the testimony of what happened to him that we saw in Acts chapter 9, Paul giving his testimony. Here is what my life was like before conversion. A strong, committed Jew opposing any who would try to convert the Jews by presenting Jesus Christ. “A very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” “And I answered, “Who are you, Lord?” “He said to me, “I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.” Identifies him here, very interesting, Jesus the Nazarene. Identifies Him with His town of residency, a Jew Himself. “Those who were with me saw the light to be sure but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me and I said, “What shall I do, Lord, and the Lord said to me, “get up and go on into Damascus and there you will be told all that has been appointed for you to do.” You see the sovereignty of God in this. “You will be told all that has been appointed for you to do.”

Here Paul, speaking to the Jews as a Jew and he has an appearance of the Lord from heaven speaking to him and this was the course of my life. “I didn’t change that course. God divinely intervened and told me what He had appointed for me.” “But since I could not see because of the brightness of the light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus.” So Paul was temporarily blinded, remember by the bright light from heaven.

Now, Ananias appears in the scene. “And a certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well-spoken of by all the Jews.” So here is a key witness on Paul’s behalf. Ananias, he is a man of good reputation. He was well spoken of by all the Jews and he is a genuine believer. As a genuine believer he would have obeyed the Law out of a desire to please God and obey him. “So he came to me, and standing near said to me, “Brother Saul, receive your sight?” “At that very time I looked up at him. And he said…” Now you see, none of this is at Paul’s initiative. God has taken the initiative in Paul’s life. “He said to me, The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, and to see the Righteous One.” So here, that is what happened to him. If you are going to know His will you had the privilege of seeing the Righteous One. “And to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard.” You see Paul’s commission, “be a witness to Jesus Christ.” You are appointed to know and see the Righteous One, to hear the message from God and to go and testify for Him to all men what you have seen and heard.

“And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His Name.” It’s one of those verses and we have seen a couple of them in Acts that say “Oh, did Paul then say that baptism is necessary for salvation because you get up, be baptized, and wash away your sins?” Taking the context here, you wash away your sins, calling on His Name. We have talked about it in previous studies.

Baptism is to be the public testimony of what you have done. Again it is clear, the importance of this when God calls us to Himself He does not call us to be secret disciples. Baptism is to identify us with Him. This is not a secret kept in our heart. This would permanently identify him, anybody, he was baptized as a follower of Jesus Christ. You can’t escape that. But here, people come to these verses and say, “Well baptism is necessary for salvation,” ignoring the rest of Scripture. This can be understood in a way that is consistent with the rest of Scripture for Paul wrote “For by grace are you saved through faith.”

We have looked into Romans 4, Abraham being the example of a man saved by faith and he was declared righteous by God in Genesis 15:6 about 20 years before he was circumcised. Circumcision can’t be necessary for salvation nor can baptism for as far as we know, Abraham was never baptized. There can only be one way of salvation because there is only one God. So these verse if they just stood alone and that’s all we had, there would be an argument over “is baptism necessary for salvation?” But, they are easily understood by those who understand the Scripture. Your sins are washed away is pictured in baptism and identifies you with Christ in a public way but salvation is always by grace, through faith.

“It happened, when I returned to Jerusalem.” So this happens at Damascus. Paul “returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance, and I saw Him saying to me, “Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.” So here we are told this trip, when Paul comes back to Jerusalem, is very short, quick. Paul doesn’t even refer to it in the other writing. He talks about his trips to Jerusalem because it doesn’t amount to anything. He doesn’t get a chance to talk to anybody to witness. He goes into the temple and he is in a trance and the Lord said to him, “Make haste, get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about Me.”

You see what Paul is doing here. As he gives his testimony it is especially pertinent because where is Paul now? He is in Jerusalem. What had God said about these Jews in Jerusalem? “They are not going to be open to hearing the testimony about Me.” Now in His grace, some have been saved but when Paul was saved in Acts chapter 9 things are developing, persecution is driving the church and believers out of Jerusalem and the opposition to his message will be strong.

Paul saw it differently like we would. Well I think well here, who else, I mean can’t you just see it all coming together? God chooses to save a very influential, powerful Jew who now will be able to give a testimony to the Jews who will just be overwhelmed by the reality. I mean, how could you? This is the man who persecuted the Jews and now he is proclaiming the One that he rejected as the Savior. “I said, Lord [verse 19], they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I was standing by approving, and watching out for the cloaks of those who were slaying him. And He said to me, “Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” Far away, far away from Jerusalem to the Gentiles. That is the end of Paul’s testimony because the Jews will hear nothing more.

Verse 22: “They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!” You see the animosity here, the rejection. The message has been clearly sent. This is God’s ordained plan. The Jews would be unwilling to listen so Paul would go to the Gentiles. They are themselves a testimony against themselves. They are still not willing to listen to the message that God had given to Paul.

Verse 18: God told him, “Make haste, get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about Me.” And all these reasons – they know me, they know what I was like, God, you’ve transformed my life. They will be impressed by that. No more argument. God just says, “Go.” Where are you going? You are going far away and you are going to the Gentiles. The Jews go into convulsions over this.

We are going to stop here. What they demand is that Paul be executed. Isn’t it amazing, you know, it’s amazing to me how the Lord works. I would have to say I would think as I did this, why save Paul, this committed Jew and then send him to Gentiles? Why doesn’t You just save a Gentile and send him to Gentiles and save a Jew and send him to the Jews? God’s ways are amazing and we see something of the impact of the Apostle Paul as a Jew but you see something of what he is up against. The Gentiles didn’t love the Jews any more than the Jews loved the Gentiles. They could not tolerate a Jew standing before them and saying, “The God of heaven Who sent His Son, the righteous One has spoken to me and he gave me a commission to go and tell them this message, but tell it to the Gentiles.” Such a man doesn’t deserve to live.

You know, just a reminder – wherever we are, whatever we do, we take the Gospel. We sometimes think “Oh, if only the Lord would save so and so. If a person in this position would get saved what a difference it would make.” You know God works in such a way that He gets all the glory, all the honor. We just serve Him by carrying out His will. Paul doesn’t have to devise the plan he just has to carry out God’s plan. You go where I tell you and tell them what I told you. So should we. Just go where I tell you and tell them what I have told you. Oh I am nothing. If the Lord would save this person and so we think if you know certain powerful people sports figures, this person, that person, what an impact it would make. That is not the issue. The issue is the rejection of the Savior. That is the issue. It always is. So we realize we have the message that is the message of life. We carry it to the world.

Paul here, there is no satisfying the Jews. Their animosity is a spiritual animosity. Everything else is superficial, doesn’t have anything to do with what Paul did at the temple. It doesn’t have anything to do with him preaching against the Law. It has to do with he belongs to the righteous One. What did Jesus say? “If they hate Me, they will hate you.” Their refusal to accept Paul and his message is because Paul is identified with Christ in preaching the message of Christ and that is true for us. You say, “Why do people think negative things about us, why do people say bad things about Christians, why do people have a negative opinion of them?” Whatever the superficial reasons are that doesn’t mean that sometimes Christians do stupid things that they ought to be criticized for. But the basic problem is a spiritual problem. That’s it. You belong to Christ. They belong to the devil. There is no meeting of the minds when you get down to the issues that matter and we get along fine as Paul would if he didn’t identify himself with Christ and the message of Christ in a way that the devil would try to intimidate us to silence.

Paul is not silent. It seems like “Oh, what a tragedy.” From this point on, he will be a prisoner for the next five years until we conclude the book of Acts. You say, “What a waste of a life to be traveling and carrying the Gospel and encouraging believers.” But, it’s God plan for him as we ready in Philippians he accepted that plan and it has turned out for the better. My imprisonment in the Gospel has resulted in people hearing the Gospel that would not have otherwise heard it. Our God is sovereign.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for the Apostle Paul. Lord we come to events and they seem oh what a tragic turn of events, how sad that his ministry would now be so confined and he would be a prisoner and lose his freedom and suffer significantly. Lord, you are the sovereign God. He was under Your care, Your protection and it is Your purposes that are being carried out in his life. Lord, may we remember that. We sometimes get overwhelmed by things that come into our lives. We think it’s a tragic turn of events. We are easily upset by them. We need to top and consider carefully that You are the sovereign God and You are working all things for our good and Your glory and even what seems so tragic, sorrowful, unpleasant, Lord, you are the God who does what is best and we rest secure and safe and confident in Your will for us. Bless us in our service for You in the days of the week before us we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.