Hey friends, welcome back. Another week, another
episode of the Semi -Seminarium. We're continuing
our Bible study that we're calling the Bible
for Grownups. And this episode is part nine of
our look at the Acts of the Apostles. This part
is called Paul Gets Busted. And in this episode,
we're going to look at the third missionary journey.
and Paul's return to Jerusalem where he's eventually
going to end up in hot water with the Jewish
authorities. I'll see you on the other side.
I thought I was better at this than I apparently
am. Not, I guess, or whatever. So just to begin
tonight by recapping a little bit about where
we had come from last time. We looked last time
at the second mystery journey of Paul and his
disciples as they moved Christianity outside
of Asia Minor and actually into the continent
of Europe. We saw with the conversion of Lydia,
the dealer in the purple dye. We saw the first
convert to Christianity in Europe. And notably,
she was a woman. What we are also seeing throughout
chapters 15 up to where we begin tonight in chapter
20 is still this dissonance between Gentile believers,
new previously non -Yahwehist believers, in other
words, people who were not associated with Judaism,
becoming Christians. And what does that mean?
What does that look like to be a follower, a
convert of that religion? And we also have the
Jewish converts, those that grew up as Jewish
and see recognized for themselves Jesus as the
Messiah. So what with the Messiah coming to the
earth in the body of Jesus, what implications
does that have for worship in the life of the
traditionally Jewish person as well as the new
Gentile convert? So we have these. Two bodies,
if you will, of people joining together to make
the early Christian church. And we're going to
find that the relationship between the two doesn't
get better. In fact, it gets worse. The relationship
between the Gentile believers and the Jewish
believers will continue to deteriorate. Honestly,
as a response to... Roman oppression and Roman
heat being placed on these non -Roman deity -worshiping
people. As Christianity becomes a new movement
in and of itself, the Roman Empire is going to
begin to take more notice of what's going on
with this new movement, how it relates to Judaism,
and begins to put some political pressure. on
these religious groups, which causes these two
groups, the Jewish believers and the Gentile
believers, to fracture. We're going to begin
to see that really tonight. As our story, we're
going to look at chapters 20, 21, and 22 tonight.
As our story opens for this evening, we'll notice
right away that something with the apostle Paul
is definitely up. Something seems to be different.
Paul is going to spend the years 52 to 57 AD
traveling through Asia Minor and strengthening,
revisiting and strengthening the churches that
he and his other disciples had planted. And what
we'll see in the beginning of our work tonight
is a retracing of the steps that Paul and his
disciples took in chapters 16, 17, and 18. The
last eight chapters. The chapters 20 to 28, the
last eight chapters of Acts, presents an action
-packed account of attempts on Paul's life, followed
by his imprisonment at the hands of two Roman
governors, his harrowing shipboard journeys in
his trial in Rome, and in many ways, Paul's experience
recapitulates a culmination of Jesus' own personal
earthly ministry. 20 to 27, kind of the last
seven chapters that we'll begin looking at tonight
with 20, can kind of be thought of as the passion
of Paul. We're going to begin to really see...
The persecution of Paul, the rejection of Paul
by his own. Remember, Paul is a Jew. He is a
Roman citizen, but he's also a Jew. A rejection
of his own people because of his apostleship
to the Gentile believers. And I also think that
what we really see in these final chapters is
a very narrowing in on a depiction of Paul's
leadership. I think we really get a vision of
the type of empathetic, emotional leader that
Paul was. And I think we'll also focus on what
we'll see of his courage, his suffering, his
respect for others, and his concern and well
-being for others. So, beginning with chapter
20 tonight, and this is Paul through Macedonia
and Greece. This will be the winter months of
the year 56 into 57 is time -wise where we're
at. Now, chapter 20, verse 1 is going to begin.
When the uproar had ended, we're going to skip
chapter 19. So just let me recapture what's happened.
Paul is in Ephesus teaching and has formed a
church there. The idol makers, those silversmiths,
are really beginning to see a decline in their
business because Christians don't need idols
made for worship. So as more Christians become
Christians, that's each and every time someone
becomes a Christian, that's one less customer
for the idol makers in Ephesus. And finally...
The silversmiths get together and they decide
that they need to do something about Paul. They
take him to the tribunal there and a riot erupts
until finally the city clerk in Acts chapter
19, the city clerk of Ephesus quiets the crowd
and says, fellow Ephesians. Doesn't all the world
know that the city of Ephesus is the garden of
the temple of the great Artemis and of her image
which fell from heaven? Therefore, since these
facts are undeniable, you ought to calm down
and not do anything rash. You have brought these
men here. This is Paul and his disciples. You
brought them here, though neither of them have
robbed temples nor blasphemed our goddess Artemis.
If then Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen, that's
these silversmiths, If they've got a grievance
against anybody, the courts are open and there
are pro -councils. They can press charges. If
there's anything further you want to bring up,
it needs to be settled in a legal assembly. As
it is, we're in danger of being charged with
rioting because of what's happened today. In
that case, we would not be able to account for
this commotion since there's no reason for it.
These men have just not broken the law. They
might have dug into the silversmith idol -making
business, but that's not against the law. These
men have not broken the law. And he dismisses
the assembly. That's where we find ourselves,
chapter 20. When that uproar had ended, Paul
sent for his disciples. And after encouraging
them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia,
he traveled throughout the area, speaking many
words of encouragement to the people finally
arriving in Greece. Remember, we're talking about
kind of retracing the steps of the second missionary
journey. So he's made it back to Macedonia. He's
made it back to Greece. A lot of these place
names are going to be familiar to us because
in the last lesson, Paul was there before he
returned back to. or after he had left Jerusalem.
So he was accompanied, and so we're going to
name some new helpers of Paul's here. So we've
got Sopater, the son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus,
Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe,
Timothy, right? That's the Timothy that becomes
the preacher that follows him, Timothy. Titius,
Trompius, and they're from Asia. These men, but
there's also two other guys that's not mentioned
there. The first one is going to be the guy who's
writing all of this down, Luke. Luke's there.
And so is Titus. It's assumed that Titus, it
kind of comes and goes. Throughout this part,
he is traveling with them. At one point, though,
Paul sends him to actually deliver. The first
Corinthian letter. So he's off to Corinth to
give them the letter. Also to pick up, they're
going to work their way back to Jerusalem. Which
we'll see here in just a little bit. So he's
also been sent there to pick up tithes from the
Corinthian church to take back to the church
in Jerusalem. So we're going to find a period
there where Paul's kind of waiting on Titus to
get back. And the main reason he's waiting for
Titus to get back is... to complete the collection
for the churches for the poor in Jerusalem, but
also it's supposed that Paul's very anxious to
hear what the Corinthians have said about this
first letter. So these men went ahead and waited
for us at Troas, but we sailed from Philippi
after the festival of unleavened bread. Five
days later, joined the others at Troas, where
we stayed for seven days. Most of the time spent
in Greece was in Corinth. While here he writes
to the church, while he's there in Corinth in
this area, this part that we're just reading
of this part of his journey, it's here actually
where he writes a letter to the church in Rome,
which is preparing the church in Rome for his
visit. which he had hoped to take on his way
to Spain. And so it's in this little time period
that I'm discussing here, 56 -57, where we know
that Paul writes what we will later know to be
the letter to the Romans or the book of Romans.
So we're going to be introduced now to a new
guy, Eutychus, on verse 7. On the first day of
the week, we came together to break bread. And
I just want to pause right there because this
is the earliest clearly stated account of Christians
meeting together on Sunday for worship. Big,
big different deal here between Gentile followers
and Jewish converts or Messianic Jews, right?
Because now we're seeing Christians are gathering
for their day of worship on Sunday. It's not
in opposition to. It's actually in remembrance
of the resurrection. But it is distinctly different
from the Sabbath, which the Jewish people will
recognize begins on Friday evening and runs through
Saturday evening as their Sabbath day. So there
we see this real distinction beginning to blossom
here between what the word Sabbath will mean
depending on when you're a Gentile Christian
or a Jewish believer. And Paul spoke to the people,
and because he had intended to leave the next
day, he kept talking until midnight. There were
many lamps in the upstairs rooms where they were
meeting. Seating at a window was a young man,
Eutychus. Now, Eutychus also, just to let you
know, in Greek would mean lucky. So this guy's
name is Lucky. Eutychus, who was sinking into
a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he
was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from
the third story and was picked up dead. So Eutychus,
drowsy probably from the warm room, the late
night, the droning on of the preacher, we've
all been there, right? Falls out of the window.
The problem is he's on the third story. So he
falls down and Paul goes down there and put his
arms around him. Don't be alarmed. He said he's
alive. Then he went upstairs and broke bread
and ate. Paul revives this young man, it's supposed,
through other tellings of the story and through
other translations that what Paul probably did
was provide artificial respiration for him. And
that's what revived him. Then they went upstairs,
broke bread, had communion, right, that's what
that would mean, and ate. And then he talked.
If you think that dying is going to get you out
of another sermon, you're crazy. Because I've
got to leave in the morning, so you're going
to fall out of the window. I'm going to revive
you. We're going to take a break to do communion,
and then I'm going to preach until daylight,
Paul says, which is exactly what happened. The
people took the young man home alive and were
greatly comforted. So we, here's Luke again,
inserting himself. Remember, he likes to use
we whenever he's talking about these voyages.
We went ahead on to the ship and sailed for Assos
where we were going to take Paul aboard. He had
made this arrangement because he was going there
on foot. When he met us at Assos, we took him
aboard and went to Mytilene. The next day, we
set sail from there to Chios. The day after,
we crossed over to Samos. The following day,
we arrived at Miletus. Paul had decided to set
sail. decided to sail past Ephesus to avoid spending
time in the province of Asia, for he was in a
hurry to reach Jerusalem, if possible, by the
day of Pentecost. Now, he had initially wanted
to make it there for the festival of unleavened
bread or Passover. But we see early on in our
reading tonight that he was somewhere else when
it came to Passover, which means he's got seven
weeks, seven sevens. From that time, if he wants
to make it down to Jerusalem for Pentecost, because
Pentecost comes 50 days after the Festival of
Unleavened Bread. So what he's going to do here,
they're actually going to sail a little bit further
south and east, and he's going to call the church
of Ephesus down to him. And that's going to save
him some time from actually having to go into
Ephesus. and then travel further. So we see this
from Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders
of church. So they're in Miletus, and he sends
out for the elders. Ephesus is about 30 miles
away from Miletus, and when they arrived, that
would take about three days for these guys to
get there. When they arrived, he said to them,
you know how I lived the whole time with you?
I was with you from the first day I came into
the province of Asia. I served the Lord with
great humility and with tears in the midst of
severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents.
As we read Paul's words tonight, I want us to
focus. on how Paul is really trying to show the
people he's talking to his heart and what has
gone into his ministry, what has motivated him
throughout this entire missionary project, and
how every time whenever he has tried to open
up his heart and do what's best for the people
around him, he does always seem to encounter
opposition from Jewish believers. OK, this is
going to be the theme that is going to reoccur
and reoccur throughout the entire evening here.
Right. And so he says, you know, I've not hesitated
to preach anything that would be helpful to you,
but I've taught you publicly and from house to
house. I even came to your house. I didn't make
you all come down to one location and be out
of your home. I actually come to you. And I declared
to both the Jew and the Greek that they must
turn to God and repentance and have faith. In
the Lord Jesus. And now compelled by the spirit.
I'm going to Jerusalem. I think Paul is saying
here. I'm not ducking out on Jerusalem. I'm not
trying to stay away from Jerusalem. I'm not afraid
of what happens to me at Jerusalem. But I know
what's going to happen to me at Jerusalem. And
the spirit has told me now is the time to go.
And it's not good. Right? It's not good. I only
know that in every city. The Holy Spirit warns
me that prison and hardships are facing me. However,
I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only
aim is to finish the race and complete the tasks
the Lord Jesus has given me, the task of testifying
the good news of God's grace. That's what he's
trying to do in the face of Jewish oppression.
At this time, remember I said he writes... The
letter to the Roman church. Well, let me just
pull one little part from that letter that kind
of illustrates what's going on at the same time
we're hearing what he's saying in Acts, what
he's writing to the Romans in chapter 9 in their
letter. He says, I speak the truth in Christ.
I'm not lying. My conscience confirms that it's
through the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow
and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could
wish that I myself were cursed. and I were cut
off from Christ for the sake of my people, the
Jewish people, those of my own race, the people
of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship.
Theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving
of the law, the temple worship and the promises.
Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced
the human ancestry of the Messiah, who is God
over all, forever praised. He's saying, you know
what? I would want to be cursed. If in the trade
my Jewish brothers and sisters could see that
the Messiah has come, I would willingly give
up my eternal inheritance for them. So back to
Acts. This is what's going through his thought
process. as he's retracing his steps back eastward,
making his way to Jerusalem, speaking to churches
that he has since founded. Now, I know he's talking
to the Ephesians here. Now, I know that none
of you, among whom I have gone about preaching
the kingdom, will ever see me again. Therefore,
I declare to you today that I am innocent of
the blood of any of you. He says, for I have
not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will
of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all of
the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,
which he bought with his own blood. I know that
after I leave, savage wolves will come in among
you and will not spare the flock. Even from your
own number, men will arise and distort the truth
in order to draw away disciples after them. So
be on your guard. Remember that for three years
I never stopped warning each of you night and
day with tears. He knows that there is a real
good chance that when I get to Jerusalem, I may
not make it out alive. He also knows that given
his advanced age and given the... power of the
Holy Spirit in his life, given the establishment
of the church of Ephesus, there is a high likelihood
that he is never going to see these Ephesians
again. But he also points out something very
important to us, that just because Paul came
in and started the church didn't mean that that
was the only word of God game in town. Because
there were all types of people that have seen
the creation of the body of Christ and wanting
to emulate it, not for the sake of Christian
unity, but for the enrichment of themselves had
begun to distort the Christian message and pull
people away from Paul's church and create their
own churches so that they could be enriched.
And Paul says, look, this has been going on and
I know that whenever I leave, I'm not going to
have the power to stop it anymore. And I know
it's not even going to come from people outside
of the group. There are going to be people inside
of the group that you have to be careful of as
well. So he finishes his speech to the Ephesians
by saying, Now I commit you to God and to the
word of grace, which can build you up and give
you an inheritance amongst those who are sanctified.
I have not coveted anyone's silver or gold or
clothings. Clothing, you know yourselves that
these hands of mine have supplied my own needs
and the needs of my companions. I've never asked,
right? I've never asked for you guys to ever
pay me a salary. I've been able to handle everything
I did on my own. And everything I did, I showed
you by this kind of hard work, we must help the
weak. Remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself
said, it's more blessed to give than receive.
When Paul had finished speaking, I find this
incredibly touching. He knelt down with all of
them and prayed. And they all wept. And they
embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them
most was his statement that they would never
see his face again. Then they accompanied him
to the ship. It's an incredibly poignant part
of the story, I think. So we get back on the
boat. We're continuing our retracing of steps.
down to Jerusalem. I'm going to pick up here
with verse 7 of chapter 21. This is Luke now
speaking. We continue our voyage from Tyre and
landed at Ptolemy, where we greeted the brothers
and sisters and stayed with them for a day. Leaving
the next day, we reached Caesarea and stayed
at the house of Philip the Evangelist, one of
the seven. He had four unmarried daughters who
prophesied. After we had been there a number
of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from
Judea. which again, he would be coming south
to north. I don't know why, but it just seems
like he came up from Judea, the way that I would
say it. Coming over to us, he took Paul's belt.
I think this is another very poignant part of
the story. So Agabus comes up from Judea. He
is a prophet, and he takes Paul's belt off, and
he ties his own hands and feet with the belt.
And he says, The Holy Spirit says that it's in
this way that the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem
will bind the owner of this belt, Paul, and will
hand him over to the Gentiles. So he's had a
vision that the Holy Spirit has told him that,
Paul, you are headed for clear danger. Because
when they had heard this, Luke says, when we
had heard this, we and the people there pleaded
with Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Paul says,
why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I
am ready not only to be bound, but also to die
in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
When he, Paul, would not be dissuaded, we gave
up and said the Lord's will be done. The disciples
at Tyre and a prophet named Agabus at Ptolemy
warn him about the travails going to Jerusalem.
Agabus tells him that he'll be bound and delivered
to the Gentiles. The concern of his fellow believers
caused them to plead with Paul not to go, but
Paul tells them he's not only willing to go,
he's willing to die for Christ, and then they
commit this whole matter over to God's will.
And again, I believe that this really opens up
to us Paul's comfort with the fact that he's
not done anything wrong. His conscience is clear.
For me, the way that Paul... works his way to
jerusalem with the confidence does that he does
really puts to bed any issue of the idea that
paul might have been a religious opportunist
that he might have seen an opportunity to kind
of take over this fledgling christian movement
and seek power because i believe that this simply
illustrates that that's not the case whatsoever
that what he was doing He was guided in every
step by the Holy Spirit to do it. And I believe
that this really shows that commitment. After
this, Luke says, we started our way up to Jerusalem.
Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied
us and brought us to the home of Nason where
we stayed. He was a man from Cyprus, one of the
early disciples. Now, one of the things that
I had mentioned a little bit ago was this. that
is growing between the early Gentile Christians
and the Jewish converts, so the ones that, Messianic
Jews. It's not the right term because Messianic
Judaism is a term that won't even show up in
theological discourse until the 1960s and 1970s,
but that just seems to be, although it can be
seen as anti -Semitic by some, I don't mean that.
with the intention of being anti -Semitic. It
just seems to be the most concise way to express
the identity of Jews who accepted Jesus as the
Messiah. It just seems to make sense that that
term would work. So we have these two groups.
The early Christians, these Jewish converts,
the Jewish converts didn't believe that they
were forming a new religion. But I'm going to
set up the stage, because as we get into Jerusalem
here, we're going to see this distinct break
between Gentile Christianity and Jewish Christianity.
So I want to introduce this subject by kind of
making sure we're all on the same page. So these
first early Christians, these Jewish converts,
Jewish Christians didn't believe that they had
created something new. In fact, they were Jews,
and their main difference, With the rest of Judaism
was quite simply that they were convinced that
the Messiah had come. Whereas other Jews continued
to await his advent or his appearance. So we're
not anything new. It's just that the fulfillment
of the promise of the Messiah has come. Then
you have these Jews over here that go, well,
I'm not convinced. I believe that God is still
working in the world. I believe that God will
bring a Messiah into the world, that his promise
will be fulfilled. I'm just not convinced that
Jesus Christ is it. So you have that group. From
the point of view of the Jews who rejected Christianity,
the situation was understood in a similar manner.
Christianity wasn't a new religion. So you have
the Jews that feel like scripturally in the Torah,
the Tanakh, in the books of the laws and the
prophets, the promise of the Messiah has not
been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. So I'm a
good Jewish boy, and I believe that the Messiah
will come. I just don't believe that that's this
Jesus guy. So they don't look at these people
and say, my Jewish neighbor who does believe
in Jesus, that they've created a new religion.
What they believe is he's become a heretical
Jew. Nothing new, it's just that he screwed up
the Jewish belief. Again, the point here is from
the Jewish perspective, this is not a new creation,
but rather fulfillment or heretic. And as we've
seen, first century Judaism, when we talked about
this, The very, very beginning, when we looked
at the Acts of the Apostles, first century Judaism
was not a monolithic entity. It was not just,
I'm a Jew and we all believe and think alike.
Because we had Pharisees, we had Sadducees, we
had Zealots, we had the Essenes, and then we
had just regular Jewish people, and it's no different
in the 1st century than in the 21st century where
religion just played a greater impact on some
people's lives than it did on others. Although
they would have identified with themselves as
Jewish, they're just not as religious as, say,
their neighbor, just like... just like we certainly
see with Christianity, and not just Christianity,
but other religions today. So it's important
to remember that Judaism wasn't just one type
of person and everybody was the same flavor.
There was a diverse set of identities within
the Jewish religion. It included many different
divergent sects and opinions. So when Christianity
enters the scene in the first century, The Jewish
people just saw it as another one of these sects
of Judaism. And it's for these reasons, in most
of the New Testament, it's the Jews who persecute
Christians, who in turn seek refuge under the
wing of Roman authorities. This happens, for
instance, when some Jews, and we read about this
last time we were together, when some Jews in
Corinth accused Paul before the procouncil Galio.
And he said that this man is persuading men to
worship God contrary to the law. To which Galio
answered, if it were a matter of wrongdoing or
of vicious crime, the procouncil from Rome says,
I would have... Reason to hear you, O Jews. But
since it's a matter of questions about words
and names and your own law, whatever it is you
guys do as Jews, right? He says, see to it yourselves.
I see nothing. I refuse to be a judge to these
matters. This is not a Roman issue at all. Okay?
And that's why we see the Jewish people trying
to use the Roman authorities. Well, let me say
this. Why do we see the Jewish authorities using
the Roman authorities to try to persecute the
Christians? Of which they don't do. They were
not able to ever do. It's because the Jewish
people, the Jewish authorities don't have a lot
of authority. This is the same reason why...
Jesus is taken to Pontius Pilate because as mad
as the Jewish authorities were, as mad as the
Sanhedrin were, the Sadducees and the Pharisees
that made up that Supreme Court, as mad as they
were, as mad as the high priest was, they had
no authority to enforce their own Roman law.
They needed Rome to enforce their law for them.
And if Rome chose not to do it, then it just
didn't get done. And so we see time and time
again these Jewish, that we are seeing this distinction
between the two groups here now because the Jewish
people are trying to get the Romans to persecute
the Christians because they see them as fundamentally
different, as heretical. But every time they
try, they fail up to this point because the Roman
authorities just don't see the cause or need
to persecute them. And so that is the inter -religious
tension that is going on between these groups
of Jewish believers and Christian believers as
Paul enters Rome here in the 17th verse, chapter
21. Luke says, when we arrived at Jerusalem,
the brothers and sisters received us warmly.
The next day, Paul and the rest of us went to
see James, brother of Jesus, right, head of the
church, and all of the elders were there. Paul
greeted them and reported in detail what God
had done amongst the Gentiles through his ministry.
He's relating to the Jerusalem council what all
had been going on in Asia Minor and in Greece.
And they praised God when they heard it. And
then they said to Paul, you see, brother, How
many thousands of Jews have believed and all
of them are zealous for the law? Remember, just
because they became Christians didn't mean they
stopped becoming Jews, right? Thousands of Jews
have chosen to believe and they're all zealous
for the law. And then they, the council tells
Paul, they've told us that you teach all the
Jews who live amongst the Gentiles to turn away
from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their
children. Or live according to our customs. And
the Jerusalem council looks at Paul and they
look at his record sheet, his sales report for
the last couple of years and goes, look, there's
nothing we can do to argue with your success,
but what are we to do with you? What are we supposed
to tell you? Right? They will certainly hear
that you've come. They're going to know, Paul,
that you're here. So what do we tell you? And
they say this. They say, listen, there are four
men with us who have made a vow. They have made
a vow to become Nazarites, which is the guys
who won't cut their hair or they'll cut their
hair and start over. It's a purification ritual,
right? And then they won't be touching alcohol
or dead people or blood and all that stuff. It's
a time of purification which they dedicate to
God. And so there are four of us, there are four
of them rather, who've made that vow. Take these
guys, Paul, join their purification rites, pay
their expenses so that they can have their head
shaved. Remember, they're going to start over
through the purification rite. Then everyone
will know, the Jews that are really mad, when
they see you performing these very important
purification rites as a Jew with other Jews,
we hope that they will see you living in obedience
to the law. As for the Gentile believers, the
Greeks who are Christians, who we really have
no real authority over because we're more concerned
right now about the Jews that are mad, we've
already told them how to live their lives, right?
And that's what we talked about when we looked
at chapter 15, when we looked at the Jerusalem
Council, when they said that they should abstain
from food, sacrifice to idols, from blood. from
meat of the strangled animals and sexual morality.
That was the contents of the letter that James
had sent to the Gentile churches in Antioch.
So Paul agrees. And the next day, Paul took the
men and purified himself along with them. Then
he went to the temple to give notice of the date
when the days of purification would end and the
offering would be made for each one of them.
So he's done just as the council of Jerusalem
had asked. So Paul meets up with James and debriefs
him, the elders, and he goes back and he tells
them what he's done. Certain disciples go with
him, and he's counseled. He's then told, all
right, go to the temple with the devout Jews
and take a vow. This is for Paul to publicly
identify with Judaism as a man with Jewish heritage
in order to negate this accusation. that he was
somehow against the law of Moses. So go to the
temple, the holiest place we have. Go in there
as a Jew, which you are. Act like a Jew. Make
a vow in front of everybody saying that you're
a Jew. And that should get rid of this idea that
you're going around preaching against the law
of Moses. The apostles' previous directions to
the Gentiles, however, are confirmed. So go do
this. Do all of this stuff. The Gentiles, we've
already told them how to do it. We're not worried
about them right now. So he does it. But when
seven days were nearly over, verse 27 says, some
Jews from the province of Asia. Now remember,
we have a couple of these Gentile Christians
that have come with Paul from Asia, right? Earlier
when we listed all those funny names off, the
last two that we mentioned were dudes that were
from Asia. Some Jews from the province of Asia
saw Paul at the temple. And these guys that had
come from Asia stirred up the whole crowd, and
they grabbed hold of Paul. Fellow Israelites,
help us. This is the man who teaches everyone
everywhere against our people and our laws and
this place. Remember, they're in the temple.
And besides, he's brought Greeks into the temple
and defiled this holy place. They had previously
seen Trompheus. In the Ephesian city with Paul.
And assumed that Paul had also brought him to
the temple with him. He had not. It was an incorrect
assumption. But this is what really riles people
up. That a lot of these people had yet heard
about the purification rite. That Paul had went
through. So Paul shows back up at the temple.
Some of these people had yet to hear what he
had just done. And they see the Gentile guy.
is with him, not in the temple, but is there
in Jerusalem with him, and they make the assumption
that when he's gone into the temple, he's taken
this Gentile along with him. He hadn't, but you
guys, we understand how kind of mob mentality
works, and the snowball begins to roll, and that's
what's happening here. Paul has acted on the
counsel of James and the elders and goes to the
men of the temple. However, these Asian Jews
stir up the crowd against him, falsely stating
that he had brought an uncircumcised Greek into
the temple. Verse 30 continues. The whole city
was aroused. The people come running from all
directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from
the temple and immediately the gates were shut.
They, the crowd, was trying to kill him. News
reached the commander of the Roman troops that
the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar.
He at once took some officers and soldiers and
ran down to the crowd where the rioters saw the
commander and his soldiers. They stopped beating
Paul. So we got a fight breaking out, right?
And then the cops show up and everybody kind
of says, I didn't have anything to do with it.
And the guy's just kind of laying there on the
ground bleeding. The commander came up and arrested
him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.
Remember the prophecy of the belt? Then he asked
who he was. and what he had done. Some of the
crowd shouted one thing, some another. And since
the commander could not get the truth because
of the uproar, he told Paul, basically, listen,
we're going back to the police station and sort
all this out. When Paul reached the steps, the
violence of the mob was so great, he had to be
carried by the soldiers. And the crowd that followed
kept shouting, get rid of him. As the soldiers
were about to take Paul into the barracks, he
asked the commander, may I say something to you?
Do you speak Greek? The commander replied. Other
translations would say, oh, so you speak Greek?
The reason why he says this is because it's a
case of mistaken identity. The commander thinks
he's somebody else. Aren't you, verse 38, aren't
you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led
4 ,000 terrorists out into the wilderness some
time ago? Amazingly, enough mention of this revolt
led by a self -proclaimed prophet from Egypt
is confirmed actually in the annals of history.
We have a historical account outside of the Bible
of this event taking place. The Jewish historian
Josephus, writing in the first century, gives
us this account. At this time, there came out
of Egypt to Jerusalem a man who said he was a
prophet and advised the multitude of the common
people to go along with him to the Mount of Olives.
which lay a distance of about five furlongs from
the city, not too far. He said that he would
show them at his command the walls of Jerusalem
would come down. And then he promised that he
would procure them an entrance into the city.
Now, Felix was the Roman procurator. He's the
kind of Pontius Pilate type guy. The Roman official
there was informed. And whenever he heard of
this, he told the soldiers to take their weapons.
And with a great number of horsemen and footmen,
they went from Jerusalem and attacked the Egyptian
and the people that had followed him out there.
And he, this Roman soldier, he and his men killed
about 400 of them and took another 200 of them
alive. 600 people following this Egyptian terrorist.
Actually, it's a pretty large crowd of people,
as you can imagine. But the Egyptian himself
escaped from the fight and didn't appear anymore.
And again, the robbers stirred up the people
to make war with the Romans. And these guys,
robbers, he was a member of a group of zealots
called the Sicarii. The Sicarii is the name for
the Jewish dagger. And that was their weapon
that they would use to assassinate people. They'd
get up really close and they'd shiv them. That's
called a sikar. And so these men, these assassins,
these robbers that did it, of which this Egyptian
was a part of, were called the sikari because
of the weapon they used. So the Roman official
who has arrested Paul first thinks he's this
Egyptian guy, right? But Paul begins speaking
in Greek. And he says, not am I not only the...
Egyptian terrorist, the Saqqari. I'm actually
a Jew, and I'm from Tarsus and Cilicia, and I'm
a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me
speak to the people. After receiving the commander's
permission, Paul stood on the steps, motions
to the crowd, and when they were all silent,
he said to them in Aramaic. Remember, Aramaic
is a derivation of Hebrew. So Paul is trying
to make his Jewish point here. So instead of
trying to address the crowd in Greek, he addresses
the crowd in Aramaic in a language he knows all
of these people or understands. And he says,
brothers and fathers, listen to my defense. And
when they heard him speaking in Aramaic, they
became quiet. Then Paul says, I'm a Jew born.
And this is Paul's kind of doing his. His resume
again. I'm in Tarsus of Cilicia. I was brought
up in that city. I stundered up in this city,
Jerusalem. I studied under Gamaliel, the famous
Jewish rabbi. I was thoroughly trained in the
law of our ancestors, and I was just as zealous
for God as you are today. I persecuted the followers
of the way. Remember, Christians weren't called
Christians at this time. They were called followers
of the way. And I persecuted them to their death.
I arrested both men and women, throwing them
in prison as the high priest and the council
here can testify. I even obtained letters from
them, from these Jewish guys that you guys think
are your leaders. We know each other. We've worked
together, right? They gave me letters to persecute
Christians in Damascus. And I went there to bring
people as prisoners back to Jerusalem to be punished.
And then he tells the story of his conversion,
his road to Damascus, his encounter. He says,
About noon I came near Damascus, and suddenly
a bright light from heaven flashed around me.
I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to
me, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? And
then he retells his story of his experience with
Jesus Christ on the road to Jerusalem. He goes
to Ananias' house and discovers the other believers
and is healed. And the Lord says to him, go,
and I will send you far away to the Gentiles.
He's saying, guys, I'm just doing what God told
me to do. But whenever he said, I'll send you
far away to the Gentiles, whenever he used the
word Gentiles, the Jewish crowd erupted in pandemonium
again. Paul, they listened to him until he said
this, and they raised their voices and shouted,
Rid him, the earth of him. He's not fit to live.
What's a Jewish Christian to do? He feels, this
Paul, he feels very comfortable in his new faith
with its Old Testament, Hebrew Bible roots. At
the same time, his faith has radically transformed
him into a world Christian. And now he's at home
in the ethnic diverse body of Christ. People
from all types of ethnicities and languages are
now open to Christianity. Misunderstandings,
even opposition, are bound to arise. How do you
explain that following a universal, a message
of good news, a universal gospel for all people,
How do you explain that doing that doesn't necessarily
mean you have to give up following your own Jewishness?
Especially giving up your idea of God. In Paul's
defense, he uses Christ as the key. And as they're
shouting and they're flinging their cloaks and
flinging dust into the air, the commander ordered
Paul to be taken into the barracks. And as they
stretched him out to flog him, verse 25, Paul
said to the centurion standing there, and I love
this, this is a very Columbo moment, kind of
a, you know, just before I go, one more thing.
Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who
hasn't ever been found guilty? When the centurion
heard this, he went to the commander and said,
this guy's a Roman citizen. The commander went
to Paul and asked, tell me, are you a Roman citizen?
He said, yes, I am. The commander said, I had
to pay a lot of money for my citizenship. Paul
says, but I was born a citizen. And those who
were about to interrogate him withdrew immediately.
The commander himself was alarmed when he realized
that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.
The commander had Paul tied up in the barracks
away from the crowd as a preliminary to scourging
him. Paul protests that he's a Roman citizen
and is uncondemned because it is against Roman
law to bind and scourge a Roman citizen who's
not had a trial. His examiners withdraw from
him. The commander has Paul taken to the Jewish
council the next day to find out for sure why
Paul is accused. Verse 30. The commander wanted
to find out exactly why Paul was being accused
by the Jews. So the next day, he released him
and ordered the chief priests and all the members
of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought
Paul and had him stand before them. And that's
where we'll leave off for this time. And we'll
see the trial of Paul next, next time we're together.
Any questions? Well friends, I hope that that
episode was as illuminating for you as it was
for me to study. Hey listen, before we go...
I would like for you to know that we really appreciate
you taking the time to listen to the semi -seminary.
And make sure that you subscribe to the podcast
so you'll know when new episodes come out. Also,
however it is that you listen to the semi -seminary,
and if you have the opportunity to give us a
five -star rating and a review, we would certainly
appreciate it. That helps get the podcast out
to a bigger audience. Well, friends, I'll see
you next time. And until then, be blessed and
be a blessing.