Acts #81 (chapter 21:17-21)
The Book of Acts
The Humility of Paul
Acts 21:17-21
 
I think there is a tendency to glamorize the lives of the early church fathers, and especially Paul. But their lives and his life were anything but easy. Far from it. Out experience here in America has left us with a perverted view of the popularity of Christianity and we are only just beginning to experience what the rest of the world has known for a long time.
 
Follow Paul, and you move from one challenge to the next, and that is certainly what we see tonight in chapter 21, verses 17-26 where Paul is arrested. You will remember that he is on his way to Jerusalem with a love offering for the Christians there.
 
And all along the way, as was true of his entire ministry, there have been bright spots as he's encountered fellow believers and friends, and developed new relationships, but there has also been opposition and warnings about what will happen upon his arrival in Jerusalem.
 
And even though these verses and the events leading up to them tell us about all the problems and difficulties, they also tell us a lot about Paul. Woven through the fabric of the text, we are allowed to see what made this man who he was. We've seen his preaching and teaching. We’ve talked about his persistence and discipline. We’ve witnessed his courage and convictions.
 
 
  1. in the passage before us, we see his arrest, but the main story line is not the arrest, but what we learn from Paul about humility. that is a greater lesson to learn because you and I may never get arrested or have to die for what we believe, but we need to learn the lessons of humility that he exemplified.
 
So let's see what happens. As we saw last week, Paul, along with some of the disciples from Caesarea and a man named Mnason who they will stay with, head out on their way to Jerusalem, which is about 65 miles away.
 
So in verse 17, they arrive in Jerusalem. And before we look at the text, let me just set the scene a little. What happens in Jerusalem takes three chapters to tell, and we'll look at that in the next several studies.
 
But what I wanted to point out to you is that what we study here is the last of the ministry of Paul as a free man; this is it. In fact, from verse 27 on, Paul becomes, as he called himself in Ephesians 6:20, an ambassador in chains, and from here on out, he is a prisoner.
 
By the way, that didn't minimize his ministry at all!
It doesn’t have any effect whatsoever on the accomplishment of his objectives. He just keeps on doing what he always did. So let's look at some of the details we find here.
 
Between verses 17 and 36, there are four C’s that appear, and they will serve as out outline for this particular section. The first one is
 
 
1. Communion
 
verse 17
 
I used the word “communion” to describe what happened when they arrived, not in terms of taking the Lord's Supper, but in terms of fellowship and sharing.
 
Notice, they received them "gladly". Obviously they rejoiced because of the love offering, but I think it went deeper than that. When Paul arrived, there was this beautiful time of sharing with these fellow believers. Paul was a well-known missionary who had traveled everywhere and accomplished tremendous things, and when he arrived with this love offering, it was a great time of sharing and rejoicing.
 
But it went even deeper than that. Remember, Paul brings Gentile converts with him also, and now there is this great fellowship and communion between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. In fact, it is the Gentiles that are responsible for the love offering! Where there had once been all this animosity and bitterness and division, now there is this spirit of love and acceptance and unity!
 
So when they first arrived, the brethren met them with this unofficial, informal greeting. Then, a more official meeting takes place between Paul and his traveling companions and the James and the elders of the Jerusalem church.
 
verse 18
 
 
  1. leadership of the church has now been handed off from the apostles to the elders and leaders in the city. At first it was just the apostles, then in chapter 15 it is the apostles and elders, and now it is the elders. And by the way, when you get to the Epistles, there is no mention of either apostles or prophets, only elders and bishops.
 
So here in chapter 21 we are witnessing that transition as it takes place in church history. At this point, we are about 25 years after the resurrection and the church has moved to the form of church leadership that we know today of being pastor-led.
 
So here, I think it’s important to see that we’re watching the transition of the church. It’s at least 25 years since Jesus has died, and it’s taken this time for the transition to occur.
 
Anyway, they have this official meeting and I think it safe to assume they presented the offering and made the presentations and so forth, and then, Paul addresses the group.
 
Now keep in mind, Paul had a lot to report! After all, churches have been established in Syria, Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia Minor, During the days they've been apart, God has done some amazing things! Jews were saved, Gentiles were saved, and this and that and the other. And you can just imagine they were all anxious to find out all the details of what had gone on in his ministry.
 
But notice how Luke records Paul's report:
 
verse 19
 
Notice, he didn't tell them what Paul had done, but what God had done! I read that and take note of his humility! And notice also, he told them, in detail, incident after incident after incident of what God had done. He didn't just share numbers and statistics. He gave them personal experiences and stories!
 
That's where the thrill is! Tell me about lives that have been changed and families that have been impacted! I'm not much interested in the statistics. I'm very much interested in the people!
 
Paul gave particulars about what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it,
 
verse 20a
 
Is that not the way it ought to be? Missionaries go out, God works through them, they return home and give a report and God gets the glory!
 
So we see the communion.
 
Second, let’s look at
 
2. The Concern
 
verse 20
 
Now the way they phrase the statement leads us to believe Paul was aware of how many Jews had been saved. He may have personally seen the crowds gathered somewhere. Maybe the elders had given him that report and they are not talking about seeing in a physical way, but just being aware of it.
 
But somehow, Paul had knew about the tremendous number of Jewish believers in Jerusalem. So the gospel has been at work and Jews are coming to their Messiah. However, the report continues, the are all "zealous for the law". By the way, a noun is used to identify these new Christians as Zealots for the law.
 
So how could you be a Christian and be a zealot of the law?” Not the law in terms of salvation, but the ceremonies. These were Jewish Christians who hadn’t yet ridded themselves of all the Jewish ceremonies. They were still hung up on the Passover and keeping the Sabbath and watching what they ate and wore. So as far as outward appearances were concerned, they were still Jews.
 
They believed, and nobody seems to question or doubt that, but they had not been freed from the requirements of Judaism. And I would guess that would be hard, especially living in Jerusalem! They are right there in the shadow of the temple and all the centuries of Judaism surrounded them every day! And I would just guess if you've been raised on that stuff, and had it engrained in your life, it would be a difficult transition to make.
 
And I guess if they weren't depending on it for salvation, it wasn't really evil. They were just doing it as custom and tradition. So why didn't they quit?
After all, God had split the veil of the temple and thrown the whole sacrificial system into chaos. I mean, once the Holy of Holies was unveiled, the whole secret was over, right? I mean God wasn’t there anymore, so, you know, look right in, He’s gone. So the train has run!
 
And God had very clearly told Peter in Acts 10 that there was no more dietary law when he dropped down the sheet with all the animals and said, "Dig in!" So they had had plenty of information, but it was still difficult for them to get away from these practices.
 
So why was it so difficult? Well for one thing, it was all designed and ordained by God. By the way, He's the same God that sent Jesus. I can see how it would be hard to separate all that.
 
  1. reason is there is no indication anywhere in the New Testament that the leaders of the Jerusalem church ever really preached against Judaism. So there was really no pressure to stop practicing Judaism as a Christian. Even when the Jerusalem Council met, they dealt with circumcision not being necessary for a Gentile to be saved, but said nothing about Jews.
 
Someone asks, "So did God approve or disapprove? Well, you tell me. In 70 A.D. He destroyed the temple and allowed Titus to wipe the city off the map, killing 100,000 Jews. Within a few years after that, 985 towns in Palestine were destroyed, and everybody killed. He just destroyed Judaism in one shot; allowed it to happen. And so God dealt with; He just wasn't in any hurry!
 
The clearest thing ever written on the transition from Judaism to Christ is the book of Hebrews. There is no clearer instruction in the Bible regarding moving from the Old to the New than that book and it was written in 68 A.D. That means God gave them just two years to get their heads on straight, and then He wiped it out!
Up until that time, I don’t think God was really too concerned about it. As long as their faith was in Jesus Christ, the forms of activity were rather inconsequential. And by the way, God was satisfied with all those expressions of worship for centuries. It's hard for me to believe He would be critical of these Jews as they transition to worship as New Testament Christians.
 
But that gives you some insight into the concern these elders have. Myriads of saved Jews are still hanging on to Judaism. Now, these elders have an ace in the hole for dealing with these who were hanging on and that is Paul.
 
verse 21
 
All these Jewish Christians who are hanging onto the old forms have been informed about you and what you teach. Now, the word “informed” is kind of a nice little word that leads us to believe some well-intentioned person told them about Paul in hopes it would help.
 
But the word carries the idea of being drilled. Somebody got a hold of those people, and told them Paul tells all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, and that they should never circumcise their children, and they should never follow Mosaic ceremony.”
 
Who would do a thing like that? I would guess it was the Judaizers, those that believed Jesus was the Messiah, and you should accept Jesus, but you couldn’t do that unless you were a Jew or a convert to Judaism and had been circumcised. So how does Paul respond?
verse 22a
 
That means, "What should be done about this?"
 
By the way, they were wrong about Paul. He never encouraged people to disobey Moses or forsake the law. In fact, in the book of Romans, he said, “Look, if a Jew wants to observe the Sabbath, that’s no big deal, let them observe it.”
 
“And if a Jew doesn’t want to eat certain things, don’t force him. You that are strong, don’t oppress the weak. Let him grow up.” He said, “For some, it’s a problem; for others, it’s not. Let’s accommodate the weaker brother; let’s not offend him.”
 
And I think that’s an important principle. If a Christian Jew wants to follow the customs, be loving and kind because it’s harmless. Don’t force him to violate his conscience and make him feel guilty.
 
So they say, “What are we going to do now that Paul is here?”
 
verse 22b
 
That have this potentially explosive situation created by there being 1,000's of Jews who believe you should be Orthodox and the rumor floating around that Paul says you should ignore Moses. SO what do we do?
 
And what they did was come up with
 
3. A Compromise
 
And we'll look at that next week. . .