The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
Acts 20Paul says he is bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem but does not know what will happen there
1 After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, took leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia.
2 When he had gone through those parts, and had encouraged them with many words, he came into Greece.
3 When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia.
4 These accompanied him as far as Asia: Sopater of Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; Gaius of Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia.
5 But these had gone ahead, and were waiting for us at Troas.
6 We sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas in five days, where we stayed seven days.
7 On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight.
8 There were many lights in the upper room where we were gathered together.
9 A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down by his sleep, he fell down from the third floor, and was taken up dead.
10 Paul went down, and fell upon him, and embracing him said, “Don’t be troubled, for his life is in him.”
11 When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed.
12 They brought the boy in alive, and were greatly comforted.
13 But we, going ahead to the ship, set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there; for he had so arranged, intending himself to go by land.
14 When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard, and came to Mitylene.
15 Sailing from there, we came the following day opposite Chios. The next day we touched at Samos and stayed at Trogyllium, and the day after we came to Miletus.
16 For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
17 From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to himself the elders of the assembly.
18 When they had come to him, he said to them, “You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time,
19 serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews;
20 how I didn’t shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house,
21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.
22 Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there;
23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.
24 But these things don’t count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God.
25 “Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching God’s Kingdom, will see my face no more.
26 Therefore I testify to you today that I am clean from the blood of all men,
27 for I didn’t shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.
28 Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and God which he purchased with his own blood.
29 For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
30 Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.
31 Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
32 Now, brothers, I entrust you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
33 I coveted no one’s silver, or gold, or clothing.
34 You yourselves know that these hands served my necessities, and those who were with me.
35 In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”
36 When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all.
37 They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul’s neck and kissed him,
38 sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.
the letter sent to Gentile believers about abstaining from meat sacrificed to idols, blood, things strangled, and sexual immorality
1 Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”
2 Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small discord and discussion with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.
3 They, being sent on their way by the assembly, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. They caused great joy to all the brothers.
4 When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.
5 But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
6 The apostles and the elders were gathered together to see about this matter.
7 When there had been much discussion, Peter rose up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that a good while ago God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the nations should hear the word of the Good News, and believe.
8 God, who knows the heart, testified about them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just like he did to us.
9 He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.
10 Now therefore why do you tempt God, that you should put a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
11 But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they are.”
12 All the multitude kept silence, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul reporting what signs and wonders God had done among the nations through them.
13 After they were silent, James answered, “Brothers, listen to me.
14 Simeon has reported how God first visited the nations, to take out of them a people for his name.
15 This agrees with the words of the prophets. As it is written,
16 ‘After these things I will return. I will again build the tabernacle of David, which has fallen. I will again build its ruins. I will set it up,
17 That the rest of men may seek after the Lord; all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who does all these things.
18 All of God’s works are known to him from eternity.’
19 “Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God,
20 but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.
21 For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”
22 Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole assembly, to choose men out of their company, and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, chief men among the brothers.
23 They wrote these things by their hand: “The apostles, the elders, and the brothers, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia: greetings.
24 Because we have heard that some who went out from us have troubled you with words, unsettling your souls, saying, ‘You must be circumcised and keep the law,’ to whom we gave no commandment;
25 it seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose out men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27 We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who themselves will also tell you the same things by word of mouth.
28 For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay no greater burden on you than these necessary things:
29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality, from which if you keep yourselves, it will be well with you. Farewell.”
30 So, when they were sent off, they came to Antioch. Having gathered the multitude together, they delivered the letter.
31 When they had read it, they rejoiced over the encouragement.
32 Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, encouraged the brothers with many words, and strengthened them.
33 After they had spent some time there, they were sent back with greetings from the brothers to the apostles.
35 But Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also.
36 After some days Paul said to Barnabas, “Let’s return now and visit our brothers in every city in which we proclaimed the word of the Lord, to see how they are doing.”
37 Barnabas planned to take John, who was called Mark, with them also.
38 But Paul didn’t think that it was a good idea to take with them someone who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia, and didn’t go with them to do the work.
39 Then the contention grew so sharp that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him, and sailed away to Cyprus,
40 but Paul chose Silas, and went out, being commended by the brothers to the grace of God.
41 He went through Syria and Cilicia, strengthening the assemblies.
Paul expresses that he would give his life for his countrymen to come to know God
1 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel, that are of Israel.
7 Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.”
8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs.
9 For this is a word of promise, “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac.
11 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,
12 it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.”
13 Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be!
15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy.
17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”
18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
19 You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?”
20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?”
21 Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor?
22 What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,
23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
24 us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
25 As he says also in Hosea, “I will call them ‘my people,’ which were not my people; and her ‘beloved,’ who was not beloved.”
26 “It will be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ There they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
28 for He will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness, because the LORD will make a short work upon the earth.”
29 As Isaiah has said before, “Unless the Lord of Armies had left us a seed, we would have become like Sodom, and would have been made like Gomorrah.”
30 What shall we say then? That the Gentiles, who didn’t follow after righteousness, attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith;
31 but Israel, following after a law of righteousness, didn’t arrive at the law of righteousness.
32 Why? Because they didn’t seek it by faith, but as it were by works of the law. They stumbled over the stumbling stone;
33 even as it is written, “Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and a rock of offense; and no one who believes in him will be disappointed.”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message picked up where Pastor Van had left off, following Paul from Caesarea into Jerusalem and through a series of confrontations that landed him before a mob, a Roman commander, and finally the Sanhedrin. The thread running through all of it was Paul's willingness to stay in the conversation, to speak in the language of whoever was in front of him, and to hold on even when the situation kept getting worse. The whole long stretch of text ends with Jesus standing near Paul in the barracks and telling him to take courage, because Rome is still ahead.
What was said
When Paul finally arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received him gladly, and James and the elders heard his account of what God had done among the Gentiles and glorified God for it. But there was an immediate complication. Thousands of Jewish believers in Jerusalem were zealous for the law, and word had gotten back to them that Paul was out there telling diaspora Jews to abandon Moses and stop circumcising their children. Pastor Van paused here to note that Paul was not antinomian, that he consistently started in the synagogue and never told Jewish believers to walk away from their background, but perception was driving the crisis regardless of what Paul actually taught.
James offered a practical solution: Paul should join four men who had taken a vow, pay their expenses, go through the purification ritual at the temple, and let people see him doing it. The point was to demonstrate publicly that Paul was not what they had been told he was. Pastor Van pointed out the irony that Paul was in the middle of doing exactly that, going through a Jewish purification rite at the Jewish temple, when everything came apart.
Jews from Asia who recognized Paul from his long time in Ephesus spotted him, assumed he had brought a Gentile named Trophimus past the barrier into the temple, and started a riot. Pastor Van showed a photograph of one of the inscribed stone barriers that marked the boundary Gentiles could not cross, noting that the inscription threatened immediate death to any foreigner who crossed it. The text does not say Paul brought Trophimus in, Pastor Van said, but the accusers assumed it, and that assumption was enough to turn the temple courts violent.
The Roman commander from the Antonia Fortress, which sat close enough to the temple that soldiers could see and hear what was happening below, came down, had Paul bound in chains, and tried to question the crowd. When no coherent answer came back because everyone was shouting different things, he ordered Paul brought up into the barracks. On the stairs, being carried over the heads of the mob, Paul politely asked the commander in Greek if he could say something to the people. The commander was surprised he spoke Greek, had assumed he was a known Egyptian troublemaker, and gave him permission.
Standing on those stairs with a Roman cohort around him, Paul addressed the crowd in Aramaic, which quieted them further. He told them his own story: raised in Jerusalem, educated under Gamaliel, a persecutor of the church who was stopped cold on the road to Damascus by the risen Jesus. Pastor Van noted that every time the account returns to that moment, the words strike the same way. Jesus did not say, why are you persecuting my followers. He said, why are you persecuting me, making the connection between the body of Christ and Christ himself direct and personal.
The crowd held with Paul through the story of his conversion, his baptism, and even his return to pray in the temple, but when he got to the part where Jesus told him to go to the Gentiles, that was the end of their patience. They erupted again. Inside the barracks, when the soldiers stretched Paul out to interrogate him by flogging, he asked whether it was lawful to flog a Roman citizen who had not been condemned. The commander backed off, frightened by what he had nearly done. The next day, wanting to understand the actual charge, he brought Paul before the Sanhedrin, where Paul managed to split the council between Pharisees and Sadducees by identifying himself as a Pharisee on trial for the hope of resurrection. The uproar that followed was bad enough that the commander had to send soldiers in again to pull Paul out by force.
That night, Jesus stood near Paul and told him directly to be courageous, that just as he had testified in Jerusalem, he would also testify in Rome. Pastor Van said that promise was the destination he had been working toward all morning, a gracious, specific word from Jesus to a man who had been beaten, chained, mobbed, and nearly flogged, that none of it had knocked him off course and there was still more ahead.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Nathan raised the question of whether Paul was rushing God's timeline by going to Jerusalem despite repeated warnings from believers and the prophet Agabus. How do you tell the difference between Spirit-led determination and pushing ahead of God's schedule in your own life?
When Paul arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers received him gladly but then immediately described the tensions his reputation had created among Jewish believers who were zealous for the law. Have you ever had your reputation arrive somewhere ahead of you in a distorted form, and how did you handle it?
Speaker 1And hey, how are y'all? Glad that y'all are here. Would you stand with me? And we're gonna sing through a couple of songs. Is Rock of Ages first?
Yeah. Alright. Rock of Ages it is. We'll sing off the wall. Here we go.
And actually, looks like I might have a group singing with me this morning, dear. Sorry. I usually have the sheet in front of me. It's sort of a cheat sheet, but I'm with y'all today. It's on the wall.
It's what we're gonna sing. Here we go. And how about there shall be showers of blessing. When we were in February and March, we went to Africa this year. We had no plan to be in Uganda.
Some of you already know this story. And when we were there, we ended up being in a car with Jorah, my drive. Favorite things about the family of God. So here we are. There shall be showers of blessing.
Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I have a few announcements and here they are. Iwana registration is open. It starts back September 15.
So school is starting up and we usually give it a week and we start up with the school calendar. September 15 is the first Monday night. Awana, Registration is open. So that's from cubbies, which are like two, three year olds up through fifth grade truth and trainers. You can register at firstspeedjackson.org for a child.
You can let us know if you wanna be a volunteer. I think most of you all know. We've already contacted you, so here it is coming. September 15 is the first night. Be praying for it whether you have somebody in it or not.
It's a great way to engage the community and kids with the scriptures, get them into their minds to reach their hearts. Guatemala missions trip is coming up October 11 through the eighteenth. They had a little informal informational reading meeting in between services today, but that's kind of a open offer. Mike will help. Mike and JJ will let you know what they know about this.
We usually go with a group out of Pennsylvania, and they often bring along a bunch of people from Michigan. And so we're kinda coming from here and going to there. Zacapa, Guatemala with Hope of Life International. First b jackson dot org, you can find out more information in Hope of Life or Esperanza de Vida. They have a website in both English and Spanish, if you wanna look it up.
JH Women's Community Bible Study is happening from September 10 through the twenty ninth on Wednesdays from 10AM to noon. They'll be covering the book of Genesis at PCJH this go round. Sometimes it meets here, sometimes it meets at Gateway, and this time it's gonna be at Presbyterian Church at Jackson Hole. There'll be child care provided for that full two hour run, and then if you wanna sign up for that ahead of time, the website. And this is a group of ladies from all the different churches in the valley, and some that are unaffiliated at this point.
So jhwomen'sbiblestudy.com is how you do that. Nancy Baxter. Is Nancy around? She made this announcement herself in the first service. I'll make it for her in this one.
There is a women's Bible study and this time, there she is. And I don't have a microphone for you, but come on anyway. Can you crank this one up right here? This is about the right height. Oh, you got it.
Look at you. Thank you. Hello? There you go.
Speaker 3Okay. Good morning. How are you? I wanna make a special announcement. We have a women's Bible study that meets on Thursday nights here at the church.
It's Bible study and fellowship. Fellowship. And we were we named ourselves Sisters Saved by Grace. And we're gonna start on September 4, Thursday night, 06:00 in the Fellowship Hall. All women are invited.
The Lord tells us not to forsake our gathering ourselves together. And it's so wonderful to have a friend group that loves you, prays for you. And our study this year is gonna be on prayer. And, you know, prayer sometimes I think we think, okay, I have prayer requests. My friends give me prayer requests.
I have a list of prayer requests. But prayer is really a gift of God to fellowship with him. And so it's gonna be a wonderful study, and we would love for you to come. 06:00, September 4.
Speaker 1Amen. Thank you very much. That's a great group. They meet in the Fellowship Hall, 06:00 in the evening. It's just about the same time the elders meetings.
So y'all pray for us. Just kidding. It's true, but I'm just kidding. Old Bills. You all know what Old Bills is.
Most of you know what Old Bills is. It is something that the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole does each year and they have co challengers who have decided to match funds that are given towards any of the five zero one c three nonprofits in town. And so we have a benevolence fund at this church that is what we use this amplified money for. Typically, $1 in through the community foundation towards, you know, the Good Samaritan Mission or Compass Women's Care or It Takes a Valley or First Bees Benevolence Fund. Usually, a dollar in is like a dollar and 0.5 by the time it gets to us.
That's great. And so what we use that for here is to be able to say yes when people come by and are in need. If you read the church email this week, there are like five different instances that happened this week and they're varied. It could be just about anything, but allowing us to be able to say yes is is very very helpful. So given seasons August 15 through September 12, If there's anything that I've forgotten, it's probably included on that website right there.
First b jackson dot org lets us know. Is there anybody else that feels like I forgot something that you'd like for me to announce? Any deletions, suggestions, complaints? No. Would you stand?
Thank you lord that we are gathered here in your name. I thank you for this this little representation of the body of Christ, lord. I thank you that you are present among us and you are present in our lives and in our witness. Lord, would you allow us to use our life and our words to glorify you and to lift Jesus up so that you may draw all men to yourself. In Jesus name, amen.
Alright. Open my eyes that I may see.
Speaker 2For me. Place in my hands the wonderful keep that shall unclass when set me free. Silently now, me bear gladly the wounds in the everywhere. Open my heart and let me prepare love with thy children thus to share.
Speaker 1God, his name is wonderful. His name is wonderful. We'll sing it twice.
Speaker 2Amen.
Speaker 1Y'all can have a seat. I'll invite the ushers to come forward and would you pray with me right there where you sit as I pray aloud. Lord God almighty, I thank you for this place to gather in your name. I thank you for this place lord that we're either visiting or where we live that is just so beautiful. Your creation is pouring forth speech every day lord.
There's no language where it can't be understood. So lord, would you allow us to be able to take all of that in and be able to articulate it to people who are having trouble understanding it, to people who are trying to suppress it. Lord God almighty, would you do your will and your way amongst us in such a way that we show forth the light of Jesus, the light of the gospel. I pray lord that we would be together with the intent of the advance of your good gospel. May we be humble and obedient, true servants, and subjects of the kingdom of heaven.
In Jesus name, amen. Wow. Thank you, Judy. So here we are. I I told the first services, it kinda it tends to go away, but I I get super nervous.
If I wasn't the guy that was here last week, I get nervous about that. And I haven't here been here for two weeks. So y'all pray for me. We've got a lot of ground to cover this morning. So if you would, listen fast, that'll make things go better for you.
We're gonna be covering this. Actually, it's a little further than that. Twenty one fifteen through twenty three eleven is what we're gonna do today. So we've got pieces of two chapters and a whole chapter in between. This is at Jerusalem, so we'll start right here.
If you'll remember back to the last time that I preached three weeks ago, before Mahindra, before Van, I closed with this but I didn't expound on it. After these days, we got ready. We, Luke, says we. He was with him, got ready and we started on our way up to Jerusalem. Now, you think back to what had happened in chapter 20 and what had happened in chapter 21, Paul says in chapter 20, I know that I'm bound by the spirit to go to Jerusalem.
I know that much. I don't even know what will happen to me when I get there. Did he? He said, I don't even know what will happen to me when I get there except that. Everywhere that I go, everybody in the spirit tells me that you're going to end up with chains and affliction if you go to Jerusalem.
Don't go there. The last place that he was specifically said, don't go. Please, in the spirit, don't go. Now, we know that Paul was going to go to Jerusalem. Jesus had said that you're going to be my witness in Jerusalem and he felt he was bound also to go to Rome but was it the time?
Was it the time the whole of the church, Everywhere he went, they were all saying an Agabus with dramatic fashion took Paul's own belt and wrapped it around his own Agabus' hands and feet and said, if you go there, this is what's going to happen to you. Pretty dramatic in Caesarea and Paul still decided to go forward in his own time frame. I won't say, well, the last thing we see there is what they said. Well, since he would not be persuaded, we all just prayed for the Lord's will to be done. So the debate still exists.
Was Paul rushing God's timeline? Knowing he needed to be there, but still disregarding all of the Lord's efforts to dissuade him from going at that time, or was he right on time and everything's hunky dory? I I think honestly, a lot of times, we have a tendency to to act like Paul's walk was just as pure as Christ walk and that ain't necessarily so. He is following after the same spirit but I want you to take that into consideration as you follow after Christ. Paul would even say himself, follow me as I follow Christ.
I figure I get off track every once in a while. I'm doing the best that I can but I get off track every once in while. Here we go. Let's start up. Acts twenty one fifteen says this, now after these days, we, Luke and Paul and his running buddies, got ready and we started on our way up to Jerusalem.
Some of the disciples from Caesarea also came with us. That's Caesarea Maritima or Maritime Caesarea. If
Speaker 2you've
Speaker 1been on a trip to Israel, you most likely have been to Maritime Caesarea. It is a very well preserved first century set of ruins there. The sum of those disciples from Caesarea also came with us taking us up to Manasen of Cyprus. Caesarea is right here, the green star. It is coastal and it is not terribly far from Jerusalem, but when it says, we went up to Jerusalem, it is because of the distance uphill.
Cyprus up here is where Manasen is from but it says, some of the disciples from Caesarea also came along with us and took us up to Manasen of Cyprus who was a disciple of long standing with whom we were to stay. So Manasen of Cyprus had a place either right in or right around Jerusalem and they're going, I know how that goes. People who wanna be somewhere like Jerusalem was a hot spot, like Jackson's a hot spot in the summertime. How many of y'all have guests with you right now in your house? I had somebody till 05:00 this morning.
They were hospitable. Menation of Cyprus was very hospitable, had a place, and the disciple of long standing allowed them to stay with him. They'd arranged it. Now, we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us gladly. Take note, the brothers and sisters, these are Christians.
The brothers and sisters received us gladly. In the following day, Paul went in with us. We all went together. Luke says, to James. James is unquestionably the head of the church in Jerusalem.
Peter and John are elsewhere. Now, James is there and he went with us to see James and all of the elders of the church in Jerusalem were there present also. Now, Paul has been on these missionary journeys and here he is in Jerusalem. Brothers and sisters, receive us gladly. Now, let's go see James.
The elders were present and after he greeted them, he began to relate one by one. So, he's given a litany of all of the things, the things which God has done. Among the Gentiles through his ministry. Now, this is a statement of humility from Luke about Paul that he didn't just go in and say, look what I did. He's saying, look what God did.
Look what God has done. Among the Gentiles, we were supposed to be a light to the nations and God is fulfilling that in the gospel going forward. Here it is. He greeted them. He began to relate one by one.
These are the things that God is doing among the Gentiles through this ministry and when they heard about them, when they heard about what? When they heard about the things which God had done, what did the brothers? The Jewish flavored Christians and they are very Jewish flavored. This is the most Jewish of the Jewishness in the center of Judea, the land of the Jews in Jerusalem. When these Jewish background believers heard about what God was doing among the Gentiles, they began glorifying God.
Amen. Wonderful. Hunky dory, everything's hunky dory so far, and then we get the rest of the sentence it says, and they said to him, you see brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed? There are thousands here. You've been gone a while.
It's been a while since we've seen you here and you know the same kind of stuff that you're saying was happening out there among the Gentiles is happening here in town too. And not but and they're all zealous for the law. All of these Jewish flavored Christians are super Jewish flavored Christians. And they're zealous for the law, and they've been told about you Paul. Do you do you note this tension right here?
They've heard. We are glorifying God about the things that God's doing among the Gentiles. That's wonderful. There's no question about that. There are a lot of brothers here who have been saved and they believe in Jesus but they're also really zealous for the law.
And their background, they've been told about you. They've been told that you're teaching all of the Jews who are out there among the Gentiles, the diaspora Jews that are living all over the world. What they've been told is you're telling all of their Jewish brothers and sisters out there to abandon Moses. Just chuck it. It's not necessary anymore.
Get rid of it. Your traditions, just get rid of it. And that you've been telling them not to circumcise their children, which is the sign of the covenant. Right? That's a big deal.
Ain't nor to walk according to the customs. That's what they've been told about you, Paul. That's the that's the word that we've gotten from you. Now, we're glad to see you and we're glad that he's working among the Gentiles but we know this town better than you know this town at this time. And so, is Paul Antinomian by the way?
That's a question for myself to go back and cover. Is Paul against the law? No. He says law is great. The law is great.
It has a purpose. It's to point you towards the one that God would provide, the Messiah Jesus. He's not antinomian. He's not against the law but he recognizes that law and grace, law points you towards your need for grace. So what is to be done?
James says, they'll certainly hear that you've come. You can't hide. It's a small town. What's to be done? They'll certainly hear that you've come, Paul.
We want for you to be protected. We don't want for there to be an uproar because we're still under Rome. It's a political hard time, hard place. What do we need to do? Therefore, Paul, your accelerated schedule may may have kept us from being prepared for you to be here right now.
So, do like we're telling you right now. You do as we tell you. We have four guys. They're probably indigent, maybe not, but probably. We have four men who have taken a vow upon themselves, probably the Nazarite vow.
They're going to take a vow not to take anything in the fruit of the vine. They're going to shave their heads. They're going to make a vow unto the Lord. We have four men who have a vow upon themselves. Now, take them along and purify yourself together with them.
It's purification ritual. It is not for salvation. Okay? Paul's been out in Gentile lands. When he comes back, he would have a seven day typically practicing Jews would have a seven day purification ritual.
So James in recognition of the fact that he's been out, he says, take these four guys, take them along with you, purify yourself together with them, and you pay their expenses so that they can shave their heads. You get that done, And then everyone will know that there's nothing to what they've been told about you. They'll see you, they'll see you at the temple doing temple things, they'll see you and you're encouraging these other guys to do what they should do when they know that they need to make a vow before the Lord, and you're paying for it. That's a that is a situation of alms that everyone would recognize as a pious act. So they'll see that there's nothing to all of that they've been told about you, but that you yourself are also conforming and that you're a keeper of the law.
So does he keep the law? For the Gentiles, he argues that it's either gonna be grace or it's gonna be law. For the recognition, everywhere that he goes, he starts off in the synagogue. Do you think he goes in kicks down the door with a pork sandwich? No.
He does not. He goes through and he starts with the Jewish way first and he gives them opportunity from their scriptures according to their customs, according to everything to see that Jesus is Messiah. After they blasphemed and out and send him out, then he goes to the Gentiles. Everywhere he goes, virtually everywhere he goes, it says that. I defy you to find a place where Paul told a Jewish guy not to do Jewish things.
Okay? I don't think that you can where he says, step away from that practice. He's saying, you don't have to become Jewish to become Christian. You don't have to become Jewish after you become a Christian and specifically to the Galatians. But regarding the Gentiles, James goes on and says, regarding the Gentiles, remember we did this.
This is like Acts 15, who have believed we sent a letter, we haven't decided that they should abstain from the meat sacrificed to idols because that would be absolutely gross to anybody if they were trying to get along with Jewish brothers and sisters. That's just not gonna fly. To abstain from blood or whatever is strangled and from sexual immorality. Those were the four things that we asked in a letter and we sent along with you, remember? Yeah.
We know that. So we recognize that Jewish background believers and other background believers are are saved by grace, but they have their background and we have ours. And if we're gonna intermingle, it says in chapter 14 or 15, it says, if you do these things, you will do well. If you if you stay away from these things, you will do well. So Paul takes along the other men.
He accepts what they said, do what we tell you, he's doing what they tell him. He took along the other men and the next day after purifying himself together with them, he went into the temple and he was given notice of the completion of the days of purification. For them, it probably would have been a month. For him, it would have been seven days as we see in the text twice. Giving notice in the temple of the completion of the days of purification until the sacrifice was offered for each one of which he paid for.
Now, when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, remember Asia, Ephesus is in Asia. If you think back the times that we have heard about Asia in Acts, it says, first of all, that they were hindered by the spirit from going into Asia to begin with. The next time we see Paul going into Asia, he is only there for a very short time and he's gone again, and then the next time he goes in, he stays for more than two years and it says later on that it was near three years. So he has been in Ephesus in Asia a long time. He's seen everyone in Asia knows about Jesus whether they've accepted him or not because of Paul's ministry there and he's had enough time to make enemies in the synagogue.
Those who did not accept Jesus as Messiah really, really, really hated him and what they saw as blasphemy. So, when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia upon seeing him in the temple, they're making their trek because it's Pentecost time. So, they're coming in good, observant Jews. They began to stir up all the crowd and they laid hands on Paul. They seized him and they started crying out.
Now, these are men of Asia but they are Jewish Jewish guys, not Jewish believers. They're Jewish Jewish guys. They started crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the guy. This is the guy who instructs everybody everywhere.
He just rolls around telling people that we're wrong. He rolls around telling people not to go by the law. He talks against our people and he talks about the law and he talks about this temple. Woah. Now, they're enlisting help from people who are at the temple, on the Temple Mount.
Besides, he's even brought Greeks into the temple and he's defiled this holy place. Now, for you and for me, you know, I don't have the same kind of feeling about this church as they had about the temple. I guarantee, I don't. We we say yes to just about every group that wants to come in and do anything in here. But they were not that way.
There was a I'll let the scripture talk. Let me keep on saying. For they had previously seen Traphimus the Ephesians. That's an Asian guy. Traphimus the Ephesians was a believer that Paul had with him.
They had seen him in the city with Paul and they thought that Paul had brought him into the temple. Well, they assumed that. They assumed that because Paul's an antinomian, he didn't carry anything about the temple and he didn't carry anything about the law and he just let all that beside and he just taken this trophimus, that's sorry, Joker, and it brings him into the temple. Well, they just assumed that he did. The text does not say that he did.
In fact, it alludes otherwise. This is a stone that has an inscription on it. I know you can't read it from there or maybe maybe you can read it in Greek if if you can see it. But this is a stone. These are one of these is another piece of a stone.
These stones were set out in between the court of the Gentiles and the access to the sanctuary, which would be for Jews. And the Greek on this, the inscription prohibits crossing this barrier. So it is there all around the temple. And what it says is this, on each one of these stones, it says this, and there are a lot of them. It's a dotted line of these things so that we know and there are lots of different ones that are still extant.
Let no foreigner enter within the parapet, which is these stones were close enough that it looked like a parapet wall. Let no foreigner enter within the parapet and the balustrade which surrounds the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. Ensuing and immediate is the is the what it's saying. Like, you're not gonna receive a trial.
If you're a foreigner and you cross this line, you are deserving of death, and it'll be your fault because you crossed the line. So that's how they felt about the temple and to have seized Paul and then say, this is the guy that teaches everybody everywhere. He even took somebody inside. He encouraged a foreigner to come into the temple. Now, the whole city was provoked.
Of course, they were and the people all rushed together and they were taking hold of Paul and they were dragging him out of the temple. So, this is happening within the temple. They grab hold of him and they pull him out of the temple and it says, and immediately the doors were shut. Now, that's a statement of fact. They pull Paul out of the temple, they close the doors.
But man, isn't that a metaphor too? Paul is in there literally doing a purification ritual according to the law, and they are kicking him out for being an antinomian. There's irony there. And then immediately the doors were shut. It was like, we know Paul's heart.
He expresses it in Romans nine that if he could, he would give his life for his countrymen to come to know. God, he knows his blood is not sufficient for that. Only Jesus' blood is sufficient for that and so he's gonna just keep on presenting and preaching the gospel. Taking hold of Paul, they dragged him outside and immediately doors were shut. Now, while they were intent on killing him, the rule about that crossing the balustrade, it was a defilement of the temple and what happens if you defile the place where heaven meets earth?
If you defile the place where God meets mankind, the temple. What happens if you defile that? The only way that it can be cleansed, they were intent on killing him because if he defiled it, it was defiled until he was killed. That's their reading of it. So, while they were intent on killing him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
This seems to happen a lot, doesn't it? When we read about Jerusalem during the time of the passion of the Christ, there was Jerusalem's in an uproar. Pentecost is always a time that was just a lightning rod. Now, while, I mean, sorry, Passover is always a time. Pentecost is when Paul wanted to be back there.
While while they were intent on killing him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. So this is a representation of the Antonia Fortress. The Antonia Fortress is where there's a whole cohort of Roman soldiers stationed there, and if you want to know exactly where it is as it relates to the temple, it's right there. That's pretty close. A whole Roman cohort is there and this is the temple.
So, they can see from their parapet walls up top what is going on at the temple. If they hear a report, hey, something's going on. They literally can hear the report of what's going on from down below. It's very close. So, while they were intent on killing Paul, a report came to the commander of the Roman cohort that all of Jerusalem was in confusion.
He immediately took along some soldiers and some centurions and he ran down to the crowd, ran down because they're up on those towers and on those walls and there were stairs down and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, when they, the Jews who were intent on killing Paul, saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Can you imagine that? Hello, officer. Nothing to see here. Yeah.
No, it's just a little, no big deal. Nothing. They stopped beating him and then the commander came up and he took hold of Paul and he ordered that he be bound with two chains and then he began asking who he was and what he had done. Why is it that everybody's in confusion? Why is it that it looks like there's about to be a riot here?
We are the law around here. Chain that guy up and let's ask him a few questions. Seems like they've got the order wrong to me, but that's it. They're the ones in charge. So there you go.
But among the crowd, some were shouting one thing and some were shouting another. Now, at the temple with all of these thousands who have become Christians in the time while Paul was away, I imagine they were one of those crowds that were shouting one thing. Listen to him. He makes sense. He knows what he's talking about.
He's proclaiming Jesus as Messiah. Y'all all are looking forward to Messiah and you missed him? He's saying that one. One might have been saying that. And then, some were shouting another.
And when the guy could not find out the facts because of the uproar, nobody would calm down or quiet down. He ordered that the Paul be brought back into the barracks, so up into the Antonio Fortress away from the danger that he was in. Now, when Paul got to the stairs about to go up into the Antonio Fortress, it came about that he was carried by the soldiers. Think crowd surfing. They're holding him up to keep the crowd from killing him.
And he's going up the stairs being held up over their heads, it sounds like. When Paul got to the stairs, it came about that as he was being carried up by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, and let me just say, like the Aurelia Getsi, who's the head of the studies abroad program in Italy, when we were in Rome as art students, Tanya and I, Aurelia said, listen, you are in Rome, the eternal city. If you see a mob beginning to form, run the other direction. Do not get involved in this mob because what mobs do is very hard to predict, it's very hard to understand, and usually violence is the next step because people in large numbers do not think clearly like people think. They think like a mob thinks.
So when Paul got to the stairs, came about, he was carrying by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob, For the multitude of the people kept on following them and shouting, away with him, get him out of here. And as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he says, there's the asterisk, this is the historical present. He says to the commander, may I say something to you? That is so polite. The Greek there is just polite, it's really friendly, it's like, oh, could I have a moment?
Sir, excuse me. May I say something to you? And the commander says, do you know Greek? Well, he spoke to him in Greek. Do you know Greek?
This is a fascinating story. If you speak Greek, you're not the Egyptian who sometime ago stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins, that's the name of their outfit, out into the wilderness. This had happened in fifty four AD. It's a fascinating story. I don't have time to tell.
But this is what the guy thought because he couldn't ascertain the truth because nobody would calm down. It's gotta be bad and what we don't want is a riot. I'm the law here. We're not gonna have a riot here today. I'm gonna haul you off but his assumption was that he was this troublemaker.
He had him chained up and had started to question him but still couldn't ascertain what was going on. Protect him. That's good. So you're not this guy. This reminds me of the riot in Ephesus or the near riot in Ephesus where it says half of them were screaming, great is Artemis of the Ephesians and half of them were screaming something else.
And it says the majority did not even know for what reason they had come together. Is that is that still the way that we live life? Like people are in an uproar a lot of the times and the majority don't really even know why they are on the side of their own. They don't even really know what's going on. But Paul said, after he'd been so polite to the guy, but Paul said to the commander in Greek, I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia.
Tarsus is a free city. It had been a free city. It's a free city under the Roman Empire. So everybody who's born there is a free Roman citizen. But he didn't say it like that at this point.
He said, I'm a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city, and I beg you, insignificant city actually is a humble way of stating that. We know of the library at Alexandria and the great learning in the university there and of Athens, but Tarsus of Cilicia was that quality of city. It was very very well educated as evidenced by the fact that he speaks Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek and yeah, he's a polyglot. Paul said, I'm a Jew of Tarsus and Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city, and I beg you, allow me please to speak to the people and when he had given him permission. Paul, standing on the stairs, they put him down, motioned to the people with his hand, and as he motions to the people with his hand, I think this is a funny gesture.
There was a great silence. Can you imagine just being able to steal the it it it could have been just a miracle. Right? It could have been a miracle, but as he motioned to the crowd with his hand, there was a great silence and he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect in Aramaic. Semitic language is a Hebrew dialect.
What Jesus spoke, what a lot of the people there would have spoken. He spoke to them in Aramaic saying, brothers and fathers, that's inclusive. I am your brother. I respect my elders, brothers and fathers. Hear my defense which I now offer to you.
Please allow me to defend myself. It's very polite. It's very winsome. It's helpful. So this is Paul's defense before the Jews standing with a Roman cohort around him.
He has bodyguards. He's now able to speak a little more freely and not be ripped apart. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet and he says, I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus Of Cilicia, but I was brought up in this city. My heart is here.
I was brought up in this city. I was educated under Gamaliel. Y'all know who he is. You know that he strictly according to the law of our fathers taught all of us as his students. Being zealous for God just as you all are here today and I recognize that you are being zealous for God today even though you're misguided.
I realize why you're doing what you're doing. I persecuted this way. The way that I now follow, I used to be just like you. I persecuted this way and I would have done so to the death. Binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all of the council of elders can testify.
If there are any of y'all left in the council that were here when you sent me out, you remember me. From them, I also received letters to the brothers and I started off for Damascus and Paul's telling us the story that we got earlier in Acts. He's telling them that same story and he's doing so as a defense. Started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. I know where your heart is because that's where my heart was, but it happened that while I was on my way, I was approaching Damascus at about noon in a very bright light, brighter than the noonday sun, suddenly flashed from heaven all around me and I fell to the ground and I heard a voice and the voice was saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?
So when I hit this every time I hit it, whether it's in the initial telling of the story in narrative when it happened or during this retelling or during the next two retellings we hear. When I hear this, every single time it strikes me that Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? He's facing the risen Lord Jesus and Jesus is saying the people that you're persecuting are me, the body of Christ. We say it. We're a representation of the body of Christ.
So, this is the body of Christ but it's the body of Christ. When Jesus said, he he doesn't stop there. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered him, who are you, lord? Who are you?
And he said to me, I am Jesus, the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting. He doubles down on it. By persecuting the church, you are persecuting me. It's direct. Whatsoever you do to the least of these, you've done it to me.
And those who were with me saw the light, but they didn't understand the voice of the one who's speaking to me and I said, what shall I do, Lord? What shall I do? And the Lord said to me, get up, go into Damascus and there you will be told it about everything that has been appointed for you to do. This is where I'm gonna lay out the plan for your life in Damascus. Now, think about Saul who left with writs to bring back those followers of the way to be punished in Jerusalem.
Think about how he was leaving in almost military ecstasy that he gets to do this. He's got the papers and he's going to drag them back or kill them if they won't come. And now, faced with the risen lord, he can't even see. And because of the brightness of the light, I came into Damascus being led by the hand. He left Jerusalem way different than he arrived in Damascus.
He was led by the hand by those who are with me. Now, there's a certain man named Ananias and a man who was devout by the standard of the law. He was well spoken of by all of the Jews who lived there and that guy, Ananias came to me and he was standing nearby to me and he said, brother Saul, receive your sight and at that very moment, I look up to him and he said, the God of our fathers has appointed you, Saul, to know his will and to see the righteous one which is what the prophets often refer to Messiah as the righteous one and to hear a message directly from his mouth for you will be a witness for him to all people of what you've seen and what you've heard. Now, why do you delay? Get up and get yourself baptized.
That's literally what it says in Greek. Get up and get yourself baptized. It sounds so southern. Does my heart good. Why do y'all why do you delay, Paul?
Get up and get yourself baptized and wash away your sins by calling on his name. Just hold on to this. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. If they're Jewish background and they call on the name of the Lord, they'll be saved. If they're Gentile background and they call on the name of the Lord, they'll be saved.
If you know somebody today and I had some, I had a Muslim guy this week that came into the office and said, tell me why we call, why y'all call Jesus the son of God. It's a great question. We got to talk about it for a good long while. If he calls on the name of the Lord, he will be saved. Now, why do you delay?
Get up and be baptized. Wash away your sins. Call on the name of the Lord and it happened when I returned to Jerusalem and I was praying in the temp wait a second. I think I Am I on the right place? It it happened when I returned to Jerusalem and I was praying in the temple that I fell into a trance and I saw him, Jesus, saying to me, hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they're not gonna accept your testimony about me and I said, lord, but they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another, I used imprison and beat those who believe in you.
I'm the best witness they've got. I'm one of them. Please let me go and Jesus says, get out of here. They're not going to accept your testimony. That's a word from Jesus.
They're not going to believe. And when the blood of your witness, Steven, was being shed, I was also standing nearby and I was approving. I know how you feel because I've been you and I was watching over the cloaks of those who were killing Stephen and Jesus said to me, go for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Where's the last place that a pharisaic Jew in the first century wanna be sent? They listened to him up to this statement, but that was too far.
And then they raised their voices and they said, away with such a man from the earth for he should not even be allowed to live. We should have killed this guy while we had the chance before you got here. And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and dusting off the cloaks and tossing dust into the air, the commander ordered that Paul be brought on up into the barracks. He's halfway. He's up on the stairs when he's telling the story.
Bring him on up here saying that he was we'll we'll question him and we'll figure this out. Shall go back to your home? Saying that he was interrogated by flogging. That's enhanced interrogation. That's what that is and that was what they planned on doing, beating the truth out of Paul, but doing so away from them.
He's going to be interrogated by flogging so that he so that he would find out the reason why they were all shouting against him in that way. But when they stretched him out with straps, arms and legs, stretched him out with straps before the beating was to commence, Paul said to the centurion who was standing there, is it lawful for you to flog a man who's a Roman and uncondemned? Now, he's already told him he was a citizen of Tarsus of Cilicia. That should have told him that he was Roman, but they weren't listening. And when he says, is it lawful for you to flog a man who's a Roman?
Actually, you could stop right there. Even if he was condemned, you're not supposed to do what they were about to do. To a Roman citizen, you're not supposed to flog them, period. Not supposed to. Is it lawful for you to flog a man who's a Roman?
And even more than that, uncondemned. So what he's arguing for here is due process. He's arguing for his rights. When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and he told him saying, wait a second. What are you about to do?
This interrogation by beating that you're about to do? Don't do that. This man's a Roman. And when the seven days were almost over, the Jews measure wait just a second. I think I got off track here.
When the stress came with the stress. Here we go. I went through I had a 100 slides today. I usually have 80. On Thursday this week, I had a 150 slides and I didn't have to cut them down.
I accidentally got from chapter twenty one and twenty two. I got in the middle of this and I did 21 all over again. So I studied this and wrote it down and made the exact same sides twice. Little extra study. The commander came and said to Paul, tell me, are you a Roman?
Just tell me. And he said, yes, I am. I've been trying to tell you. And the commander answered, I acquired this citizenship for a large sum of money. Chances are that his military service might have been what was purchasing his citizenship, but he goes on to say, for a large sum of money.
Maybe bribes, maybe larger fees, but he's saying, I acquired citizenship for a large sum of money. And Paul said, I was actually born a citizen. I'm a citizen. Therefore, those who are about to interrogate him by beating, him immediately backed away from him, the commander also was afraid because he knew what he had just done. He chained a Roman citizen without due process.
When he found out that he was a Roman because he had put him in chains, and now on the next day, wanting to know for certain, why is it that they're against you? Gave sleep on it. It's been a long day. You rest well. We'll talk again tomorrow.
On the next day, wanting to know for certain while Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and he released him and told him, listen, go back to the chief priest and the council. We let them get together and do their thing but you go back and it says, he brought Paul down and he placed him before the council. So now, Paul is not in a whole mob. He's in the council, probably the Sanhedrin. There's 70 members of that Sanhedrin.
You remember the chart that sit in a semi circle? There's 70 of them, the smartest guy. Everybody agrees that the smartest guy is in the middle high priest and then out to the edges, the dumber, the dumber they get. Okay? So he brings them down and sits them in the midst of this council, and he places them before him, and now he's got Roman guards around him too.
Now, he looked intently at the council Paul said, brothers, he's still saying brothers. He's not against them. Brothers, I have lived my life with an entirely good conscience before God up to this day. Now, by this point, you and I have known that Paul says, in my ignorance, there were days that I was just completely ignorant about this and God forgave me for that ignorance and he showed me the way and when I accepted Christ, I know that I am living a life that is entirely good conscience because Christ has taken upon himself the punishment for my sins. He doesn't explicitly say that but he does say that I I have lived my life with an entirely good conscience before God up to this day but the high priest Ananias, different Ananias, not the guy with him in Damascus.
But the high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him. Just strike that guy. Hit him on the mouth. Does that sound like high priest? It doesn't sound like high priest to me.
That's not what I want from my high priest. The high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth and then Paul said to him, God's going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. Are you not hearing what I'm saying? You're missing it. You're supposed to be a council that's paying attention to what's going on and God's gonna strike you, you whitewashed wall.
Do you sit try to try me according to the law and in violation of it, you ordered me to be struck? So the Jews also had that similar sort of thing that the Romans did. He had not been convicted of anything. He's in the trial and he just somebody ordered him to be slapped in the mouth. But those presidents said, are you insulting God's high priest?
I can't believe you'd say that about the high priest. Well, the high priest just asked him to get hit in the mouth. Those presidents said, you insulting God's high priest? And Paul said, oh, wait a second now. I didn't know he was a high priest.
When I left here, he wasn't a high priest. I don't I don't I didn't know that. And he he's he's sincere. I was not aware brothers that he's the high priest. I know that it's written.
You're not supposed to speak evil of a ruler of your people and that's actually Exodus twenty two twenty eight, not 27, 28. You shall not curse God. No. But you also shall not curse a ruler of your people. It's even more specific in the Septuagint version.
Not to speak ill of the leader of the people. But Paul, perceiving that one group were Sadducees. Those are left leaning individuals, ones that were complicit with the government of Rome. They did not really believe everything that was written in the scriptures. The Pharisees, more of the people but also more by the book did believe in spiritual things and angels and in resurrection.
Let me just let the scripture say it. When he perceived, Paul perceives that one group or sadducees and the other was Pharisees, he began crying out on the council saying, brothers, I'm a Pharisee. I'm the son of Pharisees. I'm on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead. Now, that is what he's on trial for.
He's standing before them because Jesus was resurrected from the dead and the sadducees don't believe that because it doesn't fit their theology and the Pharisees don't believe it just because they don't believe it. They believe it's possible. They just don't believe Jesus was it. They didn't like him. I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead and when he said this, there was a dissension.
Oh, aren't we just the same as we've always been? There's nothing new under the sun. If you give people a chance, they will divide into two teams. I'm gonna tell the story one time I've told it before that Carl and I, when we were in Africa, we not that we were put in charge of games, we had a whole bunch of Africans out there, and they are more communal, we're more individualistic. Culturally, that's just the way it is.
And so Carl and I, when we had the chance to get this group of Africans together, we said, let's play Red Rover. You want to play Red Rover? Nobody's ever heard of Red Rover. So, let's divide up into two teams. That's super American.
So, we divide into two teams, and the whole time that we're trying to get them to be against each and gain more ground. Y'all know what Red Rover is. Red Rover Red Rover sends so and so whatever. So as we're trying to explain the rules, they keep on closing the ends of the two teams into a circle and they go, let's make a circle, a big big circle. They just wanted to be together and be happy.
This group is a little more American than that. This when he said this, a dissension occurred between the Pharisees and the Sadducees which was predictable and Paul knew what would happen and the assembly was divided for the Sadducees say that there's no resurrection nor any angels nor any spirits. We don't believe in that stuff. It's metaphorical. It's not real but the Pharisees acknowledged them all and the Pharisees were right.
Even Jesus said to the sadducees, you don't get it because you don't pay attention to what it says to the sadducees. To Pharisees, they were they did believe it but they were hypocritical in it and didn't recognize Now, a great uproar occurred and some of the scribes of the pharisaic party stood up and started arguing heatedly saying, we find nothing wrong with him. Can you believe that? Is that comical to you? Is it as comical to you as it is to me?
You got these two sides. They're divided. Both of them hate his guts. Both of them think he ought to be run out of town on a rail at least and probably killed and then, he says, I'm a Pharisee of Pharisees and then one side says, we find nothing wrong with this man. Let him go.
Suppose a spirit or angel that has spoken to him. And when a great dissension occurred, the commander was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. That would be on his watch even if he were torn to pieces by someone else and he's a Roman citizen. He's not going to see that happen. So, he orders the troops to go down and take him away from the them by force and bring him back into the barracks.
And so Paul was protected by the government. When we see Rome or the Roman government, especially the centurions but the Roman army, we know that the Jewish populace feels oppressed by them. We know that they feel persecuted and hated by them and subjugated by them and we know that that's true and yet in the New Testament, centurions are always good guys, always. They're protective of Paul in this place and when a centurion comes to Jesus, he comes in faith. We see centurions and the Roman government and I think that Luke is saying something.
He's saying Christianity is innocent before the state. You don't have to worry about it. Just as Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. It's not a threat to you, Pilate. He ordered the troops to go down, take him in away from them by force, bring him back to the barracks, and so there he is in safety.
But on the following night, the Lord, Jesus, stood near him and said, be courageous, Paul. For just as you have testified to the truth about me here in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome also. Now, there's a lot that happens in between Jerusalem and Rome but Paul knows he's going to get to Rome and he knows it directly from his master and I think that's such a gracious gift and that's what I was trying to get to this morning. There's no stopping place between where I started and where I stopped. Thank you for sticking with it.
God almighty, what we are praying for you to do, lord, is allow us to see all of the biases that we bring in from the peoples we have been called out of. We have been called into the body of Christ. We've been called out of various denominational backgrounds, various ethnic backgrounds, various sociopolitical backgrounds. We've been called out of a lot of different things, Lord, but we have been called into the body of Christ. May we with humility recognize where it is that you are that you are urging us to step more into and more away from.
In Jesus name, I pray that you'd give us something practical from all of this that we've studied today that we've taken the time to look through. I pray that you'd give us a practical step and a way to go forward where we step back from our presuppositions and ask you how things should be going with us, for us, and what it is that you would have us to do. How would you have us testify? And glorify God. In Jesus name, amen.
Would you stand with me? And we're gonna sing take my life and let it be Consecrated Lord to thee. Set apart for God's work. So, in the first service, I said, the altar is always open. Y'all know that, right?
Altar is always open at the end of the service and maybe I'm just having a burst of southern culture come up. I don't know. I see lots of Georgians in the house today and the altar is always open for prayer but it's also open. If you want to come forward and you want to talk to me, I'm always ready to receive you. That counts for the right now but it also counts for all week long.
So, I'm here but I'm here to receive you too. If if you're doing business with God right now and you want to tell somebody about, you can tell me. If you're doing business with God and you just want to pray at the altar, you're welcome. Always. Come on forward.
We're gonna sing a couple more verses if nobody comes. We're gonna close. Here we go. God, thank you for this morning. I thank you for your word.
I thank you for illuminating it, lord. And I ask that you'd be shining that light on it and on us all week. May we be a reflection of you to a world that does not yet know you. May we be winsome and helpful and even as Paul polite and take advantage of the things that are good for the advance of the gospel. Willing to be changed was what Paul was.
Willing to die but lord, that was not what you're calling him to do at that moment right then. Would you allow us to be winsome? Would you allow us to abound in hope? Amen. And now, may the God of all hope fill you all with with y'all with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit that y'all may abound in hope.
