Acts 21:27-22:29 - Dare to Defend

Introduction

[CONTEXT] God exists. He created me and you. He holds us accountable for the decisions we make, and his standard of accountability is perfection.

I’ve failed to meet his standard and so have you. Our failure to meet his standard is called sin, and the price for our sin is death.

We were dead in our sins our trespasses, having no hope and without God in the world.

But through Jesus Christ, God’s sinless Son, God demonstrated his gracious love for us in that, while we were still sinners Jesus died on the cross to pay the price for our sins.

God has rescued you from sin and death if you repent of your sin and trust that Jesus of Nazareth…

…lived perfectly before God,

…died on the cross to atone for our sins,

…and rose from the dead three days later proving himself to be the Son of God.

Do you believe those things this morning? Do you trust in Jesus as he is revealed to us in the Bible?

Have you taken the next step after trusting in Jesus, which is to confess your faith in Jesus by being baptized in his name?

At one point in his life, a Jewish man named Paul couldn’t have imagined that he would ever trust in Jesus or be baptized in his name. Paul hated Jesus and hated those who trusted in Jesus. He even persecuted them to death.

But one day, as Paul the Persecutor was on the way to persecute more followers of Jesus, the risen Jesus appeared to him in a blinding glorious light, and Paul fell on his face before him. Paul was horrified to learn that he had not been honoring God by persecuting followers of Jesus; no, by persecuting followers of Jesus, Paul had been attacking God’s Son himself.

Soon there after, God opened Paul’s spiritual eyes so that he could see Jesus as the Son of God, the true Savior of God’s people, who had saved them from sin and death through his own death and resurrection.

And then Paul was baptized in the name of Jesus.

This was never apart of Paul’s plan, but God had it planned from before the foundation of the world.

By the grace of God Paul believed on the crucified and resurrected Jesus for salvation and went on to preach that message of salvation to Jews and Gentiles all over the known world.

As best I can figure, Paul has been a follower of Jesus for about two decades by the time we reach the events in Acts 21.

He arrived in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost and to deliver assistance to poor Jewish Christians living in the holy city.

When he arrived, he was welcomed warmly by the other believers, but they did warn him that lies were being spread about him.

The liars said that Paul was teaching Jewish people who lived among the Gentiles to forsake the Law of Moses.

The lies weren’t true, but to put the other Jewish believers in Jerusalem at ease, the elders of the Jerusalem church asked Paul to go through a Jewish purification ritual (likely because he had been in Gentile lands that were considered unclean) and to pay for the sacrifices of four men as they completed a specific Jewish vow (likely a Nazarite vow).

Paul listened to their concerns with humility and then humbly submitted to their request.

But when the seven days of his purification were almost over, things took a sudden, life-threatening turn…

[READING]

Acts 21:27–36 NASB95

27 When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 30 Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. 31 While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 At once he took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done. 34 But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. 35 When he got to the stairs, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob; 36 for the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him!”

[PRAYER]

[INTER] If you were falsely accused, would you dare defend yourself?

I think most of us certainly would.

We would declare our innocence.

We would offer an alibi.

We would call witnesses to vouch for us…

…and we would do it urgently if an angry mob was threatening to kill us.

But if we were falsely accused and an angry mob was calling for our blood, would we see that moment as an opportunity to defend the gospel?

[CIT] Today in Acts, we see Paul falsely accused and physically attacked, but in the midst of the chaos, he dares to defend not himself but the gospel—the good news of God’s saving grace in Jesus Christ.

[TS] In the first PART that we just read, that’s were we see Paul accused and attacked…

Exposition

{PART #1: Accusation & Attack (Acts 21:27-36)}

[EXP] He’s finishing up that purification ritual, everything seems to be going well, but then suddenly someone cries out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid!”

This was a sort of call to arms; every Jewish man who heard these words would have known there was a problem that had to be dealt with. We can imagine them running toward the call, breathlessly arriving, and seeing the finger of accusation pointed at the Apostle Paul, “This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place,” (Acts 21:28).

The accusations they leveled against Paul concerned his preaching and his practice.

They said he preached against the Jewish people, against Jewish law (i.e., the Law of Moses), and against the Jewish temple, which is were this scene took place.

But they also accused him of practicing what he preached because they said he actually defiled the temple by bringing a Greek (i.e., a Gentile) into the temple.

Now, Luke, the author of Acts, tells us that Paul didn’t do that, but these accusers assumed he did because they had seen Paul in the city with a Greek from Ephesus named Trophimus.

Trophimus was not Jewish; he was a Gentile Christian brother who had traveled with Paul to deliver aid to the needy Jerusalem church. He shows up a couple other places in Paul’s ministry, but Paul’s accusers didn’t see Paul bring Trophimus into the temple; they just supposed that Paul had brought him in so they accused him.

It was a fabricated accusation.

Paul wouldn’t have been foolish enough to do such a thing because he knew the penalty for bringing a Gentile into the temple was death.

Two ancient inscriptions have been found in Jerusalem that warned, “No outsider shall enter the protective enclosure around the sanctuary. And whoever is caught will only have himself to blame for the ensuing death.”

The Romans let the Jews enforce that penalty.

No, these men who falsely accused Paul were watching him, looking for something to hold against, but when they couldn’t see anything with their eyes, they concocted something with their minds.

Then came the attack.

They rushed Paul, grabbed him, and dragged him out of the temple and shut the doors to supposedly protect the sanctity of the temple from the defilement of Paul’s spilt blood.

They wanted to kill him, but before they could get the job done, word came to a Roman commander that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

There was a Roman battalion stationed in Antonia’s Fortress, which was attached to the temple complex for just such a time as this. If unrest was going to erupt in Jerusalem, the spark that set it off would likely occur in the temple area.

The Romans were there in moments, and upon seeing them, the Jewish men stopped beating Paul.

The Romans then grabbed Paul, bound him with two chains (likely with a soldier on each wrist), and began their interrogation, “Who are you!? What have you done!?”

But before Paul could answer, the enraged crowd attempted to answer for him, but no straight could be given, and the Romans decided to take Paul back to their barracks…

…but the crowd was so violent, that they had to pick Paul up and carry him while shouts of “Away with him! Away with him!” echoed throughout Jerusalem.

Perhaps some of these same Roman soldiers heard the Jews shout something similar at Jesus just before he was crucified.

Paul was following in the footsteps of Jesus.

But to this point, Paul has said a word; he hasn’t had the opportunity.

What would you have said in this situation if you had been given the opportunity to speak?

[TS] Here’s what Paul said… look at Acts 21:37…

{PART #2: Testimony & Tantrum (Acts 21:37-22:22)}

Acts 21:37–22:22 NASB95

37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek? 38 “Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 But Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.” 40 When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his hand; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying, 1 “Brethren and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you.” 2 And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew dialect, they became even more quiet; and he said, 3 “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today. 4 “I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, 5 as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. 6 “But it happened that as I was on my way, approaching Damascus about noontime, a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me, 7 and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ 8 “And I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, whom you are persecuting.’ 9 “And those who were with me saw the light, to be sure, but did not understand the voice of the One who was speaking to me. 10 “And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go on into Damascus, and there you will be told of all that has been appointed for you to do.’ 11 “But since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. 12 “A certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing near said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very time I looked up at him. 14 “And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth. 15 ‘For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 ‘Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’ 17 “It happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, that I fell into a trance, 18 and I saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste, and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about Me.’ 19 “And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another I used to imprison and beat those who believed in You. 20 ‘And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by approving, and watching out for the coats of those who were slaying him.’ 21 “And He said to me, ‘Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ” 22 They listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live!”

[EXP] After the accusation and attack came Paul’s testimony and the mob’s continued tantrum.

When Paul asked to speak to the Roman commander, he was surprised that Paul spoke Greek, which was considered the language of the educated. He knew then that Paul wasn’t an apparently uneducated Egyptian Jew who had stirred up trouble previously.

The Egyptian Jew that the Roman commander referred to was a false prophet who had disappeared after claiming that the walls of Jerusalem would fall at his command and that the Romans would then be driven out.

That Egyptian Jew attempted to rebel against Rome with the aid of Jewish assassins—Jewish men who used crowds to cover the stabbing of supposed Roman-sympathizers—but before the rebellion could come about, the Roman Governor Felix attacked him and his followers, killing several hundred and capturing others…

…but because the Egyptian had disappeared, the Roman commander thought Paul might have been him returning to continue his revolt.

But the Roman commander quickly realized that was not the case because Paul spoke Greek, and as he said, he was from Tarsus in Cilicia, “no insignificant city,” (Acts 21:39). Tarsus had a reputation as an intellectual city and featured a university on par with Athens and Alexandria.

Having impressed the Roman commander, Paul asked for the opportunity to speak to the angry mob.

Paul motioned with his hand to quiet the crowd, and then began to speak in Aramaic, the Hebrew dialect.

He began with his life before meeting and trusting in Jesus. (You find that in Acts 22:3-5).

Paul was born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised and educated in Jerusalem under the revered Rabbi Gamaliel strictly according to the Mosaic law.

Being a Greek-speaking citizen of Tarsus might have impressed the Roman commander, but that wouldn’t impress the Jewish men who wanted him dead.

Being raised and educated in Jerusalem under the tutelage of a respected rabbi, that should have impressed them.

And Paul was no disinterested student during his time in Jerusalem. He was zealous for God and God’s law, so zealous in fact that he persecuted followers of the Way of Jesus to the death.

Men or women, Paul didn’t care; before meeting and trusting in Jesus, Paul bound, imprisoned, and sentenced followers of Jesus to death.

But notice that Paul says in v. 3 that it was his misguided zeal for God that led him to persecute followers of Jesus, and notice that he identified with the crowd by acknowledging that they were displaying the same misguided zeal in persecuting him.

In essence, Paul was saying, “I used to be like you. I too thought I was serving God by arresting, imprisoning, and even killing followers of Jesus just like your trying to do today.”

But then Paul’s testimony moved from before meeting and trusting Jesus to actually meeting and trusting in Jesus. (You see that in Acts 22:6-16).

As I’ve already said this morning, Paul was on the way to persecute more Christians when the risen Jesus appeared to him, spoke to him, and blinded him.

Jesus sent, Ananias, a respected Jewish Christian to Paul, and he laid his hands on Paul in fellowship and told Paul to call on and be baptized in the name of Jesus.

Paul did, and the spiritual blindness fell away, and Paul saw Jesus as…

…the Savior of God’s people,

…the fulfillment of God’s law,

…the only mediator between God and man.

Then Paul’s testimony moved from meeting and trusting in Jesus to his life after meeting and trusting in Jesus. (You see that in Acts 22:17-21.)

Paul immediately met resistance when he tried to give his testimony of what Jesus had done for him.

Despite the dramatic change in Paul’s life (remember: he went from approving of Stephen, the first Christian martyr’s death, to proclaiming Jesus as the Savior), Jesus said that the Jews wouldn’t accept Paul’s testimony.

Jesus said, “Go! For I will send you far away to the Gentiles,” (Acts 22:21).

Now, Paul’s testimony was supposed to continue on, but it got cut short by the tantrum of the mob.

When they heard the word ‘Gentiles,’ they erupted in anger once more, screaming, “Wipe this man from the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!” (Acts 22:22, CSB)

With that word ‘Gentiles’ they had been reminded of why they had gathered—this man defiled the temple by bringing in a Gentile.

At least, that was the accusation.

[TS] Look at Acts 22:23…

{PART #3: Revelation & Regret (Acts 22:23-29)}

Acts 22:23–29 NASB95

23 And as they were crying out and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air, 24 the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks, stating that he should be examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way. 25 But when they stretched him out with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” 26 When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, saying, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman.” 27 The commander came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” And he said, “Yes.” 28 The commander answered, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” And Paul said, “But I was actually born a citizen.” 29 Therefore those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him; and the commander also was afraid when he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had put him in chains.

[EXP] At the word ‘Gentiles,’ they started throwing rocks, tearing cloaks, kicking up dust, and the Roman commander knew Paul’s speech was over, and it was time to get him out of there.

Taking Paul into the Roman barracks, he ordered his men to use an ‘enhanced interrogation technique’ on Paul—he would be flogged until the Romans heard something that they would accept as the reason for all the uproar.

Flogging was especially brutal. It was the whipping of a prisoner’s back with a barbed whip that left the flesh torn open and muscle and bone exposed. Some prisoners died from just the physical trauma of being flogged.

Flogging is what Jesus endured before he went to the cross; it why he collapsed under the weight of the cross and have to have help as he carried it to the place of his crucifixion.

Paul narrowly avoided this flogging by revealing his Roman citizenship.

When the Roman commander learned that Paul was a Roman citizen, he questioned Paul, but since false claims to Roman citizenship were met with the death penalty, he quickly believed Paul and regretted not only almost having him flogged but even putting him in chains.

Having a Roman citizen flogged could have meant severe consequences for this commander, and even having a Roman citizen bound in chains without an official hearing was illegal.

Paul was a natural-born Roman citizen, but the commander had likely purchased his citizenship by bribing some corrupt official; he was likely relived that his own Roman citizenship away by having Paul flogged.

For the moment, Paul was sparred further abuse and given the opportunity to go on defending his faith in Jesus the next day.

[TS]…

Illustration

After defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington, attended a small church where he came forward and knelt down to receive the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, the ordinance in which we remember the body and blood of Jesus given for us on the cross.

As the Duke knelt, an old man in tattered clothes knelt beside the noble British general, but a deacon soon approached the old man, placed his hand on his shoulder, and whispered for him to keep his distance from the Duke.

Overhearing this, the Duke immediately clasped the old man’s hand and told him, ‘Don’t move—we’re all equal here.’”

Application

Paul knew that was true. He wrote in Galatians 3:28…

Galatians 3:28 NASB95

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

He knew that, although he didn’t bring Trophimus, the Gentile Christian, into the temple, Trophimus wouldn’t have defiled the temple by being there.

Trophimus had trusted in Jesus, and was counted as a child of God just as Paul was.

In fact, because of his faith in Jesus, Trophimus was a child of God and the unbelieving Jews were not.

Because he trusted in Jesus, Trophimus was…

…counted as perfect in righteousness according to the Law of Moses.

…grafted into the people of God and counted as a son of God.

…reconciled to God and had the Spirit of the living God living inside of him.

Because of his faith in Jesus, it would have been impossible for Trophimus to defile the temple.

But because of their lack of faith in Jesus, it was impossible for the unbelieving Jews to please God.

Conclusion

It is impossible for anyone to please God without faith in Jesus, his Son, who died and rose again to save us—Jew and Gentile alike—from sin.

This is the truth that Paul dared to defend.

Lord willing, we’ll see him do it again next week.

[PRAYER]