Acts 21, Part 3
Notes
Transcript
27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him,
28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”
29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.
Here we find troublemakers twisting the truth in order to secure their way. The troublemakers were outsiders, Asian Jews who were attending the feast of Pentecost. Apparently, the vow and rite which Paul underwent worked to please the Christian believers, showing them clearly that Paul was not teaching against the law of Moses.
The outsiders attacked and grabbed Paul, and stood him before the worshipping multitudes crying out three charges against him, all of them false. They cried out …
• that he insulted the Jewish people, turning the world against the Jews. Paul had said only that being a Jew (or another nationality) would not save a person.
• that he taught the law of Moses, with its customs and rituals, was not binding. Paul had said the law was not binding upon Gentiles, not for salvation.
• that he polluted the temple and taught against it. Paul had said that men could worship God anyplace and everyplace, not just in the temple.
Note: they accused Paul of taking a Gentile, Trophimus, into one of the inner courts of the temple. This was forbidden, and Paul would never have done such a thing. But these troublemakers would not be stopped, even if they had to stretch and twist the truth.
Thought 1. Outsiders are sometimes guilty of causing trouble in the church, but too often the trouble experienced by churches is caused by insiders—professing believers who seek their own way, who are bent on getting their own way and keeping the church like they want it.
Thought 2. Too often custom and ritual are allowed to replace Christ in the church, something that never should be allowed to happen. The critical issue is salvation and service, the fullness of God upon a life. Whatever is needed to bring about commitment and service to God is what should be used by a person and church. If ritual and custom help us in our worship, then we should use ritual and custom; if they do not help, then we should not use them.
31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done.
34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd,
36 for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”
37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek?
38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”
39 Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”
Another picture we see, immediately after the opposition is God overruling to protect His servant. God used soldiers to protect His servant for a dynamic witness. The scene is an exciting drama; the Scripture and outline clearly describe what happened, making comments unnecessary. The point to see is God’s hand moving throughout the whole event. As the Scripture and outline points are read, note the power of God flowing through Paul and the miraculous silence that overtakes the mob
21:31. It is clear the mob actually was intending to kill Paul. But the uproar caught the attention of someone who took the news up the steps to the Roman tribune. He was the officer over a cohort of 600 to 1,000 soldiers stationed in the Tower (castle, fortress) of Antonia on the northwest side of the temple where the guards could overlook the temple area. The messenger told the tribune that all Jerusalem was in an uproar or state of confusion.
21:32. Immediately the tribune took at least two centurions with the soldiers under their command. Since the centurions were officers over 100 men, this made quite a show of force as they ran down the steps from the Tower of Antonia into the Court of the Gentiles.
The Romans stationed these soldiers at the Tower of Antonia for the specific purpose of keeping order in the temple, especially during the Jewish feast days. The law of Moses made three pilgrimage feasts compulsory. These were Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. During these periods a great crowd of Jews gathered in the temple at the hours of prayer. But, like all dictators and oppressors of subject peoples, the Romans were fearful of what might happen when large crowds came together without having a loyalty to Rome. Furthermore, Jewish mobs had been troublesome before.
The sight of the tribune, the centurions, and all the soldiers made the mob stop beating Paul, thus saving his life. The people, of course, knew the soldiers meant business. They had not forgotten the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices (Luke 13:1). These Galileans were probably Jews who refused to pay tribute to Rome. Pilate’s men waylaid them and probably slaughtered them and the animals they were about to sacrifice.
21:33. Though the tribune (or as we might say, the colonel) rescued Paul from the violence of the mob, he did not set Paul free. Instead, he jumped to the conclusion that Paul, as the cause of all this confusion, must be some vicious criminal. So he immediately placed him under arrest and chained him with hand chains to two soldiers, one on each side. Chaining a prisoner to a soldier was a common practice among the Romans. Chaining Paul to two soldiers was an extra precaution. This was similar to the custom today of handcuffing a prisoner.
The tribune then asked the Jews who Paul was and what he had done. He was anxious to know what had caused the uproar.
21:34. In response, the crowd broke out into a confusion of contradictory statements. Everyone was shouting different things, all at the same time.
Actually, most of the people in the crowd did not know Paul, but had run together and joined in when they heard the noise of the riot. Rumors of the wildest kind arise quickly in such a situation. Once a mob spirit takes over, people are swept along and take part in the violence without thinking. It was God’s merciful providence that this Roman officer was there to protect Paul.
Paul in his letters had already recognized that God is the One who authorized civil authority. Without it the world would have nothing but anarchy. The Bible teaches respect for officers of the law because of what they stand for and for the sake of the protection they give. The Bible says further that those who are not lawbreakers really have nothing to fear from them.
Because there was no way the tribune could be sure of what was being said in the midst of all the hubbub, he then ordered the soldiers to take Paul into the castle, that is, into the barracks of the fortress, the Tower of Antonia.
21:35. The crowd was so violent the soldiers were having a hard time protecting Paul. As they moved toward the stairs which led from the temple court up to the Tower of Antonia, the crowd surged around them. When they reached the stairs, the pressure was so great the soldiers had to lift Paul up and carry him.
The Jews kept up this pressure because they still thought the temple had been desecrated. They were very proud of the temple building with its courts, porticoes, and great stones. But many of them had become like those in Jeremiah’s day who trusted more in the temple than they did in God (Jeremiah 7:4, 14). It is always easier to give attention to a religious symbol than it is to seek the Lord and do His will.
The mob was also taking something into their own hands that belonged to the Lord. The Law provided for a just and fair trial. These Jews were moved by a false patriotism, and they were going contrary to the Word of God.
21:36. Even on the stairs the crowd kept following the soldiers, trying to pull Paul away from them. They also kept crying out, shrieking again and again, “Away with him!” By this they meant they wanted Paul killed. Possibly some in the crowd had cried out in the same way against Jesus (Luke 23:18; John 19:15). But it seemed the crowd was even more angry here. In fact, they would have torn Paul apart if the soldiers had not protected him.
21:37. The crowd dropped behind as the soldiers came to the top of the steps and were about to enter the safety of the Fortress of Antonia. At this point Paul, using the Greek language, politely asked the tribune’s permission to speak to him. The fact that Paul spoke Greek surprised the tribune, and he showed his surprise by asking a question that had an obvious answer. It showed he could not believe Paul was really speaking Greek.
This should not have been so surprising. Educated people and business people spoke Greek in those days, for it was the language of trade, commerce, education, and government communication all over the Roman Empire. Even the fishermen of Galilee had to know Greek in order to sell their fish in the Greek-speaking cities and towns of Phoenicia and the Decapolis. The Bible makes a point that the Syrophoenician woman was Greek-speaking, so Jesus must have conversed with her in Greek (Mark 7:26). Peter undoubtedly spoke in Greek to Cornelius and those gathered at his home. Greek was a second language for many of the Jews at that time.
21:38. The real reason the tribune was so surprised was that he had jumped to a conclusion about Paul’s identity. He thought Paul was a certain dangerous, dagger-carrying Egyptian assassin who had turned things upside down as a political revolutionist.
About A.D. 54 this Egyptian came to Jerusalem claiming to be a prophet. He led a great crowd of about 4,000 fanatical Jews to the Mount of Olives and promised that the walls of Jerusalem would fall down at his word. The Roman governor Felix sent soldiers who killed about 400 and captured another 200, but the Egyptian, with some of his fanatical followers, escaped into the desert.
His followers were murderers, literally daggermen (sikariōn). These fanatical Jews were known even before this time to mingle with the crowds in Jerusalem during the festival times and would use their daggers to stab to death pro-Roman Jews.
Josephus also mentions this Egyptian but says he gathered 30,000 Jews under his influence and that they all marched toward the Mount of Olives to see the walls of Jerusalem fall.
21:39. Paul answered the tribune by identifying himself as a Jew and a citizen of Tarsus, a city that was neither unimportant nor obscure. In fact, it was the chief city of Cilicia in the eastern part of Asia Minor. It was famous also as a university city, and its schools were in the same class as those of Alexandria and Athens. Anyone born and educated there would certainly be fluent in the Greek language and would certainly not be ashamed of his birthplace.
Then Paul asked permission to speak to the people. What a courageous thing this was for Paul to do. All the confusion, the beatings, and the threats would have shattered some people’s nerve. Some might have vowed never again to preach to such unappreciative people. Others might have called down Roman judgment on the people and demanded that the soldiers treat the crowd the way they had treated the crowd that followed the Egyptian. But Paul had no desire for revenge, nor did he think of his own feelings or the chains that still bound him to the two soldiers. Love and compassion gave him courage to want to plead and reason with his people about the gospel.
HARRIS, R. W. (ed.): Acts, The Complete Biblical Library: Study Bible : World Library Press, 1991
LEADERSHIP MINISTRIES WORLDWIDE: The Acts of the Apostles, The Preacher’s Outline & Sermon Bible. Chattanooga, TN : Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2003.
