Sermon Tone Analysis

Alêtheia Christian Fellowship

 

*Acts 21:1-6 ~~* 1When we had *parted* from them and had set sail, we ran a straight course to Côs and the next day to Rhodes and from there to Patara; 2and having *found a ship* crossing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail.

3When we came in sight of Cyprus, leaving it on the left, we kept sailing to Syria and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload its cargo.

4After looking up the disciples, we stayed there *seven days*; and they *kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem*.

5When our days there were ended, we left and started on our journey, while they all, with *wives and children*, escorted us until /we were/ out of the city.

After *kneeling down* on the beach and praying, we said farewell to one another.

6Then we went on board the ship, and they returned home again.

*Cos*, KJV = Coos, Gk = Kw>v, A cult of Asclepius probably influenced Hip-pocrates, the father of medicine, to found a medical school on Cos.

 

*Rhodes* or Roses, home of the collapsed colossus, but with a great university, especially for rhetoric and oratory

 

Ephesian Elders deeply saddened because they wouldn’t see Paul again and Paul tore himself away.

Paul’s in a hurry yet he knows trouble waits.

*Acts 21:7-12 ~~* 7When we had finished the voyage from Tyre, we arrived at Ptolemais, and after greeting the brethren, we stayed with them for a day.

8On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entering the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, we stayed with him.

9Now this man had *four virgin daughters who were prophetesses*.

10As we were staying there for some days, a prophet named *Agabus* came down from Judea.

11And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands, and said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”

12When we had heard this, we as well as the local residents /began/ *begging him not to go* up to Jerusalem.

Philip was there for about 20 years, so his girls were most likely young teen-agers.

Papias said he gained much information from them in Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia, where was a Christian church under the care of Epaphras (Col.

4:12, 13).

This church was founded at the same time as that of Colosse.

*Acts 21:13-19 ~~* 13Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and *breaking my heart*?

For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

14And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking, *“The will of the Lord be done!”*

15After these days we got ready and started on our way up to Jerusalem.

16/Some/ of the disciples from Caesarea also came with us, taking us to *Mnason* of Cyprus, a disciple of long standing with whom we were to lodge.

17After we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

18And the following day Paul went in with us to *James*, and all the elders were present.

19After he had greeted them, he /began/ to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

Breaking my heart – weakening my resolve to follow the Lord!

Even to die… for the name

 

“The will of the Lord be done!”

Mnason = Jason, wealthy and Hellenistic he hosts 8 uncircumcised Gentiles along with Paul.

James was now clearly the leader of Jewish Christianity, which was still very Jewish.

*Acts 21:20-24 ~~* 20And when they heard it they /began/ glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all *zealous for the Law*; 21and they have been told about you, that you are teaching *all the Jews who are among the Gentiles* to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.

22“What, then, is /to be done/?

They will certainly hear that you have come.

23“Therefore do this that we tell you.

We have four men who are under a vow; 24take them and *purify yourself* along with them, and *pay* their expenses so that they may *shave their heads*; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that *you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law*.

Zealous for the Law – now kept with the joy of knowing Jesus fulfilled it

*1 Corinthians 9:** **20 ~~* To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law.

This is prior to the distribution of the book of Hebrews, but even in that light..

All the Jews who are among the Gentiles – nothing about the Gentile themselves

 

Purify yourself… pay… shave their heads… you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.

*7 day purification* to be able to sponsor the 4 Nazerite men each with a *year-old male & female lamb and a ram plus!*

 

*Numbers 6* ~~ 3 abstain from wine and strong drink; he shall drink no vinegar, whether made from wine or strong drink, nor shall he drink any grape juice nor eat fresh or dried grapes… no razor shall pass over his head… he shall not go near to a dead person… when the days of his separation are fulfilled, he shall bring one male lamb a year old without defect for a burnt offering and one ewe-lamb a year old without defect for a sin offering and one ram without defect for a peace offering, and a basket of unleavened cakes of fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil, along with their grain offering and their drink offering… The Nazirite shall then shave his dedicated head of hair and put it on the fire which is under the sacrifice of peace offerings.

*Acts 21:25-28** ~~* 25“But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should (KJV = observe no such thing, save only that they) abstain from *meat sacrificed to idols* and from *blood* and from what is *strangled* and from *fornication*.” 26Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

27When 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, 28crying 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.”

 

3 times in the Bible we have this list of Jewish requirements for Gentile Christians in fellowship with Jews because Moses is preached and Jews are scrupulous.

1) *Meat* sacrificed to idols = things sacrificed, more at taking part in the idolatry.

2) Life is in the *blood* = Homer’s Odyssey: “At the fire already lie the paunches of two goats, preparing for our evening meal, and both are filled with fat and blood.

Whoever shows himself the better man in this fray, and conquers, he shall take the one of these he chooses.”

3) *Strangled* = blood still inside.

4) *Porneia* = also sin in the New Covenant.

*Jews from Asia* – Maybe even Christian Jews who were scrupulous.

*Greeks into the temple* – Greek & Latin death even for a Roman Citizen.

*Acts 21:29-34 ~~* 29For they had previously seen Trophimus the *Ephesian* in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

30Then 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*.

31While they were seeking to *kill* him, a *report came up* to the *commander* of the /Roman/ cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.

32At 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.

33Then 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.

34But 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*.

*Commander* = Tribune Klaudiov Lusiav, non-Roman who bought citizenship (1,000 men) cohort of about 600 soldiers

 

*Barracks* = Tower of Antonia, (an-toh-nee-uh), luxuriously rebuilt by Herod the Great and named for his friend Mark Antony.

In it were kept the high priest’s vestments between festivals.

1) Human opinion even when God gives information is Kakos.

Agabus never says what to do about the info, he just presents it.

2) Women = Joel 2, *Miriam* & Moses, *Deborah* & Jael, *Huldah* & Elders, *Isaiah’s wife* & Isaiah, *Elizabeth* & Husband Priest, *Anna* at the Temple

 

3) Culture + no problem having very Jewish and very Gentile people accepted by God.

We must be willing to give up our individual identity to include culture as Jesus and Paul did, yet cultural trappings are not immediately evil.

God’s grace allows us to grow into understanding.

Never judge another because you have no idea where they are in relation to where God wants them.

4) Can’t second guess decisions – never look back except for experience.

The bonds and afflictions which awaited Paul at Jerusalem, along with his subsequent appeal to Caesar, were God’s means of proclaiming the gospel to “Gentiles and kings,” just as God had purposed and foretold (Acts 9:15).

In a similar way, the advice given Paul by the elders at Jerusalem was intended to enhance the gospel in one way, but God used it in a very different way to propel Paul and the gospel to the very court of Caesar, in Rome.

It is, in fact, fitting that the gospel which, in Acts, was first proclaimed in Jerusalem (Acts 2) and last proclaimed in Rome (Acts 28) should find its way to Rome via Jerusalem (Acts 21-22).

Christians are just as inclined to give advice today as they were in Paul’s.

Unfortunately, much (if not most) of the advice which is given by Christians is like that which the saints along the way to Jerusalem give to Paul—well-intentioned, but wrong.

In our study, we will take note of the two very different forms of advice given to Paul in this chapter—that given by the saints in the cities on the way to Jerusalem, and that given by the elders in Jerusalem.

Our text is a very important one in Acts for it tells us how it was, in the plan and the purpose of God, that the gospel made its way to Rome.

It was a way that no one would have expected, and many of the saints were trying (unwittingly) to prevent.

But it was God’s way.

The very thing which God was going to do, and which Paul was committed to do, the saints were seeking to turn around, to do the very opposite.

One incident at Tyre is reported by Luke, which was typical of what took place in every city Paul met with the saints (20:23).

He tells the reader, in very brief terms, of the prophecy concerning Paul’s fate in Jerusalem, and the response of the saints to this revelation.

Looking up the saints at Tyre, Paul and the rest spent the week with them.

During this time, the Holy Spirit revealed Paul’s bondage and suffering in Jerusalem.

The result was that the saints persisted in urging Paul not to continue with his journey to Jerusalem.

Luke’s terse report, “they kept telling Paul through the Spirit not to set foot in Jerusalem” (verse 4), seems not only to allow for such a conclusion, but to require it.

Later revelation in this chapter makes this impossible.

We are apparently faced with choosing one of these three explanations of Luke’s words:

 

These saints were correct in understanding that Paul would be bound in Jerusalem, but they were wrong in their conclusion that Paul should not go.

Paul, on the other hand, was correct in pressing on to Jerusalem.

It was not through these daughters that God spoke to the church at Caesarea, but through a prophet from Judea—Agabus (verse 10).

This is the same Agabus who came to Antioch, to inform the saints in this church that a world-wide famine was to come upon the whole earth (Acts 11:27-29).

In a dramatic fashion, similar to that of some of the Old Testament prophets,475 Agabus took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands.476

He told the church477 that Paul would be bound by the Jews at Jerusalem and would be delivered into the hands of the Gentiles.

What Agabus said was new to the Caesarean saints, but not to Paul or those with him.

It is what Agabus did not say which is of greatest interest to us.

Agabus, through the Holy Spirit, told only of Paul’s bonds and affliction, which awaited him in Jerusalem; he gave no inspired instructions to Paul about turning back or avoiding Jerusalem.