Paul is nearly killed in the Temple

Acts 21:27–40 KJV 1900

27 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, 28 Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. 29 (For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.) 30 And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut. 31 And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul. 33 Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done. 34 And some cried one thing, some another, among the multitude: and when he could not know the certainty for the tumult, he commanded him to be carried into the castle. 35 And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. 36 For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him. 37 And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? 38 Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers? 39 But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people. 40 And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,

Introduction

This morning’s message is a context-altering event that changes the course of the book over the final 7 chapters.

Paul has moved from a Jewish context to a mixed Jew-Gentile context to now where he will make the transition to an almost exclusively gentile context.

In this new context God is going to work a plan that utilizes unsuspecting characters to continue the gospel’s march throughout the world.

We pick up this morning, on Paul as he enjoys his final moments as a free man in the book of Acts.

Weeks and months of activity are converging in this passage.

Paul has made the long trip from Europe back to Jerusalem.

He was warned repeatedly about what would happen.

The Holy Spirit had obviously been speaking to Paul about the things he would face.

And yet Paul had pushed forward with HIS plan.

Though Paul’s initial reception in Jerusalem was pleasant, it quickly became clear where the source of Paul’s problems would be.

James, the half brother of Jesus and the pastor of the Jerusalem church, informs Paul of false reports that had been coming to Jerusalem about his ministry.

People were hearing that Paul was teaching Jews to abandon the law and their culture.

As we looked last week, James tells Paul that he must prove the nay-sayers wrong by participating in a Jewish custom publicly.

He joins with the men who had already made vows.

He covers their expenses.

He goes to make sacrifices at the Temple.

In this morning’s passage, Paul is nearing the end of the 7 days that it took to complete the rituals that James had told him to complete.

As Paul is in the Temple, probably preparing to offer sacrifices with the other men, the Jews of Asia recognize Paul.

These are most likely people from Ephesus, I’ll tell you why in a minute.

They are about to get the who city in an uproar against Paul.

The chaos surrounding Paul begins with him being grabbed.

The Ephesian Jews rush to Paul and lay hold on him. 27

They begin to scream and shout to the rest of the people in the Temple.

Most of the people in the city knew of this former pharisee that was supposedly leading people away from the law.

The men of Asia identify Paul as this heretic.

Now, the accusations of false teaching would have been sufficient to get the people riled up, but that is not the end of their claims.

The men of Asia also accuse Paul of bringing gentiles into the Temple to pollute it. 28

Gentiles were not allowed beyond the court of the gentiles.

This is all most likely taking place in the court of women.

Archeologists have found inscription from the Temple telling gentiles that their death would be their own fault if they went beyond a certain point.

Their accusation is based on the fact that they had seen Paul with a man named Trophimus in the city.

They then jumped to the assumption that Paul had also brought him into the Temple.

The man that they saw was a man name Trophimus. 29

He was a man from Ephesus.

This is what leads us to believe that these Jews were from Ephesus, at least partly.

They recognized Trophimus and knew that he was a gentile.

The accusations from the Asian Jews are effective.

Word spread throughout the citizens of the city who were gathered at the temple.

They moved as one and converged on Paul to drag him out of the temple.

They secure the doors of the Temple behind them.

They begin to go about killing Paul.

This would be a brutal and barbaric killing.

It would have been hasty and messy.

The uproar from this chaos has not gone unnoticed.

Word has made it to the chief captain of the Roman garrison that lived adjacent to the Temple.

The fortress Antonia shared a wall with the Temple.

It must have felt strange for the Jews to have a military building overlooking their place of worship.

On this day, God used it to be a source of protection for Paul.

The captain musters his centurions and soldiers to go down to put an end to the chaos occurring outside the Temple.

Though he was a man of great power, there were others higher up the chain who would remove him in a moment should he fail to maintain the peace.

When the people saw the Romans coming down the stairs of the castle and towards the mob, they stopped beating Paul.

The captain pushes his way through the crowd until he comes upon a bruised and bloody Paul.

He commands his men to bind Paul with two chains.

This is more for Paul’s protection than for his restraint.

One chain would have been connected to each arm with the other end attached to a soldier.

Thus, if anyone tried to mess with Paul, they would have had two Roman soldiers to contend with.

Paul is now in the custody of Rome.

A state in which he will remain for the remainder of the book.

Rome, however, has no idea what/who they have.

The captain tries to ask the crowd who this man is and what has he done to deserve this treatment.

This is like asking a group of kids what they want for a snack.

Everyone starts yelling and talking over each other.

The captain can’t tell what any of them are saying.

He orders the soldiers to take Paul and return to the fortress.

As the soldiers retreat, the people follow after them violently.

They are shouting for Paul to be taken away.

They are probably blocking the path.

They might even be throwing things at Paul.

It gets so bad that the soldiers have to physically carry Paul up the stairs to the castle’s entrance.

Before Paul is ushered into the fortress, he speaks to the captain in greek.

Hearing greek come out of Paul’s mouth causes the Roman captain to stop in his tracks.

He had assumed that Paul was an Egyptian that had recently led an attempted revolt in Jerusalem.

Josephus talks about how this man gathered a large following.

Paul tells the Roman captain who he is.

He is, in fact, a Jew.

However, he is not just any Jew.

He is a citizen by birth of Tarsus, the most influential city in Cilicia.

This fact will have great bearing on the remainder of our time with Paul.

He then asks the captain for permission to address the crowd from the safety of his lofty vantage point.

The captain agrees.

Paul raises his hand and waits for the crowd to be quiet.

If you want to know what he says to them, you’ll have to come back next week.

When Paul was in danger of suffering the consequence of his decisions, God employed an unlikely source to show him grace by sparing him from death.

He was warned not to go.

He knew this could be the result.

God’s plan superceded Paul’s will and God spares his life.

He uses the Romans to do it.

This display of grace allowed Paul to keep living.

But, more importantly, it allowed the gospel to spread even farther.

God’s grace is shown in our lives for the sake of His purposes.

God’s grace can use the most unlikely agents to get His plan accomplished.

God’s grace supersedes our failures and our will.

It is always with the goal of fulfilling his purpose.