Paul and the Jerusalem Mob

Notes

HBI - Our God is able to save us from the fire but even if He does not we need to choose to follow God in the calling that He has for our Lives. Even if our lives lead to death for what we believe, will we still be willing to share the message of the gospel and How Jesus changed our lives?

Intro

In the process of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth, we have learned that the strength to do it comes from the hS. But in this process there are times when we are faced with the fact that trials and afflictions may come our way. Would we have the bravery to take a stand for our faith?

About 150 years ago, there was a great revival in Wales. As a result of this, many missionaries came to north-east India to spread the Gospel. The region known as Assam was comprised of hundreds of tribes who were primitive and aggressive head-hunters Into these hostile and aggressive communities, came a group of missionaries from the American Baptist Missions spreading the message of love, peace and hope in Jesus Christ. Naturally, they were not welcomed. One missionary succeeded in converting a man, his wife, and two children. This man’s faith proved contagious and many villagers began to accept Christianity. Angry, the village chief summoned all the villagers. He then called the family who had first converted to renounce their faith in public or face execution. Moved by the Holy Spirit, the man said: “I have decided to follow Jesus.” Enraged at the refusal of the man, the chief ordered his archers to arrow down the two children. As both boys lay twitching on the floor, the chief asked, “Will you deny your faith? You have lost both your children. You will lose your wife too.” But the man replied: “Though no one joins me, still I will follow.”The chief was beside himself with fury and ordered his wife to be arrowed down. In a moment she joined her two children in death. Now he asked for the last time, “I will give you one more opportunity to deny your faith and live.”  In the face of death the man said the final memorable lines: “The cross before me, the world behind me. No turning back.” He was shot dead like the rest of his family. But with their deaths, a miracle took place. The chief who had ordered the killings was moved by the faith of the man. He wondered, “Why should this man, his wife and two children die for a Man who lived in a far-away land on another continent some 2,000 years ago? There must be some remarkable power behind the family’s faith, and I too want to taste that faith.” In a spontaneous confession of faith, he declared, “I too belong to Jesus Christ!” When the crowd heard this from the mouth of their chief, the whole village accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour. The song is based on the last words of Nokseng, a man from Garo tribe of Assam (now Meghalaya and some in Assam), India. It is today the song of the Garo people.

I know it seems like we have been going through this alot, but this is another part of the life of Paul that we can learn from, that we need to learn from. We often forget the lesson that we learn from what Paul went through.

Our God is able to save us from the fire but even if He does not we need to choose to follow Him. Even if our lives lead to death for what we believe, will we still be willing to share the message of the gospel and How Jesus changed our lives?

putting aside all the distractions, all the what if’s. Would we , like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be able to say to those that come against us that you may come against us, even kill us but our God is powerful enough to save us. And even if he does not I have decided to follow Jesus and will never turn back.

21:1-25 - Do Not Go!

Paul was travelling back to Jerusalem and was stuck in Tyre for a week as the ship he was taking was unloading Cargo. While He was there he met with the local Christian church who apparently had people in it with the gift of prophecy. they said to Paul

Acts 21:4 (CSB)

We sought out the disciples and stayed there seven days. Through the Spirit they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem.

I find the wording of this interesting. They had heard from the HS was was going to await Paul in Jerusalem and through what they where told, the said to Paul, they pleaded with Paul not to go. It is not that the HS was telling them to stop Paul but rather they where concerned for the safety of their friend and tried to plead with Him to stop.

He continued on His journey and went to Caeserae and stayed at the house of Philip.0 while they wherre there, a prophet named Agabus came down to talk to Paul. Agabus proceeded to grab Paul’s belt tie Paul up with it. and said this is what is going to happen to you if you keep going. They pleaded with Him to not to go since He was going to be bound and beaten if He continued the course. they pleaded with Paul not to continue on His journey, Acts 21:12

Acts 21:12 (CSB)

When we heard this, both we and the local people pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem.

We see a common theme here, everywhere Paul went he was told not to go to Jeruselam as the result of Him going there was only going to be pauin and suffering. But Paul knew that the people needed to hear the gospel no matter the cost to His own life so He responded this way. Acts 21:13-14

Acts 21:13–14 (CSB)

Then Paul replied, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Since he would not be persuaded, we said no more except, “The Lord’s will be done.”

I had a conversation with someone the other day and they where asking why anyone would go to a place to speak a message to people knowing they where going to likely die for what they believed? Like the man who said I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back and like many martyrs before Him.

Our life is counted as secondary for the goal of telling people about the message of the gospel. If what we believe is the truth then it is of utmost importance that people have a chance to respond to the message of the gospel. People need to hear!

Paul went to Jerusalem and met with and encouraged them with all that God had been doing among the Gentiles. But according to them the main issue the Traditional Jews had was that they where spreading the word that Paul was telling everyone to now stop following the law of Moses, to just abandon it so they formulated a plan. Take these four men, brothers in Christ, who have taken a vow and go to the temple and pay for them to get their head shaved. So all that would have to happen, Paul would have to purify himself according to customs. Would also offer a gift so the men could finish their vow. Paul agreed, this was an alright idea. You see Paul still participated in the Jewish Law but he did say that the gentiles did not. To placate the crowd Paul was alright participating in this age old custom.

This set the stage for what was going to happen next. The HS told Paul what was going to happen in the future, now their was a prophet who was telling Paul that He was going to be bound and beat for what He was teaching but His response was I will die even for the sake of the Lord. He was told of the unrest of the Jews, and even though he did not need to he tried to do what he could to placate them. In Jesus they where free, Jesus fulfilled the law, Jesus called for a circumcision of the heart the church changed the way living a life for God looked because of Jesus. But Paul did what he could to smooth things over with them even knowing it likely would not help and there was something that was going to cause them to get mad at him.

21:26-22:21 - speaking truth

This is where it all started to go south. He was in the midst of going through the purification process with the other guys and had been for a week. Then suddenly He was noticed by the people that hated Him, the prophecy was about to become true. They grabbed Him, started to Beat him and started a riot again. They where set on killing Him and would have done so if it where not for the timely intervention of the Roman soldiers. No one could say what Paul had done, or at least they could not understand what the mob was saying. It was so bad the soldiers had to carry Paul up the steps to figure it all out. They shouted after Him Acts 21:36

Acts 21:36 (CSB)

for the mass of people followed, yelling, “Get rid of him!”

Which is the same thing they shouted at Jesus as they where screaming for His death.

John 19:15

John 19:15 (CSB)

They shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Should I crucify your king?” “We have no king but Caesar!” the chief priests answered.

Paul was a polyglot, that is he spoke multiple languages. Koine Greek, Hebrew, likely some Latin and Aramaic. He spoke Greek to the commander and asked if He could address the crowd. After all they had done to Him he wanted to share the message of the gospel with them. He addressed them in Aramaic and gave them His life story. would We be willing or able like that to give our testimony even if it means people are not going to like you, maybe turn their backs on you? He shared what his life was like before he met Jesus, How His life changed when He met Jesus and how that changed his life. The listened up to a point, when He said that God would dare send Him to spread the message of the Gospel to the gentiles.

What would you do in the face of a crowd that wanted to kill you? Would you be willing to tell them the message that they where trying to kill you for? One last chance for you to get them to come to the light?

22:22-29 - The Mob

If Paul would have left out the part about being sent to the Gentiles, He may have been able to get off without further cause. No devout Jew would have anything to do with the Gentiles. Likely he knew this, that if he would have left out the part about the Gentiles, he would have been fine. Acts 22:22

Acts 22:22 (CSB)

They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, “Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!”

But he had to be true to the calling that God gave him. We always have to be true to the word of God and never compromise, even to the point of giving up our lives.

The riot started up again, dust was flying, clothes where being torn and thrown into the air, basically let us at them we are going to kill Him. They went to scourge Him to get out of Him. But God saved Him from the fire yet again. Being a Roman citizen they had no right to beat a confession out of Him, let alone chain him up without proper procedure. Paul was born a roman citizen. Paul was willing to die for the cause but that was not going to be today.

what would we do if we where in this situation. Paul had already been beaten but got out of the real torture. He could have avoided all of this if he would have stayed away. We always need to be willing to share the word of God in the way we live and in what we say. So much pain can be avoided if we just keep our mouths shut and stop offending people. But if Jesus did really die and rise again, if our citizenship if in heaven then it is vital that we share with people the way to heaven and then pray that God would change their hearts.

compromise is never something that we should do when it comes to the word of God.

So What?

can we say amidst the fire we go through that God is our hope and we will always trust in Him? this is what we are called to do. Even with the arrows of the enemy pointed at us would we still be willing to say I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back. We do not know what our message, our lives, our testimony will do to impact people to turn their lives back to God. Why do we do the things we do to share the message of the gospel? it is the truth that sets people free, without which we would all end up in hell. so what can we take from this message form the life of Paul?

If what we believe is the truth then it is of utmost importance that people have a chance to respond to the message of the gospel. People need to hear!

there are some things we can do to meet people where they are at and point them to Jesus. There are some things we can sacrifice but never the word of God. But even knowing what people may do to us we need to share the message that Jesus has given us.

Are you ready to share the story of how you met Jesus even in the face of adversity?

People respond to what we have gone through, especially if we can relate to them and what they are currently going through. But I have found it surprising that many people are to scared or not ready t share their own life story. Be prepared in season and out to share the message of hope that we have. I challenge you to prepare your life story so you can be readyu to share it at a moments notice.

Always be true to the message of the gospel that God has given us, never falter.

as the three who where lead to the fiery furnace for not bowing down to the statue. God does have the power to save us from the fire, but even if he does not we still need to chose to praise Him with everything that we are, for we do not know what His plans are or whose lives may be changed through the message that we share.

For Paul and his associates, it may have looked like the end of the road, but God had other plans for them. Paul would witness again and again, and to people he could never have met had he not been a Roman prisoner. God’s missionary did get to Rome—and the Romans paid the bill! That’s what happens when God’s people are willing to be daring!