The Spirit's Guidance: Paul’s Determined Path to Jerusalem

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

We're going to be in the book of Acts.

Turn your Bibles there to Acts chapter 21.

And anytime we do a long study, obviously the sermons build upon each other and context is key.

And when we come to this passage of Scripture, there's going to be some things that we have to go back to, to remember.

If you remember back just a chapter ago, Paul was hearing from all of these people, hey, don't go to Jerusalem, because in Jerusalem you're going to face persecution.

In Jerusalem you're going to be put in bonds.

And, and in Jerusalem you might be persecuted and maybe even killed.

And through that we understood that though Paul had a decision to make, he had a decision on whether or not he wanted to follow the Spirit or follow the advice of others.

And, and really what happened there in Acts chapter 20 was, and even into 21 was that Paul said, you know what?

I'm bound in the Spirit to go to Jerusalem.

And so it was the Holy Spirit that was leading Paul to go to Jerusalem.

He knew that God was calling him there.

And he said, you know what, it doesn't really matter what I faced.

And, and there were people that were concerned for Paul's well being.

They said, paul, we don't want you to go there because we don't want you to face that persecution.

And Paul gives that wonderful statement that not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of, of the Lord Jesus.

And so Paul says, I've got to go to Jerusalem.

So he does.

And, and we're going to see that he is arrested, he is persecuted, but we're going to see what Paul does through that persecution.

And I think it's so important to see how we as Christians can go through difficult things, understand that there's going to be hardships in our way, understand that there's going to be pushback, but at the same time, we can be following the will of God and we can be honoring him and actually pointing other people to him through that.

So we're going to start in verse number 17 to kind of overlap where we left off last week.

So Paul goes to Jerusalem and he says, and when we were come to Jerusalem.

In this case, it's Luke and Paul and the rest of Paul's group there.

And it says, and the brethren received us gladly.

So initially the church there in Jerusalem received them gladly.

And the day following, Paul went in with us unto James.

James was the.

A leader there in the church.

And it's important to note that here in this case, they receive him well.

And all the elders were present.

And then it says in verse 19, and when he had saluted them, he declared particularly, what things God hath wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

So that's the King James way to say.

He gave his report, he gave his testimony.

So it's a biblical thing to give the testimony to other people about what God is doing in your life.

And that's what Paul does here to the church there in Jerusalem.

He gives them a report.

And the report is, hey, God is doing wonderful things in the life of the Gentiles.

He's leading these Gentiles to him.

They're coming in faith and they're being saved and they're being changed.

And so this is all good news.

The problem is though, that there are some Jewish Christians here in Jerusalem that have a problem with this.

And they hear some things that are being said about Paul and his teachings.

Essentially, it's this that Paul is teaching these people that, hey, the way of the Jewish tradition is bad.

They should forget that, they should neglect that and they should embrace the worldly culture.

Paul says, no, that's not what I'm doing.

And so in verse 20, and when they heard it, they glorified the Lord and said unto him, thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe, and they all are zealous of the law.

So there's an indication here that even though there are Jewish people that are getting saved, they're still in their culture, they're still understanding the ways of, of the, what we would call the Old Testament.

They, they go back to the law, they go back to tradition, they go back to all the things of the law of Moses.

And so verse 21, and they are informed of thee that thou teaches all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.

And so they're really not so much concerned with what the Gentiles are doing that are saved.

They're more concerned that Paul, in their minds, this is what they believe.

They believe that Paul is telling the Jewish Christians that they go the Gentile route as well, just to forget about the law of Moses, forget about the traditions and it says here saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

And so Paul is learning here about his bad reputation among some of the Christians in Jerusalem.

Essentially, people are talking about Paul's ministry and they're misrepresenting Paul.

They're misrepresenting him to the point where, you know what, they're actually lying about him.

Because Paul is not telling the Jewish people to forget about their ways of doing things, but he is telling them that the only man saving them is Jesus Christ.

And so we're going to see what, what they do here and how they respond.

And so the elders in Jerusalem are happy to hear that God is saving Gentiles.

But there are some people in this community there in Jerusalem that are valuing the Jewish customs and the Jewish laws more than the truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And so this Christian community there in Jerusalem, we're hearing gossip and false rumors about Paul.

They heard that he had become now anti Jewish and was basically telling these Jewish Christians that they're wrong for following the customs.

And we, we know that Paul did not have problem with Jewish people continuing on in their own customs.

If you want to know more about that, you can read Romans chapter 14 and we'll get there in our Romans series.

But essentially, Paul does not condemn certain customs of the Jewish traditions, but he essentially is reminding them that that's not what saves them.

And so that goes back to a little bit about what we do even within our own church, because there are people today that are certainly based in the gospel, but some traditions sometimes can supersede the gospel.

And now most of us are not tied down with the Jewish customs and Jewish traditions.

Like I had mentioned a couple weeks ago when we went to Israel, there were people that were wearing straps around their hands with Bible verses and in a box on their forehead with Bible verses.

And they're praying and they're doing all these rituals.

Most of us in this room are not struggling with the temptation to look to that to save us, but some of us within our own Christian culture, whatever culture we're from, we can look at certain things that are not the gospel, as equating that to the gospel.

So, for example, and I, I always use this example and it's kind of a silly example, but it's a way that I can kind of get my foot in the door here.

But it's the idea that, you know, what if this church does not have pews, it's not a gospel preaching church.

Okay, well, and I always make a joke.

Our church has both.

We have chairs and pews.

And it's the idea that there are certain things that are not in any way related to the gospel that have leaked in and equated to the gospel because it's the tradition of man, okay?

A church has to look a certain way.

A church has to do a certain thing.

And, and for the sake of, of argument, I understand preferences, okay?

That's why we are the church that we are, okay?

There are certain preferences that we all have, and those are great, those are wonderful.

And it could be because of my tradition.

I, I admit that the reason why I have certain stands that I have is because of the church that I grew up in, because what I was around as I grew up, that's what I feel more comfortable with.

But then if I look at another person who doesn't have the same exact preferences as me, but holds fast to the essentials of the Scriptures and essentials of the Gospel, I cannot look at that brother or sister and say, you know what?

They're less of a Christian than me because they're different than me.

And so that's a tough thing for us to swallow because we do have some things that are very traditional.

And again, I will always say that tradition is not necessarily a bad thing.

But if we elevate tradition higher than the gospel, that's when we have an issue.

And so that's what they're essentially doing here, is that they're accusing Paul of tearing down tradition because he essentially is not forcing the Gentiles to become Jews.

You understand what I mean by that, right?

So, so what is he, what is he doing?

Well, a Gentile comes to Christ, he doesn't take a Gentile and say, well, now you have to do everything that a Jewish person does.

You have to dress like them, you have to have the same customs, you have to do all the same rituals.

He does have the same dietary laws.

He says, and you don't have to do that.

That's what Romans chapter 14 is all about.

But at the same time, Paul is looking at other Jewish people and he says, hey, if you want to keep the dietary restrictions, fantastic, do that.

That's not what's saving you.

That's, that doesn't make you any better than the Gentile Christian.

And so that's the understanding that, that he is teaching.

But what they're doing is they're saying Paul's just anti Jewish, so he's not a good man, he's preaching heresy.

And so what do they do they?

They tell him that he better.

He better answer for this verse, verse 22, what is it?

Therefore the multitude must needs come together, for they will hear that thou art come.

So he.

They're basically saying this, Paul, you need to deal with this controversy.

You need to tell people the truth.

And.

And of course he does.

But they're not happy with the truth because again, you know how it is sometimes when people are based in a certain thing, you can tell them anything, but all they're going to hear is what they want to hear.

And that's what we essentially see happening here.

So the leaders of the church at Jerusalem make a recommendation to Paul.

They say, paul, because of this confusion, I think you need to do something.

So let's see what they ask him to do here.

In verse 23 they said this, do therefore this, that we say to thee.

We have four men which have a vow on them and take them, take and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them that they may shave their heads and all may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning thee are nothing, that thou thyself also walkest accordingly and keepest the law.

And so what are they saying here?

They're saying that, hey, we want you to sponsor these four men that have taken this vow.

Essentially what we would understand is the Nazarite vow, okay, we can read about that in other places of Scripture.

But they advised Paul to take these men and actually join these men in this vow.

And so they say, sponsor them and join them in this vow so that people can know that you're not anti Jewish.

And so the Jewish elders believe that this would convince everyone that Paul didn't preach against the Jewish customs, the Jewish laws, and basically that he wanted all Christians to observe them.

And interestingly enough, we see that Paul agrees to do this.

And so this shows that Paul is not against Jewish traditions.

Verse verse 25, or excuse me, verse 24.

As touching the Gentiles, which believe we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols and from blood and from strangled and from fornication.

So they say, hey, we're not concerned with how you're teaching the Jews, but how, or excuse me, the Gentiles, how are you teaching the Jews?

This will prove that you're not against them.

And so Paul agrees to do this basically to demonstrate that he never taught that the Jewish Christians should forget about Moses, that they should forget about their customs and their culture, but ultimately to Teach them that, hey, you can still believe in Jesus Christ and keep these same convictions, these same preferences.

And so the Jewish elders understood that this had nothing to do with the Gentiles.

It didn't mean that the Gentiles had to perform these rights.

It was only that Paul needed to teach the Jewish people that they.

They could still do this.

And so Paul would agree.

And why did Paul agree to this?

I often think about this.

I often think, well, you know, he should have just told them, I don't have to answer to you.

I do what I do in ministry.

And Paul, if anyone had a right to do that, Paul could justify what he was doing.

He didn't need to prove anything to anybody else.

So why would he do this?

I think that if you understand Paul's heart and go to First Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 20, we'll understand why Paul agreed to take this vow with the Jewish young men and actually sponsor them and walk them through this.

This is not Paul saying, you've got to do this to be saved as a Jewish person.

This is him saying, you know what?

If this helps me minister these people, I will do this.

And so most of you know this passage in First Corinthians, chapter 9, verse number 20, Paul is speaking to the ministry that he's had to different people.

So he's ministered to Jews and Gentiles.

And.

And we know that Paul has a heart for Jews.

Okay?

If you don't know that he has a heart for his own people, read Romans, chapter 9.

Romans, chapter 9 is his heart towards his own people.

And Paul, Paul is.

Paul is a pedigree Jew, right?

We understand that.

He talks about that.

He goes, I.

I am from good stock, I, who.

I'm all about this.

And so Paul loved his people.

And it said in verse 20, and unto the Jews, I became as a Jew.

Now, if you understand it in context, there, there's more to it than this, because in.

In the verse right before this, he says, for I be free from all men, yet have I made myself a servant to all that I might gain the more.

So what Paul is saying here is this.

I want to minister to just more than one group of people.

So he says to the Jewish, I become a Jew.

And he says that to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I may gain them that are under the law, meaning this, I will identify with their culture, I will identify with their customs so that I can win them to Christ.

So.

So Paul was willing to go through all of those customs that they're doing there in the Nazarite val.

But then if you read in context, verse 21 in, in 1st Corinthians 9, it says this did them that are without the law, as without the law being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without the law to.

To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak.

And I made all things, all men that I might be all means saved some.

And he says, and I do this for the Gospel's sake.

So what is, what is he saying here?

He's saying this.

I am trying to relate to people.

And so to relate to people, I'm willing to meet them where they are.

Now, that doesn't mean that Paul sins, okay?

Because a lot of people will take that passage of Scripture out of context and say, you know what?

To the sinner, I'm going to become the sinner.

No, he's not saying that.

He's not saying that I partake in their sin and be just like them to win them the Christ.

What he's saying is, is that those people that are.

That are still in those Jewish customs, I'm not going to neglect them.

I'm going to come to them and meet them where they need that.

So, for example, let's say someone comes into the church and they're unchurched, okay?

They.

They've never set foot in a church at all.

No less an independent fundamental Baptist church.

I'm going to minister to that person much, much more differently than someone who's come in, that grew up in a church that has certain types of customs, right?

Because a person coming in from the streets that has no idea about this church, has no idea about different elements within the church and how there's different, you know, stripes and segments and.

And convictions.

I'm not going to sit there and tie them down with all those things.

Like, for example, I'm not even going to mention legalism to someone who has never been a part of a church that's experienced legalism, right?

Because I don't want to tie them down with that.

Like, just teach them the truth of the gospel.

That's a blank slate.

That's wonderful.

But if there's someone who comes in the church that grew up in a Christian circle that dealt with legalism, I have to address that and speak to them with language that they understand.

And so that's essentially what Paul's ministry was always in.

It was, where is this person at?

How can I bring the gospel to them in a way that they understand.

So why did Paul take this vow with these other Jewish men?

To reach them where they were.

And so that shows that Paul in no way was trying to destroy the Jewish customs.

He was just essentially saying that that's not what saves you.

So, so we come here and I'm making this case because we're about to see that they freak out on Paul.

And there's this huge issue that happens.

And.

And ultimately Paul is going to be persecuted for even doing what he's doing here.

And so I think that it's important to understand Paul's heart in.

In all of this.

So let's look at verse number 26.

Then Paul took these men and the next day, purifying himself, so he joins in with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification.

Until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

Okay, so what he essentially does is he joins in with them.

So Paul could agree to this and sponsor these four men in the vow of consecration.

It was because he knew their culture, he understood them in every way.

And so this is what he does.

And by the way, this offering is not for their salvation.

It was not for them to be forgiven.

Paul understood that the only sacrifice that could save is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So this sacrifice in this case was just kind of filling a place of thanksgiving or dedication.

So let's look at verse 27.

Let's see the result of this, because there's some Jews from Asia who stir up a mob against Paul.

Verse 27.

And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, because by the way, you understand that the Jews were not isolated there in Jerusalem.

There were Jewish people basically all over the known world at this point.

Even Paul was not originally from Jerusalem, which we'll see later on.

Paul is from actually a Roman province.

And.

And that plays into the story as well a little bit later.

But anyway, verse.

Verse 27.

And so after these things happened, there's these Jews of.

In Asia, from Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on him.

And so they get upset.

They claim that Paul was against the people of Israel, the people that had held these customs.

And so their accusations are basically disturbed the crowd against Paul so that they could catch him and stop him.

And we.

We find out later that they don't just want to stop him, they want to eliminate him.

Verse 28.

Crying out, men of Israel, help.

This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere.

Now see how they, you know, again, this is how it works.

When people are slandering somebody, when people are telling lies, they.

They always go too far and too much, and they always make these generalizations and essentially they're just throwing lies on top of Paul's testimony here.

So it says this, this is the man that teacheth all man everywhere against the people and the law and this place.

And further brought Greeks into the temple and have polluted this holy place.

And so they accused Paul of teaching everybody the same thing.

They, they accused Paul of really making the temple unclean.

And the charges against Paul here were similar to what they were charging Stephen with back in Acts, chapter six.

Basically, he's.

He's tearing down everything in the temple, verse 29.

For they had seen before with him in the city of Atromus and Ephesians, whom they supposed that Paul had brought.

You see there it says who they suppose that Paul brought into the temple.

So again, it was all speculation.

It's like, well, he, he, obviously, if he's joining in with Gentiles and, and this Ephesian fella, then you know what?

He must have condemned the temple.

He must have done all of these things.

And so at this point in time, they're throwing out lies.

And that's how it works.

And the church.

The church and individuals who serve within the church will always have people saying that kind of stuff about them.

Okay?

So regardless of whether or not we are doing the right thing or the wrong thing, people are going to say negative things about us.

Even if there's a shred of evidence, in many cases there's a little bit of truth.

What people will do, they will link onto that and spin it the way that they want it to be.

So their desire was to get Paul out of there.

And we saw this in the life of Jesus, right?

They took something that Jesus did and they tried to spin it to the fact they call him a sinner, call him a rebel, and that's the case that they're doing here with Paul.

So what I would say here, a lesson that we can learn within the church, is that it doesn't really matter what other people say about us.

All we need to do is keep our testimony pure.

Okay?

We keep our testimony pure and do the best that we can.

And that's what Paul is doing here.

And so it says in verse 30.

And all the city was moved.

All the city was moved.

This is interesting here.

The, the crowd began to grow.

And the reason being is that we know that this was a feast time.

So there was more people in Jerusalem than, than normal.

So there's people from all over.

And so 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.

So this is the fulfillment of the prophecy that all these people had about Paul, that even Paul himself heard about that when he went to Jerusalem he would be caught and arrested.

This is where it was.

They lay hands on him.

And it says they run together.

And that.

That speaks to kind of like mob mentality.

Any, anytime there are individuals that are stirring other people up, it just.

They might not even be highly convicted about something.

But it's just, hey, it's mom mentality.

They're getting upset.

So it says verse 31.

And as they were.

This is interesting here.

It's more than just like they don't want him there.

And as they went about to kill him.

So this is pretty serious stuff.

I mean, we sometimes just read things from passages of scripture and we don't really think about the implication of what just was said.

Sound like they're trying to just grab him and throw him out of town, that would be enough.

But they're literally trying to kill him.

This is a violent mob trying to kill Paul.

Tidings or news came unto the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

So this is all happening on the Temple Mount.

Now again, if you don't have the geography of the Temple in your mind, it's really hard to visualize this.

But the Temple Mount is up on a mountain Mount Moriah.

And it's on.

It's high up there.

And all the things that are happening are up there in this big.

There's like a courtyard.

And inside of the courtyard are different levels of the Temple.

So there was the court of the Gentiles, there was the court of women.

And then of course, you got to the actual Temple itself and you had the inner parts of the temple there that only certain people could go to.

So this is all happening in the most public square you can think of.

This is where everyone went.

This is the capital of the city of Jerusalem.

Every person in Jerusalem would have been centered around this place.

Now, right in the corner of the Temple Mount, there is something called the Tower of Antonia or the Antonio Fortress.

This is the fortress that Pontius Pilate would have been sitting in.

This is where the Romans were basically spy.

Didn't have surveillance cameras back then.

So the way that the Romans would overwatch The Jewish people was they would sit up in this high tower and they would watch all the things that were happening because they were trying to keep the peace.

They didn't really care about the religious aspects of the Jews.

They just wanted to make sure that no one had any mobs and no one was getting killed.

Okay, so what happens is, is they're up in their tower.

Usually there was more than like 500 soldiers in that tower.

And what would be was actually in the northwest corner of the Temple Mount.

And they would watch and they would see all these things happening.

So they hear word that there's this uprising in the Temple Mount.

And so what happens?

What did they do?

Well, it says verse 32, who immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down unto them.

And when they saw the chief captain of the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.

Then the chief captain came near and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains.

So two chains meaning.

Now there's a lot of theories about this, but essentially what would usually happen is, is that an individual who would be caught in chains and it said two chains, he would have a soldier on each side of him.

So basically he would be chained to two different Roman soldiers here.

And so that's where, where Paul is going to be.

So basically the Roman soldiers come and intervene in this mob.

And.

And so what we see here is that he's.

He's chained up to these two soldiers and a you.

Verse 32, basically, who immediately took soldiers and centurions, he came and they took him.

Verse 33, the captain chief came near, took him and commanded him to be bound to change that demanded who he was and what he had done.

So they're like, what's going on?

Why did you do this?

What stirred up this kind of riot?

Verse 34.

And some cried one thing and 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.

So they said, we can't figure out what's going on.

If you've ever been in a situation where like there's a bunch of people yelling, I don't really hear that well, anyway.

And then when I have all these people yelling different directions, I can't make sense of anything.

Today in the fellowship hall, when everyone's in there talking and fellowshipping, I love that.

But then when someone's trying to talk to me, I just cannot pick it up.

And so that's exactly what he's saying here.

He says, I don't Know who you are.

I can't understand what you're saying.

I can't understand what they're saying.

Let's just take you into the, the fortress.

Verse 35.

And when he came upon the stairs, so it was so, so there were these stairs that overlooked the Temple Mount, says, we came on the stairs.

So it was that he was born of the soldiers for the violence of the people.

So essentially here that, you know, the, the multitude is crying out and they're, they're like, hey, you know, you're causing all this violence.

Verse 36.

For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, away with him.

And when they say, away with him, you know, they want him, they want him gone, they want him martyred, they want him out of there.

Verse 37.

And as Paul was to be led into the castle, he said unto the chief captain, may I speak?

Who said, canst thou speak Greek?

This is interesting here.

So Paul looks at the Roman soldier here, the leader, and it's actually the chief captain, the leader of the whole group, and he says something here which he wouldn't have not expected because who, who does he think Paul is?

He thinks Paul is just like this guy who's starting a riot.

Probably some criminal, some uneducated guy, some roughhouser.

I mean, actually we're going to see here in a little bit.

They think he's somebody else.

And Paul turns to him and for him to say that he spoke Greek meant that he was a learned man, he was educated, that he had some status for him to be able to switch between these different languages.

And so he turns to the Roman soldier and he says, hey, can you speak Greek?

And this is interesting here.

And the Roman commander was, was shocked because he thought that Paul was a terrorist.

And now Paul is saying, hey, you know what, I can speak Greek.

I'm not a rabble rouser.

I'm not someone who's trying to cause issues here.

I'm trying to teach you who I really am and what I'm really trying to do.

Verse 38, the guy says, so Paul says, can you speak Greek?

The guy goes, are not thou that Egyptian which before these days made us an uproar and led us out into the wilderness?

4,000 men that were murderers.

So he actually mistakes him for this Egyptian guy who came in there and stirred up a whole Mess and brought 4,000 people out there that were murderers.

He, he thinks, he thinks that that's some, that's who Paul is.

And actually this Egyptian was mentioned by another historian named Josephus.

And what he did.

So the reference to this is so amazing.

And I love how the Bible ties together with.

With history, right, because the Bible is history.

Some people think that the Bible is taking part away from history, but it's happening.

And we have this Jewish historian named Josephus who talks about this Egyptian guy who leads this rebellion.

And he led an army of the 4,000 men to the Mount of Olives, which is right outside of the city.

And they made this whole, like, band of an army that declared that they would come back in and kill everyone on the Temple Mount.

And so this is actually who he thinks Paul is, Which Paul says, no, Paul's going to tell him who he really is.

He tells him his identity.

Verse 39.

But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cicia, a citizen of no mean city.

And I beseech the suffer me to speak unto the people.

And so we're going to see here in a little bit that Paul essentially says, I.

I'm a.

This is in chapter 22.

But Paul says, I'm a Roman citizen.

And what's unique about where Paul is from, Paul is a Jew, but Paul is where he was born.

He is then adopted as a Roman citizen.

So Paul has essentially dual citizenship.

Paul is, yes, he is a Jewish person of the greatest pedigree, but he also understands the Roman culture and the Greek culture.

And he was born in an area where there was Roman control.

So he's a Roman citizen.

So when he tells him, I'm not the Egyptian guy, I'm actually from a city in Cilicia named Tarsus, and I'm a city citizen of, not Egypt.

Somewhere else he gets a word with him and he says, allow me to speak to the people.

So Paul says, let me talk to the people that are persecuting me.

Let me talk to the people that are actually wanting me to be killed.

And this is.

This is so interesting how Paul does this.

And I think this is.

This is a lesson for all of us.

And when he had given him license, Paul took on the stairs.

So Paul turns from individually referencing the centurion, and I'll turn to the people that remember, want to kill him.

These are not his friends.

And he beckoned with the hand unto the people.

And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue.

So he goes back and speaks to them directly.

He could have spoken to them in Greek.

He just spoke in Greek to them.

But he says, no, I'm gonna identify with you as as one of you.

I, I, I'm, I'm Hebrew, right?

So he speaks to them in the Hebrew tongue.

And then it ends chapter 21 saying, that's an interesting way to end a chapter.

And by the way, chapters were delineated later on.

So the story continues in the chapter 22.

So it ends in chapter 21 saying, what?

What did he say?

What did he say?

It's like, dot, dot, dot.

To be continued.

Well, you don't have to wait till next week because we're going to look at what he says here because this is important to see what he does.

Because Paul could have said anything.

Paul could have gotten up here in front of them and said, you don't have any right to kill me.

I'm a Roman citizen, you know, I, I should be protected.

Paul could have gotten up there and claimed that he was a Pharisee.

Paul could have gotten up there and claimed a lot of different things, that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ.

But what he does actually here is a very interesting thing.

Paul is going to point these people to the gospel by telling them his story, his testimony.

We talked about tonight about the importance of testimonies.

And the way, and the way that Paul does this is essentially says, hey, let me tell you who I am.

Let me tell you how I met Jesus Christ.

Let me tell you how he met me and how he changed me.

And he basically is going to go through this whole process of pointing people to Jesus.

So let's see here in chapter 22 what he does, how he starts this, because this is important to see, because again, this is his sermon to the people.

I mentioned this morning.

If someone held me in a place and said, hey, look, you know, you have a message to tell people, okay, you have a message to tell the world, or you have the message to tell people that hate you, what would you say?

Again, Paul could have said anything.

I know what I would have wanted to say to these people.

But Paul comes and he says, men, verse 1 of 22 men, brethren and fathers, hear ye my defense, which I make now unto you.

And when he, when they had heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept the more silence.

And he saith.

So the reason why they actually give him any audience is because he speaks in their native tongue.

Verse 3.

I am verily a man, which am a Jew.

So again, remember, what are they accusing him of?

Of hating the Jews, of telling them they shouldn't be a Jew.

And so he says, hey, I am a Jew born in Tarsus a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel.

Now, again, if you don't know who Gamaliel is, Gamaliel was a.

A famous teacher within the city of Jerusalem.

Paul speaks as a Jew to the Jews, and he.

And he's careful to lay common ground between them.

And I think that that's important.

And I.

I think that there's a message here in evangelism, specifically evangelism, of people that are opposed to us.

It's easy to preach the message of the Gospel to people who are super receptive, and we want that.

I think we all are praying for people to be open to the gospel when we're sharing it with.

But there is going to be a place and a time in our life where people are opposed to.

To who we are and what we believe.

And so I think what Paul does here is.

Is wonderful in the fact that he's trying to find some common ground with these people to get them to the truth.

Now, you might say, I don't know how I can find common ground with somebody.

I guarantee you, if you ask enough questions and you can read the room enough, you can understand at least something in common with someone to get them to a place to understand the truth.

Now they're opposing him.

And what does Paul do?

He tries to lay the groundwork to say, look, I know who you are.

I'm part of your culture.

I'm one of you.

And so Paul begins telling the story of his life before Christ, and then he's going to talk about his conversion.

So, so in a very basic way, Paul is giving them his testimony.

This is who I was before I was saved.

This is who I am now after I met Jesus.

And I think this is a great lesson for us when we're dealing with people that might have some hard questions, maybe even opposed to who we are, maybe even actually opposing us in a way verbally or in this case, physically.

What Paul does is he says, hey, look, this is who I was before I came to Christ.

This is who I am now.

And so he is going to tell the story of his conversion here.

But he says, I sat at the feet of Gamaliel, meaning this.

You guys know who he is?

We don't know who that is.

We don't think of Gamaliel as a celebrity, but for the people that he's talking to, they would have been like, whoa, you were a learner of him.

That, that, that makes some sense here.

And, and taught according to the perfect manner.

Of the law of the Fathers.

He says, I, I taught the law.

I was a Pharisee and was zealous towards God, as ye all are this day.

So he says, obviously, I see that you're zealous for God.

I, I obviously see that you have a passion for him.

And he's going to point them to the fact that they're a little bit, or even more than a little bit misguided because of what they have their eyes set in.

And, and then he goes on even further.

He's, he's basically telling them his life of sin.

He says, and I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons, both men and women.

So what is Paul telling them here?

He says, you know what?

I was one of you.

Because that's what they're doing, right?

They're taking Paul and either trying to throw him in prison or kill him.

And Paul says, I understand what you're doing.

I was there at one point.

And, and you would say, well, what does that mean for us?

Because we're, we're probably not going to come across people that were Christian killers or, and neither, probably none of us were Christian killers before we came to Christ.

But you know what?

This is something that we can do when it comes to things that maybe we struggle with in our past, not to glorify our struggle that we were in, but if we see someone else in the place that we used to be, we can come to them and say, look, you know what I used to be?

That, that, that used to be what I went after.

That used to be what I was chasing after in my life.

I, I, I used to be characterized by this, this, and this.

And now Jesus changed me.

And so what is he saying here?

He says, I've been where you have been.

I've been the persecutor.

I, I've been the one that.

He says, they're persecuted this way unto the death.

So, so Paul says, I've, I've killed people.

I've been a part of this.

Binding and delivering into prisons, both men and hand women.

He's not holding anything back here.

He's showing them his, his dark moments, verse five.

And also the high priest do bear me witness and all the estate of the elders, meaning, hey, there's people that can vouch for this, from whom also I received letters unto the brethren and went to Damascus to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem for to be punished.

So he's telling his story.

He says, I was going to get other Christians to bring them back to Jerusalem.

So he's going to Damascus to bring people back to Jerusalem to punish them.

And then here's where the change happens in his story.

And it came to pass that as I made my journey and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me.

So he's going to.

What is Paul doing here?

Paul is essentially giving his conversion story.

And.

And again, I can't overemphasize enough the fact that the best.

I believe the best tool to share our faith with other people is what happened to us, right?

What I've.

What have I trusted in?

And so he says, this is.

This is what happened to me.

Verse 7.

And I fell onto the ground and heard a voice saying unto me, saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

This is the story that's recorded there in.

In Acts, chapter nine.

And I answered, who art thou, Lord?

And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest.

So the change in Paul's story is not he wanted to become a better person.

He wanted to clean up his life.

He, you know, just kind of took a different path.

No, Jesus literally comes in and intervenes in his life.

And it's the interaction with Jesus and ultimately his faith in Jesus that changes him.

Verse 9.

And they that were with me saw indeed the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me.

And I said, what shall I do, Lord?

And the Lord said unto me, arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.

And when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came unto Damascus.

So Paul obviously speaking up how God worked him to a place in Damascus.

Now he's going to talk about how God brought other people into his life to disciple him.

Verse 12.

And one Anias, a devout man, according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me, brother Saul, receive thy sight.

In the same hour I looked up upon him.

So Paul says, this is my conversion.

And this was my first step of discipleship.

God brought a guy named Ananias in my life to let me get to a place where I could understand the power of God.

And so I think that's so amazing to see Paul doing this, because I think that this is a great outline for us as the church is like, my testimony would be this, you Know there was a certain time in my life where I understood through the preaching of the word of God that I was a sinner, that I needed to come to a place of repentance and faith in my life.

And when I did that, I had an opportunity to understand who Jesus was and what he has done for me.

And I got saved after that.

People came alongside of me and helped me and taught me.

And that's where I what I want to do with you.

And so that's the concept of what Paul is doing here.

And so verse 14.

And he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee, and thou should us know his will and see that just one and should us hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witnesses unto all men of what thou has seen and heard.

So Paul's command from God through Ananas was proclaiming what God has done for you.

Be a witness for other people.

Verse 16.

And now why, Terry, is thou rise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

And it came to pass that when I was come again to Jerusalem, even while I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance and saw him saying unto me, speaking of Jesus.

Jesus spoke to him, Make Hasting get the quickly out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning me.

So this is speaking of God's provision, so God's salvation.

God sending discipleship.

God sending provision and protection to the life of Paul.

Okay, so he's explaining all this.

Verse 19.

And I said, lord, they know that I imprisoned and be in every synagogue them that have believed on thee.

This speaks to Paul, recounting back to his sinful past.

Okay, and that's sometimes what happens in our own Christian life, right?

We.

God calls us to do something, we go, yeah, but, yeah, people know that I was a sinner before.

People know that I.

I'm not a good person.

This is what happens here.

Verse 20.

And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I was standing by and consenting unto his death and kept the raiment of them that slew him.

And he said unto me, this is what Jesus says back to Paul.

So Paul says, don't you know who I am?

Don't you know what I've done?

Other people know what I've done.

What does Jesus say?

Oh, that's right.

Okay, never mind.

I know Jesus knows, right?

Jesus doesn't tell him.

Well, since you told me that, don't go.

No, what is.

What is it?

What is told to him?

Verse 21.

And he said unto me, depart, leave, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles.

So Paul's ultimate mission, though, though it is to minister to everyone.

Paul's ultimate mission was to be a.

An evangelist or an apostle to the Gentiles.

So, so that's what.

So Paul basically summarizes it and outlines it this way.

Who I was before I was saved, how I came to Christ, who came into my life to help me after that, God's provision and protection in that time, and God's call for my life, that struggle that I had with the sins of my past, and ultimately the call that God had for me to equip me to go and do something.

My purpose, my mission, his mission was to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.

So essentially what Paul's telling them is like, my mission is to go to the Gentiles.

And so what happens here?

Because.

Because he just gets done telling them, hey, you know what?

I am called to the Gentiles, verse 22.

And they gave him audience unto, Unto this word.

So they were listening to Paul all the way through this and giving him audience.

And they were like, that sounds good.

Okay, I'm hearing you.

You're a Jew.

You were persecuting.

Okay, this, all this.

The point that got them back to where they were prior to his sermon was what he said about the Gentiles.

Again, that was a sticking point for many people there in Jerusalem and elsewhere.

They said, no, I was going to be okay with everything that you said until you got back to that gentile part, verse 22.

And they gave him audience unto this word and then lifted up their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live.

That's pretty, pretty strong stuff.

And again, they were giving him audience until that.

That teaching of the Gentiles, right?

And so Paul was touched by God, directed by God to be a minister to the Gentiles.

And so Paul made it clear that it wasn't his plan to go to the Gentiles.

Actually, if you study the life of Paul, his heart was to go to the, the.

The Jewish people.

Right.

Actually, if you see that.

But God stirred him and changed him and moved him to the Gentiles.

And so he says, it wasn't my idea to go to the Gentiles.

It was God's idea.

This was God's plan.

And so he was trying to explain to the crowd why he seemed so friendly to the Gentiles, because that's.

That was their Problem.

Why are you buddying up with these people that are different than us?

And he says, it's because it's my call, it's my purpose, it's my plan, I have to.

And so Paul was simply obeying Jesus and he was saying, you know what, I'm following him.

And if you guys are believers in Jesus, you'll understand that.

You'll understand my mission, you'll understand my call.

But they listened up to a point.

The crowd had tried to kill Paul and had listened to him up to this point.

But they erupted over just that one word, Gentiles.

And so this mob was so outraged that they thought that God's salvation could be freely given to the Gentiles.

And it was so upsetting for them.

And they were just so upset that they were going to take them to death.

And the fact that they would say, just not like, hey, get out of here.

Away with such a fellow from the earth, for it is not fit that he should live.

And so in their mind, they were okay with him talking about Jesus.

They were okay with God's power being worked out in his life, but they could not stand for the idea that God would save the Jews and the Gentiles in the same way.

They were okay with Gentiles being saved, they were okay with Jewish people being saved, but they did not want to equate the two as like, hey, it's by faith alone.

They said the Gentiles can get saved their way, just like the Gentiles.

By the way, historically speaking, in the Old Testament and even into the Gospel period of time, if someone wanted to convert as a Gentile to the Jewish faith, they could do that.

They wouldn't be the same, but they could come and they could convert.

They were.

They were basically converted into that.

And they were able to have some access to God, but not complete access because they were not the chosen people.

But for them, they were always okay with Gentiles having some association with God.

But what Paul was preaching is that the same salvation to the Jews is the same salvation to the Gentiles.

They're saved the same exact way.

And so that is where there was an issue.

And so I think that that's so important for us to understand.

Paul was uncompromising in salvation by faith alone.

Okay, sola fide is the Latin term, faith alone salvation.

And I think that they had a problem with that.

I know that they had a problem with that.

And there's problem, there's people with that today.

People have a.

I mean, some of us might have struggled with this.

How can God save a person that's done all of this?

Like he can come and get saved the same way that I come and get saved.

I was a good person.

I've always been a good person.

I've always followed the law.

I, I've never condemned anybody.

I've done my best.

And that person can just easily, after years and years of sin, can come to Christ just in simple faith and have the same salvation as me.

There's actually a parable talking about that, about the timing of the salvation.

Like he gets the same reward as me.

Well, not the same exact reward in the concept of blessings, but yes, the same reward of heaven.

And that sometimes infuriates people because, hey, I'm a good person.

But at the end of the day, Jew, Gentile, we're all sinners saved by grace.

And so what we have to understand as Christians is that yes, there's going to be some people that are led to Christ through certain elements of tradition within the church.

There's going to be other people that are saved through various other outlets.

Same gospel message, same faith.

And the whole goal is to get them back to scripture, get them back to spiritual growth.

But the Jewish person, though they came through traditional, still was saved through faith.

So I'm a strong believer in no matter what time frame it was from the creation to the end, everybody throughout all of history is saved through faith.

The just shall live by faith.

That was in the Old Testament and that's in the New.

There, there is a misnomer that, hey, these people in the Old Testament were saved through their works and they did all the sacrifices.

No, read Hebrews, chapter 11.

It was by faith and faith alone.

They were having faith in a Messiah to come.

We have faith in Jesus Christ and what he has already done.

And so that's what Paul is trying to explain.

But this is a difficult topic.

Now sometimes we remove ourselves from this because we are not wrestling with the Jewish Gentile conflict.

Okay?

We're not living in Israel.

That's not something that's close to us.

But we do struggle with issues of preference, tradition and customs and, and there's hot button issues that we could point to.

Again, I'm not going to get into that tonight.

I frankly don't want to stir that up at 7 o' clock.

But there are certain things within our church, and I'm not just saying this church, I'm saying in general, the faith that certain individuals can allow to stir them up that are not essential aspects of faith.

And what we have to do is we have to understand the difference between a quote unquote Jewish person following their traditions and customs and, and a Gentile person having the freedom in Christ to follow the way that they understand it to be in Scripture.

Now, it's not two different understandings, it's just simply this.

If a church wants to be a certain way in the way that they meet and what time they meet and how they meet and what they do when they meet, that's different than us.

As long as they're not in heresy, as long as they're not teaching something contrary to what we are teaching, that person is just as saved as me.

Okay?

Okay.

There's no, like, partial salvation.

You're either saved or you're not saved.

Okay.

And, and so what I would try to have you understand is this.

And when we get, this is a deep topic, when we get to Romans 14, we are going to talk about some things that probably are uncomfortable because essentially they talk about meat sacrifice to idols and we talk about that.

And most of us again are struggling with meat sacrifice to idols.

But there is a principle there of Christian liberty and decisions that we need to make in that freedom.

And so again, there's nothing, nothing that we want to change in the concept of what we are doing as a church.

But what we have to learn from this passage of Scripture is we don't want to be the Jewish people that were stuck in their customs and put that before the gospel message of Jesus Christ and then look down upon the Gentiles when they came in.

And so Paul says, hey, this is what it is.

So they want him dead.

We're going to leave it off at verse 22.

They wanted him out and we're going to see what the outcome is.

Actually, believe it or not, this actually looks like the end for Paul.

But most of you know the rest of the story.

Paul is not martyred here.

God miraculously intervenes and gives Paul wisdom on claiming his Roman citizenship.

Now we're going to talk about this next week, but there's a, this is unique because Paul doesn't always claim his Roman citizenship.

He, he does hear for the sake of God's direction.

But in this case he says, hey you, you can't kill me this way.

I'm a Roman citizen.

And he claims that.

And, and so he is put before a council.

And there's a lot of really neat things that, that happen in these next few chapters.

Paul is able to speak before certain dignitaries and Paul uses doors that open for him to present the Gospel.

And so there's a lot of things that we can take from us in this passage, but one of the things that we can take is this, when we face opposition, there is I think here a very wonderful biblical outline that we can take that we can present what Jesus Christ has done for us.

We can find that common ground.

You know, for example, like if I'm talking to somebody, let's say, for example, someone that I'm, that I'm ministering to, I realize that they know nothing about this topic.

Let's say, for example, it's sports.

Like they, like, I've never watched sports in my life.

I've never played sports in my life.

I'm not going to come to them and give them a 25 point outline of how sports relates to the, the Christian doctrines.

Right.

We want to make sure that we are careful in how we're communicating to people, you know, and speaking the same language.

And I'm not saying like, hey, if someone speaks Spanish, you got to go learn Spanish.

That would be wonderful, like if we all could just pick up languages.

That's fantastic.

What do I mean by speaking that language?

There are certain ways that we talk within the church that whether you know it or not, whether I know it or not, don't make sense to people that are not in church.

Right.

So it's like the Christian lingo.

So, so what I would say is really be aware of how you're speaking to people that are not part of the church.

Don't, don't hide any truths, but be careful of how you're talking.

Make sure they understand what you're saying.

Like sometimes I'm up here preaching and right in the middle of a sentence I'm like, you know what, maybe there's someone has no clue what that word I just used is.

And, and I want to clarify that and I try to do that the best of my ability.

And so when you're talking to people in the church, you know, for example, are you saved?

Let's say that, let's, Practical time.

Okay, let's, let's take it out of the theoretical and let's put it to practical.

Let's say you're going to somebody and you say, hey, are you saved?

They might not have any clue what that even means.

Saved from what?

Well, maybe I'm saved.

What does he mean, saved?

So maybe we need to define what salvation is.

Well, are you a sinner?

Well, again, they might not know what that means.

Believe it or not, in our culture, people hear that word sin.

But that might not equate to what we define sin as.

Do you believe in God?

That's an interesting phrase.

Maybe they do believe in God, but that's not enough to save them.

We need to talk about what true belief is.

And so there's all these things that I think that we need to take a step further and ask, like, are you sure?

Are you sure?

Do you understand what that is?

Do you understand what this means?

And I think that that would help us a lot more when it comes to finding common ground with people explaining that.

So Paul spoke Greek to the Roman centurion.

Paul spoke Hebrew to the people that were speaking Hebrew.

And I think that we need to do the same thing within our own cultures, be able to, and I'm not saying speak poorly in the concept of like, well, that person's saying bad words.

We need to say bad words to join in with them.

But there is a way that we can try to connect with people on a more personal way that I think will resonate better in our society today.

So, anyway, that's.

That's all that I have for this evening.

Let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer, and I'll have a few announcements, and you'll be dismissed.

Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.

Thank you for the opportunity to study your word this evening, to know what it means to, in the face of danger, in the face of conflict, be able to point folks to you, Lord.

And even though we know that those folks didn't receive that message out and out, we know that it doesn't matter how people receive the message, we are called to proclaim it.

And so we thank you for this example.

I pray that we can take these tools with us into our lives in the everyday world and be able to communicate the truth of the gospel in a way that's effective in our.

In our society.

So, Lord, I pray that you protect us this week, help us sometimes just to go back to our conversion, who we were before we were believers and who we are now and the change that we have experienced.

And Lord, I just thank you for saving us, equipping us, protecting us, and promising us that beautiful gift of salvation and eternal life.

So what I pray that you help us as we go tonight.

We thank you and we love you.

In Jesus name, amen.

Amen.

God bless you.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon you can find find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

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Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.