Acts 21:14-22:30 - Part B

This is Connect with Skip Heitzig, and we're so glad you joined us for today's program. So, he submits himself to James. Why does he do it?

I think it's simply he's going the second mile. He knows he doesn't have to do it. He knows these things don't merit salvation, but he's doing it to quell the disturbance that is going on about him.

This will do it. Now the mouths are going to be shut. People are going to go, you know what, Paul really is okay. He's going through this little ritual.

He's okay with us doing that. I think what we are discovering here isn't a guy going against the will of God. You know, here he was out of the will of God going to Jerusalem.

Now he's pulling this thing. I think what he's doing is going through with part of his own philosophical statement. I'm going to read his philosophical statement to you in 1 Corinthians 9. He writes this, for although I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more. To the Jew, I became a Jew, that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. To those who are without the law, as without the law, but then he says in parentheses, not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ, that I might win those who are without the law. In other words, I'm not living a lawless life, a life without moral principles.

I don't like going to a bar and get drunk just so I can say, you know what, man, we're brothers, you know, and I'm on your level. He doesn't participate in sinful deeds. He continues, to the weak, I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become, here's the statement, I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be a partaker of it with you. Now what vow were they taking? And what vow does Paul participate in? Most believe it is the Nazarite vow. Have you ever heard of a Nazarite vow? There are five verses that speak about the Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter six.

Nazarite comes from the Hebrew word natsir, which means to dedicate. It was a voluntary free will endeavor, to give God thanks, to say I'm dedicated, this is just something I feel I want to do. So four guys have taken that vow. It was a vow that lasted 30 days, so Paul himself wasn't, hadn't been taking that vow, but four had in Jerusalem.

So he's going to sponsor them, pay for it, and go through the ending ritual with them. At the end of 30 days, well first of all, for 30 days you would abstain from grapes, from grape products like wine. You would abstain from eating meat.

You would let your hair grow at the end of 30 days. You would cut it all off, take it into the temple, offer sacrifices. You would offer up a lamb for a sin offering, a ram for a peace offering, some little cakes of flour with oil in them, and a drink offering. And the hair, you would shave it, and it would be burned with the offering. So Paul does that. It's the end of their vow.

He pays for it, maybe participates with the shaving of his hair. He's done that before at Cenchrea, if you remember in chapter 18. So he's already done a Nazarite vow. But see, some will find fault when they say, why would Paul go through a ritual that includes animal sacrifice if Jesus is the ultimate and final sacrifice? I'm sure that Paul looked at those sacrifices as simply memorials, not as efficacious to remove sin or stain, but as a memorial. All the sacrifices that he was seeing in the temple would look back to the finished work of Jesus on the cross. After all, as I told you before, during the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth, the millennium, there will be sacrifices during that time.

None of them will be efficacious. All of them will be a memorial, looking backwards, just like we take communion. The bread and the wine speak of a past event of the cross.

Those sacrifices will be not a prediction like they were in the Old Testament, but a memorial. So he goes through with it. I have become all things to all men. Here's what I like about Paul. He was able to discern between what is essential and what is non-essential. He knew that he sacrificed this ritual, this Nazarite vow. That wasn't essential right there. That wasn't essential for growing in Christ.

It wasn't essential for salvation. But he was flexible. Blessed are the flexible.

They shall not be broken. In essentials, Paul was firm. In non-essentials, Paul was flexible. And I think that's just where we ought to live our lives. There's certain things we don't compromise with and say, yeah, but no, if it's an essential, historic Christian doctrine, we're firm on it.

If it's a secondary issue, we're flexible on it. So Paul went through it. Now, verse 27, now when the seven days were almost ended, the last seven days were the days that you announce my Nazarite vow is coming to an end on this certain date, in which point you make an appointment, so to speak, with the priest in the temple.

So that's the seven days we're talking about. Now, Paul's vow, Paul being part of this, could have been what some scholars believe was a vow or an offering, a worship service of coming in from a foreign land. And so this is a ritual of purification. The Jews had this. If they were in a distant foreign Gentile land, you know how they shake the dust off their shoes? When they would go from a Gentile territory to a Jewish territory, they'd shake the dust off their feet, so not to carry defiled earth, Gentile dust, into Jewish territory. So there was a ritual of purification if you spent time in non-Jewish territories, and so perhaps as they were going through the Nazarite vow, Paul was going through this. Could be.

Perhaps, perhaps not. When the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, that's Asia Minor, Asia Minor like Ephesus, and I'm kind of tipping you off, that's where they're from, seeing him in the temple stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place. Furthermore, he also brought Greeks into the temple and he has defiled this holy place. Boy, you know, when Paul gets to Jerusalem, he finds that people have been that bad-mouthed in him, and they're saying Paul is forbidding us to circumcise our children, Jewish people to circumcise our children. True or false, by the way, is that true or false?

It's false. Paul would say to a Gentile, you don't need to be circumcised. He would say to non-Jewish people, even to Jewish people, circumcision, Christ is the end of the law to everyone who believes. But he never forbade Jewish people to go through those rituals.

If you want to go through it, fine, but you don't have to. They've been fulfilled in Christ. He never forbade them, but he's a victim of misunderstanding.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, to be known publicly is to be misunderstood. So he's misunderstood by Jewish Christians. Now he's in the temple, and somebody sees Paul and supposes that he's brought a Gentile in.

Why would they think that? Verse 29, For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the city was disturbed, and the people ran to and the people ran together and seized Paul together.

They dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. Now, if we were on the Mount of Olives, we could do this easier. I could just point to this area. But from the Mount of Olives, you look out and you see where the temple used to stand, the Temple Mount. It's essentially 35 acres, a flat paved area, 35 acres.

It's enormous. Today, two Muslim shrines are on it, but the courtyard platform is essentially unchanged. You can even see next to it, the Antonia fortress, the stones of the original Antonia fortress built by Herod the Great. So there were courts on that 35 acre complex. There was the temple, the main place itself. Immediately surrounding that was the Court of the Priest, also called the Court of Israel. Jewish men could surround that. Out from that was another court called the Treasury or the Court of the Women. Jewish women could go into that, but not into the Court of the Priest, the Court of Israel. And then outside the biggest court of all was a court for Gentiles, anybody, including Trophimus, could hang out there.

You and I, we could hang out there if we were there. However, we couldn't go closer because the closer you got toward the temple, toward the Treasury or the Court of the Women, you would see a little fence about three or four feet tall. And on the fence, all the way around the perimeter was an inscription. Josephus tells us that reads this, no man of another nation is to enter within this fence and enclosure around the temple. And whoever is caught will have himself to blame for the penalty of death that follows. You're a Gentile, hang out in the Court of the Gentiles. We'll give you the biggest court. You go past that line, you're a dead man.

You will get killed. You're listening to connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, God's peace, His Shalom, can penetrate every aspect of your life, spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. In his book, Unleashing Peace, Experiencing God's Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness, author Jeremiah J. Johnston helps you understand Shalom and guides you into the peace that passes all understanding. And when you give a gift of $50 or more today, we'll send you Unleashing Peace. Our thanks for your support to reach more people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.

Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now, let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Now, they took this seriously. In fact, the Romans took it so seriously, it was the one exception when they took away the right of capital punishment. The one exception is that they allowed temple police to immediately adjudicate a trespasser into their holy place, and they could kill him. So Paul is beyond the barricade. And they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian because they're from Asia.

They're from Ephesus. They recognized Trophimus a non-Jew. They had seen Paul in the city. He was one of Paul's traveling companions to Jerusalem. They go, he must have brought him into the holy place, that rascal.

Well, they didn't call him a rascal. They probably called them all sorts of other bad things, but they grabbed him and they wanted to execute him. And so it's a mob scene that is happening. I just got to say that the Jews did have a bizarre reverence, fascination for their temple. You remember back when they were in Ephesus, and for two hours they were going, greatest Diana of the Ephesians, right? They're about to rip Paul apart because he ruined the temple of Diana. The Jews were like that with their temple. And I've noticed a lot of people with their holy places are like that, even to this day. If you go to Rome, for example, you know, Martin Luther went to Rome and there's some areas that commemorate his coming to Rome, but wherever there is a statue of Martin Luther or a depiction of Martin Luther, it is defaced because it's a Catholic city. It's Catholic central. So Martin Luther isn't like celebrated in Rome. They think he defiled Rome. If you go to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, actually you can't go to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Nobody can. You have to be proven to be a Muslim. So they would be as fanatical if Jews and Christians showed up at the Kaaba to hang out and take pictures as they were of Paul being in the temple that day. So they seized him, dragged him out of the temple. Immediately, the doors were shut. However, the door shut probably to keep possibly any other Gentiles coming in, but more than that, to keep the holy place from being defiled because they were about to stone somebody and that blood shouldn't be in there.

It should be out here in the court of the Gentiles. Now, as they were seeking to kill him, see, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Now, we know his name, his name is Claudius Lysias. How do we know that? Because in a couple of chapters, he's going to write a letter to Felix, the new procurator after Pontius Pilate, and he's going to sign it Claudius Lysias.

So that's his name. Claudius Lysias is the commander, over a thousand men at the Antonia fortress. The Antonia fortress was, the remains of it still to this day, was built by Herod, adjoined to the temple mount itself.

Overlooking the temple mount, there were two stairways that went and you could get to the temple mount and you could look over the temple complex. It was built by Herod to house the 10th legion of Rome. The 10th legion of Rome would be occupying the Antonia fortress during all of the major Jewish festivals, including this one, Pentecost, in the summer, to make sure that a riot didn't break out. Yes, the Jews had temple police, but Rome had to make sure that a riot would not break out. Rome didn't take very well to riots. In fact, they executed Roman soldiers who allowed it to happen. So the Antonia fortress was there to keep the peace. That's where Pontius Pilate was at when they came to him to bring Jesus to trial. They brought Jesus to the Antonia fortress. Paul's at the same place.

It's like a repeat. As they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander, Claudius Lysias. He's the chili ark.

We'll get to that whenever we get to that. Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the commander came near and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains.

Mark that. Paul is now bound with chains. He'll be bound with chains effectively the rest of his life. He'll have a brief reprise where he is released, re-arrested later in Troas, and then taken to Rome and executed by Caesar Nero. He is in chains.

This is now his lot in life. He is bound with chains and asks who it was and what he had done. And some among the multitude cried one thing and some another. So when he could not ascertain the truth because of the tumult, he commanded him to be taken into the barracks. When he reached the stairs, remember there's two sets of stairs going from the temple area up to this castle-like fortress. When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. What an exciting life Paul lived. For the multitude of the people following after crying out, away with him.

Now does that sound familiar? Jesus himself went to Jerusalem and was warned not to go to Jerusalem. His disciples, even Peter, said, far be it from you, Lord.

You shall not go. He went. He was arrested. He was taken to the very same place. And the crowd cried, crucify him.

Crucify him. Now here's Paul the apostle representing the same Jesus who was there. And they say basically the same thing though, away with him. Then as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, may I speak to you? Isn't that nice? He's polite. Not, hey, I got something to say. He goes, may I speak to you?

He replied, can you speak Greek? Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led 4,000 assassins out into the wilderness? Now Josephus, the Jewish historian, tells us about a group of assassins called sikarion. Sikarion means dagger men, because they carried a sika.

A sika is a dagger, a knife, and they would mingle in the crowds and act like they're just kind of one of them, and then take out that dagger and they would assassinate people for political means. So they were terrorists. Three years before this, there was an Egyptian who led a group of 4,000 assassins, though Josephus, who was prone to exaggeration on all of his numbers, places the number at like 30,000. But there were 4,000 who were taken to the Mount of Olives. He, this Egyptian guy, claimed he was a prophet of God and announced that the city would be destroyed. In fact, he said, I'm a prophet of God and at my word, all the walls of Jerusalem are going to collapse like Jericho once did. So the Romans attacked them and killed a lot of them, most of them, imprisoned some of them, but the leader escaped. So here, Claudius Lycius sees Paul and says, aren't you that Egyptian guy?

You know, we've been looking for you for three years now. Verse 39, Paul said, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city, mean not a small city, a notable city, a noble city, called a free city by the Roman Empire, known for its beauty, its education, its structure, and I implore you, permit me to speak to the people. I'm sure he started getting a little bit surprised. He thinks he's seeing an Egyptian and Paul speaks flawless Greek. So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and motioned with his hand to the people. Here's his chance.

Remember he said, I would let myself be accursed from Christ for my brethren's sake, the Jews, Romans chapter nine, here's his chance. He's motioning them to get their attention. And when there was a great silence, now mark that, not to just quiet it down, the silence was as profound as the noise just moments ago.

Dead silence. He's going to say something. He's going to speak. And he spoke to them in the Hebrew language. Now, Paul, in the next chapter, and we're going to read through it, is a story you already know because you've already read about it.

So we're just going to read through this pretty quickly. He's giving his testimony. He's going to stand up and he's not going to say, now, let me tell you the fulfillment of Daniel chapter nine and the 173,880-day prophecy. Let me prove to you that Abraham spoke of Christ. He's just going to say something that is really irrefutable.

And that is what Jesus did for him. Personal testimony. Use your personal testimony. When you engage in philosophical discussions or theological discussions, you'll have blowback. You'll have argument.

What is unarguable is your own story. It happened to you. This is what happened to me.

My life would change. I was saved. How do you know you're saved? Well, I was there when it happened. You weren't.

I was. Let me tell you what happened in my life, especially if your life truly is changed. If it's different, if people knew you before Christ and they see you now, they go, tell us why you're so different. Okay. And you tell your testimony.

And that's important. That's important because in verse one, look at a word, brethren and fathers, again, a respectful tone, brethren and fathers. Hear my defense before you. That word defense is the Greek word apologia. Apologia is where we get a word apologetics. You've heard of apologetics. It doesn't mean that you apologize for believing in Jesus, but that you defend why you believe in Jesus. It's not like, I apologize.

I'm sorry. I'm a Christian. That's not an apologetics. It's a clear, logical presentation for the gospel. So he says, here's my defense, my apologia. It's the word Peter used in first Peter, Peter chapter three, verse 15, that we should always be ready to give every man, every one an apologia, a defense, a reason for the hope that lies in us with meekness and fear. And so in giving his apologetic message, he's beginning with his testimony.

And he begins with his conduct before Christ, moves to his conversion experience with Christ, and follows it with his commission by Christ. He's just telling a story. Now your testimony is powerful. Learn to use it. Learn to abridge it and say it quickly.

Learn a medium version, even a longer version if people want to discuss it, but learn it. I know you know it because it happened to you, but learn to present it. Revelation chapter 12, and they overcame. Part of what they overcame with was the word of their testimony, the word of their testimony.

We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you Jeremiah Johnston's powerful book, Unleashing Peace, to guide you into the peace that passes all understanding. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.

That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. Come back next time for more verse by verse teaching of God's word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection. Make a connection at the foot of the cross. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.