Hey, imagine you're surrounded by a dangerous mob and then suddenly the police show up. What would you ask the police to do? Get me out of here. Exactly, get me out of this dangerous situation. But today as we look at Paul and a mob, what does he do?
Well, not that. Let's take a look today and find out on More Than Inc.
Well, good morning. We are coming to you on a bright and sunny late spring day. It is. It's beautiful outside. It's gorgeous outside.
We wish we were outside instead of inside recording this. No, we don't. No, we don't. Never mind. I didn't say that.
But it is lovely to look out and see a change from wintertime.
Well, hey, you have joined More Than Inc., and this is where we read through the Bible and comment on it. And hopefully, you'll be drawn in to read it yourself and to study it and to find out the sometimes slightly hidden things that are there that only show up when you just slow down and think about them.
So we come completely uncoordinated between our comments and we surprise one another. And it's just a delight to look at the word together. And we're glad you're with us to do that today. We are in the latter parts of the book of Acts and we're following the life of Paul. And he's finished his third missionary journey and has gone back to Jerusalem at Pentecost, like he said he was going to.
And he was warned by everybody when you go. down there it's going to be violent and and guess what happens today It gets violent.
Well, and what he's where we pick up the story is he had decided to go through with a very traditional Jewish ritual in full view of Jewish people there to worship at Pentecost. For the purpose.
So, for the purpose of making it clear that he had not abandoned his Jewish roots, knowing that those were the accusations.
So, he had taken these guys who were under a vow into the temple and paid their expenses and gone through some ceremonies himself. A very overt Jewish act, kind of like a billboard saying, Look, I still do this. Right, I still respect our traditions.
So, you know, when we pick up the story, the days of this purification were just about completed, and I think they were about to offer another sacrifice or do something. Anyway, it was going to be a public thing.
So, it has been about a week.
So, that's where we're picking up the story. And there's lots of people observing and lots of people paying attention to what Paul's doing.
Well, there's a lot of people in town. It's Pentecost, which is one of the three mandatory come back to Jerusalem festivals.
So all of this is taking place while Jerusalem is just swelling with people from all over the world, literally. And a big scene happens.
Well, why don't you start us off? We're in chapter 21, and we're in verse 27, right at the end of that purification ritual. Ceremonial period.
So he references here in verse 27.
Okay, verse 27. When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, 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's teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law of this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
Okay, let's stop there for a second. That's really a false accusation.
Well, it is, but who are these people, Jews from Asia? And why would they be the ones to make this accusation? I mean, that's the question we ought to be asking, right? Right, right, right.
So, like, you know, the Jews from Asia, so they are from out of town. This is Pentecost, out of towners. And, but we followed Paul in his first three missionary journeys, and when he was in Asia, which is. Turkey today, he was met with some stiff opposition. And so these people have come into town for Pentecost and were meeting with stiff opposition.
Well, and Paul had spent three years in Ephesus, and some of the people who were with him on this trip were there.
So it's possible that these Jews from Asia had seen Paul in Ephesus and heard him there. And now they're all in Jerusalem for the holiday. Yeah. Whatever. But the claim that they make is completely.
Untrue. It's bogus. Right. They're making an assumption.
Now, so just in case you're not familiar with the Jewish temple, there was an outer court called the Court of the Gentiles where anybody was allowed to be. Right. But the accusation they're making is that Paul had taken this. Uh, trophimus or whoever was in view, uh, passed this little low wall into the court that was only for Jews, violated the exclusion zone, right? Right.
Well, yeah, and in fact, it uh, their accusation there in the middle of 28 reminded me of the accusation against Stephen. I had to go back and look at it, it sounded familiar. And against Stephen, remember that he was martyred in chapter six, and uh, and there were the witnesses there said, This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, right? Which were also false.
So, there's a real defensiveness here by the Jews that these guys, Stephen and Paul here, are promoting something that's radically outside of Judaism, when in fact it's actually radically inside Judaism because they're claiming that Jesus is indeed the promised Messiah of Judaism for the Jews.
So, so they're completely misrepresenting him. I looked too, I remembered reading someplace about the warning to Greeks in the temple area because you mentioned that that was a sign. That wall was a little bit more. Right, and here's the text of that sign. This is actually it.
Archaeologists have found this, and it says this: it says, No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the temple and enclosure, and anyone, anyone who is caught trespassing will bear personal responsibility for his ensuing death. Oh, so it's a death penalty, it's a death penalty. And apparently, historically, the Romans said, you know, you can't go killing people except in this one particular case. If they violate your temple area, we will, you know, turn a blind eye and let you execute these guys.
So, it was a very big deal. That's why they're having such a big problem here. And it could very well be. He mentions Trophimus, which we don't recognize, but people who read this letter might have. And he's from Ephesus.
And where did he have his biggest riot ever? Ephesus. Yeah. So it's all kind of ringing true for all the opposition he's going to meet at. That was prophesied, and here it is.
Right. He had been warned. You're going to walk into a mess. Yep. But so if we pick it up in verse 30, it says, Then all the city was stirred up and the people ran together.
So this extended way beyond just the temple courtyard. Yeah, yeah. The whole courtyard. All the city was stirred up. And the people ran together.
They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. And they were seeking to kill him. As they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. All Jerusalem is confused.
So, this is like an angry mob. This is a riot, right? And, you know, we've seen a lot of rioting in this country in the last few years. And, you know, people sometimes just hear a commotion and they join the crowd and they begin to participate without really knowing what it's about. Yeah.
And so that's very likely what was happening here. But it was loud and messy and potentially violent.
Well, and it crossed the line for Romans who were there to keep order. Remember, we've said this many times: the only working rule for the Roman soldiers that were in these captured areas was to keep the order. Keep the peace. Yeah, keep the peace. And so when the whole city's upside down, they're going to come out.
Okay, and they were actually stationed in this fortress of Antonia that was built right adjacent to the temple area, like there was a shared wall.
So there was a watchman there kind of keeping an eye on what was. Going on at the temple.
So that's what happens here.
So as they're seeking to kill Paul in verse 31, word came to the tribune of the cohort.
Now, a cohort could be up to a thousand soldiers. It's a lot of soldiers.
So the tribune is over all of those men.
So this is a guy with some command. Right. And he is in charge of making sure that everything that goes down in the temple is orderly because there's a lot of people. There's a lot of people.
So he at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them.
Okay, a centurion is over 100 men.
So we have centurions plural, and we probably have the men, the hundred men that was attached to each of them.
So we've got a mob of people making a ruckus in the temple, and then we've got a mob of Romans coming to bring the peace. Yeah. And if you, if you've ever seen pictures of Herod's improvements to the temple, you know, it's a very large, large, large courtyard. It looks a lot like the large courtyard around the Dome of the Rock today. Big, big, flat, open area.
So there were a lot of people out in the open, and now we're going to have all these soldiers come in and try and bring order.
Okay, so. This mass of soldiers come swarming in from the fortress. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. You think? Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains.
He inquired who he was and what he had done. And some in the crowd were shouting one thing and some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
So, see, he's trying to make heads or tails out of this, and he can't, and largely because he can't hear because everyone's shouting. It's just chaos, it's mayhem. But they succeed in getting Paul bound in two chains. Reminds me of, remember, Agabas had come up and warned him this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt. Except these were Romans, binding them, these were Romans.
So, two chains is interesting to me, right? Like, maybe that's one on each side, like he's between soldiers. Yeah, is that how you understand that? Yeah, yeah, that's how he did it.
So, so he inquired to find out what was going on. He's trying to bring peace by kind of figuring out what the conflict is. Can't do it. Too much shouting, too much chaos. And in the middle of 34, couldn't learn the facts because of the uproar.
So, he says, Let's get him someplace where we can kind of sort this out.
So, let's bring him into the barracks. And so, like you mentioned. Before the barracks at the Antonia Fortress, they actually opened right into the temple area. Yeah, so this was there.
So they were going to drag him off back into the Roman fortress where all of this cohort lives.
So it's really interesting here in verse 35. It says, And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd. For the mob of the people following were crying out, away with him. Wow.
So they were actually pulling at Paul and wanting to drag him back into the crowd. And the only way they could get him out of there was to get him out of the reach of the people. And the only way they could do that was to carry him. I mean, it was crazy. And even that crazy dentist says, away with him, they're not saying get him away from the temple because he's violated the temple.
That's a code word for saying kill him. Away with his life. Yeah. Yeah. And I looked at these claims were made against Jesus too.
I looked up in Luke 23. They all cried out together, away with this man and release to Asparabbis.
So that's their way of saying kill him, just kill him.
So that's what they're asking for is kill this guy. And here they are trying to keep Paul out of their hands by, I think, hoisting him in the air, carrying him so they couldn't drag him off in the midst of the crowd.
Now, this has been a lot of years since Jesus was crucified. Yes. We're a long time into the future here. And yet, still, the mood in Jerusalem is so contentious and so easily mobbified. Yeah.
Easily stirred up.
Well, yeah. And, you know, since it's been, I would guess it's somewhere around 20 to 25 years, right? At least 20 years since Paul's had his conversion experience. And so word has come back to the area about what's been going on with Paul probably. In Asia and stuff like that.
I mean, this whole, well, and the Christians were really centered in Jerusalem. That caused a great amount of conflict.
So there was a ton of pent-up conflict based on the fact that these guys claimed Jesus was the Messiah, and the Jew says, no, can't be because he did get rid of the Romans. You know, Paul was notorious because if you remember, he came back to Jerusalem right after, well, a little while after his conversion and began to try and argue with the Jews and raised such a ruckus, the church leaders sent him away to Tarsus, where he was for seven or eight years.
So, and ironically, it says at that point, and it's back in about chapter 10. And there was peace in Jerusalem because Paul was out of town.
So, you know, he had a reputation. Yeah, he was zealous after he first converted, but, you know, he needed to wait a while.
So, and God knew that.
Well, so the mob is crying out away with him, and they're hauling him back in the barracks.
Now, they haven't gotten in the barracks yet. We'll pick it up in 30 seconds. I'll pick it up here.
So remember, they're hauling him into the barracks. And as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, may I say something to you? And he said, hey, do you know Greek? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led the 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness?
So this surprised the guy. They thought he was somebody else. Yeah, I thought he was somebody else. And also, I just chuckle when I see this very polite, this polite start to it. You know, here he's being hauled away.
People want to tear him limb to limb. The soldiers are taking him back in the barracks. And he says, excuse me, can I say something to you? And then since he says it in Greek, it really takes this guy aback. He goes, wait a second, I thought you were that revolutionary dude.
And then in 39, Paul comes back and says, No, I'm a Jew from Tarsus in Silesia, a citizen of no obscure city.
So I beg you. What would you expect him to say after this? I beg you, let me go. Let me go. He says, I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.
This is Paul. I'm just like, we have a ready-set crowd. We have people who are looking at me. I have the protection of an entire cohort, a Roman soldier to them.
So, with their protection, can I just stand up in front of him and say something? Which, at this point, if you were the guy in charge, if you were the tribute in charge of this cohort, you're going to wonder now, is he going to make Is it going to be more disorderly? Right, it's going to be worse. And I think he thinks, you know, maybe this will quiet the mob if we let this guy say something.
So, in verse 40, he agrees. He agrees while they're standing there about to take him into the barracks. He says, Well, okay.
Okay, Paul is surrounded by soldiers. That's what I mean. He's probably relatively safe. He's really nice. He's a little bit constricted here.
It's the best thing ever. He's up on steps. He can be seen. He's got, you know, maybe a thousand people there looking at him, waiting to hear what he's going to say. And he's got the protection of the best secret service you could ever have.
It's the Romans right around him.
So here we go.
So he takes the moment of this opportunity. And so, verse 40: So when he had given him permission, that is when the tribune had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. He's in charge. Yeah. And when there was a great hush, He addressed them in Hebrew language.
I can just see this is chaos. And he just waves his hands and they quiet to listen to him. And especially because he said it in Hebrew. Right. Yeah, so he's identifying with the mob by saying, I speak like you guys speak.
And so so there we go. Yeah. By the way, too, I was curious about that little side note about the Egyptian with his assassins. Oh, yeah, I looked into that too. Go ahead.
Well, what I found out was that at least Josephus, the Jewish historian, had written some years later that these guys, they were pretty well known, actually took over the Mount of Olives and declared from the Mount of Olives they were going to go down in the temple and take it over. Right. But they were pushed back and that never happened. But it was, it was, Josephus agrees with the numbers, it was a lot of men. But this reference to the assassins, they were actually known as dagger men.
Dagger men. And they made a habit of taking out Roman sympathizers by stabbing them right in broad daylight in a crowd. Right? If the crowd is packed tightly together, you could stab somebody and be away before they ever fell over.
So apparently that was quite, that was associated with this group called the assassins. And so they are assuming that Paul is the ringleader of one of these guys. The Romans are assuming that. Right, right. Right.
And they can't even tell, the Romans can't even tell looking at the crowd which of these people might be with Paul or not with Paul.
So it's just chaos. Yeah. So anyway, so Paul at his perch on these steps with this Roman protection addresses them in Hebrew, which surprises people. And then he says, and that's when we segue in the beginning of chapter 2, where in chapter 22, we're going to get the entire passage. Presentation that he speaks from these steps to all these people gathered in the temple, the temple open square area.
You want to read it from there? Yes. We're going to pick up what he's going to say. Listen to his very respectful address. Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you.
And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet.
Okay, so he's speaking their language, and they're like, okay, well, let's hear what he has to say. And he said, I'm a Jew, born in Tarsus in Silicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take also those who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished.
Okay, you need to go back to chapter nine of Acts and read. Really, the whole chapter describes what Paul was doing in his conversion experience. But this is interesting. He again makes reference to being born in Tarsus of Silesia, which Tarsus was an interesting place, right? And very historically significant.
But. He says he was educated at the feet of Gamaliel.
Well, we actually have a speech by Gamaliel back in chapter 5. Did you look back at that? I do. I have it right here.
Okay. Yeah. But this is when Peter and the Apostles had made a presentation and really ticked off all the leading Jews, right? And then they got arrested. And then they got arrested, yeah.
And then when they're trying to figure out what to do, verse chapter 5, verse 34, but a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, same guy, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, he stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while. And I won't quote after that. Go read it because it's a fascinating thing he suggests. It's really interesting. Gamaliel is a wise man and a careful thinker, and Paul had studied with him.
Yeah. And that was a while ago. That was now two decades before. Right. So Gamaliel has a name.
And so Paul is identifying with his people of saying, Look, I'm from the academic center of Tarsus, which was a big deal at the time. Educated by Gamaliel. You know him by reputation. He could have still been alive, in fact. And so he's really saying, you know, I persecuted Christians just like you are persecuting me right now, and even to the point of death.
I was zealous for God, as all of you are. He recognizes their zeal, right? And he says, writes in Romans, right, there's zeal for God, but without understanding, without knowledge. Exactly, exactly.
So he's really saying, you know, I start not too long ago, I was one of you, what you're doing right now, and what you're mad about, and why you want to kill somebody like I did. I was exactly in your shoes. And then something changed, and that's where he picks it up in verse 6.
Something happened.
So, as I was on my way and drew near to Damascus about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, Who are you, Lord? And he said to him, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. Wow.
We're going to stop there today because we can't finish the whole presentation. But here's the beginning of Paul's own telling of his conversion story, right?
Now, we read it in Luke's words back in chapter 9. But here we have Paul retelling it himself, and there's some interesting details that Luke didn't include. Yeah, yeah. And in fact, this is, I went counting how many times he tells this story. I mean, here, Luke tells us already in Acts 9, the narrative from his interviews.
But here, Paul will tell it in chapter 22. He'll tell it again to the Gentiles in chapter 26. He'll tell it roughly in his letter to Philippi, another very famous Pilot. And he'll tell it again in a similar form in 1 Timothy chapter 1.
So this is the first of four times we get to hear Paul tell his own story about what happened. But it is a dramatic change because he makes such a Positive case before this about look, I am the, I was one of the principal persecutors of the people you're persecuting. I was in your shoes, you know, I was studying the Gamali. It had to take something huge to happen to change my course. This is the something huge.
And what happened?
Well, God didn't appear to me on the road. Jesus did. Yeah, and he says a light from heaven, which is indicative of the glory of God. Exactly.
So I'm not saying that Jesus is not God, but what really inflames their hearing, they could have accepted this better if he said, God stopped me on the road. But he says, no, from heaven, Jesus stopped me on the road.
Now, okay, that's a big enough thing to change the conversation. With a light from heaven. Yeah, yeah. And a voice that I understood, but the people around me didn't understand. Yeah.
So this is, that's a big enough deal. And he's just telling the truth of what's happened in his life. And by the way, I'll just comment: when we talk about Jesus and who Jesus is, it's like Paul is right here. It's not a bad place to start and say, let me just tell you what happened to me. What happened to me as I came to Jesus?
Why did I come to Jesus? Was it an intellectual arm twisting? No, but something did happen. Let me tell you what that is. And your story is pivotal for people to understand the relevance of Jesus and who he is today.
And here, that's exactly what Paul is doing. He says, he's just saying, look, this is just what happened to me. And not just what happened to me, but what I used to be like. Right. The contrast is very.
How I became changed, right? I was just like you. Yeah. Matter of fact, I was more like you than you are. Right.
Well, and that's his point in his letter to Philippi, you know, it's a before and after picture. This is a before and after picture. And what's the in-between? The physical presence of Jesus Himself. Yeah, right there on the road.
Yeah. Yeah. Are we stunned? I'm anxious to hear the rest of the story, but we don't have enough time to get into it. And what's interesting, too, is Paul does not debate with Jesus on the road.
Like, look, I'm doing if I was in issues, I'd say something about look how zealous I am for you. Look, I even left Jerusalem. I'm on my way to Damascus. I'm, you know, I'm very ambitious for you. I'm zealous for you.
You've been waving the papers to kill people that are believing in you. Oh, wait. Yeah, so I would make a more defensive case. But his first snappy comeback from all of this, from all of this, is, what shall I do? Like, what shall I do, Lord?
Like, you know, now what do I do?
Well, yeah, it's very evident that he has fundamentally recognized that this is Jesus from heaven. He is submitting that he was wrong. Yep, he is submitting. And so, Jesus has specific instructions in his submission. Keep going to Damascus and go into Damascus.
And when you're there, I'll unveil basically your future to you. And he'll do it through this guy named Ananias. We'll see.
So, you know, how humiliating for Paul, who was all used to being in the know, used to being famous, used to being a powerful and then have be struck blind, even though temporarily. He didn't know at this point that it was temporary and humbled so that he had to be led by the hand into this city. Yeah, it's a remarkably effective teaching tool for Paul for God to say to him, look, you thought you were the one who knew what was going on. You don't know anything. You were actually blind the whole time.
And so just to kind of get that worked into your thinking, you're going to have to be led by the hand as you go into Damascus. And then you're just going to have to wait and someone tells you what I have in store for you. See, God could have told him what he had in store for him right here on the road. But he doesn't. He lets him stew for the amount of time it takes to get from here on the road into Damascus, into that room, and to wait for Ananias to show up.
Up just to kind of let him think about what he's been doing. Because I'm pretty sure, pretty sure that this is the first of maybe a decade of him thinking, I thought I had it right about who the Messiah was. And I was sure that Jesus was an imposter based on my knowledge of the Old Testament. I need to figure out where I got this wrong. And so God allows him for a few days or so.
to sit in darkness and think, what did I get wrong? How could I have been so blind? Right, right. Yeah, like the beginning of that movie that's got me. How could we have been so wrong?
Yeah, so I think that's what he's doing. And the blindness is just a very effective way for God to say to him, Paul, you've been blind through all this. But at the end of your blindness, I'll bring you some light and let you know where things are going to be going.
So it's just a remarkable picture of that.
Well, it's interesting that the Lord tells him, Paul says at this point, this man is going to come and tell you all that you are appointed to do.
So there is a to-do. There is a to-do, but you're going to have to wait until I give you a few days to digest what just happened to you. This made me think, too, as we're closing this out, about Paul's comments again to the letter of Philippi in chapter 3. And he says, he prays in verse 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.
Well, this is such a good example of how he has shared in his sufferings.
So Paul is walking in the footsteps of Jesus.
So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we want you to come back next time. And we'll finish the presentation from Paul here on More Than Inc. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org.
And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note.
Well, that was a good beginning. Paul has their attention. Yeah, and I wonder if he's going to hold their attention. I guess we'll have to wait till next time, right? Let's find out.
Okay, bye. Bye. We're going to talk about something.
Okay, okay. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
