Today’s message is from Acts 21:27-22:29. These verses give the account of how some Jews from the province of Asia (where the apostle Paul had spread the gospel and established churches) followed him to Jerusalem and stirred up a riot against him. These verses also give Paul’s defense against his accusers (which happens to be the story of his conversion while he was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians who were living there).

As always, as we read the passage, remember that we are reading the word of God. He has given it to us so that we can know him. The apostle Paul was able to say to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 2:16), “We have the mind of Christ.” What he meant was that he had learned to think the way Jesus thought (the word mind means thinking—We have the thinking of Christ). We study the word of God not just to learn some history, but to learn to think as Jesus thinks.

²⁷When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, ²⁸shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place.” ²⁹(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.)

³⁰The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. ³¹While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. ³²He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

³³The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. ³⁴Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. ³⁵When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. ³⁶The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Away with him!”

³⁹Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.” ⁴⁰Having received the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic: ^22:1“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”

Then Paul said: ³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. ⁴I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, ⁵as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

¹²“A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. ¹³He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.

¹⁴“Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. ¹⁵You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. ¹⁶And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’

¹⁹“‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. ²⁰And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.’

²³As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, ²⁴the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. ²⁵As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?”

Well, before I go on, let’s review a little bit. You remember that Paul was compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem—and this even though the Spirit was also telling him that there would be trouble and hardships and prison facing him. (Acts 20:22, 23) He told those who were trying to dissuade him that he was not only willing to be bound but also to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. (Acts 21:13)

Also remember that when Paul arrived in Jerusalem, he was received warmly by the believers. When he reported in detail all that he had done among the Gentiles, they praised God. But the church leaders (James and the elders) wanted to make sure that all the Jewish believers knew that Paul was not telling the Jews who were living among the Gentiles to turn away from the Law of Moses as some people had been saying. They told Paul that there were thousands of Jewish believers and that they were all zealous for the law. They asked Paul to go through a purification rite with four other men to show that he upheld the Jewish law and customs. Listen while I read verses 24 and 25 from last week’s passage:

²⁴“Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. ²⁵As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.” (Acts 21:24, 25)

Paul agreed to do what they asked and everyone was happy—that is, all of the Jewish believers were happy. The unbelieving Jews rioted. The reason I brought this up is that I want to contrast the reaction of the Jewish believers with the Jewish unbelievers.

Now, you might wonder why the Jewish believers thought it was important for them to keep the Law of Moses and not important for the Gentile believers (and these were ceremonial laws we’re talking about, not the Ten Commandments). One thing I know is this: They did not think that they needed to follow their Jewish customs in order to be saved. If they had thought that they did, they would not have been believers.

We are certainly saved by faith in Jesus Christ, not by following any customs or rituals (and not by doing good works either). (And speaking of ‘good works’, we do good works because we are saved, not the other way around. Jesus rebuked those who gave to the poor by announcing it with trumpets on the street corners to be seen by men. He said that that would be all the reward they would get—to be seen by men. (“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” –Matt. 6:2-4) We do good works because they are pleasing to God and because of the love that Christ has put into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. That’s why we do good works!) In any case, the Jewish believers would have known that they were not saved by rituals and customs, but by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for their sin—by his death and resurrection!

Now here’s something to think about: The Jewish believers in Jerusalem were very different ethnically and culturally from the Gentile believers in other parts of the Roman Empire. Yet, when they heard Paul’s report, they rejoiced. So let me ask this: How do we think about and treat believers who are ethnically and culturally different from us?

Now let’s go on to today’s passage. (Remember, I wanted to contrast the response of the Jewish believers with the Jewish unbelievers.) Verse 27 says that some Jews from the province of Asia came to Jerusalem and stirred up a riot. It says that they came from out of town, from the province of Asia. (Remember that it was in Ephesus that Paul taught for over two years and that the gospel spread throughout the province of Asia.) These men possibly came for the explicit purpose of making trouble for Paul. It wouldn’t have been the first time that they had followed Paul from one city to another to stir up trouble. (Do you remember Paul being stoned and left for dead in Lystra?) (I remember the campus riots back around 1970. It was reported that the trouble makers generally were not from the university that was experiencing the trouble but traveled from one campus to another to stir things up. They were from out of town, too.)

“Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place.” ²⁹(They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.) (Acts 21:28b, 29)

Did you notice the extreme language? ...all men ...everywhere ...against their people, their law and against this place (the temple)! They were wrong in every accusation. They had jumped to unwarranted conclusions about everything—about Paul having brought Gentiles into the temple area, too. Have you ever experienced anything like that? I’ve been on the receiving end of things like that (and probably on the giving end, too).

The result of what the trouble makers were saying is that a riot broke out and they were trying to kill Paul. What do you think caused all this irrational behavior? (It really was irrational, wasn’t it? It sounds like they were trying to protect God from someone who was teaching falsely about him.) Well, I’ll tell you in a word what caused their irrational behavior. It was pride!

And who was it that was behind the irrational behavior? Well, there were these guys that came from the province of Asia to stir up trouble. But ultimately it was Satan the devil who was behind this. Satan, in fact, is the very definition of pride! And Satan appeals to our pride—to the flesh (the sinful nature to use the NIV rendering). These unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem were proud of their religion and there ability to live by it. (Do you think they really had any ability to keep God’s commands? Do you think they were keeping God’s commands—or just keeping a bunch of rituals?)

Have you ever been caught up in anything like this—this kind of evil? Have you ever been tempted to participate? How do you resist it? Who do you resist? You resist the devil! How do you resist the devil? Here’s how (and you’ve heard this before). This is from 1 Peter 5:5b-10:

⁸Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

¹⁰And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:5b-10)

I say this every chance I get: Religion that says that you have to do it yourself ...religion that says you even can do it yourself is religion of pride. True religion is the religion that acknowledges that you can’t do it yourself—that you can only do anything at all through God’s grace and through his power. Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Poor means absolutely destitute—you can’t do anything to help yourself. You are completely dependent on others. If you are spiritually poor—poor in spirit—you know that you are completely dependent on God.

Now I want you to notice something else. These unbelieving Jews in Jerusalem were filled with hatred. They wanted to kill Paul. This comes from pride, too. Religions that are based on performance are subject to this kind of hatred. And the “Christian church” is not immune to it either. There have been persecutions by various factions throughout history. Anytime you make the Christian religion a religion that based on performance, you have pride and hatred. But, if your religion is based on God’s grace and mercy, then you have love.

Now what about the Jewish Christians who were zealous for the law? Luke says that he and Paul and the others were warmly received by the brothers (and you remember that Luke was a Gentile) and that the church leaders praised God for the work he had done among the Gentiles through Paul. Why did they think it was important for Paul to demonstrate that he hadn’t rejected the Jewish traditions? Do you think the rest of the church would have rebelled and rioted as the unbelieving Jews had done?

Well, I don’t think they would have rioted. But in the church, we have different ways of worshipping God. Some worship one way and some another. Each group of believers—each congregation or church—generally thinks their way is the best. (I have my opinions, too.) But do you think it’s loving to shove your way down someone else’s throat—your brother or sister in Christ? That’s what people thought Paul may have been doing in other cities. But they were wrong and the church leaders wanted to demonstrate that fact. (And by the way, I suppose the church in Jerusalem still had some pride. I didn’t try to check this out, but I suspect the purification rite was because Paul had been among the Gentiles. He would have had to purify himself according to the Jewish custom.)

Oh. I have one more question. Who was it that rescued Paul when they were trying to kill him? This was a violent mob! Luke says that the commander of the Roman troops took some men down to see what was happening. I would have thought that Paul would have been dead before he got there. But he wasn’t. The Holy Spirit had let Paul know that there would be trouble and that he would be imprisoned, but God still had work for Paul to do (some more scripture for him to write, too) so it was God who rescued Paul from death. The commander arrested Paul and ordered that he be taken to the barracks.

Now let’s go on to verse 37 and through chapter 22 verse 21. This is where Paul made his defense against the accusations that the troublemakers had made against him. Paul asked the commander for permission to speak to the crowd and the commander gave him permission. The commander gave him permission to speak to the crowd and the crowd listened to him. Paul started his speech by saying, “Brothers and fathers, listen to my defense.” He addressed these people who had been trying to kill him with respect—“brothers and fathers”. We should learn from that.

Now, you might think that Paul’s defense would have been something that would have been evidence that he had not been teaching against the Jewish people or the Law of Moses or against the temple. But his testimony was instead about what Jesus had done with him. Here’s what he said:

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. ⁴I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, ⁵as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.

^4bIf anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

⁷But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ— the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (Philippians 3:4b-9)

Paul had thought he was perfect—that he had kept the law perfectly. But there was one commandment that Paul admitted he couldn’t keep. It was the tenth: “Thou shalt not covet.” (Rom. 7:7-12) And I don’t think Paul coveted anyone’s riches or possessions. I think he would have said that that was beneath him. I think Paul wanted was to make himself perfect. He was proud. I think he envied anyone whom he thought was doing better at it than he was.

Do any of us envy anyone whom we think is doing better spiritually than we are? That kind of thing comes from the pursuit of legalistic righteousness. We need to humble ourselves and resist the devil. He will flee from us! Before Paul could do anything that Jesus had for him to do, he had to show him his helplessness. �Paul was blind and had to be led by the hand. It took something drastic to humble Paul! Blessed are the poor in spirit. (And remember, God’s purpose is for us to learn from this.) (And you also may remember that Paul had to have a thorn in his flesh, a messenger from Satan, to keep him from becoming proud. He asked Jesus to take it away from him three times. But Jesus told him, “My grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9)

Ananias was a Jewish believer. He also kept the Law of Moses. �(That’s what the Jewish believers in Jerusalem wanted to do.) Jesus sent Paul to Ananias. Ananias called him ‘brother’: “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” (By the way, for any of you who may not know, Saul and Paul are the same person.) Paul received his sight. It was God’s power!

But let me ask this: Why didn’t Jesus just restore Paul’s sight. Why did he send him to Ananias? I’ll tell you why I think. I think that if it had been me and I had had my sight restored directly, I would have thought, “I don’t need anyone else. I have a direct relationship with Jesus.” It makes you humble when God works through people. If you have to depend upon someone else to receive your eyesight back, it harder to think, “I’m better than that person.

And you see that Paul, when he quoted what he had said to Jesus in verse 19, was again telling the crowd how he had persecuted the Christians: “See, I was just like you. And Jesus changed me.” And this was how Paul made his defense—not by trying to prove that the unbelieving Jews were wrong in their accusations, but by proving the grace and power and mercy of God.

Luke says that the unruly mob listened to Paul quietly until he told them that Jesus had sent him far away from Jerusalem to the Gentiles. Then they shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!” Pride. You take away their exclusivity as God “chosen people” and they become an unruly mob again. How much we want to think that we are special—that we are better than everyone else! But we are special. By God’s grace and gift, we are sons of God and brothers of Christ (and sisters and daughters, too).

I thought it was interesting that they just took Paul’s word that he was a Roman citizen. Either people were much more honest then than we are now (they may have been, but I don’t think they were that honest) or the penalty was so severe for falsely claiming to be a Roman citizen that no one did it (I’m sure it was severe, but I doubt if death would have deterred some people). But there’s a third explanation. God intervened. I know that God has intervened a lot of times in my life. Hasn’t he intervened in yours, too?