11-1-26 Study of Acts Chapter 21:17-26 Pauls Arrest Part 2 Positive Testimony

And I would suggest that basically you take this and use it towards your own self assessment of your own life because you’re hold accountable for that. And you need to make sure that that piece of this venture is, is in tune with what God wants your life to be. So we’re going to begin to get into chapter 22. But the text that we’re going to be talking about is starting in chapter 21, verse 27. It runs to the end of 22. Now, we’re not going to get through this today. All of it. It’s too much to unpack.

We’re going to get through whatever we get through and, and we’ll pick it up next time. So, so the thing that I think that’s important is this is a, this is a narrative. This is, this is not doctrine, this is not theology. This is a historical narrative of Paul’s life. But the narrative that is put forth through Scripture is, is what we live in today. So, so you’ll know that this, this particular passage puts in perspective Paul’s ministry as a prisoner. Prisoner, okay. Somebody under persecution, somebody under distress, somebody that’s insecure, somebody that things are not going well.

He has, he’s been free since his ministry began in the ninth chapter of Acts. And he has roamed, as we talked about, and wandered under the Spirit’s direction without any bonds at all. Now, the closest he has come to being a prisoner for any length of time occurred in Philippi. We talked about that, where he was in jail. And the Lord knew it wasn’t time yet for his prison ministry to start. So he sent an earthquake and the whole jail fell apart and he walked out. But up until that, this time he has been free. But beginning here now in chapter 21, he becomes a prisoner.

And as a prisoner, we find that he gives six separate defenses of his actions. Okay, now this is, this is critical Points for you too, because these actions that he takes are actions that you can take in similar circumstances. And, and the first defense begins in chapter 21, verse 18, and the second is in 22, verse 30 and etc. Etc. All the way through to the end of the book. Now, now you’ll notice if when you read this, that the six defenses are given before the mob. Remember, there’s a riot. The riot was at Ephesus, right? And then he went to Jerusalem, so forth and so on before the council.

The second, the third and fourth were before the governors who were Felix and Festus. The fifth one was before the king and the last before the Jews. Now also, there are three cities involved. The first two came in Jerusalem, the next in Caesarea, and the final in Rome. And as, as the result of the first accused, the next absolved, and the last awaiting trial. So there you have the basic defenses that Paul gives in regard to himself and the things which he has done, which must be answered in terms of those who would accuse him. And so in each case, he defends himself.

Well, that’s another point to, to consider here. You’re not to be a doormat. Nowhere in scripture does it tell you to be a doormat. And you need to be bold in defending your faith in Jesus Christ. And that’s what Paul is doing here. But he uses it as an opportunity to present again the truth which he has proclaimed so faithfully through the years of his ministry. Now, in study of chapter 21, we’re going to come to the first of these defenses. And, and, and I suppose that every Christian is faced at times with the dilemma of how to give a positive testimony in a negative situation.

We, we humans, okay, as I thought about this pretty much all night, we humans have, have our approach towards what’s going on to us. We have the same approach outward. In other words, if you have negative coming to you, you typically react negatively. If you have positive coming to you, you typically act positive. Now what’s the problem with that? Well, take a magnet. When you got two ends of the same, what happens? They push back. Okay? They don’t come together. So when you look at yourself and you say, before you say anything, think about what’s coming to you, think about what is being said, how it’s being said, who’s saying it, whatever.

And your reaction needs to be complete opposite. Why? Because you want to draw them into you. To do what? Tell them the truth. So in some of us have been in those situations where we sort of let out a little peep about our faith. And the whole world seems to clamber after us and try to shut us up. And then we face the battle about whether we ought to say anything at all. Well, you’ve been given indication that you’re a Christian and somebody has rained down fire and brimstone. And so every time the opportunity presents itself to open your mouth, you sort of struggle inside.

You don’t, you don’t know what to do. Or maybe you’re out. As I was a day last week, I happened to be. I happened to be out talking to some people and there was a guy that was wanting to bump into the conversation and he was kind of loud and he was anti religious and used the name of Jesus Christ quite at liberty. And so inside of myself, I was saying to myself, I don’t want to talk to this guy. I won’t talk at all to this guy. But since he was so concerned with the talking about Jesus Christ ought to be at least willing to join his conversation and maybe turn it around directionally.

Well, a battle in my own mind, just like you would. And I didn’t think I said anything to him for a while, but when I did, I said, this is ridiculous. Because here I am discussing with myself what, whether I ought to intrude in his life with Jesus Christ. And so we were walking along and I just said, you know, I have to talk to you about Jesus. And he said, well, you know, that’s important to me. We just had a new baby and we don’t have any faith in our family and we’re looking for one.

And so away we went. And so he’s, he’s the, he’s one of the newest members of the, the people who download our ministry now. But you know, all of us have those times that we struggle. And it isn’t necessarily a negative situation, but it can be created into a negative situation when we fear our ego may get stepped on. But there are some really negative situations. Some of us get into situations where great disaster occurs and then the whole world watches to see whether our faith is any good or not. Now here’s something that we need to consider.

How do you give a positive testimony in a negative situation? Well, I think a good way is to learn how is to watch a man who did it, number one, as an example. And rather than just listen to precepts about it, which we could do all day long, we’ll sort of recite to you from First Peter. I want you to see a man who did that very thing in his own life and see if he can’t draw some conclusions with me as we go through this. Now, most Christians testimonies are given in a church environment. It is, it’s comfortable to do it there.

You feel comfortable, but the best testimony is where you feel uncomfortable. Now you’re getting somewhere. Okay, you’re out of your comfort zone. Are some of us give within a group of Christians where we get up and tell everybody who knows the Lord how wonderful the Lord is and we all say, yes, he’s so wonderful. And then we sit back down and go on to the next one. And by the time it’s all over, you don’t remember what anybody said really. Now I’m not downing testimony among believers. I think it’s very important. Matter of fact, when, when we get together in small groups, we do it all the time.

It’s great for the expectation and encouragement in that environment. But as we come to the Apostle Paul, we see a man who knew how to take a negative situation and make it into a positive testimony. Now, if we saw in chapter 20, his courage and in 21, the first 15 verses or so, his humility, as we talked about last time, we, we saw that even though the message last, last time on a ladder into the chapter, we saw those things earlier. What we’re going to see now is his boldness. I mean, there were ingredients to all of this and there are ingredients that make for a great man.

One is conviction and then the courage to hold up to those convictions. And two is humility. And another one is boldness. And we’re going to see that one in our discussion this morning. Now, just as a footnote, as a prisoner, from here on out, we ought to get some idea how Paul viewed his imprisonment, because that’s how Acts ends. Okay? And just to give you a point of reference in this so that you can make some type of contact, I would call your attention to Ephesians, chapter three and verse one where it says, for this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ, for you Gentiles.

Now, I want you to keep in the back of your mind as we finish the book of Acts. Paul never viewed his situation as anything other than God authored. Remember, God controls everything, both good and bad. You’re to give thanks, both good and bad, okay? You’re to live in faith, both good and bad. You’re not to change, go to bed. So Paul is the example that takes every situation in his life and, and makes it with an understanding of God authorized it. And if God authorized it, how should he act? He never viewed his imprisonment as an imprisonment by men.

He didn’t say, I write unto you. Paul, a prisoner of Rome, didn’t say that he was always a prisoner of Jesus Christ. It was Christ who brought him into such predicaments. Think about that. What did I say? You need a plan in your strategic life. Persecution because of two things. One, you grow and two, you’re able to witness you have a captive audience. In Philippians, he says, my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace. He never saw himself as a prisoner of men. He saw himself only as a prisoner of the will of Christ.

And so consequently his imprisonment represented nothing but a new ministry. It didn’t mean the end of anything. It meant the beginning of something new. He said, my bonds in Christ are made manifest in all of the palace. And at the end of Philippians he says, the saints greet you chiefly that are of Caesar’s household. See, Paul looked at this as a question of winning people to Christ who were available to be reached through prison. And you gotta love what he says when he says, I may be bound, but the Gospel is not bound. And so he never says his imprisonment as having anything to do with men, but always with God.

And God uses him to give a glorious testimony, positive witness in every one of those trials each even though they were all negative situations, self assessment. Now, as we move towards verse 27 of Acts chapter 21, we, we should be reminded that Paul is. Has arrived in Jerusalem. He has tried to conciliate the Jewish Christians. Remember, he went to the. He paid for the men for the Nazarite vow. He went and did it with him, blah, blah, blah, blah blah, as the council requested that he did. The Jewish Christians there in Jerusalem had heard that he was an arch subversive now that he was anti Jewish and that he was thrown out of all the Jewish customs.

And he was against everything that had been the ceremony and tradition of the Jewish life. But that was not true. Paul was himself still very much Jewish. I mean, he was at the feast of Pentecost. That’s Jewish. That’s an observing, a feat. He attended the synagogues on Sabbath. He had taken a Nazarite vow himself in chapter 19 and shaved his own head. He was involved in all things of these various traditions. Now Paul had not thrown out all the Jewish traditions. He was in transition. Trans. Okay. And it was taking time for those old things to die.

Just like you. All right, Things don’t happen in a light switch. You find yourself going off and just putt. Putting around and all Of a sudden you say, why did I do that? Well, because it’s been in your life for so long, it just becomes second nature, okay? And you’ve got to work on it. Now, he arrived in a town with all of his Gentile buddies, all of his friends, and he came there with the purpose of bringing the money, if you recall, to the Jerusalem Saints because they needed it and to show love from the Gentiles church.

His welcome was good from some, but others were greatly concerned because the tens of thousands of Jewish Christians thought he was a subversive, okay, Going against the Jewish tradition. And so in order to kind of change his reputation for in the Jewish people, they had him go to the temple, remember, fulfill a Nazarite vow with the other four guys, pay the bill for the whole thing, in hopes that the Jewish Christians would say, hey, if he would do that, he’s certainly not anti Jewish as we’ve been lied led to believe, okay? And so he did it.

Now, we talked about this. I’m convinced, though the text says nothing about it, that it must have had a positive effect on Jewish Christians. Well, why? Because it doesn’t say anything about it. All right? If it was going to be a negative outcome, I think the scriptures would have told us it didn’t have any effect at all on Jews, Jewish, non Christians, none whatsoever. And we meet them as we’re introduced to the Mob in verse 27. And like any mob, even today, you know how to describe a mob? A mob is a body of people with no head.

There’s no leader. There’s just a group of people that have been told what to do. And this mob is no different than any other mob. They’re a wild, maniacal group of people who in a frenzy try to murder the Apostle Paul. And they haven’t got the foggiest idea what they’re doing or why they’re doing it. But that’s rather typical of a mob even today. Now the text again, which is quite lengthy, falls into five parts and it runs all the way through chapter 22, verse 30, just to get the entire first phase of his defense in.

That’s the full passage of this. And we’re not going to tent do all that, but just kind of get in on the first couple of things and we’ll pick it up next time. And it begins with point one, number one, the attack of the mod. We see that beginning in verse 27 and when the seven days were almost ended. Now you’ll recall that we said last time that the particular Nazarite vow, which was a Jewish way, a Jewish custom way of expressing gratitude to God for a special deliverance. Well, these people were involved in this vow who were joined by Paul, needed to finish up a seven day purification process.

Now at the end of the seven days they offered sacrifices and it was done, it was over with. So that is the seven days referred to in verse 27, the seven days of finishing up the Nazarite vow. And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews who were in of Asia, now that’s a reference not to China, but to Asia Minor and was, it was a Roman province, if you recall. It was the providence which the city of Ephesus, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Thyatira, Sardis, Smyrna, those cities referred to in Revelation chapters two and three. So some of the Jews who were from Asia, when they say here him in, when they see him say in the temple, do, do you think they recognized him? How many years had he spent in Asia in the city of Ephesus? At least three.

And in those three years he had not only a dramatic effect on Ephesus, but established a church there and taught day and night in the school of Tyrannius, if you recall. But it also created tremendous havoc in the synagogue. So I bet the Jews from Asia may well have known that who this man was, okay? And the reason why is the mention of Asia and the mention of Trophimus in verse 29, who was in Ephesians. And they know him. So the fact that they know Trophimus trophy must indicated that they must have been somehow connected to Ephesus.

Connecting dots for you. And the fact that they were so uptight about Paul indicates they might have been a part of that synagogue in Ephesus that Paul devastated for Christ. He moved into that place and he wanted even the leader of the synagogue. So when they saw Paul, these Ephesians, or at least these Asia Minor Jews, they really saw their opportunity to get it. Now there’d been a riot back in Ephesus, if you remember earlier in the book of Acts. And they tried then to kill Paul, but cooler heads prevailed at that time and they couldn’t accomplish it.

The same people were the ones that came to Rome, okay, But now they really saw their opportunity because there was an entire city of Jews. It didn’t say Jewish Christians, it said Jews. Okay, put this in context. You see, Gentiles had squashed the riot earlier, but now there weren’t any Gentiles to do that in the sense of population. It was a mass of Jews. And they saw their opportunity to do this. Think of yourself. You ever been bullied? Have you truly ever been bullied by a group? That’s exactly what you can imagine what this was. And when they saw him in the temple, it gave them time to stir up the people.

Stirring the pot. Okay? The interesting thing, the word stirred up, though there are other English statements stirred in the New Testament, the actual Greek word used here is only used at here. And it means that they were confused. They confused the mob. Mobs are always confused, as we just said. And they laid hands on Paul. So here’s Paul in there finishing up his Nazarite vow. And a whole bunch of these Jews from Ephesus descended on him, grab him. And they stir up the confusion of the mob. And this crying and yelling that we find in verse 28, crying out, Men of Israel, help.

So they got Paul and they stirred up a mob. Now, when they had a mob in Jerusalem at feast time, they had a mob, okay? A big mob. Historians tell us that it could be up to 2 million people. If you read historian recalls from this time, 2 million people milling around the city at feast time. Now, the term Pentecost, and it was the feast of Pentecost that we’ve seen in our past studies. Paul wanted to get there at Pentecost. And that was a time when people really moved in Jerusalem from everywhere. That’s why those ancient Jews were there.

It signifies the 50th pinta means 50. And this is the 50 days of Passover. And it was the Old Testament feast of harvest, sometimes called the feast of weeks and sometimes called the day of the first fruits, just to put it all in context with numbers. Now it celebrates the first fruits of the wheat harvest. And so it was that celebration. But after the exile, it had become kind of a different celebration. It was said that the Torah, the law, and the law of Moses was given 50 days after Exodus. So the feast of Pentecost then became associated with the celebration of the birthday of the law.

Now, mark that, because that’s going to be very important, because it’s going to help us understand the attitude of the people. They were in the midst of a celebration of the law, which means they were celebrating Jewishness to the nth degree. And at this particular celebration, the concentration on the Law leads me to conclude two things as I study this. One, the fact that Paul wanted to be there indicates that he does revere the law. In fact, he says in Romans 7, I delight in the law of God. So he wasn’t anti Jewish law. He wasn’t anti law, period.

In that sense. He delighted in God’s law. But the fact also, secondly, that it was a Jewish celebration of the law means that the crowd was hyper concerned about the law itself and its sanctity. Okay? Just like communion of the, of what we do. All right. They took it at bold construction that if, if you were going to attend this feast, you were going to attend it with all aspects of your being constructed by the control of the law. And so anybody who stood in blatant opposition would be the most flagrant kind of violator of the very thing they were celebrating.

And that tends to create the kind of antagonism that this group uses to really try to kill Paul. So they stir up the crowd and the headless mob and they start yelling, help. And of course, that’s just as if some blasphemy had occurred or some terrible defamation of the character of God or the character of Moses. This is some slander that has occurred. Desecration of the sanctuary. And they cry out, men of Israel, help. And then they announce the problem. This is the man, and they’ve got him by now. That teaches all men everywhere against the people and the law in this place.

Well, number one, that’s a fairly broad indictment. It teaches all men everywhere. Paul didn’t go everywhere. Okay, number one, that’s too much of a generalized statement, and it’s all inclusive. And notice the accusation here against the people. Well, the first accusation is he is anti Semitic. Now that would be a little difficult to really accuse an individual of being anti Semitic when he’s a Jew. How does that happen? How does a Jew be anti Semitic? Oh, anti Semitic. That’s a, that’s another study for another day. But remember, that was a. The anti Semitic was a, was a term created by the Rothchild Hyde, hired by a, a, a gentleman shown to create this as the vehicle by which the ROA could make sure that every country following the scripture would not go against the state of Israel instead of the nation of Israel in order to create a facade about the agenda of the state of Israel.

Okay, if it was anti anything, it would be anti Semitism, right? Because Shim’s the one that created this, the Jewish population. So no man ever yet hated his own flag, right? Well, unless you get into America and you just get, you don’t even understand really what in the world’s going on. Why would they accuse him of being anti Jewish? Well, this is an accusation that is still, by the way, going on today. We, we have it in our own country, with our own people, Jewish people have never been able to live with the fact that of the conversion of a Jew to Christ.

Orthodox Jews today are that way, you see, because the Jewish person associates his religion with his race historically. And today it’s not so much like that, but historically, Jews connected with a religion through the race in a way that is indivisible, all right? That it is connected. And so when somebody gave up his religion, he gave up his race. In their mind, that’s how they looked at it. That’s why you’ve heard about Jewish people that have come to Christ and been ostracized from their family. So the Jewish mind is tantamount to absolute rejection of Judaism when in fact, if they knew anything about the word of God, it’s just complete to Judaism because Jesus is the Messiah.

Now we’re painting a picture here for you to understand the conditions of what’s going, what’s going on with Paul and the reason for his first defense. Think about all the things in your life where people use whatever they want to, to come against you, even to talk behind your back to other people in order to gain more people on their side. So when they come at you, they’re coming at, they come at you in strength. That’s typically what happens in today. And the one who would reject the Messiah would be rejecting his own Judaism. If you want to know who the real rebel is against Judaism, it’s the unbelieving Jew who will not accept his Messiah, not the Christian.

The Christian Jew is the only one who has accomplished that which God has designed to be accomplished through Judaism, that has faith in his Messiah, who came and died and, and rose living, interceding today. So the first thing they did was accuse him of anti Semitism. This was a common thing. And, and we find that it really created a problem then. Because. They really didn’t want to do anything other than follow the law. They gave no ability for the Christian to even have an argument. And in fact, the, the, the people at this time were in complete opposition to Christ.

So they said he’s against the people and against the law. And at the time of, of it, of this year, at this particular point in time of the feast of Passover, Pentecost, that kind of accusation would really flip everybody out because they were celebrating the law. And then they said he’s against the law. They meant he’s anti God, he’s anti Moses, he’s anti Biblical. And then to sum it all up, and then he was against this place that is, in the Temple. Well, the mobs in Jerusalem weren’t very inconsistent. They always followed the same pattern. Oh, what does that tell you? That’s exactly how Lucifer works.

His playbook never changes. It’s always going to be the same. Mobs don’t really have a lot of brains. But when in Jerusalem, no matter what the occasion, they came up with the same thing. And it got me into thinking about Acts 9, Acts 6 9, if you remember an earlier fellow by the name of Stephen. Stephen was a preacher, not unlike Paul. And in verse nine, they arose certain in the synagogue which is called the synagogue of the Liberty Libertines, the Syrians and the Alexandrians of them. And in Asia, arguing with Stephen. Now, various Jewish groups that came from other countries established their own fellowships, their own synagogues.

So Stephen was, interestingly enough, pretty much a preacher to Hellenistic Jews, Jews from outside of Jerusalem. They got into an argument with Stephen. Oh, argument, all right, argument’s good. But they couldn’t handle him. He turned it around on them. He was positive, they were negative. Verse 10 says they weren’t able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. He was taught he was saying the truth. He was too much for them. And so when you can’t argue with any, anyone on a logical basis, you revert to violence. You just beat them up. So they got some in and they said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.

Well, blaspheming Moses is something, but God also. What they were doing was stirring up the people and the elders and the scribes and came on him and caught him and dragged him into the council. And they paid off all witnesses. It’s amazing how religion is so pure in its own worship. Corporate religion is man made, remember, and yet so impure in the dealing with other things. They set up false witnesses. In other words, they play politics to achieve their objective. They bribe people to give false testimony. The man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against the holy place.

So they accused him of blaspheming the law, blaspheming God, blaspheming the temple. And we heard him say, this Jesus of Nazareth would destroy this place and change the custom which Moses delivered us. And all that sat on the council looked steadfastly on him. And they saw his face as it had been the face of an angel. Well, that’s just divine rebuke. But they said the same thing essentially back in Acts chapter 21 against Paul. And if you Want to go back to Jesus. Basically, they accused him of the very same thing, violating the law. Now the accusations were general.

However, they really couldn’t do much to the guy for that. So they came up with a specific in verse 28 and further, this is really what he’s done that’s bad. He brought Greeks into the temple and polluted the holy place. Now that’s a very strong accusation. You say. How do they know he did that? Well, verse 29 says they had seen him in the city. Trophimus and Ephesian, who they supposed Paul had brought into the temple. Supposed, Alleged they didn’t see him in the temple. Not factual. They just assumed and supposed that. Okay, your assumptions, your opinion are worth a nickel and a cup of coffee if that.

If you’re going to accuse somebody, accuse them of the truth, not what you think. Part of the issue that we have is because we bring it on ourselves. We’re so self indulged with what the outcome is that we want, we don’t even consider what the truth is. There was no evidence. This is all a lie. Maybe Paul did bring him in. He didn’t. Well, you might say. How do you know he didn’t? Well, because that would really be stupid, number one. You mean Paul just spent seven days going through a Nazarite vow to convince the Jews that he honored their customs and then he turns right around and hauls a Gentile in there? Come on, where’s the logic in that? Give me more credit than that.

He’s not going to undo one act. All he’s done in seven days. And I’m going to tell you something else. If he had dragged Trophimus in there, he would have dragged him in there at the cost of his life. And he wouldn’t have done it that to his friend. Of course Paul didn’t take Trophimus into the temple, the sacred place. Trophus was a Gentile, it says in verse 21. He was an Ephesian. And for a Gentile to enter the temple was terrible. The Gentiles could only go to the outer court. In fact, since that was true, it became known as the court court of the Gentiles.

And between that and the inner court, which is the next court, was called the court of the Women. And it got that name because the women could go into that court and then further on in the men went. And then of course the priest and the high priest all the way to the holy of holies. But in the outer court, the Gentiles could Go now between the outer court and inner court, which was the court of the woman, the temple treasury was barricade. And periodically among the pillars on the barricade were placed signs. And they were written in two languages, Latin and Greek, so that all of the pagans could read them.

This is what those signs basically said. Interesting enough, we find two of these from Herod’s temple. Archaeologists discovered it in 1871 and another one in 1935. And they both say the same thing. No man of alien race is to enter within the barricade that goes around the temple. And if anyone is taken in the act, let him know that he has himself to blame for the penalty of death that follows. Now, anybody went in there as a Gentile died. And the Romans honored that law. They knew how sacred it was to the Jews and in fact was a way of keeping Gentile religion and Gentile gods and idols out of the temple.

It was sort of a stopping point of intrusion of the system of the world, and they didn’t let it be violated. When. And so when these guys said they took Greeks into the temple, that was just enough to stir up everybody and give a justification for the murder of Paul. Now, what’s interesting about that is even if Paul had taken Trophimus in there, it would not have been Paul that died, it would have been Trophimus. So it shows that the whole thing was out of whack all the way down the line. Now, Paul couldn’t be killed for going in there.

He was a jerk. If anybody got killed, it would be the Gentiles who violated. And so this whole thing was a pretense. And all in all of the confusion, the mob had no idea what they were doing, which is like any other mob today. Now, in verse 30, it says all the city was moved. Well, of course, it is a time of feast. The whole city was outdoors, milling all around, and they all ran together, took Paul, drew him out of the temple, and at once the doors were shut. They wanted to make sure they got him out of there so they would could go on worshiping God number one while they killed God’s anointed.

Amazing how they did this. Well, look at what they do today. Same thing. This is what they did at the trial of Jesus as well. There’s nothing new underneath the sun, guys. They wanted to make sure they didn’t violate the Sabbath while they executed the Messiah. They made sure they didn’t violate any of the things that were going on at that particular time. They didn’t want to enter into the house of the Gentiles at all, because they would defile themselves. They stayed outside and screamed for the blood of the Messiah. Well, isn’t it strange, the confusion of religion? When you have form without reality, you have absolute chaos.

It just can’t work. Religious form without reality doesn’t make any sense. That’s what most people’s religion is today. So we see the attack of the mob. Fortunately, in the great province of God, the life of Paul was not yet over. And God had some days yet to extend to his ministry. And so God activated the Romans. And secondly, we have the arrest by the Romans of Paul. Now this is kind of a soldiers to the rescue thing. They came to Paul’s rescue. And it’s in verses 31 to 36, what happened? Well, outside the tipple area now you can just imagine that the temple make say that this temple was the pulpit area in any given church.

Okay, it’s a big huge area. But butted right up against it on the north side was Fort Otonia. In Fort Antonia I had a great tower. And from that tower there was a clear observation of the temple court. And it was garrisoned at feast time by at least a thousand Roman soldiers, highly trained, skilled riot squads. Well, the one great thing that the Roman government wanted in its colonies and its possessions was civil order. They didn’t tolerate disorder, they didn’t tolerate from the people, or any commander who allowed it was in real trouble. And so they had an observation tower to watch because of what went on in terms of congregating in the temple courtyard.

And this garrison of at least a thousand men in the temple right there on the northwest wall of the temple yard. Well, the soldiers were at this, in this tower, looking down at what was going on. We find in verse 31, as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band. That’s not a musical band, that’s the band of soldiers that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. They could see that a big deal was was going on in the courtyard and they had to get that riot squad ready. These were highly trained men.

They were ready to move out. Notice the chief captain. The Greek word is chalarch, which is means a thousand. In fact, the old designation of the millennial was this word because it’s a thousand year kingdom. Chilius were those who believed in the thousand year and literal kingdom, and it means a thousand. So it’s always easy to tell the Roman structure of soldiers just from that. There were, there are centurions how many would it be? Over 100,000. Okay, so here was the chief guy, the head of the thousand. His name is given in chapter 23 as Claudius Lucias.

And history tells us he was a man of some considerable character and ability, and so he was in charge of all of this. And so the word came that the whole city was in an uproar, and he acted immediately. And the whole thing didn’t take but a matter of minutes. He immediately took the soldiers in verse 32, and the centurions and round ran right down into the middle of it. Now, from Fort Antonia to the courtyard was a series of steps so that they could come right down into the courtyard. They didn’t have to go around anywhere.

They didn’t have to go around the fence and come into the gate. They went right down into the courtyard. They had access and civil control because of it. So they came barreling down the stairs and bursting through the crowd, the soldiers and the centurions. And when they saw the chief captain, and apparently old Claudius was standing up there looking over this whole thing and sending the soldiers barreling into the crowd, they stopped beating Paul. Now, I bet you by the time they got there, they had done quite a bit of pummeling him already and pounding him, kicking him, hitting him with their fist in the face, as they had been doing for whatever minutes they had until the soldiers arrived.

But when the soldiers got there, the chief captain assumed he already in his mind by this time, had a good idea who this guy was. He was wrong, but he already had an idea. And so he figured, I’ll make a formal arrest and then I’ll find out what the charges are. Verse 33. The Chief Captain came near, took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains and demanded who he was and what he had done. Now he, this commander assumes that he’s guilty of something. He assumes the crowd wouldn’t do this unless he was guilty of some crime.

And I think it’s interesting that this is actually fulfilled prophecy. I can almost imagine Paul saying, yes, what Agabus told me in Caesarea has just come to pass. If you go back to chapter 21, verse 11, Agabus the prophet said he came to town. He said, my by a picture that you’re going to get down. What did he do? He took Paul’s belt, bound his hands and feet, and said, thou said, the Holy Spirit says, the Jews of Jerusalem are going to bind the man that owns the belt and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles.

Well, that’s the prophecy that came to pass. The Jews had captured him, they’ve got him held and they deliver him to the Gentiles who claim him. The prophecy has come true. And they did it because they assumed that he was a rebel leader. Well, Romans were good at trying to bring about justice. And so this guy wanted to find out what the demands were that had been made against him, what he was accused of, who he was and what was going on. It’s an inquisition. And so he demanded who he was and what he had done.

In verse 33, typically mob style, here comes the answer in 34. And some cried one thing, some among the multitude. And when he could not know the certainty for their turn mall he commanded him to be carried into the barracks. He couldn’t get any information out of the crowd. They were all hollering, all different things, typically mob psychology. Nobody had the faintest idea what was going on. They were just in on the thing and that’s how it was. And they were screaming and yelling and he couldn’t get an answer. Well, that’s exactly what goes on today.

So he commanded him to be carried into the barracks for his own safety. And I think we find that in verse 35 because. And when he came upon the stairs, they dragged Paul out of the crowd and they came to those stairs that ascended back up to fort, atoning it. And so it was that he was born of the soldiers because of the people. They had to put him over their heads and the soldiers had to carry him up those stairs because the people were pulling and tearing and grabbing at him. The disappointed crowd had been robbed of its prey and now it was pushing and shoving and screaming what it had screamed 25 years before to the master, the Messiah.

Same thing. Do you notice any difference today? Come on guys, this is not new. It’s been going on for a while. This is Satan’s attack of the church. Now look in verse 36 for the multitude of the people followed after, crying what? Away with him, Away with him. And that’s what they said to Jesus, if you recall, that means kill him. So the screen screaming of the mob, kill him. Kill him. And he can’t figure out the chief captain can’t what he has done or even who he is. Do you know what’s amazing in all this? When you look at this whole first thing, that first defense that Paul puts up.

Paul hasn’t struggled or said one thing. See, the passage that we just looked at through verse 36 was the last part of the last week, the Last time that we really never got to. And last time. My point was to try to show you the humility of Paul, if you recall. Let me sort of give you a reminder of that. I don’t know if there’s any virtue. God helped me to learn this. By the way, if there’s any virtue as great as humility, it’s humility that is usable. It’s when I am nothing but an empty vessel that God can fill me.

It’s when I am just a tool to be used that God can use me. It’s when I try to do it myself that I get all messed up. Paul was humble. Now I reminded you that I saw his humility in three great ways in this passage. Number one, he submitted everything to God. When he first comes back in verses 19 and 20 and he give. He’s giving the report about his missionary tour. He says unto them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles. The man did never interject himself into any accomplishment of God.

Self assessment. When have you not taken credit for something? Look what I did. It was always what God did. Absolutely submissive to God. All he wanted to do was glorify God. That’s humility. Humility is when I want to glorify God, not myself. And you can tell to what degree you’re humble by how hard the struggle is for you to glorify God. Well, you may say, well, I gave it all to God. I give it all the glory to God. It took me three days to do it, but I did it. Well, I can say that’s one degree of humility.

I think you can determine your humbleness by how much you struggle before you’re willing to give him all the glory. You still want a little for yourself. You haven’t learned the lessons of humility yet, Paul. All he ever did was God did this and God did that and it happened to be part of it. It was wonderful to see what he was doing. Submitted to God. Now the second thing about his humility submitted to God’s authority on earth. God had given him authority in the church to the elders. And when the elder said, paul do this, he never said one word, he just did it.

God gave us a classic illustration of a humble man who submitted to God, who submitted to God’s authority on earth. Wow, we need to really think about that. And thirdly, he submitted to God’s plan. Even though it involves suffering. Humility submits to God, to others, and to God’s will. Even though it involves suffering, suffering at the hands of the world. I can’t deal with this anymore. I just feel sick. I can’t think. Boy, when you submit to God, all that goes away. All it goes away. So the we see the attack of the mob and the arrested by the Romans.

Now we’re going to see the apology of Paul. Now we’re just going to barely get into this, I think. What do you mean apology? Well, look at verse one of chapter 22. Men, brethren and fathers, hear ye my defense. The word defense in Greek is apology from which we get apology or apologetic. Apologetics is a speech in defense of. An apology is a speech in defense of. Nowadays an apology has a negative meaning. Matter of fact, there’s people out there even in church says you shouldn’t apologize about anything. It’s used to have a positive meaning. To give an apology was to give a reason for your behavior or for a reason in for your faith or reason for what you believe in a speech in defense up.

To speak in behalf of in the Greek, to speak in defense up. So this is his apology, his speech in his own defense. And I’m telling you something, it’s exciting, it’s biographical, it’s incidental, it’s testimony of his experience and what God has done in his life. Let’s watch how Paul makes an opportunity out of a negative situation beginning in verse 37. Now, as Paul is being led into the barracks, he said unto the chief captives, he asked him a question, May I speak unto thee? I’m not going to speak just to speak unless you give me the ability to speak.

May I speak unto thee? That statement shocked the captain. You say why? He says, can you speak Greek? Greek was a language of the culture. Greek was the language of the educator. Greek was the language of those who had been outside Jerusalem and educated elsewhere. He was surprised, you say why? Because in his mind, the captain’s mind, he thought Paul was nothing but a common rebel rouser. He even had an idea who he was. He had no concept at all that this man was an intelligent, cultured, educated man with Greek upbringing. And so what Paul say? Can you speak Greek? Verse 38.

Are not you that Egyptian who before these days made us an uproar and led us out of the wilderness? 4,000 men that were assassins. Oh, now you see, he thought in 54 A.D. jofesis says there was some kind of an Egyptian rebellion rebel rouser who went to Jerusalem. And Jofesis says that 30,000 people he led outside of the city. The Bible says 4000 and will accept what the Bible said instead of what just Cephas said. Josephus is a great historian, but when it comes down to God, he’s sort of out of his area. Got to take it in context.

Great historian, not like a sound biblical correlation. But anyway, here, here, come here came this guy who in about 54 AD Jofesis says was an Egyptian rebel Rouser who got 4, 000 assassins and they were going to just really create havoc in Jerusalem. And the governor moved against them and kill either two to 400 of them and routed them all. And of course his attempt, this Egyptian was to murder Jews. He was anti Jewish. And what’s interesting about it is that when they captured though they captured and killed a total of 600. And when they had done that, the rest escaped, including their leader.

Now what’s so fascinating about this is the whole thing went underground and this Egyptian continued to lead a band of assassins who appeared in Jerusalem at least at feast times, mingled among the crowds, carrying daggers and assassinating people and then fading into the crowd, killing somebody else, fighting in the crowd, killing somebody else, fighting in the crowd. Do you think we’re something? This is not new today. It’s exactly how they did it in Rome. And always when the feast day occurred when there was a great multitude of people gathered together, there was this threat of the assassins moving among the people to slaughter the Jews one at a time.

Now the soldier saw them grabbing Paul and their first assumption was that they caught the one of those assassins that mingles in the crowd, maybe the Egyptian himself. That’s the, the conclusion. But of course, when Paul said to him in Greek, can I speak to the people? He was shocked because he knew that such an Egyptian rebel rouser would not be cultured enough to speak Greek. So Paul answers him and says, no, you’re wrong. I’m not an Egyptian assassin. I am a man who is a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city.

I mean Tarsus wasn’t small time, not at all. In fact, Tarsus was ranked anciently with Athens and Alexandria as a city of culture, art and education. It was up there and it was the territory which Tarsus was the city. And he says, I am a Jew of Tarsus, the city of Cilicia, citizens of no mean city. And he says, I beseech thee, permit me to speak into the people. You know, Paul gives us the example of how to be a master at holding back. He kind of keeps an ace in the hole all the time. He never lets everything out.

But he says, I’m a man born in Tarsus, the city of Cilicia, but next time he’s talking to the Jews. And he also adds that I was raised and trained in Jerusalem. Now later on, when he needs it, he says, I was from Tarsus. I. I was in Jerusalem. And in addition to that, I am a Roman citizen. And it keeps those little details back until just the right time. I liken this to a trial. If you’ve never been a witness at trial for any condition, and if you ever got prepped for that, you’re told to answer the question with a yes or no answer.

Don’t give any more details. Why? Because if you give the details, you. You actually move the trial in a completely different direction than what the lawyer’s strategy. Is. The master of application of whatever was needed for the moment. So it’s just enough to show this guy he was a cultured, educated man. He’s not the Egyptian rebel rouser. And then he says, I beseech thee, permit me to speak to the people. Now, that took boldness. I thought about what I would say in that I am a man who is Jew of Taurus, the city, and Salacia, get me out of here.

I mean, this is getting hot. But he said, I would like to say something to these people. Pauline knew how to deal with a situation in one way by confrontation. You know, something exciting about that kind of boldness. You just confront them nose to nose. And when the chief had given him permission, I’m sure that the tribune, okay, and a chief captain is also known as a tribune. When the tribune had given him permission. And I’m sure he gave him that permission because he figured, I’ve got to get to the truth of this thing somehow, so I might as well let him say something and see what comes out of his mouth.

And so the tribune, the chief, when he’d given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs. He is at the top of the stairs, according to Scripture. And the crowd has pushed all the way up the stairs, and the soldier all around Paul. And he stood on the stairs, and he beckoned with one hand. This is a characteristic of Paul on several occasions in Acts, when you look at what, what, how he says things, which means silence, okay? And when there was a great silence, it says, that’s the same term used in Revelation 8:1, by the way, for the silence in heaven.

And when there was a great silence, he spoke unto them in Hebrew tongue, saying, now let me hasten to add this. Whatever it says in the Hebrew tongue, It means in the tongue of the Hebrews, not Aramaic, the language of the Hebrews or the language of the people. I’m sorry. It was Aramaic, the language of the people. And the language was Aramaic. At any time in the New Testament, which the exception of Revelation 9:11 and Revelation 16:16, that you see, the Hebrew language, it’s not Hebrew that he spoke, but it is the language of the. That the Hebrews speak, which was the vernacular of Aramaic spoken by all Palestine Palestinians to be a proper word.

So he spoke to them in their own vernacular. So you see, he was the right man. He knew the Greek that could have missed the guard, that he ought to be heard. He knew the language to convince the people they ought to hear what he said. And he spoke in their language. And he gives him his. Gives them his defense. Now, we’re going to get into all of what he said next week, but I’m going to tell you some things because I’m not through. I want to show you some. Something else here. You might say. What does this say unto me? Now, this is an important thing that I want you to get.

It’s saying how to turn a negative situation into a positive testimony. How do you do that? Well, we’re going to see it in its totality as we go all the way through. But I want to give you a couple of things today. The first thing is accept the situation as from God. If you’re going to turn a negative situation into a positive opportunity, the first thing you’ve got to do is accept as a situation. It comes from God. He gives you all things. Things. He controls all things, both negative and good. And you’re to praise him, give him thanks for both good and evil.

In your life, everything comes from God. God brought this thing to pass. In your life, God brings this thing to pass. Okay, so God brought this thing to pass. I’m a prisoner of Jesus Christ. This is the fulfillment of prophecy. Now, earlier in Chapter 20, he said, I don’t know much, except I know when I go to Jerusalem, I’m going to be bound. But he said, I don’t count my life dear unto myself. It doesn’t make a bit of difference. None of these things move me. This is God’s way of having me fulfill the ministry committed to me by Christ.

He says in Acts 20:24 that so to turn a negative situation into a positive opportunity, you’ve got to accept the situation as being from God. Well, we talked about this. You know what most people do with a negative situation? Oh, God. Oh God. Why have you forsaken me? Where are you? Why do you let the devil do this to me? Oh, wouldn’t it be such a great deal just to say, God, I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I know this situation is yours and I’m gonna learn something from it. Second thing you do is to use as a platform or an opportunity.

Instead of crawling in a hole, you create an opportunity. Two simple things. Accept the situation as coming from God and use it as an opportunity. Now, an illustration of this we can find in 1st Peter 2:19. It says, if a man preconscious towards God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. Have you ever thanked the Lord for your grief? Have you ever been abused by the world? Have you ever been knocked around for your Christian faith and said, thank you, Lord, what a wonderful blessing this is. See what what glory it is when you are buff buffeted for your faults.

You certainly can’t rejoice in that. But if when you do well and suffer it for you, take it patiently, that’s acceptable of God. God says, you’re going to have some negative situation, and that’s good. For here unto where you’re called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. Well, you might say, what do you mean an example? Well, Christ suffered, and that’s an example to me. You’re going to suffer. And the example came in his attitude, in what and how he took the suffering wise. He did no sin.

Did he deserve to s to suffer? No. Do you deserve to suffer? No. But you’re going to suffer when you don’t deserve it too. You’re going to be in negative situations that you haven’t done anything to get into. Paul did no sin. But he when he was reviled, he reviled not again. He didn’t fight back at it, he accepted it. When he suffered, he threatened not, but he just committed to himself the judges righteously. He just said, God, you put me in this situation. I accept that it is from you. Jesus is our example. And when you start thinking you’ve suffered too much, just read Hebrews 12.

You haven’t yet suffered unto death. You haven’t done that yet. You haven’t hadn’t died suffering yet. Your negative situation isn’t that negative. You haven’t borne all the sins of the world. Now notice something else in 1st Peter 3 and this will kind of complete the picture. 1st Peter 3 17. For it is better if the will of God be so that you suffer for well doing, than for evil doing for Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust. See, when you think you’re the only one in a negative situation and you don’t deserve it.

Oh, that’s what you picked Jesus there you did. Did he deserve to die for you? He was in the negative situation. Verse 12 of chapter 4. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to test you as though some strange thing happened to you. It says, but rejoice as much as your partakers of Christ’s suffering. In other words, all through this thing, over and over again. In first Peter he says, look, you should expect suffering at the hands of an ungodly world. You expect negative circumstances because of the evil in this world. Remember that God allows these things.

You are going to suffer. Accept it as an opportunity from God. And he says in verse 19 of chapter 4, let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him. And well doing is under a faithful Creator. See, when it happens, when these negative things happen, just commit to yourself and keep doing what you should be doing. The first thing that is to be done in a case of negative situation is to be accepted as a gift from God. The second thing is to turn it into an opportunity.

Let me tell you this. What did Jesus do in the midst of that negative situation? He redeemed you. He maximized and triumphed in a negative situation in a way that he couldn’t have done it any other situation. That’s the example, and that’s what Peter meant when he said this for his own self. There are sins in his own body on that tree. See, in his negative situation, he accomplished something that could never be accomplished otherwise. I think about Apostle Peter when the Sadducees were so upset at him for preaching the resurrection, and the Pharisees were so upset pronouncing Jesus Christ was the Messiah.

And they just executed Jesus Christ by the use of the Romans. And when all of the city was in turmoil after he preached, they seized him and they grabbed him and they said, we’ll haul you unto the Sanhedrin. And they hauled him in and threw him in front of the Sanhedrin. He says, men, I have announcement to make bold. Neither is there salvation in any other place, for there’s none other name under the heaven given among men, whereby you must be saved. I mean, that’s taking a negative situation and making an opportunity out of it, I think.

Think for he threw Jesus Christ right in the face of those leaders of Israel that’s maximizing the opportunity. There’s only a couple of other things that I want to pull out of this text as we close. How do you make a positive testimony in a negative situation? One, you accept the situation as God given it’s his will. Two, you use it to create an opportunity. Peter never got out of a negative situation in the early part of the book of Acts. Paul never gets out of one in the end of the book of Acts. Peter got out of.

After Peter preached that sermon, they were so furious. They said, we absolutely forbid you to preach. And he said, you judge whether I’ll obey you or God. They beat him up, they threw him out. They said, lord, give us more boldness. That’s what the apostle said. And the Holy Spirit came upon them. Well, they grabbed him and threw him in jail again. And the angel opened the door and let him out. And then he went right back in the temple and started preaching again. Boldness. The apostles took a negative situation, accepted it as God’s will and then created an opportunity.

Now that’s how you view your life. It’s how you should view your life. See those opportunities provide you fruit. Fruit from your actions. Well, we’re going to stop there. I hope you’re getting the point. Your life is all about attitude. That’s it. You can either make a self imposed attitude over your worldly self and had ever negative situation in your life be a negative situation in your life or you can use the laws of the universe in a manner by which you attract to you the positive aspects of the universe by changing the negative into a positive opportunity.

You want blessing. You want to be receive the blessings from both good and bad situations. Well, you get that by being obedient and obedient in the negative sense of whatever life situations exist is when you turn them into positive for the glorification of God. Any questions? Anything? Oh, comments? None. It’s very good, Jim. Thank you. You’re welcome. Sorry. Totally transformative stuff. I mean this is, we’re talking about the application, especially when it comes to the body of Christ. I mean for me it’s so mind blowing. Thank goodness. Because obviously it’s my ego mind that gets blown and that makes more room for Christmas Christ mine.

But what you’re talking about is so put into motion, is so transformative. If I can even do this like five minutes a day. I know I’m kind of the last in the class here, but it’s just so inspiring and it resonates very deeply in my heart as the truth. So I’M very grateful very grateful. Thank you for coming. Anything else guys? All right. That’s fine. Father, thank you for this morning. Thank you for the time to allow us to get in your word. Thank you for the strength that you’ve given us in handling any negative situations that are coming our way.

We just ask that you continue to bless us in a manner of positive attitude, knowledge and wisdom application and open to revelation of you. May we continue to gather ourselves in the scripture working more closely sanctified in you Father. We just ask for those that are in need this morning that you come to the rescue. We provide him peace comfort we ask for healing hands where necessary. We just ask again as this world changes you’re ever so present. Thank you for your son. Thank you for his death. Thank you for his resurrection. Without that we would not be able to go home.

We give you all the glory and praise it’s called singing or sensing it.
[tr:tra].