Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Acts 21:17-26
Acts
21:17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us
warmly. 18 The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the
elders were present. 19 Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had
done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
20
When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul: “You see,
brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous
for the law. 21 They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live
among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise
their children or live according to our customs. 22 What shall we do? They will
certainly hear that you have come, 23 so do what we tell you. There are four
men with us who have made a vow. 24 Take these men, join in their purification
rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then
everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you
yourself are living in obedience to the law. 25 As 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.”
26
The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he
went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification
would end and the offering would be made for each of them.
-- one day, a young blonde woman was
shopping and found a great bargain in the store – she went up to the salesman
and told him, “I would like to buy this TV” – the salesman responded, “Sorry,
but we don’t sell to blondes”
--
She hurried home and dyed her hair, then came back and again told the salesman,
"I would like to buy this TV." – he said, “I’m sorry, but we don’t
sell to blondes," -- "Darn,” she thought, “he recognized me."
-- so she went back home and went
for a complete disguise this time; haircut and new color, new outfit, big
sunglasses -- she waited a few days before she again approached the salesman –
when he walked up, she said to him, "I would like to buy this TV."
-- and once again, he replied, “Sorry,
but we don’t sell to blondes."
--
Frustrated, she exclaimed, "How do you know I’m a blonde?"
-- he said, “Because this is a
microwave”
-- just because someone is sure of
something doesn’t mean it’s true – and that’s true for microwaves, TVs, and
spiritual matters
-- for the last several weeks, we
have been following the Apostle Paul on his three missionary journeys – and we
have seen how the Apostle Paul patiently helped new converts grow in the faith
--
once they responded to the gospel and became believers in Jesus, he continued
to teach them what it meant to be a Christian – he helped strengthen and encourage
them in their faith as he led them into greater understandings and revealed
deeper truths about the gospel of Christ to them – and even after he left those
churches, he continued to reach out to them in his letters to answer their
questions about faith, to correct wrong understandings about salvation and
Christianity, and to help them become mature believers
--
so, we have seen in our study in the Book of Acts that it takes time, and it
takes growth in the faith, to fully understand the truth of the gospel and the
good news of salvation through Christ and to become mature believers
--
as we move forward into the final major section in our study in the Book of
Acts, we find the Apostle Paul back in Jerusalem – and once again, he is
confronted with several groups of people who are just not fully mature in their
understanding of the faith, salvation, and the relationship of Christianity to
the Law
--
so, let’s take a look now at this passage and see how Paul reacted to these
immature believers, so that we might learn how to respond similarly in our own
lives as we seek to mentor and disciple new Christians in the faith
II. Scripture Lesson (Acts 21:17-22:27)
-- look back at Acts 21:17-20a
Acts
21:17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us
warmly. 18 The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James, and all the
elders were present. 19 Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had
done among the Gentiles through his ministry.
20
When they heard this, they praised God.
-- this is Paul’s fifth and final
visit to Jerusalem – he ended his third missionary journey in Caesarea, and
then came to Jerusalem at the prompting of the Holy Spirit – carrying with him
an offering for the saints in Jerusalem from the churches that he had founded
throughout Asia and Macedonia
-- when he arrived in Jerusalem,
Paul sought out the church and was greeted warmly by all the saints in Jerusalem
– on the next day, he went to meet with James and the other leaders of the
church, sharing with them the good news of what Christ had done among the
Gentiles in all the areas where Paul had established churches
-- the leaders of the church praised
God for the report – which reminds us that we should always celebrate the good
news that we hear from other churches and praise God for how He is using all
His people in so many ways to continue to grow the faith and spread the word of
Christ to all
-- look back at the second part of
verse 20 – 20b-26
Acts
17:20b Then they said to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews
have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. 21 They have been
informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away
from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to
our customs. 22 What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come,
23 so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. 24
Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so
that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no
truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience
to the law. 25 As 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.”
26
The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he
went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification
would end and the offering would be made for each of them.
-- when Paul finished sharing how
God had moved in the Gentiles, James and the other leaders told him that they
had seen a similar response among the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea – thousands of
Jews had become believers in Jesus as the Messiah – and had become Christians
since Paul’s absence
-- but note what they say at the end
of verse 20 – all of these Messianic Jews – all of these Jewish believers in
Christ – were zealous for the law
-- what does that mean? – well, this
could be a problem, although the leaders in Jerusalem didn’t seem to be worried
about it
–
to be zealous for the law meant that these Jewish believers were still
following the law of Moses to the letter – they were zealous for it – they were
dedicated to the law – they tried to fulfill the law and all its commands
--
this meant that these Jewish believers were still following the Jewish dietary
restrictions – they were still making the required sacrifices and offerings at
the temple – they were still doing all they things they did before they came to
believe in Jesus as the Messiah
--
in other words, these Jewish believers were not living fully under the grace
that came through Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life – for them
it was not Jesus alone – it was Jesus plus Judaism – and this was something
that Paul had opposed from the very beginning
--
if you remember, the first major controversy in the church was about the
salvation of the Gentiles – what was required for a Gentile to be saved? – did they
have to become Jews first? – to be circumcised and follow the law before they
could receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior?
--
the council in Acts 15 had decided that the Gentiles didn’t have to do that – the
council agreed that salvation for the Gentiles was by grace through faith – and
the only extra thing the council asked of the Gentiles was that they would abstain
from sexual immorality, not eat meat sacrificed to idols, and abstain from blood
and the meat of strangled animals – not because this was required for salvation,
but as a concession to the Jews in their midst
--
based on this passage, it seems that when the Jews in Jerusalem and Judea
became believers, they remained fully Jews in a religious sense – because verse
20 says they were zealous for the law – this means that they still practiced
Judaism as they had been taught – they simply added Jesus to their existing
Jewish faith
-- this would not agree with Paul’s
clear teaching throughout the book of Acts and in his epistles that salvation
was by grace through faith alone – and not by works – which would include
following the law and the offering of sacrifices in the temple for cleansing
from sin
-- so, how do we make sense of this?
– there’s several possible answers to this
-- first – following the rule of
Occam’s Razor, which says the simplest explanation is usually correct – we can
assume that these Jewish believers being zealous of the law is exactly what we
just talked about
-- they have not accepted Jesus’
atoning death on the cross as the payment for sins and eternal life – they are
still fully religious Jews – making sacrifices for sin in the temple and following
all the Jewish laws – they’ve simply come to the understanding that Jesus is
the promised Messiah – they’re just not putting their faith in Him alone for their
salvation
-- second – it could be that their
adherence to the Jewish law was simply from a cultural understanding – remember
that to be a Jew in the first century meant that you belonged to a system that
was not only religious, but included their government and their culture
-- so, to follow the law may mean
that these Jews continued to follow all the cultural and societal practices of
Judaism – they respected the traditions – they only ate foods that were clean
and approved in the Torah -- they would still go to the temple to worship God –
but they put their faith in Jesus for salvation in the same way Paul taught
-- they would follow the law because
they were part of the Jewish community, but they were not depending on
following the law for their salvation – instead, they believed that Jesus was
the fulfillment of the Law and had paid the penalty for all their sins – just as
we believe
-- or, third – it could be that
these were immature Christians – they were babes in Christ – and didn’t fully
understand what it meant to believe in Jesus as their Lord and Savior
-- they still followed the Law
because it was all they knew – it was what they had been taught as children –
it was what all their family and friends did – but they believed in Jesus as
their Messiah and Savior – they just didn’t understand that Jesus had fulfilled
the Law through His life, death, and resurrection and that they didn’t need to follow
the law anymore – they continued to do so – not because they thought it was
necessary – but because they didn’t fully understand the truth
-- so, it comes down to one of three
things – Judaism plus Jesus – following the law as a cultural and societal
practice – or they were just immature and didn’t fully understand the truth of
the gospel yet
-- to be honest, we just don’t know
what the true situation was – and I don’t know if the Apostle Paul fully knew,
either – so, when the leaders told Paul that the Jews in Jerusalem were
concerned that he had been teaching Jews in Asia and Macedonia to stop
following the Law, Paul made a concession for them in order to keep unity and
peace in the church – in the same way he had allowed the Gentiles to be told to
abstain from blood, eating meat sacrificed to idols, and sexual immorality
-- even though Paul always
maintained that salvation was by grace through faith alone, he was still a Jew –
and he never did anything that would cause any of his fellow Jews to stumble
-- it’s the same way he taught in 1
Corinthians that if eating meat sacrificed to idols caused someone concern,
then you shouldn’t do it – in this case, he realized that if the freedom in
Christ that he had been teaching to the Gentiles in Asia and Macedonia was
going to cause these Jewish believers concern or distress, then he was going to
do what was necessary to keep the peace until they matured in the faith and
truly understood the significance of the cross, the atoning death of Jesus, and
the resurrection
-- there were four men there in
Jerusalem who had taken religious vows, and the leaders asked Paul to join them
and pay for the expenses of their purification rites – which would end with the
men going to the temple, making a special offering, and having their heads
shaved as evidence of the end of their vow
-- since this would not violate Paul’s
belief in Jesus as the sole means of salvation, he agreed to do so, because
this would demonstrate to the Jews in Jerusalem that he was not teaching
contrary to the Jewish traditions in that community
-- verse 27-36
Acts
21:27 When 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, 28
shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone
everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has
brought Greeks into the temple 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.)
30
The 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. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the
Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He 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.
33
The 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. 34 Some 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. 35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great
he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting,
“Get rid of him!”
-- when the time of purification was
over, Paul went to the temple along with these four men who had taken the vows –
but while he was there, some Jews from Asia – Jews who were not believers in
Jesus – saw Paul there and got upset
-- they knew that Paul had been
living with Gentiles in Asia – which was not an accepted practice for any Jew –
and when they saw Paul in the temple, they jumped to the conclusion that Paul
had actually brought Gentiles into the temple with him, which was not true
-- these Jews yelled for help and
convinced the crowd to attack Paul, because they thought he had violated the
law and was teaching people to not follow the law
-- this led to an uproar in
Jerusalem as the Jews dragged Paul out of the temple and began to beat him –
the Romans got word of the uprising, and responded to put a stop to it – they saw
the crowd beating Paul and arrested him and put him into chains for his own
protection – as the crowd continued to shout, the Roman centurion couldn’t make
sense of what was going on and had Paul led to the Roman barracks to find out
what was going on
-- I’m not going to go into detail
about this uprising and Paul’s response for time’s sake – so, just to summarize
– when Paul was taken to the barracks, he asked to speak to the crowd – and when
he spoke to them in Aramaic – the language of the common Jew in Jerusalem – the
crowd quieted because they realized that only a Jew would be able to do that
-- Paul gave them his testimony –
sharing with them the events that occurred on the road to Damascus and how he saw
Jesus in a blinding light on the road – he told of how Ananias restored his
vision through the power of the Spirit – and how God had called him to be His
witness to all men
-- but when Paul said that God had
called him to share the good news of salvation with the Gentiles, the crowd
erupted in fury again and called for his death
-- the centurion ordered Paul flogged,
but stopped once he found out Paul was a Roman citizen – and the passage ends
with the centurion asking his commander for direction since Paul was a Roman
citizen and it was against the law to chain or punish a citizen without a trial
-- we’ll pick up on the action and
find out what happens to Paul next week as we continue our series in the Book
of Acts
III. Closing
-- but as we close this morning, we
need to consider what we should do when we are confronted with people who
oppose us or find fault with what we are doing
-- in our churches today, there are
a lot of people and a lot of denominations that have particular and strong
beliefs about a variety of subjects, including baptism, worship style,
communion, and other aspects of our faith
-- for instance, some people claim
that the only valid form of baptism is immersion – and that any other form is
wrong
-- some people claim that the only acceptable
type of music is hymns – and to have guitars or contemporary worship music in a
church is wrong – others have even gone so far to say that you can’t have
musical instruments at all
-- some people maintain that
communion is only for believers – while others say that the Lord’s table is
open to all
-- and some people say that using
any Bible other than the King James Version is a sin
-- there are just so many
gatekeepers in the church today that think it has to be their way or the
highway – that only they know the truth, and everyone else is wrong
-- when the Apostle Paul got to
Jerusalem and was told that the Jews there had concerns about him teaching Jews
in Asia and Macedonia that they didn’t need to follow the law for salvation, he
had a choice to make
-- he could have gotten
confrontational – which we all know was something he did from time to time – we
see that in the Book of Acts and we see that in his epistles – he could have
just stood his ground and yelled at them – but he didn’t
-- he could have condemned the
elders in Jerusalem for teaching a false gospel – for not sharing the full
truth of salvation by grace through faith with the Jews there – he could have
split off and formed his own sect and followers
-- but he didn’t do that either –
instead, Paul was patient and considerate – he considered the audience – he considered
what they had been taught – he considered their maturity level in the faith –
and he considered what would happen if he confronted them and told them they
were wrong
-- in the end, Paul decided to show
grace to these Jewish believers – to show understanding – to show empathy and
compassion – although he had become convinced that the law had already been
fulfilled by Jesus and that nothing else was required for salvation beyond faith
through grace, Paul didn’t demand that of these Jewish believers
-- instead, he decided to become one
with them in unity, since doing so would not be a violation of what he believed
– and probably with the idea that as these believers matured, they would come
to fully understand the freedom they had in Christ
-- just as Paul would not eat meat
sacrificed to idols before those who were concerned about it – although he knew
that doing so was nothing and meant nothing – Paul continued to follow the
cultural and societal laws as a good Jewish member of the community – this is
an example of Paul continuing the practice of being considerate towards less
mature believers to keep them from stumbling
-- it is worth noting that the
sacrifices and offerings made as part of this vow that Paul participated in here
did not have to do with the atonement of sin, but were simply offerings of
righteousness made to God in accordance with this particular vow
–
I have to believe that if Paul was asked to make an offering for the atonement
of his sin in the temple, he would have refused, because that would have been a
direct violation of his understanding of salvation – but that was not the case,
so to follow the law in this instance would not be a violation of the truth of
the gospel that he followed and would demonstrate to the Jews that he was still
a Jew himself and still held to the cultural and societal rules for Jews
--
so, what about us? – what should we do when we are confronted with similar
issues and concerns in our churches today?
--
if it is a non-foundational area – if it is an issue that doesn’t involve
salvation – then I think we should follow Paul’s example, and try to avoid
doing anything that might cause a weaker brother or sister to stumble
--
for instance, a couple of years ago I was asked to be a pallbearer in a funeral
at a church that did not believe in musical instruments – I could have said no –
I could have said that I believed it was okay to use instruments in church and
if they weren’t going to do so, then I wasn’t participating – but this was a
non-foundational area – something that didn’t matter in regards to salvation –
so, I went and served as a pallbearer and sang acapella, to the horror of those
around me
--
in the same way, when I go to churches where members are more charismatic – or maintain
that baptism is by immersion alone – I just go with what they are doing – because
in the whole scheme of things, it doesn’t matter – our salvation and the
forgiveness of our sins is not dependent on our worship music or the amount of
water used in baptism or whether we speak in tongues or not – so, I just try to
not do anything or hold any position that would cause a more immature brother
or sister in the faith to stumble – which is what I see Paul doing here
--
on the other hand, if it is a foundational area, then I think we need to take a
stand and not do something that is contrary to our faith – several years ago, I
had a friend who joined the Mormon church and she asked me to attend her
baptism – I do not believe the Mormon faith is compatible with Christianity –
their understanding of the Trinity and who Jesus is and what happens after we
die does not line up with any understanding of orthodox Christianity
--
I felt that my presence there would imply my concurrence with their beliefs,
and even though this person was a dear friend of mine, I told her I could not
go
-- we need to choose our battles – be
firm on foundational issues – but be full of grace in those areas that don’t
matter – just like Paul in this passage
-- and with that, let’s close in
prayer – and let’s consider how we may continue to be good witnesses for
Christ, no matter where we are or who we are with
-- let us pray
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