Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week Chaplain Black covered the beginning of Acts chapter 21 for us.

We saw Paul return to Jerusalem even though he had been repeatedly warned that once he did he would encounter hardship and trial and end up in chains.

But Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to return, so return he did.

He reported back to James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, and as we’ve seen everywhere Paul has gone through his missionary journeys, controversy arises.

The Jewish believers in Jerusalem rejoice that so many Gentiles have come to know Christ, but they confront Paul about the fact that they have heard that he is teaching the Jews who live among these Gentiles to abandon the Law of Moses and all Jewish customs.

As Chaplain Black pointed out last week, the solution that the church leaders come up with is for Paul to go along with four men there who have taken a vow, probably a Nazirite vow, and to complete the ritual of the vow with them to show that he is still committed to Jewish custom.

So Paul says, “Fine.

Let’s do this thing.”

So he goes with the plan that the church leaders gave him and that’s where we’re going to pick up reading this morning beginning in verse 26 of chapter 21 of Acts.

Acts

We’ve seen this situation before.

Remember as Paul traveled from city to city in the province of Asia there were some of the Jewish people who would follow him around and stir up the crowds against him in each new city.

Now here we don’t know if these are Jewish people who have followed him all the way back to Jerusalem or if these people just happened to be in Jerusalem and jumped at the opportunity, but regardless we see Jews once again accusing Paul of going against the Law.

And notice at the end of what we read there… they accuse him of bringing Gentiles into the temple.

They didn’t actually see him do it, but they saw him in the city with an Ephesian named Trophimus so they assume that Paul brought him into the temple.

They don’t have any proof, but that doesn’t matter.

They accuse him anyway.

Acts 21:30-

So these Jews accusing Paul end up pulling the whole city of Jerusalem into it and a riot ensues.

They grab Paul and drag him out of the temple and start beating him.

The commander of the Roman regiment there in the city rushes in to break things up and restore order to the city.

And that description right there tells you just how big this thing had gotten.

It says that he took along soldiers and centurions.

Now if you know anything about the Roman legion, a centurion was a commander over a hundred men.

So if the regimental commander is bringing multiple centurions and their men it means there were multiple hundreds of Roman soldiers coming in to stop this riot.

That’s a pretty big deal.

They grab Paul, bind him in chains and take him back to their barracks for questioning, but even with all these soldiers and the show of force by the Romans the people are still following along shouting “Get rid of him!”

And then we read:

Acts 21:37-

Here Paul surprises the Roman commander by speaking to him in Greek.

And the commander’s response shows us that they had absolutely no clue who they were dealing with.

He says, “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand men of the Assassins into the wilderness?”

I just imagine Paul going, “Ummm… No.” Paul tells him who he is, at least some of who he is, and asks to speak to the crowd.

And once the commander gives him permission this is what he says to them:

Acts 2

Now we all know this already.

We talked about Paul’s conversion months ago.

We saw him g through these things and we’ve seen the change in his character since it happened.

He went from being the vessel chosen by the Jewish religious leaders that would destroy the church in its infancy, to being the vessel chosen by God that would help the church to explode out of its infancy and spread across the known world.

Paul has this incredible, passionate, compelling testimony that we’ve just read.

So what is the reaction to this testimony?

Well it’s found in the next verse.

The people listen as Paul tells his story of conversion and their reaction is “Kill him!

Wipe this man off the face of the earth!”

Not quite the reaction we would hope for.

But let’s finish reading this section and see what follows.

Acts 22:23

The Roman soldiers decide to take Paul in and “interrogate” him via the scourge.

Now I put air-quotes around interrogate there because there wasn’t actually a whole lot of questioning, or at least not a whole lot of answering that occurred during the scourge process.

Show image of the scourges and explain the process.

But before they can begin the scourge Paul points out that he is a Roman citizen.

Earlier when he was asking to speak to the crowd he told the commander that he was a citizen of an important city, he just didn’t tell him which city.

But that is an important distinction.

You see it was illegal for Roman citizens to be subjected to the scourge.

In fact it was illegal to bind a Roman citizen and the Roman commander had ordered Paul bound in chains so he’s a bit worried.

Now I know we’ve read through a really big section today, but there’s something I want us to see that we can apply to our lives today.

In this section of scripture that we’ve read through today we’ve seen the citizens of Jerusalem rioting, we’ve seen Paul being beaten, we’ve seen him placed in chains, we’ve seen him almost be subjected to the Roman scourge.

But what I want us to notice particularly from this passage is Paul’s reaction to all of this.

Following the riot, and the false accusations against him; following the beating that Paul received at the hands of the Jews, his reaction was to calmly ask the Roman commander, “May I speak to the crowd?”

After speaking to the crowd and hearing them still call for his death, as he faces the prospect of being beaten with this torture device that was the scourge, Paul’s reaction was to calmly ask, “Is it legal for you to scourge a man who is a Roman citizen and is uncondemned?”

How was Paul able to be so calm in the face of such anger and hostility?

How was he able to be so calm in the face of imminent torture?

Remember, we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks that Paul has been warned by the Spirit that once he reached Jerusalem he would face chains and afflictions.

But he was also led, by that same Spirit, to continue on; to return to Jerusalem to face whatever came.

And that’s the key that I want us to take away from this passage today.

There is no better place to be than at the center of God’s will for your life.

Notice I didn’t say, “no safer place.”

God doesn’t always promise safety.

Paul was never promised safety.

In fact he was told outright that things were going to get extremely hard for him.

But he had faith in Christ, and it was that faith that allowed him to answer those who were warning him about what he would face in Jerusalem before he returned, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart?

For I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

May we have a faith that is that strong.

Paul’s faith allowed him to stand in front of those who had falsely accused him, who had beaten him, and who were calling for his death, and to not fight back, but to share the story of the gospel with them.

May we have that type of faith.

I pray that we would all come to experience that fact, as Paul did, that there is no better place to be in this world, than at the very center of God’s will for our lives.

Would you pray with me?