As Paul arrives in Jerusalem, he is greeted with the news that he has become a lightning rod of controversy as issues of culture, heritage, ethnicity, and traditions collide with the Gospel. We'll see Paul display incredible humility, as he pursues unity in the Church through the power of the love of Christ.
Transcription (automatically-generated):
In today's study, Paul is going to travel from Caesarea, where he has been staying with Philip the Evangelist, to Jerusalem. Paul is traveling with Luke, the writer and narrator of the Book of Acts, as well as representatives from several churches that Paul had planted in the Roman province of Asia, which is modern-day Turkey. They are with Paul to deliver financial gifts to the brethren in Jerusalem who have been suffering under famine and financial persecution. Paul viewed the situation as a wonderful opportunity to bridge the divide that existed between the primarily gentile, that means non-Jewish, churches outside of Israel, and the almost entirely ethnically Jewish church in Israel, mostly Jerusalem. The representatives traveling with Paul would have likely been Gentiles or Hellenistic Jews.
That means they were ethnic Jews who lived in Greek culture, in places where Greek culture was dominant, and they spoke the Greek language, as opposed to living in Israel, living in Hebrew culture and speaking Hebrew. You see, there was a cultural tension between the Jewish Christians in Israel and the gentile Christians outside of Jerusalem over the law and what place it should have in the believer's life. Now, when I refer to the law, I am referring to the Old Testament. Old covenant commands God gave to his people, the Israelites, through Moses, to govern civil and religious life. Collectively, these laws are referred to as "the Law of Moses" or "the Law" for short.
To be Jewish is unique because they are the only people group who are both an ethnicity and a religion. Their culture was derived from the law of Moses, and so their ethnicity, religion, and culture were interconnected in a deep and truly unique way. It was the law of Moses that marked them as distinct among the nations. They were the people of God, God's chosen people. And that fact was evidenced by their adherence to the laws, rituals, and feasts given to them by God in the law of Moses.
Truthfully, many Jewish Christians struggled with the idea that God had created this new entity known as the church, in which Jews and Gentiles were equal. They felt it would be better for gentile Christians to become Jews and observe the law of Moses, and then they could all follow Jesus, the Jewish messiah, together in the continuation of Judaism. Any other arrangement, they felt, would take away from Israel's status as God's chosen people. It could undermine the law of Moses, and it could threaten to erase Hebrew culture. Back in Acts, chapter 15, we read about the Jerusalem council.
Some troublemakers from Jerusalem had traveled north to the church in Antioch, which is in present-day Syria, to tell the gentile men in that church that they needed to be circumcised under the law and then live under the law. This led to a tremendous uproar and almost split the church in Antioch along Jew/Gentile lines. And as a result, the Jerusalem council was convened between the leaders of both churches. God moved, and the conclusion reached was that gentile men did not need to be circumcised and gentiles did not need to follow the law of Moses. And there was certainly an aspect, I think, of out of sight, out of mind, in play with the Jerusalem church, because they didn't really have to deal with gentile Christians.
Pretty much the entire Jerusalem church was Jewish, so it was a little bit easier for them to let that issue go out of sight, out of mind. So gentiles didn't have to follow the law of Moses, but Jews, on the other hand, well, that was a different story. And today's text will reveal that the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem were still following the law. Now, that fact alone was not problematic in and of itself. Jewish believers were not forbidden from following the law.
What was forbidden was believing that following the law contributed to your salvation in any way. Those who follow Jesus as Messiah Christians must believe that we are saved solely by the finished work of Christ's life, death, and resurrection on our behalf. In our place. Any belief that our works contribute anything to our salvation is blasphemous and a false gospel. The Lord understood how difficult the transition from old Covenant Judaism to new covenant Christianity would be for Jewish believers, and so he gave them a lot of grace to work it out.
Most Jewish Christians loved their culture deeply and felt that it connected them to God and one another in a profound way. They'd been living that way for over a thousand years as a people, and understandably, they weren't ready to throw that all away, nor did they need to. Paul himself would continue many Hebrew practices for cultural reasons. You may recall that he took what appears to be some sort of Nazarite vow back in Acts chapter 18. Why?
Because he felt like it helped him express gratitude to God. And that was fine. Following the law only became an issue if you believed it contributed to your salvation and or if you told other believers that they needed to do it, too. And it will become clear that in Jerusalem, pretty much all the Hebrew Christians followed the law, and the elders of the church expected as much. In some of his letters, Paul writes to gentile Christians and urges them to be charitable to their Jewish brethren regarding this big issue.
But he clarifies that being bothered by issues related to the law made someone a weaker, more immature brother. And so Paul told the gentile Christians to be accommodating if a brother or sister was bothered by certain foods being eaten. He said, try not to eat that stuff in front of them. Try not to drink that in front of them. They're still working out this tension between the law and the freedom that we have under Christ.
And so, as Paul enters Jerusalem, all of the following issues are in play. He had been central to the Jerusalem council, resisting the claim that gentile believers needed to be circumcised and follow the law. Despite the resolution of that council, there would have been many Jewish believers in Jerusalem who didn't like it. It was a time of intense Hebrew nationalism in Israel. One insurrection attempt after another was taking place, and the Roman governor, Felix, dealt brutally with them all.
And so this made the Jews in Jerusalem hate the Romans even more. And it inflamed anti-Gentile sentiments. If you were in Jerusalem and you weren't Jewish, you'd be getting the side eye everywhere you went. Additionally, Paul is bringing with him gentile and Hellenistic Jewish elders. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles.
None other than no one other than Christ himself had worked harder to bring Gentiles into the church. The Jews who followed Paul around Asia, stirring up riots and trouble and trying to get him killed, are in Jerusalem at this time, likely also there for the feast. And lastly, despite having the best of intentions, the financial gifts that Paul is bringing are sure to rub some of the more prideful Jewish believers the wrong way. All of this is going on in the background and coming together to make Paul a lightning rod for these tensions that exist between Judaism and Christianity, and Jewish believers and gentile believers. But yet, in Paul's mind, overall, he expects this to be a positive trip to Jerusalem.
He knows suffering and chains await him, but he's ready for that. He believes the financial gifts are going to help bring unity between the Jerusalem and Gentile churches. And he's probably also hoping that he'll finally get a chance to preach the gospel to his unbelieving ethnic brethren in Jerusalem, whom he loves dearly. So let's see how all of this goes. Acts 21, verse 15.
It says, after this. So after staying in Caesarea, we got ready and went up to Jerusalem, which was about 60 miles away, about three days by foot. Some of the disciples from Caesarea also went with us, likely eager to spend more time with Paul, and brought us to Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we were to stay. Mnason's name tells us he was almost certainly a Hellenistic jew because of their familiarity with Greek culture and language. Hellenistic Jews were a lot less legalistic about the law compared to Hebrew Jews.
Hellenistic Jews were not concerned about a gentile being in their house the way a Hebrew jew would have been. And so Paul and his entourage were likely directed to stay with Manassan because the brethren in Caesarea were familiar with the church in Jerusalem and discerned that potential issues could be avoided by having the whole party stay with a Hellenistic jew just outside of the city. That Mnason is referred to as an early disciple means he was likely one of those converted on the day of Pentecost. Back in Acts 2, he was an O.G. believer whose name doesn't come up again in scripture. All we know about him is that he was in it from the beginning and was a hospitable, godly man.
So pretty good deal to have your name in the Bible that way. When we reached Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters in the church there welcomed us warmly. The leaders in Jerusalem greet Paul as a brother and welcome him and the other men warmly, and not just because of the financial gifts which they would have gratefully received being mature believers. The following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. So while the previous day's visit would have been spontaneous, because they had just arrived in the city, the next day, a more formal scheduled meeting is arranged between the traveling party and all the elders of the Jerusalem church.
It's around AD 58-59, and by this time, you'll notice the uppercase-A Apostles are no longer mentioned as serving as elders in the Jerusalem church. That's because one of them, James, the brother of John, had already been martyred by Herod, and the remaining apostles had left the city to engage in missionary work, preaching the gospel across the world. The James mentioned here was the brother, technically half-brother of Jesus, and was not an uppercase-A Apostle. He would write the epistle of James that we have in our Bibles and is well known because of the dramatic change that took place in his life following the resurrection. John 75 tells us that when Jesus was ministering, James didn't believe that Jesus, his brother, was the Messiah.
It's kind of a big ask to believe that your brother is the son of God. However, after being one of the first to witness the resurrected Christ, he unsurprisingly had a change of heart, and he would grow to become a man Paul called a pillar in the Jerusalem church. The Jerusalem church had thousands of members, likely tens of thousands, counting women and children. And so there may have been as many as 70 elders according to some ancient writings, James served as their spokesman or chairman, just as Peter often served as the spokesman for the apostles. James had held this position for some time, even as early as Acts 12, back when Peter was still part of the Jerusalem church.
James was the spokesman for the elders even then. And so you guys know I can't resist doing this. So just a quick observation for my catholic friends. Who was the lead elder in the Jerusalem church even while Peter was in the Jerusalem church. And for years after Peter left the Jerusalem church, James, which is super weird if Peter was the first pope, right?
That probably nothing. Verse 19. After greeting them, the Jerusalem elders, he, that's Paul, reported in detail what God underlined God. He reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry, as he did in all his other reports. Peter humbly gives.
Sorry, Paul humbly gives God all the glory for everything good that has taken place through his ministry. You know, one of the great joys of being a Christian is fellowshipping with other believers and recounting what the Lord has done in your lives. The sharing of these stories is such a blessing, so don't keep them to yourself. Glorify God and build up the brethren by testifying how you've seen the Lord move in your life. If you have friends or people in the church that you hang out with every now and then, and there's amazing things God has done in your life that they don't know about, you need to do something about that.
Glorify God through your story. I even had that experience in California meeting with believers I've never met in my life. And just spending some time talking about what the Lord has done in their lives, it's so rewarding. It builds your faith, and it builds this instant connection between believers because you've both been beneficiaries of the grace and the kindness of God. So don't keep those stories for yourself.
The Lord did that in your life partly so that you could give him glory for what he did in your life. Paul credited God with everything good that happened in his ministry among the Gentiles, and it produced the right response. In the heart of the assembled elders, we read in verse 20, when they heard it, they glorified God. Would you underline God? And while that's wonderful, I can't help but be struck by how quickly the following transition occurs.
They glorified God and said, now scholars point out how strange it is that Luke doesn't mention the significant gifts that Paul and the representatives of the gentile churches presented to the Jerusalem church. While they were doubtless gratefully received by the elders, it seems the gesture didn't affect the whole Jerusalem church as Paul had hoped it would, because while it should have served as an unquestionable demonstration of Paul's love for the Jerusalem brethren, it apparently wasn't recognized as such. And you'll see why I say that in just a minute. Now, the elders quickly transition. That's great.
Wonderful. Praise God. Now we need to talk about something, and they bring this urgent issue to Paul's attention. You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed in Jerusalem, and they're all zealous for the law. Referring to how the Lord had moved in their city, they point out that thousands of Jews had been saved in Jerusalem, and their church was now huge.
It had more than recovered from the early years of persecution under Paul, which produced the scattering of the church, and had reduced her presence in the city to just a few dozen people. I think we see here our first little hint that something is amiss in the Jerusalem church. Their elders described the congregation not as zealous for Christ, but zealous for the law. Paul used similar phrasing to describe himself, but only before his encounter with Christ and his conversion to Christianity. In Galatians, Paul described his former self as being extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.
And he told the Philippians that he had persecuted the church out of misplaced zeal. As I mentioned earlier, Hebrew culture was derived from the law of Moses. Therefore, Jewish Christians were concerned that if their laws, customs, and rituals were no longer mandatory for their religion, then their culture could be at risk of being swallowed up by this new church. And you know what? They weren't wrong, because anyone who comes to Christ steps into a new culture.
The culture of the kingdom of God and the values of the kingdom must overrule the values of whatever culture you were a part of before you became a Christian. In other words, when your earthly culture clashes with kingdom culture, the values of the kingdom must win every time. We're free to enjoy aspects of our earthly culture as long as they don't contradict the commands of Christ or take precedence over the commands of Christ. I'll give you one example. I worked at a church one time, and there was a woman who was given her life to Christ, and she needed to be baptized.
And she said, well, I can't be baptized by immersion because my family is Greek Orthodox, and that's going to offend them. It's right there. You have your culture, your earthly culture, clashing with kingdom culture. The question isn't, what do your parents do? What do your parents think?
What does your culture say? What does your heritage believe? The question is, what does God say? And what God says has to trump everything else. So write this down.
The kingdom of God must become the predominant culture in the life of every Christian. The kingdom of God must become the predominant culture in the life of every Christian. This is what Jesus was talking about when he prayed. They that's Christians are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Different culture.
It's what James was talking about when he wrote that friendship with the world is hostility toward God because you're loving the culture of the world more than the culture of the kingdom. During the first few decades of the church, Jewish believers, especially in Israel, had a hard time coming to terms with the reality that kingdom culture and Hebrew culture were not exactly the same thing. But as I said earlier, the Lord was gracious to them as they navigated this challenging transition. And Paul encouraged the gentile believers to be charitable to their Jewish brethren as they wrestled with these issues of history, culture, conscience, and the gospel. One reason the Lord was gracious regarding this issue was because he knew that Jerusalem and the temple would be destroyed in about twelve years from this time in AD 70, and the Jerusalem church would be scattered across the earth.
And after that event, for the most part, there wouldn't be any churches made up of only Jewish believers. All the most influential churches would be gentile, as Christianity would shift to become a predominantly gentile faith rather than a predominantly Jewish faith. Now, the elders reveal the problem to Paul, but they, the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, have been informed about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or to live according to our customs. When we reach verse 27 next week, we'll see Jews from the province of Asia stir up trouble against Paul. It seems that these were likely the same Jews who had stirred up all that trouble for him in Asia.
And they had arrived in Jerusalem for the feast before Paul and immediately started spreading rumors about him, just like they did in Asia, trying to sabotage Paul's ministry. In this instance, they were claiming that, oh, guess what? We've come from Asia. You won't believe what Paul is doing there. He's telling Jewish Christians in Asia that they need to abandon their Hebrew culture and customs.
In other words, they need to abandon, throw out the law of Moses. This was a lie. Paul had never told Jewish Christians to abandon their culture. We know Paul still regularly practiced and took part in Hebrew feasts and rituals. He wanted to make it to Jerusalem in time for one of the feasts.
What he had told Jewish Christians is the truth, that observing the law had no bearing on their salvation or standing before God. The law could not make them righteous. Paul had only taught what Jesus had taught when he said, don't think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill the perfect life of Christ. Fulfilled the law on our behalf.
We are dead to the law in the sense that Christ has done away with it on our behalf. By fulfilling it, we are now saved by faith in Christ alone. We don't need to observe old covenant feasts or ceremonial washings or anything like that. We are now bound to the commands of Christ. While the accusations against Paul were false, we should recognize that some Jewish Christians likely would have perceived Paul's gospel preaching as an exhortation to abandon Moses.
Some would have been extremely uncomfortable with the reality that the law had no power whatsoever to contribute to a man or woman standing before God. Additionally, Paul had been telling Jewish Christians that they had no right to demand their gentile brethren follow or submit to the law of Moses. That was the issue at the Jerusalem council with circumcision. But now the rumor had spread that Paul was instructing Jewish believers specifically to not circumcise their boys, which was untrue. Paul's stance was simply, it makes no difference if you want to do it for cultural reasons, okay?
And if you're wondering why Jewish believers would be so worked up about circumcision because if you don't know this, this would be really weird. It's because it had served as the physical mark of the covenant between God's men and their God for centuries. And as with many other aspects of the law, many Jewish Christians were not prepared to move on from this practice that was so important to their culture. The elders continue addressing Paul and say, so what is to be done? They will certainly hear that you've come.
What should we do? Paul, this is a big issue. A lot of people, everybody's pretty much upset with you in Jerusalem, and they're going to hear that you're in town. Now, if I'm honest, and I studied this a lot, I'm really disappointed by the conduct of the elders of the Jerusalem church in this instance. What is to be done?
I don't know. How about you start by telling your congregation not to gossip or not to entertain unproven accusations against the greatest pastor and evangelist the world has ever seen. How about we start with that? How about you teach your people not to slander and you shut down these rumors? But they're like, what can we do?
They clearly know that Paul's not guilty of these charges because they don't even question him about them. And there may be angles to this interaction of which I'm ignorant. But the conduct of the Jerusalem elders seems at face value to be cowardly, which makes the humility that Paul is going to display even more astonishing. Verse 23. Therefore, do what we tell you.
We have four men who have made a vow. Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay for them to get their heads shaved. Then everyone will know that what they were told about you amounts to nothing, but that you yourself are also careful about observing the law. Here's what the elders suggest. They had four men in their congregation who were about to finish their Hebrew Nazarite vows as specified under the law, which culminated in getting their heads shaved at the temple and making a substantial financial offering there.
Because Paul was traveling from gentile territory, according to the law, he would need to undergo ritual purification before he could enter the inner courts of the temple to pray or worship. So the elders suggest Paul observe the law by getting ritually purified at the temple himself and then show further support for the law by sponsoring the offerings of the four men completing their Nazarite vows. These actions, they believe, will put to rest any suggestions that Paul is teaching Jewish believers to abandon the law of Moses. Instead of dealing with gossip and slander in their congregation, the elders suggest Paul put on a dog and pony show to appease those who were so quick to believe baseless rumors. If I'm honest, I would not have handled this situation as well as Paul did.
Which is why I'm struck by how humble and gracious Paul was, because he's going to agree to go along with their plan. I mean, just think about this. Paul spent his third missionary journey raising funds from predominantly gentile churches for the suffering saints in Jerusalem. While they've been huddled in Jerusalem, enjoying their ethnocentric congregation, he's been out there preaching the gospel and planting churches in the face of fierce persecution, staring death in the face on more than one occasion. His last interaction with the Jerusalem church was the Jerusalem council, which was only convened because the Jerusalem church was wrongly supporting the idea that Gentiles in Antioch needed to follow the law.
When Paul gets to Jerusalem for this visit. He's barely said hello before. The elders tell him there are nasty rumors about him which they have not refuted or put to rest. Rumors that he's trying to eradicate Hebrew culture and the law of Moses. And by the way, pretty much the entire city and our whole congregation believes these rumors.
And they're mad at you, Paul. I mean, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? How about a thank you? How about connecting the dots and realizing that this entourage and these financial gifts would seem to indicate that Paul cares deeply about his Jewish brethren?
He didn't have to do any of that fundraising, by the way. And then they have the nerve to tell Paul, hey, listen, here's what you need to do. Do this. Do what we tell you. And then give him instructions that are based on their own flawed understanding of the gospel.
They boss around the greatest church planter and evangelist of all time like he's some sort of ignorant new believer. I would have been like, you know what? The Lord be with you guys. I'm going to cut my visit short and head for Rome. Just forget it.
But not Paul. Not Paul. He was full of the spirit and could therefore be gracious when he encountered some, frankly, very wrong treatment from James and the elders in Jerusalem. I pray the Lord fills me and us with more of his grace and the love of God that is not easily offended. This is why I love Paul so much.
He embodied the exhortations that he gave to the churches that he planted. He actually lived what he wrote in those letters. He lived his own words, words like these, which he wrote to the Colossians. They're on your outline as God's chosen ones, holy and dearly loved. Put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
If anyone has a grievance against another, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity, and let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful. Too much of the time. When I say I love the brethren, what I really mean is I love the brethren as long as they're not idiots or immature or prideful or don't treat me with enough respect.
But Paul was full of the love of Christ, the love that is big enough to love the brethren, even when they're very difficult to love. It's the kind of love that can only come from God. I want to love the church of Jesus like that and as is always the case, I can't stir up that kind of love within myself. I can't focus really hard and manifest it. I can't make a decision and just will it into existence.
I must be filled with the spirit. I must be filled with the love of Christ and experience the love of Christ myself so that I have it in me to give. Paul was about to do exactly what he had told the Corinthians was his standard operating procedure. Also on your outlines? Although I am free from all and not anyone's slave, I've made myself a slave to everyone.
In order to win more people to the Jews, I became like a Jew to win Jews to those under the law, like one under the law, though I myself am not under the law. To win those under the law, to those who are without the law, like one without the law, though I am not without God's law, but under the law of Christ, to win those without the law, to the weak, I became weak. In order to win the weak, I have become all things to all people, so that I may by every possible means, save some. Now I do all this because of the gospel, so that I may share in the blessings. It wasn't sin for Paul to agree to this plan.
He knew it wouldn't add anything to his salvation or righteousness, but he was willing to do it for the sake of bringing unity to the situation. He was willing to be charitable to his weaker brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. And he likely also wanted to deal with an issue that would have hindered any chance he might have to preach the gospel to unbelieving Jews in the city. The church in Jerusalem was not handling the reality of the new covenant and the creation of the church perfectly. In many ways, their theology was distorted by nationalism, traditionalism, and, to a degree, legalism.
That's why the Jerusalem church was not as powerful as the gentile church in places like Antioch and Ephesus. And that's sad. Oh, the Lord still used them to save thousands of Jews. The Lord still wrote parts of the Bible through the pen of their elders. However, their effectiveness was hindered by their ethnocentric focus on themselves and Hebrew culture.
The book of Hebrews, which I suspect was authored by Paul, was written to the Hebrews to tell them to stop being Hebrews because they were constantly walking a dangerous line of valuing their identity as Jews above their identity as Christians. And this is still a danger for many professing Christians today. Your ethnicity is not more important than your identity in Christ, your culture, heritage, and family are not more important than your identity as a Christian. Jesus stated this plainly when he said, the one who loves a father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. The one who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
When you become a Christian, all your other identities bow to Christ. If you refuse to do that, you cannot follow Christ. It's part of the entry price. There's no room to be a Jewish Christian, or a Canadian Christian, or a First Nations Christian, or a black Christian or a recovery Christian. You're just a Christian.
Christ becomes the most defining thing about you. He becomes your identity. That you are a child of Christ is the most important, significant, and meaningful thing about you, that you're in his family. And if you love any identity more than the identity you have as a child of Christ, then you are worshiping that identity above Christ. So write this down.
Our identity in Christ must become the predominant identity of every Christian. Our identity in Christ must become the predominant identity of every Christian. Christ defines you. Not your past, not your failures, not your sins, not your successes, not your earthly achievements, not your trauma, not your bank account balance, not your medical issues, not your mental health issues, not your relationships, not your material possessions or the brands of clothing you wear, not the house you live in, not the city you live in, not your ethnicity, not your family traditions, not your country of birth, but Christ. Christ defines you.
The single most important thing about you is that you belong to Christ. And the best thing about you is Christ in you. The best thing that you have to offer the world is Christ in you. The best thing you have to offer your spouse, your children, your extended family, and your coworkers, is Christ in you. All other identities will exhaust and disappoint you, and I promise there are many in this room who could testify to that.
All other identities will exhaust and disappoint you. And so I want to invite you to find rest for your weary soul by once again finding your identity in Christ and your culture in the kingdom of God. If you haven't been doing that, I invite you to repent. Ask the Lord to forgive you for the places where you've been trying to find worth and meaning and comfort apart from him. You might need to do that for the first time, or the 10,000th time.
If you're doing it for the first time, it's not going to be the last time, I promise. Whatever the case may be. Let me tell you what you'll find. You'll find a savior waiting with open arms ready to give you rest and reassurance, because there is no peace like the peace that comes from belonging to the Lord. So let's seek the Lord together.
Let's push all other contenders off the throne of our lives and ask Christ to reign in us and over us and find ourselves in him once again.