Bible Study: December 22, 2021

We saw last week that Paul wasn't allowing those warnings of what was going to be Paul, him, and Jerusalem to stop him. We're going to see that in chapter 21 as well, that even though people keep warning him, danger awaits you in Paul. Danger awaits you in Jerusalem, Paul. He's not diverted from what God wants him to do, and there's a lesson for that in us.

Let's pick it up here in chapter 21. He's leaving Miletus, and he is continuing on his journey back to Syria and then down, or as the Bible says, up to Jerusalem so that he can be in Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost. That's what his mission is we see here in Acts 20. Let me, as we begin here, put this map up because the first few verses of chapter 21 are kind of like a travel log. They give us what the Paul is taking, and it's always helpful to see the area that he's covering.

Understanding he's doing some of this by foot, he's doing this, some of this by ship, but it's a long way to get from Corinth, where he's beginning his return trip, all the way back to Tyre, and then down south to Jerusalem. You see there, right in the center of that map, is Miletus, where we ended last week in chapter 20. In the next few verses here of chapter 21, we'll be passing by the Isle of Rhodes and Patara and over into the area that he is eventually going to come to. Chapter 21 verse 1. We came to pass that when we had departed from them, them being the elders that were gathered there at Miletus, and you remember the tearful goodbye that they had as they realized we weren't going to see Paul again, that when we had departed from them and set sail, running a straight course, we came to Koss, C-O-S, that's K-I-R-K-O-S, right there south of Miletus, on the map there. Of course, we came to Koss the following day to Rhodes and from there to Patara. So you can kind of see the route that he's taking there. Now, finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. So they're on their way, they're on their way to Tyre, where they're going to eventually land. When we sighted Cyprus, that's the that's the isle. They don't have Cyprus listed there, but you can see where they passed by Cyprus. It says when we sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left. We sailed to Syria. Antioch is in Syria, and we landed a tire. For there, the ship was to unload her cargo. So we've made all this trip here in several days. Remember, this is all happening after the days of Unleavened Bread. We were told in Acts 20 that Paul and his group left Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread. So they had basically seven weeks to get down to Jerusalem for the day of Pentecost that he is intent to observe there this year. So now they're entire. For there, the ship was to unload her cargo. And finding disciples, people that believe, and finding disciples, they stayed there in Tyre for seven days. And there in Tyre, they're told, you know, Paul is told again, something he was told back in chapter 20, don't go up to Jerusalem. Don't go up to Jerusalem. Now, when you're looking at that map, you see that Tyre is, or Jerusalem is south of Tyre. Today, we would say don't go down to Jerusalem. But remember, we had talked about this before. Whenever they talked about going to Jerusalem, no matter what direction you were coming from, it was always you go up to Jerusalem. And then you go down from Jerusalem to every place else. So following that same thing that we talked about a few chapters ago, and they were going up to Jerusalem, when it really was south on a map, same thing, you always go up to where the seat of God is, and you always go down from there to wherever you're going from Jerusalem. So they told Paul through the Spirit, not to go up to Jerusalem. So again, he's being warned. There's a continuing theme that we have for Paul as he's on this journey. He's intent to go to Jerusalem, but everyone along the way is warning him, don't go. Don't go there to Jerusalem. Tribulation awaits you. Chains await you.

So let me take that map down. And so after they were there in the first five, after they'd been there a week in Tyre working with the disciples, you know, just as we would do if we came to visit someone and people stay there too. People stay there and work what they stay there for a week in Tyre. When we come to the end of those days, we, and remember Luke, Luke is actually with Paul at this time. He's the one who wrote the book of Acts. So he's physically with them along this part of the journey here. We departed and we went on our way, and they all accompanied us with wives and children till we were out of the city. And we welt down on the shore and prayed. So again, you know, here's Paul leaving. People all accompany them. They're happy to have his visit there with them. They ask God's protection and guidance on on Paul and all the congregation there, just as we always should do. Though we pray for each other and always ask God to direct our path, lead us to where he wants us to go and to watch over us. When we had taken verse 6, our leave of one another, we boarded the ship and they returned home. Now when we finished our voyage from Tyre, I should have left the map on, Ptolemais is just south of Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, greeted the brethren, and we stayed with them one day. So again, it's kind of like, you know, if we back back years ago, there were traveling evangelists in the church, Gerald Waterhouse was one of them. He would come to an area. He would stay there for two or three days and move on to the next city. Mr. Armstrong would do that. He would come and visit, stay for a few days, go to another city and whatever. This is what Paul was doing. And when they finally were on the disciples, he just didn't pass through. He stayed there with them a day. They talked. He would give them the information of what was going on. You know, they always glorified God for what they were doing, but he spent time with them. So they stayed there in Ptolemais for a day. The next day they went, says, we who were Paul's and Cavania's departed, and we came to Caesarea and entered the house of Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. Let me throw that map up again, just so we can kind of see the route what we're taking here.

You know, so we've been in Tyre, go south to Ptolemais. Caesarea is the next city south of Ptolemais, on the way to Jerusalem. And here in Caesarea we find Philip, who is now an evangelist. Philip, we talked about him back in Acts 8. You remember he was a deacon at that time, one of the seven. In Acts 6, who were ordained the deacon. And when the persecution came after the martyrdom and after the stoning of Stephen, Philip, we remember, went to Samaria. He preached the gospel. God worked many signs through him. Many, many in Samaria believed. And then God had him take a journey up north from Samaria, and he settled in Caesarea. Now he's an evangelist.

We've turned several times to 1 Corinthians 12, where God says he makes some evangelists, some apostles, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, right on down the line there. So Philip, as he has continued to work in God, he's progressed from deacon, you know, up to the role of evangelist. He's a spiritual pillar there in Caesarea. And he has ruled his family well, as we see. He was one of the seven. You know, as he's progressed, as he's yielded the Godness, he's allowed God to lead him. You know, he is now in the role of evangelist in Caesarea now.

And he has ruled his family well, because he has, tells us in verse 9, he has four daughters. All of them were virgins. All of them said prophesy. And so, you know, again, we recognize this word prophesy. That's there in the Bible. And it can mean that they would foretell events, and we know the Bible is full of prophecy, and some that can prophesy will tell what it is in line with the Bible, not give dates, not things like that, but say what will be coming about.

But prophesy in the Bible really means being able to interpret the scripture through divine, you know, through divine inspiration. And that's really what what Philip's daughters were doing here. You know, perhaps there was prophecy that they were saying, but it was that they were able to explain the scriptures well, that people could understand they had a good understanding of the Bible, largely, I'm sure, imparted by their father, who was very loyal to God, who was a teacher there, now an evangelist in Caesarea.

And they learned the Bible well. So when they were talking, you know, they could expound it. Now, some will confuse what what is going on there with what Philip's daughters that they were teachers, that they were teachers in the church, and that they were prophesying in that way. And the Bible doesn't tell us that the Bible doesn't say that only men ever have the gift of prophecy, right?

It doesn't say that. In fact, if we go back to Acts 2, we see that Peter, as he's preaching the Gospel after the day that they have Pentecost in 31 A.D. when the Holy Spirit comes on them, he talks about, he quotes from Joel 2.28, where it talks about this very, very thing. If you go back to Acts 2 and verse 16, you know, this is what he says, as the crowds are assembled there that day, and they're hearing the message of who Jesus Christ is, and having the Bible expounded to.

And verse 16 says, this is what was spoken by the prophet, Joel. It shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams.

And on my men servants and on my maid servants, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they shall prophesy. So there's nothing, you know, it never says that Philip's daughters were in the church at Caesarea, and that he was having them give sermons, or they were running around holding Bible studies and instructing. They're following exactly what Paul had said in 1 Corinthians 14.

That it should be the men who were teaching in the church, but there is nothing that says that women aren't able to talk about the scriptures, to be teachers of groups. In fact, in Titus 2, we see that it specifically does give women the charge, if you will, when they're living godly lives and live God's life, to be teachers of other women.

If we look at Titus 2, and I was in Jacksonville last week, and we didn't have a chance to get through Titus 2, as we talked about godliness and as we talked about agape and the biblical definition of agape, but let's look at that for a minute in chapter 2 of Titus, and verse 1 says, as for you, Titus, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine. The older men, that the older men be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, sound in agape, sound in patience, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given the much wine, teachers of good things.

No men are teachers, but women are teachers too. Teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. So, you know, when it says Phillips' daughters prophesied, they had an understanding of the Bible. There's no, you know, if someone is in a conversation and a woman has an understanding of the Bible, you know, it's not enough problem to say, well, this is what the Bible says regarding that. Women aren't always to be silent.

If they know something, it's okay to speak up. You know, even on this Bible study, right, but when we do Bible studies in the churches when we have, I've had questions sometimes, is it even appropriate for women in those Bible study discussions to ever make a comment or say something? And my response is, yes, they're not teaching, it's a discussion.

We should discuss the Bible. And God doesn't say, I only, only, only, only, you know, give understanding to the men, and that women can be teachers and should be teachers of other women and help them along those lines. I find many times in counseling that a woman can help counsel a woman better than I can. I understand the role of men and husband, and I understand some of those things, and over the years have, but sometimes a woman, another woman, can help one other woman understand, you know, what she might be doing in not living a, in living the godly life that God had called her to.

So anyway, and I don't, I don't mean to confuse anyone here, but then when we read about Philip's daughters, I was not saying they were teaching or preaching in the church, but they were prophets, they understood the scriptures, and they were able to speak to the scriptures, and I know many of the ladies, many of the ladies in the church have a good understanding of the scriptures. We have a good understanding, and you shouldn't be, you shouldn't be afraid to share that in conversations with people, as Philip's daughters were doing here.

Any questions on that, or any, anything? I don't, again, I don't mean to confuse anyone on that, but, but, you know, we won't get into the first Corinthians where Paul says, I mean, God does say that men are the spiritual heads of the house, you know, doesn't mean the women should never discuss, or, or, you know, they shouldn't discuss, and, and, and the men shouldn't listen to their wives. Men are the teachers in the church, and that, but it doesn't mean women are never given any understanding, right, or anything like that. God works with all of us. We all have a part in His kingdom, and His Holy Spirit is in all of us. That's what He says. I pour my Holy, I pour my Spirit out on men and women, and they will prophesy. Okay, well then, let's go on. In, in verse nine here, we were in verse nine, right? Yeah, this man had four daughters who prophesied, and as we, again, Luke, writing, as we stayed many days there in Caesarea, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Now, you remember Judea was really south. It was really south, so when we would talk, we'd say, oh, he was coming north to Caesarea, but you come down from Jerusalem, and you're always going up to Jerusalem, no matter where you're coming from. So, as we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. He's really coming north to Caesarea, and when he came to us, you know, he did something that we, we see that some of the prophets in the Old Testament did. He kind of acted out what was going to happen to Paul when he came to Jerusalem. When he had come to us, he took Paul's belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, thus says the Holy Spirit, so shall the Jews of Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles. So, here we have this continuing message to Paul. You know, Paul, Paul understands and he knows that God has, God is leading him to Jerusalem. That's what, you know, as we read back in Acts 20, yeah, verse 16. His, his intent is to be in Jerusalem, if at all possible, for the day of Pentecost. That's where God's leading him to. God has already changed the course for Paul to go back around from Corinth across land in a longer way to give his farewell message to Miletus and come down through this thing. And along the way, he's always getting these messages from people who are, you know, Christians. And the Bible continually tells us, you know, that God is leading to tell Paul, don't go, don't go, yet Paul knows I should go. And here it's even acted out. You know, when you see what Agabus did here, you know, might remind us of what God had Jeremiah do in some of the cases when he had to act out prophecies. I'm reminded of Ezekiel where he had to lay on his side for 390 days to picture what was going on to Israel and another so many days for Judah. We see God acting out, and here having prophets act out so that there was a visual so that they could understand what's going on. And here comes Agabus. And Agabus, you know, already has some credibility in prophecy because we've met him before in Acts 11. Let me look at my notes here. Back in Acts 11, yeah, I believe. Let me look. We met him before in a prophecy that he gave back then, you know, actually did come about. Yeah, Acts 11 in verse I am. Oh, I'm in the wrong chapter. Acts 11 in verse 28.

We see the same man, Agabus, and it says that one of them named Agabus stood up and showed by the Spirit that there was going to be a great famine throughout all the world. And it even tells us that that was fulfilled, which also happened in the days of Claudius Caesar. And that was an occasion then for the Gentile church to send an offering to the church of Jerusalem. Here's the agape. We see someone in need, you know, we're going to send to the Jews.

We're going to send to them the Jews an offering to help them out of this situation. But here we have Agabus. He prophesied there would be a famine coming. The Bible tells us it did happen. So when Agabus comes through, he comes up with a little bit of credibility, right? Because he's already made a... God's already given him a prophecy that has come about. And here he is now again. This time, you know, in flight, vivid, you know, pictures showing, Paul, don't go to Jerusalem. This is what's going to happen to you here. And this message continually comes to Paul.

Yet Paul is determined to go there. And there's a lesson in this. There's a lesson in this that as we come down to verse 13, we're going to see. You know, God's intent was for Paul to go to Jerusalem. That's where God wanted him to go. But all along the way, God allowed people to say, don't go, Paul. Don't go, Paul. Tribulation awaits you there, Paul. Change awaits you there, Paul. Don't go, don't go, don't go. So Paul is conflicted a little bit. Like, I keep hearing, don't go.

Yet I know the Spirit, God's Spirit is leading me. You need to go. You have to go, Paul. So what is God doing with Paul? Is he going to start listening to the people and say, well, okay, I'm going to agree with you. Even though my conscience and the Spirit and God is telling me, be there in Jerusalem. I'm going to listen to you. I'm going to listen to you because you have my safety in mind and my comfort in mind and that.

But Paul doesn't do that. He doesn't deter what the people tell him not to do from doing what he knows God wants him to do. And we see that as we come down to verse 13.

And verse 12, then, you know, knowing what Paul has been hearing this all along the way says, and when they heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him, please, Paul, don't go to Jerusalem. Don't go. Don't go. You can imagine kind of what Paul is involved in here and the conflict that he has is like, I know God wants me to go. I know this is what he is doing to me. And all these people are telling me, don't go. And they're all concerned about my safety. And Paul sets the record straight there in verse 13. Paul answered, what do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart?

I'm ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. He's saying, I don't care about my safety. God wants me to go there. There may be change that await me there. There may be pain that awaits me there. There may be death that awaits me there.

That's okay. I'm going to do God's will first. I'm not going to let people deter me from what God's will is. And that's a very... there's so much character that's built in Paul.

He never allowed the threat of pain, the threat of anything to keep him from doing what God's will is. And when he gets to Jerusalem, we see that exactly what was prophesied happens, will happen, but it was for God's purpose. Because Paul is going to learn a lesson in Jerusalem that he could only have learned by being in Jerusalem. And sometimes we have to remember, you know, God allows us to go through things so that it reveals in us the things that we need to learn. We all have things to learn, and God knows how to best teach us those lessons.

Always keeping in mind he's preparing us for his kingdom. You know, Job was a righteous man. God says he was blameless in his sight. He did everything right, and God allows Job to go through so much pain and so much suffering.

What Job lost in that whole trial and that whole episode that we read in the book of Job is enormous. But it was the only way that Job could understand the weakness that was in him with the self-righteousness. He had to come to that knowledge, and it was only through that way that he could come and repent and no longer be, pat himself on the back for everything he was doing, and realize it was 100% God, you know, that had done it through him. He needed that humbling and that opportunity of repentance.

Paul needs to learn something, too, through this process, and he's not afraid of the pain. He's not afraid of the pain. As we look at our lives ahead, only God knows when, only God knows how, you know, what each of us will go through. And there will be people who will encourage us, right? There will always be people, don't do this, don't do that, don't go there, do this, take this action, save yourself the pain, save yourself the inconvenience, save yourself all these things. Always follow what God says to do. Seek his will and do his will, and don't worry about that. God will teach us the character and what we need in order to be in his kingdom. We all have to develop that. And that's, I think, what Paul is doing here. He finally says, you know what? I'm going. I'm going. It's God's will that I go. I don't care what befalls me. If it's God's will that it happens, I'm going to do it, and I'm going to let God deal with it. And they understand. When Paul sets the record straight and tells them that's what's happening, in verse 14, the people understand. So when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, well then, the will of the Lord be done. Let God's will be done. And sometimes God's will is not always our will. And Paul was choosing whatever God's will is. I would like, you know, whatever your will is, you know, that's fine. And I'm also reminded of Job, thinking of him, you know, when all those things were going through. And after he had lived a blameless life, as God said, you know, he lost everything. He lost his home. He lost his children. He lost his health. And his wife came to him and said, why are you even bothering anymore? Look at everything that God has done. Just first God and die. You know, Paul could have been in the same. Yeah, I mean, what have I done? All these things that I've lived God's way of life, and all these trials and all this pain has come upon me. But Job would not listen to it. Job said, absolutely not. I will never curse God. It may be pain along the way. It may be things I don't understand along the way. There may be people that I don't understand why die along the way, but I will not alter my faith in God. I will always have faith in Him. Ignore that bone back there. I should have put it on mute, too. So anyway, anyway, verse 15.

After those days, then, after they spent the time there in Tyre, I guess they are. Is that where they're at? Yeah, wherever they are here where Agabus has come, you know, they decided they packed up and they're headed south to Jerusalem, but up to Jerusalem, as they say. And so, verse 16. And some of the disciples from Caesarea, that's where they are. That's right. Also, some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Manaiacen of Cyprus, an early disciple with whom we were to lodge. So, some of them want to go with him, you know, go with him down to or up to Jerusalem. And this Manaiacen is his site there. He's nowhere mentioned else in the Bible, but you know, there's a reason that he was there. You remember back as the persecution of the Jews spread, and people went up to Antioch, and the gospel was preached there, and there were people there. It talks about there were people... Antioch was kind of like the melting pot. There were Jews there, there were Gentiles there, it says there were people from Cyprus there, from all these places around there. It talks about some of the Cyprus that were there. Manaiacen might have been one of those early people. So, Paul would have been very well aware of who Manaiacen was in Cyprus as he came from Antioch and other places. Now he's down in Caesarea. But it's, you know, as they go there, Paul knows these people. He knows these people, so it's kind of good to see them again, see that they've continued in the faith, and they want to go with it down to Jerusalem. Now, keep in mind, when Paul says he wants to be in Jerusalem for the feast, remember that in Old Testament times, God did say he wanted all the Jews to gather three times a year in Jerusalem for the days of unleavened bread, for the Feast of Weeks, and for the Feast of Tabernacles. And so there is a big, there are a number of Jews who are going to Jerusalem who are going to be there at the Day of Pentecost. It was the Day of Pentecost in 31 AD when all those Jews from all over the surrounding regions were there, when the Holy Spirit came and Peter and the people went out and spoke, and they understood in their own tongues a number, a number, a number, a number of people are in Jerusalem, and Paul is headed down for this Day of Pentecost, where there's going to be Jews from all over Asia, and all these surrounding areas there is the same people that were there in Acts 2 that are coming down to Jerusalem for that time. So it's a big gathering that's happening down there. These people from Caesarea want to go down there with Paul to that, you know, which they should. That's kind of where they want to be, and that's where God has a gathering there. Verse 17, so they come to Jerusalem. When we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

And on the following day, on the following, Paul went in with us. So they come to Jerusalem, I mean, and the church is there. Now one of the things to remember is we read about the church at Jerusalem.

It's separate from the temple at Jerusalem. You know, we've seen in Corinth and we've seen in Ephesus that, you know, where the gospel was initially preached in the synagogue, synagogues, God moved the church out apart from the synagogues, and they had their own building. So when we read about the church at Jerusalem, it's not meeting in the temple at Jerusalem, it's the church of Jerusalem, just like we have our separate churches, and we don't meet, you know, we don't meet in other places, but it's a separate church identified for the church.

We're going to see the temple come into play here, but that's not where the church, the true church, the Christian church at Jerusalem, met every week. They met someplace different. When we had come to Jerusalem, it says in verse 17, the brethren received us gladly. Those would be the Christian brethren, not all the Jews that are assembled there in Jerusalem. There are Jews who believe, and there are Jews who don't believe. So we have two groups of people, similar to what we have in our world today. You know, we call ourselves Christians. We believe the Bible. We believe everything the Bible says. We live by that. We're here in a season now where we don't partake of the holiday celebrations that the world has with Christmas and New Year's and the things that surround this time. We abide by the Bible. Yet there's a whole group, a whole world of people out there calling themselves Christians who do, but we're separate from those Christians, even though we would call ourselves Christians, and they call themselves Christians. Here we have the church, the true church of Jerusalem, keeping the same Holy Days that the Jews who don't believe in Jesus Christ are keeping. And so we begin to see, as Paul comes into Jerusalem, the people of the true church receive him, and they're glad to see him. Not going to be so with the rest of the Jews who are gathered there for the day of Pentecost, as we see. And it says on verse 18, on the following day, Paul went in with us, all the people that accompanied him, including Luke, to James.

And all the elders were present. So, you know, we've met James before, you know, back in Acts 15 during the Jerusalem Conference on, you know, circumcision. Is it binding on the Gentiles as we went through that chapter? So we see James, so we remember from Acts 15, that as all the discussion went on, the healthy discussion, and I'm sure spirited conversation that went on as they discussed circumcision, you know, Peter finally, you know, stood up, and as he realized what God had led him through, to realize, whoa, you know what? God gave the Holy Spirit to Cornelius and all his household. And they're not circumcised, but he gave the Holy Spirit to them. And as that kind of turned the tide, and then it was James who was, we consider it's kind of the leader of the church there, the same James we're seeing here in verse 18, who brought everything together, and then of course they had the edict that went out on what should be binding on the Gentiles. Not affecting the law of Moses at all, but what they would be doing. We're going to see that come on later in the chapter as well. So they go into James, and notice it just says that James was there and all the elders were present. So it's kind of like we have a visiting minister. If we have a visiting minister, you know, come in, we might, you know, we might have a dinner with them. We, you know, we visit, you know, visit, have all the elders, have the deacons, have some of the people come and greet him. Same thing there. Notice that in 18 it doesn't say, and all the apostles were present.

James and all the elders were present, but it doesn't say all the apostles were present.

Now where were the apostles during this time? It's interesting to see why the apostles were, you know, could we read from that? They just didn't want to visit with Paul. They, well, we know that's not the case. They have visited with Paul before. They were, you know, they glorified God when they heard the works that God was working through Paul as they went through, you know, Asia and everything that was happening there. But they weren't, but somehow at this meeting, the apostles aren't there to meet Paul. The church is, the church, James, who's the leader of the church, the Christian church, and all the elders in the church of Jerusalem were there to meet him.

They wanted to hear what was going on. They wanted to hear what was going on with him and everything. And it does say, you know, verse 19, when we, he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry, and when they heard it, they glorified the Lord and they said to him.

Well, I'll get to that in a minute. They glorified God. They saw what was happening. But where were the, where were the disciples? You know, maybe, you know, maybe if we look at Galatians, maybe we see that the apostles didn't spend all their time in Jerusalem. You know, God didn't, you know, sometimes, maybe we all think that the apostles, the rest of the apostles, just stayed in Jerusalem the entire time. They were witnesses, and certainly God wanted those twelve witnesses of Jesus Christ in his life, but they had a mission too. Just like Paul was, was the apostle to the Gentiles, the apostles, the other apostles, you know, God said, you know, maybe go out to the lost seat of Israel. We look at some of the introductions to Peter's epistles. Well, actually, maybe before we went to Galatians, let's go to 1 Peter.

I never get there. 1 Peter. Here he addresses his epistle, and this is an epistle that is generally believed to be written somewhere around 62, 63, 64 AD, before Nero came into power, before the temple was destroyed. And Peter introduces his epistle this way. He says, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bethanyal. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, foreobedience, the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. When we look at Galatians 3, then, not Galatians.

That's very shady. Yes, sir.

Also, in 1 Peter, another possible clue of where he was at that time is the very end of the letter in chapter 5, verse 13, where he's telling them, basically in the goodbyes, saying she, who is in Babylon, and that she probably refers to the church, which is there, elect together with you, greet you. He's sending readings from the church in Babylon to the people to whom he wrote this letter. So, very likely he was there at that time when he wrote this letter.

He was there, and as he wrote the letter, just like Paul, when he wrote his epistles, he'd already been there. They were familiar with who Paul was, so he sent a letter to them. Here's Peter now sending a letter to this group. He was one of the apostles to the Jews. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, but as we read about the Phoenia and Asia and Galatia and the churches that are raised up there, there are Jews in that area as well who God is calling. Galatians 2.

Let's pick it up in verse 7. This is Paul writing to the churches in Galatia.

He says, on the contrary, when they, that would be the apostle, saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me. I'm the apostle to the Gentiles, the uncircumcised, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter. He's the apostle that is taking the gospel to Peter for he who worked effectively, and Peter for the apostleship of the circumcised, also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles. And when James, Cephas, who's another name for Peter, and when James, Cephas, and John, who seem to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. So where were they? They were out. They were out teaching the churches. You know, as a melding those two groups together, the Gentiles and Jews, was no small task. They come from completely different backgrounds. I mean completely different backgrounds. I don't know that we can even imagine how completely different they were. They had to deal with Gentiles, you know, who they always saw as inferior, pagan, evil, disregarding every law of God. That's one thing. But they were also there with Jews who were similar to them in the fact that they kept the Sabbath, they kept the Holy Days, and yet they didn't believe in Jesus Christ, and the Christian Jews did. How do we do that? What does God want us to do? That was no small task for the Christian Jews to come out of Judaism and to become the people that God wants. Peter and the apostles would have been there to help them do that. Paul was there to instruct the Gentiles and to work with them to become Christians. But just the same way, you know, there were apostles that were working with the Jews. So maybe, just maybe, you know, the apostles who weren't there at Jerusalem who aren't mentioned in Acts 21 were out and about. You know, last week, last week I put up the map, and we mentioned the map of the seven churches of Revelation, and showed how there's Ephesus, and the first church of Asia was Ephesus, and back in Acts 19 it tells us that the word spread throughout all of Asia. And then you have the seven churches of general revelation that we showed the picture of, and they're off, just off of the shore of Asia is the little isle of Patmos. And that's where the apostle John in Revelation, you know, we see that he was a prisoner in Patmos. Now if he was always in Jerusalem, why would they have taken him to Patmos? What was he doing up in that area, working with the churches up there as well, that they exiled him to Patmos? So, you know, some of these things we don't know all the details of, but we can see as we go through the book of Acts that, you know, the apostles, the apostles, the 12 apostles from Jerusalem, you know, were there. You know, James, the apostle was martyred early on. I think it is 64 AD that they say that, you know, kind of the records are that Peter was martyred and whatever. But we see, we see this. So anyway, you know, let's get back to Acts 21. And it's just interesting that, you know, they come to the church in Jerusalem, and it's not all the apostles there. The apostles aren't, you know, boycotting Paul.

Maybe they're just not there. Maybe they're out working with the church in Jerusalem as they keep the day of Pentecost, you know, in the areas that they're in. Okay, I don't know. We don't know for sure. But anyway, it's interesting that that's what happens. Paul in verse 18-19 tells them that all the work that's gone on, you know, just like when we hear the work of God. And, you know, similarly, in our day and age, I think as we've watched what God has unfolded in Angola over there, and we see the thousands of people who through the years have been keeping God's will, and all of a sudden they contact us. And, you know, George C. Campos has been working very closely with them to see that they, they know what we know, that God has worked with them even though they've had no contact. And here, here, you know, we see God at work, and we all glorify God for what is going on in other places like the, I forget the name of the city over in India, where the same type thing has happened, not to the extent of the number of people, but, but in the same way, same thing is, as they hear what's going on in the Gentile areas, they glorify God. But if we go on in verse 20, that's all well and good. That's exactly what should happen. But then, but then they make a little comment to Peter here at the end of verse 20 in Acts 21. They say, you see, brother, you're one of us, you're teaching the same thing we do, Paul. You see, brother, how many myriad of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. There's a lot of people in Jerusalem who believed in Jesus Christ. There's a lot of people in Jerusalem who don't believe in Jesus Christ yet. They're still in the old Judaism. They're still wanting to do things the whole way.

But he says there, and they're all zealous for the law. That was kind of the mark of the law. How many times does Paul talk about, you know, the law? He talks about the law and says it's holy, just, and good in Romans, in Romans 7. But at the same time, the Jews would look at the law as the key or the avenue to salvation. And if Jesus Christ is the way to salvation, they would just, as long as we keep the law, as long as we keep the law, it's like they earn salvation. And he's saying to us, no, no, no, that's not it. The law is a tutor. The law shows us how to love God. It's how we develop Gopé. It has to become us. It has to become what's in our heart.

But it's not just that. It's not just that. It's Jesus Christ. That's what we have to repent of when we have to follow. But here, here, the Church of Jerusalem is saying, hey, we have a lot of people who believe, but they're all zealous for the law. And that says something about the difficulty of the Jews to come away from what they believe is to separate Judaism from Christianity.

And verse 21, they get to the point of what they're talking about. But there's zealous for the law. They believe, but they've been informed about you, Paul, that you teach the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, say they ought not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs. Well, I mean, you know, Paul had to be taken aback. Do we see that Paul ever taught anyone among the Jews in the in the Gentile areas to not circumcise? Did he ever say that you should not you should not circumcise your children anymore? Now, he never he never said that.

He never says, circumcision, physical circumcision is wrong. He did say that if you believe physical circumcision is the sign between God and it's necessary for salvation, that's wrong. But he never said that anything that there's anything wrong with physical circumcision, just like the church today doesn't say there's that you shouldn't physically circumcise. But if you believe you have to be circumcised for salvation, the Bible doesn't say that. Now, if you keep our finger there and first go to 1 Corinthians is Paul, because this would have been this is what humans do. They hear something and then they take it they add a little bit to it, right? We're clear as we went through Acts 15, you know what the Jerusalem Council said, that there's nothing they never said that anything is wrong with physical circumcision. But if you believe that you have to be circumcised in order for salvation, then that's wrong. That isn't what the New Testament said. 1 Corinthians 7 verse 19. Here's what Paul writes. Now verse 18, he introduces the lesson in verse 18. He says, Was anyone called while circumcised? Jews, you were circumcised? That's fine. Was anyone called while circumcised? Don't let him become uncircumcised. Not that that's possible anyway. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Gentiles, let him not be circumcised. Now they can read that and say, that would be the adults, right? Let him not be circumcised. Meaning you don't have to be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. So what he's saying there is, well, don't, you know, he's not forbidding circumcision. Certainly as a child is born, it would be appropriate, you know, as we know from health reasons today to circumcise the child. But what he's saying in there in 1 Corinthians is, you know, if you're converted, that you don't have to become circumcised. But here we have the Jews in Jerusalem who have taken and said, you know what? Paul's out there saying people shouldn't be circumcised. And that isn't what he was saying. There's a difference between what's required for salvation and what's, you know, physically healthy and whatever. So we see that that's a misnomer. They've said something about Paul that isn't true. He also says, you know, that verse 21, that they ought not to circumcise their children or that they need to forsake Moses. No, no, no. The Jerusalem Council never said before that you should forsake Moses. In fact, they said Moses is taught in every synagogue. Moses taught in every city. They never said you shouldn't believe it. You continue with the law of Moses. You have to understand what Jesus Christ fulfilled and sacrificial rituals being done away with. And later God would take the temple away so those things couldn't be done anymore. But they added to what Paul said, and they've had these rumors come around, and all of a sudden the message of Paul has been perverted or misinterpreted or, as we would say today, there's been disinformation, you know, or that has been circulated about Paul. So the Church of Jerusalem is telling them that, you know, they're saying some things about you, Paul. That, you know, we can't need to bring the thing together. And they know, they know that, you know, what Paul is saying. So they have an idea on how Paul can heal or bridge this perception that's out there about him. So in verse 22 of Acts 21, you know, they talk about that.

What then? They say, you know, the people out here, the Jews, are saying, this is what you do.

What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. There's going to be Jews that hear you're here in town. We're going to have to address this issue, Paul. Now you're here in Jerusalem. What has been being said about you. We've, the assembly's going to have to meet because we got, we got to get to the bottom of this. What are you teaching? And, you know, they're comfortable with them, but they need to hear and they need to see what's going on. We need to bridge the gap here. It's the same work. Therefore, do what we tell you. And we have a very interesting thing here that Paul finds himself in the, in the, in Paul's list. Therefore, do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow. This would be the Nazarite vow, right? We have four men who have taken a vow. Take them, be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that they all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. So Paul, here's what you can do. We have people who are zealous for the law. We have four who are taking the Nazarite vow. We want you to participate with them so that people can see, oh, yeah, Paul's, Paul's keeping this Nazarite vow. Now, you'll remember from a few chapters back when we met of Pallas, not a Pallas, but Aquila and Priscilla, their Nazarite vow we talked about then as well. And the question is, it looked like Paul may have been the one with the Nazarite vow, could have been Aquila at that point, but it did require some going to the temple to complete the vow.

And this is what Paul is now being told then. And Paul is hearing this message, okay, we've got this misperception of what it is. I'm not against everything that the Jews taught. There are some things that are clearly not in the Christian Church, and I have to reject those, but they have this plan. Paul, just play along with this. Show them that you're not against the law. Now, it's helpful at this point. Let's go back to number six and just review what this Nazarite vow was that they're asking Paul to participate in. Because on face value, there's nothing wrong, we can say, with the Nazarite vow. It's something that God had given back to a very physical nation of Israel. It's a physical thing that they could do, but the purpose of it wasn't anything that the concept behind it is very good. Let's pick it up in number six and just see what the purpose of the Nazarite vow is. I'm not going to go through all of chapter six. You might want to go through it later on to familiarize yourself what it is, but you do remember some of the aspects of the Nazarite vow. They would refrain from drinking wine, eating grapes. Later on, the hairy had to be shaved and all offered on the altar and things like that. There were some physical sacrifices that went along with the Nazarite vow, all with what I want to get to, what the purpose of that vow was. It says, The Eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, When either a man or woman consecrates an offering to take the vow of a Nazarite to separate himself to the Lord. I'm going to separate myself to God. I'm going to dedicate myself to God. 100% I want to give myself to God. When someone desires, man or woman, to separate himself to the Lord, he shall separate himself from wine and similar drink. He shall drink neither vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink. He shall drink no grape juice nor eat fresh grapes or raisins. In all the days of his separation, he shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine from seed to skin. Now, we can go through that, and we know what in the New Testament the blood, you know, the wine represents. But it shows how important in that society wine and grapes were. And God is saying, Okay, if you want to separate yourself to me, to dedicate yourself to me, refrain from this. There's a sacrifice that is involved in this. This is what you need to do. You need to sacrifice from this. And then, then here, you know, the eraser shall come on his head during the times until the days are fulfilled, etc, etc. Verse 6, all the days that he separates himself to the Lord, he shall not go near a dead body. Even, it says, even if his mother or father were to die, not go near the dead body. Consecrate yourself to God. Give yourself completely to God. That's what the Nazarite vow, the purpose of it was. So when, when Paul is being asked, you know, we have these people who are going through the Nazarite vow, and at the end, they had to, they had the sacrifices that had to be made, and they had to bring things to the temple. And it was a, it was a hefty sacrifice. They were giving of their wealth, they're giving of their, you know, to pay the price to show I'm completely committed to God.

They said, Paul, go through this process with them and help them pay the sacrifice. We have people here who can't pay it all. Could you pay some of the four of them? Can you participate in this with them to see that you support people separating themselves to God? Well, Paul, you know, would look at that and say, well, okay, I understand the purpose of the Nazarite vow. There's nothing wrong. In fact, God calls us to separate ourselves from the world, right? We read Romans 12, 1, and 2 in the New Testament. He says, offer yourself as a living sacrifice. 2 Corinthians 6, he tells, come out of the world. Be separate. Don't be among them. We live in the world, but we're supposed to be separate. So Paul, as he's understanding these things, we have this Jewish vow, this Jewish Nazarite vow that's for that purpose. And yet, you know, Paul isn't teaching it over there to the Gentiles. The Jews see it as a very significant vow that you make to separate yourself to God. And as he comes to Jerusalem, where we have all these people that are gathered for the day of Pentecost, and where we have Jews who are saying, Paul isn't teaching the things out there. How are those Gentiles going to be separated? In their minds, it's the Nazarite vow for the Jews. That's how they always separated themselves. But there seems to be another sacrifice among the Gentiles that they separate themselves from their, you know, from their community and from their past. But we'll get to that in a moment. But Paul here is, for lack of a better word, he's kind of lured into this, right? Okay, okay, that makes sense. I can show them that I'm all for separating myself to God. I'm all for what this vow means.

But, and he doesn't. And we see the fruits of it. It is not good, right? I guess from a human reasoning, Paul would say, okay, okay, I can kind of look like this. That kind of makes sense to me. I'll show people that, yes, I'm for separating. I'm separating people or the Jews. This is the way they separate themselves to God. Even though the Gentiles, I'm not teaching that to them. They're not going through any Nazarite vow, right? So he does it, okay? So they tell him to do this, and Paul does it. Might be, you know, might be a moment of weakness for Paul that he did do that. He's going to learn a lesson from it, and I'm certainly not judging Paul, right? Because in this situation, not even understanding the background and the pressure that was on him, and him wanting to heal the breach and, you know, break down that middle wall of separation that he talks about in Ephesians. So the Gentiles and the Jews who are converted become one church. You know, it makes sense to him physically, okay, okay, this will help. So we'll get back to that amendment here, but this is the way the Jews separated themselves to God. In verse 25, if we're here in Acts 21 again, the Gentiles separated themselves from their society by those four things that were bound on them by the acts by the Jerusalem Conference back in Acts 15. Understanding their society, it was full of paganism, it was full of sexual immorality, it was full of eating foods, sacrifice to eat all idols, eating the blood, doing all those things. Those were all marks of that society. They were being taught, keep the holy days, keep the commandments of God, and don't, and separate yourself from your society, from your civilization, your background by these four things. But here's how the Jews do it, but here's how the Gentiles do it, verse 25. Concerning the Gentiles who believe, we've written and decided that they should observe no such thing. They don't have to, there's not the Nazarite vow for them, but the way that they separate themselves from their society is they should, of course, keep the wall of Moses, keep the commandments, all, keep the holy days, keep the Sabbath day, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Two seps of people, God is combining them into one church, they're coming from different backgrounds, they both have to become separate from the communities that they were in. They have to become one body, one in Christ. We've got two totally disparate groups of people that God are blending together, and He's, He said how they would be separate from the ones that were before them.

So, you know, kind of keep that, and then you have to kind of think about these things as we talk about them, and let it ruminate, you know, even after this Bible study, what God is doing here, because this is a notable thing. People have warned Paul, don't go to Jerusalem. Paul said, I have to go to Jerusalem, and he's going to learn a lesson here. In verse 26, you know, Paul, Paul, he's there in Jerusalem, the people of the church in Jerusalem said, do this, and so he does it. Paul took them in. In the next day, verse 26, having been purified with them, he's gone through the ritual, he entered the temple to announce the expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them. So he went into the temple, which is the former place or the place of worship for the Jews. They believe that God dwelt there. So he went in among the Jews to do this to do this ritual with them. They hadn't separated themselves totally from all those things yet. They had a lot to learn. You know, God eventually, here just a few years down the road, would take away that temple, take away that temple, so these things couldn't be done anymore. But right now it's still there, and they had to come out of their form of beliefs into what God wanted to do. And there's the process of beliefs, and no one's judging anything that's here. We all go through a process of learning how to come out of the world and what God wants us to do. So Paul goes into the temple with these men, right? And he's taking the Nazirate bow. And when the seven days were almost ended, we have some familiar visitors in Jerusalem. Remember, they're there. They're there to keep the Feast of the Day of Pentecost. They're gathered together in Jerusalem, just like they were in Acts 2. People from all languages, from all areas, gathered in Jerusalem at that time, when the seven days were ended, almost ended, the Jews from Asia. Seeing Paul in the temple stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him. Remember the Jews in Asia. You know, Ephesus was the church in Asia. Remember when the Jews got themselves riled up throughout Macedonia and Asia, and the Gentiles, it was like, boy, there was mayhem. Wherever the Jews got themselves involved and things like that, they would just create an uproar. They were against Paul. They saw him leading people away from Judaism into something they didn't believe, and now they see Paul, who they have all these impressions of him from Asia. He's leading people astray. He's not teaching the Jews to do this. He's saying do away with circumcision. He's saying do away with the law of Moses and whatever. All these things that are there, they don't like Paul at all, and they see him entering the temple, doing this Jewish right. Well, their mind is like, what kind of a hypocrite is this? He's teaching one thing in here, and here he is participating in this. Nothing wrong with the Nazarite vow and the principle behind it. Should Paul have been doing that? No, leave that to God. Leave that to God. But we can see how the Jews would look at that and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's here in Jerusalem, and he's in the temple. He's doing this Nazarite vow. Yet he's not teaching this.

He's doing one thing, and he's teaching another. Well, who is he? So, of course, they're there in Jerusalem, and they bring the house down. They are going, they are mad, and they stir up the crowds, and they go and get Paul. Exactly what was prophesied now about Paul. He's going to be bound. He's going to be in chains. All these things are going to happen to him, and there's going to be some tribulation there. They stirred up the crowd. They laid hands on him, and they cried out, verse 28, men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people. He teaches them against the law. He teaches them against this place, and furthermore, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.

Well, did Paul do that, or was that another false accusation? It tells us in verse 29, a little bit of where that came from. They had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, from Ephesus in Asia, the Ephesian with him in the city, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. They saw he's Trophimus. We met Trophimus back in Acts 20 and verse 4.

You know, he accompanied Paul on his trips there. They see Trophimus. They know who Trophimus is. Hey, Trophimus is in him. Paul's in the temple. He must have brought a Greek. Boy, that is against that is against Jewish law. No Greek is going to be in the temple. Now, it says they suppose. They never checked it out, but they made this accusation, and this accusation stuck. One thing's defined with the Jews, and we see it in the world around us today. Boy, you can cast out in this version. You can say something about it, and automatically the person is guilty. Right? No process of law. No examining the facts. Did this really happen? Did someone actually see Trophimus in the temple? Hey, we throw out the accusation. The accusation. Everyone is upset. We see that in the world around us today as well. Someone can make any more an accusation about someone, and he's already judged, tried, loses jobs, gets thrown out of this, and whatever. The same type thing that was happening back then, we can see the thing beginning in the world around us. It's a simple accusation. People will believe, and then all of a sudden you're guilty before anyone even looks into it.

Now, it is interesting there that that's brought out, and that's, you know, Paul took this Greek into this Greek into the temple. I'm going to pull up something here, because it's, you know, there was a Gentile court in the temple, and it is interesting when you look back into, you know, why, you know, we would know that no Greeks were going into there, but we do, we have read throughout the book of Acts that when Paul was in the synagogues, or even when he was in, you know, the temple, the Greeks were there, and, you know, they know that this prohibition against the Greeks were there. So, you know, from the people's commentary, and there's others, Josephus talks about this outer court for the Gentiles, and the court where the Gentiles couldn't come into it. And I will, you know, just the part that I have highlighted in blue there. The Palestinian, or the Palestine Exploration Society has found in their excavations an inscription that must have been over the passage between the court of the Gentiles and the interior court where the chambers for Nazarites were. For bidding aliens, that would be the Gentiles, the non-Jews, for bidding aliens to pass the balustrade on the penalty of death. That's how important it was.

So if the Jews thought that Paul brought a Greek in there, in their minds, he's dead and Trophimus should be dead, right? For bidding aliens to pass the balustrade on the penalty of death. Nothing could arouse a greater outburst of fanaticism than the belief that Paul had taken Gentiles within the sacred precincts. So that's part of what, you know, was there in the mentality of the Greeks then. So when they threw out this accusation, Trophimus, Paul took Trophimus into the temple, boy, that would be stepping on very, very sacred ground and that would have just absolutely incited the crowd. They just said it as an accusation. There was no proof of it. They supposed, you know, they jumped to a conclusion, you know, and in their minds, maybe a very, to them, a very, if Trophimus is Paul and Paul is in the temple, then certainly he must have brought Trophimus in there as well. But you can see where all this incitement is and where it's going. Now I bring that up too because we won't take the time to turn to Revelation 11.

But when you read about the temple, the spiritual temple that God is talking about at Revelation 11, he says, you know, measure the court of the Gentiles. There's this inner court and this outer court, you know, kind of references that as well. There's the outer court for the Gentiles. And here we have the same type of thing set up in the temple there in Jerusalem. The Gentiles are never allowed into the inner court. So we see what's going on with Paul. We see Paul in a very familiar situation. He's done something. He's in the midst of controversy. They're ready to kill him. They're ready to arrest him. He's going to go through a beating. They're ready to kill him. They assume that he's done all these things wrong that in their mind bring death to the Jews. They don't wait. They're not patient. They don't divide by the law. They just simply rush to conclusion. And all they do, all they want to do is see him killed, right? So, you know, if I go back to Acts 21 or here in Acts 21 and verse 30. And verse 30, hold on just a minute, let me put my notes here.

No, okay. Okay. Next, I was making sure I didn't have another point I wanted to make there. Acts 30, it says, all the city. Here we are again. The Jews, the entire city, all the city was disturbed, verse 30. And the people ran together. They seized Paul. They dragged him out of the temple. And immediately the doors were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him, that's what the Jews do. Put him to death. Put the death of prophets. Put the death of Jesus Christ. Put the death of people that we don't want to hear what they have to say. As they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Now, remember, in Corinth and in Ephesus, you know, Rome began to understand when the Jews are involved in some of this religious stuff, all mayhem, all two bolts breaks loose in these cities. And the law is being thrown out the window. They are rioting when they're not supposed to be rioting. They are condemning people to death. They are beating people against Roman law. The law isn't being followed at all. So we learned in Corinth, you know, Galileo was like, I'm not dealing with this. Go home. Settle this matter by yourself. In Ephesus, the city managers there, the pro-consuls, whatever we call them there, it's like, you know what? This is against the law, people. We're all here breaking Roman law by the fact that we're sitting here rioting. And here, you know, we have it happening in Jerusalem. The Jews are down again, and they're ready to do that. And all of a sudden, the garrison in Jerusalem, remember, it's in Roman to under Roman control at that time. They're getting, they understand Jerusalem is an uproar. He, you know, he, the garrison here, the commander, verse 32, immediately took soldiers and centurions, and he ran down to them. It's like, let's go and stop what's going on there. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, the Jews got it, they stopped beating Paul. They were already beating him. He was already suffering. He was already the prophecy that Agabus had said, you know, here's the beating that you're going on. There, you know, there's tribulation here and pain coming, Paul. And then the commander came near.

He took Paul and he commanded him to be bound with two chains. There's, there's what was prophesied, what happened to him. Commanded him to be bound with two chains, and he asked who he was, and what he had done. Okay, who's this man? Why do you all hate him? What has he done?

And look at the commotion in verse 34. And when some among the multitude cried one thing, and some another, they didn't even really know what they were mad about. They were just there, ready to, ready to kill the guy. They were just caught up in the emotion of the moment, the commotion of the moment, and you know, hey, you know what? He's done something wrong. Let's kill him. Who matters what? Just like with Christ, right? It's like, you know, he hasn't done anything wrong, but let's, we're just all against it. Some among the multitude cried one thing and some another. So when the commander could not ascertain the truth because of the tumult, he commanded him to be brought into the barracks. And when he reached the stairs, Paul had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. You can kind of picture what's going on. It's like, whoa, that is like, we're not letting Paul out of our sight. You know, the mob, the mob, remember mob rule, we see that, we see that throughout the Gentile areas when the Jews got involved, mob rules, stop what's being said, hurt the guy, beat the guy, stone the guy, just get him out of here. And we see the same thing happen here. The mob is there and they actually have to pick Paul up because, you know, who knows what they're doing to him, beating him, throwing things at him, the violence, the mob is out of control, so they have to actually carry him into the barracks. For the multitude of people, verse 36, followed after saying, away with him, away with him, just like they said about Christ, crucify him, crucify him, just get him out of here. So it's out of control, you know, as we have seen before. And then Paul, he's bound in chains. He's, you know, now been carried away to the barracks and he speaks to the commander in verse 37. He's about to be led into the barracks and he said to the commander, may I speak to you? And the commander replied, can you speak Greek?

Well, Paul can speak Greek, we know, and, you know, many spoke Koine Greek. That was the language of the Roman Empire at that time. Can you speak Greek? And the commander says, aren't you, aren't you Paul the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led the 4,000 assassins out into the wilderness? So he's thinking about all the mayhem that he sees of Paul.

And, you know, there is this there is this thing in Josephus that talks about this man who led a rebellion against the Romans. And he was an Egyptian Jew. He stirred it up. No, Josephus says 30,000. This is 4,000. You know, we don't know how many got lost along the way. It's a long it's a long story. You can look it up in the commentaries on verse 38 and in Josephus.

But somehow this Roman centurion thinks, well, you must be the guy you started up so much, so much that maybe some of the crowd said, he's the same guy who started this problem back in, you know, with the with the Egyptians. Remember, they didn't know who. Someone said one thing about him. Some said another thing about him. So when this Roman commander says, aren't you the guy, aren't you the guy who led this rebellion before? And now you're up to the same thing again. And that's why the crowd is so against you. The call, of course, that's not at all what Paul is. And he answers that in verse 39. I'm a Jew. I'm a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no means city. And I implore you, permit me to speak to the people. Well, the commander's like, okay, well, now I hear from him. No, he's not that guy. What is all this commotion about? And Paul, you know, Paul sees what's going on here. And, you know, he may well see how he contributed to some of this by what he was talked into. You know, I don't know what we have to through through this. There's lessons we learn in everything that Paul did. And he, you know, he wasn't perfect either, but he learned his lesson. I'm a Jew. I just want to speak to the people. I just want to explain to them who I am. Right? And he's there. Remember, God has a reason. God wanted Paul in Jerusalem. You know, Paul was kind of aware what was going to were laid in store for him there. He wasn't afraid of the problems. He had no reason to doubt that he wasn't going to be arrested. He wasn't going to be beaten. All these things were going to befall him. But God wanted him there for a reason. And so with all this tumult and everything that's going on, Paul in chapter 22 is going to have a chance to speak to the crowd in their own language and the Hebrew language, as it says. And we'll get to that, you know, we'll get to that next week. God always has a purpose in mind. That always has a purpose in mind. Now we're going to, well, we'll see what God's purpose of Paul being there and all this tumult is. So in verse 40, we see the commander.

He says he gives Paul permission. So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs. He motioned with his hand to the people, and there was a great silence. Okay, now the things are calm, now the Romans are there, now order is restored. Now we're going to hear what Paul has to speak. And when there was great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying, brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now. And so he has an opportunity to give his story. We'll talk about that. We'll talk about that next week. So that's chapter 21. Again, we see as God progresses Paul through there, there's things he learns, there's things we learn, there's lessons for us in this on how the people were coming together, the things that laid in store for Paul, the challenges that were there, and bringing the Gentiles and the Jews into one church, one body. It was an easy thing.

What the Jews, the Jews had to come out of their society, just like the Gentiles had to come out of their society, it was two different things. And we begin to see how difficult that was. So let me stop talking, but if there's any comments, any questions, anything along those, the floor is yours. No, as we go through this, I would encourage that you think about some of the things that we said. As you read over these chapters again and go back through Acts 21 and piece together what God has given us in this history, this history of the New Testament church and how he's worked with people, we begin to understand and see him. He's the same God now that he was then. We see what he's done.

We can see ourselves when we actually take the time that Paul lived in and the apostles lived in and look at the 21st century things that we deal with. We see how to do that. We see that God's will is always that we come out of the world, no matter how good we might think the world is, that he has called us to become separate people. Not to hate the people of the world, but to be separated by the truth. We see some of the challenges here in chapter 21 that represented for the Jews as well as the Gentiles as we read through Paul's epistles as well. One thing that came to mind when we were going through the part about Agabus and how Paul was constantly being warned that there was nasty stuff ahead of him was the encouragement that must have given to all of the various churches that saw Paul's perseverance and his dedication.

Oftentimes you hear this story, well, you know, if God is love, why didn't he prevent?

Well, God warned the people. Let the people warn Paul. There were so many different aspects to the strengthening of their faith. I just found it very encouraging that perhaps maybe some of the other apostles, what Peter knew that he was going to be a martyr, but Paul also knew and the congregations knew in that one specific instance that there was something up ahead that was not going to go the way they really wanted physically, but God was still there with them. The warning and the prophecies I just found very heartening. Yeah, I agree with you. To see the faith in Paul.

All the warnings in the world, I'm still going to do what God wants me to do, right? And that's the commitment, that's the faith, that's the love of God that was developed in him.

That should be very encouraging to all of us, you know? And, yeah.

Okay, well then let me, you know, let me end there. Thank you all for being here. I'll see, let me see, I always mention to our Orlando Jacksonville people, we have services in Orlando at 130. It's going to be on the webcast this week in Orlando. Jacksonville, you're needing at 1130 this week, both in the regular meeting places. So we'll see some of you this Sabbath.

Rest of everyone have a very good rest of the week, and who we don't see on the Sabbath, we'll look forward to seeing you next Wednesday, I hope, so okay. Bye, everyone.