From
Acts to Revelation
Part
60 – Paul Arrives in Jerusalem
Pastor Bruce A. Shields
House
of Faith Church | www.PS127.org
| www.TruthDigest.org
INTRODUCTION
Last week, Paul and his companions
(including Luke who is record this in the Book of Acts), stopped in Caesarea,
at the house of Philip the Evangelist. Philip, if you remember, was one of the
first Deacons.
Philip had four daughters, who remained
virgins, and prophesied, and evangelized for the Lord. Sort of like modern day
nuns who preached.
While visiting, Agabus, the Prophet, showed
up, taking Paul's belt, and binding his own hands and feet, saying, "This
is how the Jews in Jerusalem will hand you over to the Gentiles.", and
they all cried and tried to convince Paul not to go to Jerusalem.
Paul simply said, "Why do you break my
heart!"
He knew they were right, but he also knew
that he was called by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem, and Paul chose to
obey God rather than men.
Today, we will see in scripture, Paul's
arrival in Jerusalem, his warm welcome by James and the other Elders of the
Jerusalem Church, and the plan Paul undertakes to prove to the people, that he
is not teaching "against" Moses, rather, completing God's plan.
We can learn from Paul's approach here.
It's an approach we have seen before, as in the case where Paul preaches about
the "unknown god" on Mars' Hill in Athens, in Acts 17:16-34
We will see;
A) How Paul obeys God, not men, even when
it is painful.
B) How Paul builds bridges when trying to
reach the lost, as in Athens, now Jerusalem.
C) How we can take this same approach, and
win souls as Paul did.
SCRIPTURE REFERENCE
Acts 21:17-26
17 When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us
warmly. 18 The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see
James, and all the elders were present. 19 Paul greeted them
and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his
ministry.
20 When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said
to Paul: “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all
of them are zealous for the law. 21 They have been informed
that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from
Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our
customs. 22 What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you
have come, 23 so do what we tell you. There are four men with
us who have made a vow. 24 Take these men, join in their
purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads
shaved. Then everybody will know there is no truth in these reports about you,
but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. 25 As
for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they
should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of
strangled animals and from sexual immorality.”
26 The next day Paul took the men and purified himself
along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the
days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.
I.
PAUL'S ARRIVAL
a. The
Brothers and Sisters gave warm greetings to Paul and his companions when they
arrived in Jerusalem.
b. The
next day, the group sees James and the Elders
i. This is James, the brother of Jesus, who is the
Senior Pastor of the Jerusalem Church.
ii. The Elders were also present. Many Pastors all
serving in the same church in Jerusalem.
a. Some scholars suggest that the church in Jerusalem
was very large, having many services and teachings for the estimated 30,000
members or more!
c. After
Paul greeted them, he gave account of his ministry
i. He talked about his second, and third missionary
journey, and told of the planting of many churches across the lands.
II.
BUILDING BRIDGES
a. In verse 20, we see they Glorified the Lord
i. Giving credit where it is due, praising God for what
was accomplished, not Paul.
ii. We too should be mindful to not take credit for
God's work.
b. They
encouraged and uplifted Paul second about the thousands of Jews that believed
in Christ here in Jerusalem.
i. Saying that they were all still zealous of the Law
ii. James warns Paul of the Jewish converts
"newness" to Christ
a. Their new-found faith in Christ stirred them up to
serve the Lord with a mew zeal, which they channeled in the direction of
attempting to obey the Law of Moses to an even greater degree than ever.
c. James
informs Paul that the New-Converts, know of his arrival
i. And James is concerned, because of talk against
Paul's teaching's on Law/Grace
ii. James informs Paul, the New-Converts are concerned
because they believe Paul is teaching Jews among the Gentiles to forsake Moses.
a. However, this was not correct.
b. Paul actually taught almost exclusively from the Old
Testament, holding up all it stated as pointing to Christ.
iii. The New-Converts also believed Paul said children
should not be circumcised, nor walk after the other customs.
a. Not exactly what Paul was teaching, though.
b. He just taught that circumcision did not "save
the soul", and that no flesh shall be justified by the deeds of the Law [Romans 3:24-31; Galatians 3:19-25]
d. However,
James had a plan that would diffuse this situation.
i. James had four men who were ready to take the Nazarite
Vow
a. Numbers 6:14-20 -
1. Offerings to the Lord
1. year-old lamb without defect for burnt offering
2. year-old ewe lamb without defect for sin offering
3. a ram without defect for fellowship offering
4. together with grain offerings and drink offerings
5. a basket of bread made without yeast
6. cakes of fine flour mixed with oil
7. Then shave off his hair, and put it in the fire
ii. James also said that Paul had to pay for this
himself, this would show he did it of free-will, and not done for him.
iii. James believed that in doing this, it would show
that Paul was not opposed to the Law, or he would not have observed this. If he
truly opposed the Law, as they claimed, he would not be in the Temple observing
the Nazarite Vow, which was part of Mosaic Law.
e. Why did
Paul do this?
i. We know that Paul did not keep the Law as it
regarded all of its rituals and ceremonies.
ii. In fact, ALL OF THAT WAS FULFILLED IN CHRIST...and
NOT necessary.
iii. The only reason Paul did this, was to prevent a
split in the Church, and build a bridge to the New-Converts, until such a time
they may have a deeper understanding of their faith, and realize that the Law
was to direct people to Christ, who fulfilled all of the ceremonies and
rituals.
iv. Remember, the ceremonies and rituals were given as
teaching aids, to help man understand their need for a savior, who the savior
would be, how to recognize Him, and what He would accomplish!
v. About 10 years from this time in scripture, God
makes it IMPOSSIBLE for the Law to be kept anymore, in that the Temple was
totally destroyed by the Roman Army. Yet Christ, who was destroyed, rose again
in three days as He said.
III.
LEARNING FROM PAUL
a.
Obeying God rather than men
i.
Paul consistently
obeys the Lord, rather than men.
a.
Even teaching to
the point of relieving Gentiles from obligation to the Mosaic Law.
b.
Building bridges
i.
Paul took the
Nazarite Vow to build a bridge for teaching, as he did with the Pagans in
Athens.
c.
Appearance of sin
i.
In this case, it
gives good example for us to understand about the "appearance of sin"
we are told not to have in our lives.
ii.
To the
New-Converts, Paul appeared to be sinning against God because of Mosaic Law he
was not adhering to.
a.
To avoid the
"appearance of sin", because Paul was NOT actually sinning against
God, and build a bridge for future teaching, Paul observed the Vow.
CONCLUSION
Today
in scripture we saw;
A) How Paul obeyed
God, not men, even when it is painful.
He
followed his head, not his heart, feelings or emotions.
B) How Paul builds
bridges when trying to reach the lost, as in Athens, now Jerusalem. Which we
can do to, for the lost, as well as the New-Converts, who may not have a full
understanding of their faith as of yet.
~However, building
bridges is NOT a license-to-sin!
Although we are trying to connect with others, and may observe Laws,
rituals and ceremonies of Old Testament, so as not to offend them, this
"building bridges" does not give us free reign to participate in
un-godly behavior in hopes of winning others to Christ.
~Too often I see
Brothers and Sisters get themselves in trouble, participating in sin under the
guise of winning souls. We need to
remember the warnings of scripture on this matter!
Galatians
6:1 - " Brothers, if
someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently.
But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted."
C) How we can take this same approach, and
win souls as Paul did.
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