Sermons
A Message by the Rev. Harvey G. Throop
Palisades Presbyterian Church
San Diego, California
(16) The Apostle: Christ-Like Courage!
(Acts 21:17-40)
“That night the Lord stood near him and said, “Keep up your courage!
For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome.”
(Acts 23:11)
What is it that you want more than anything else in your life? Is it success in your work? It is to see your children succeed? Is it to do something to make life a little better for others? Whatever it is that you and I want most will determine in large part how we spend our time and energies.
For the Apostle Paul, his greatest desire in life was to know Jesus Christ. As he wrote to the Philippians, “I count all things … as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him…” (see Philippians 3:8-9, adapted).
That helps to explain why Paul gave himself so completely to the ministry to which God in Christ had called him. Wherever he went, regardless of the dangers involved or the risks he faced, he proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, giving his all to that mission. That also helps us to understand his determination to go to Jerusalem in spite of the many dangers he would face there.
By the time we reach the middle of Acts 21, all three of Paul's missionary journeys have ended. He is back in Jerusalem and he is warmly welcomed by the brethren. When the greetings have ended, Paul tells them all of the exciting things that God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his ministry. When the brethren heard it, they praised God.
Unfortunately, however, the celebrating ended quickly. James, the bishop of the church in Jerusalem, warned Paul that there were many, even in the church, who thought he was defying the Jewish traditions. Paul was being accused of telling the Jews living among the Gentiles to abandon the laws of Moses and not to circumcise their children or observe the customs. Something had to be done to clarify Paul's position.
So James suggested to Paul that he join four men who were under a vow and that he submit to the Nazarite rite of purification with them. This vow involved “abstaining from eating meat and drinking wine and required the shaving of their heads. At the end of the seven days, offerings were to be made of a year-old lamb as a sin offering, a ram as a peace offering, a meat-and-drink offering and a basket of unleavened bread and cakes” (Ogilvie, Drumbeat of Love , Word Books [Waco, 1978]. p. 262).
So Paul shaved his head and spent seven days completing the rituals for purifying himself before entering the temple.
Now, it's important that we understand that Paul did not think he had done anything wrong before God. Nor did he think these rites of purification were necessary. In Christ, he was freed from all of this. Nevertheless, he submitted to the rituals and when they had been completed, he went into the temple.
But when some of his Jewish critics saw him in the temple, they became enraged. They accused Paul of bringing Greeks into the temple and thus defiling it. They told their fellow Jews that Paul had been teaching against their people, the law and the temple. None of this was true, of course. But it doesn't take much to turn a crowd into an angry mob, so the people seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. As they did so, we are told that, "immediately the doors to the temple were shut" (Acts 21:30). With that act, both symbolically and literally, the break with the temple was now complete. They had shut their doors to the gospel Paul was proclaiming.
When news of the riot reached the Roman tribune, he rushed to the scene, bringing with him perhaps hundreds of soldiers. To establish order, the tribune had Paul arrested and put in chains, as much as anything in order to protect him from the mob. But we are told that the violence of the mob was so great that the soldiers literally had to carry Paul away.
Luke could not have made the parallels between Jesus and Paul more clear. Both Jesus and Paul were rejected by their own people, arrested and imprisoned on false accusations in Jerusalem, faced a series of trials and were pronounced innocent by the Romans who ended up executing them. The point, according to Luke, was that as Paul had lived in Christ, so he would eventually die in Christ.
The tribune ordered that Paul be taken to the Roman barracks for questioning. Just then, however, Paul asked if he could speak to the tribune. The Roman officer was surprised to hear Paul speak Greek, because he had wondered aloud if Paul was the Egyptian terrorist, who in 54 AD had rallied thousands of Jews together and promised that under him, they would be able to break into the city and overpower the Romans. However, the Roman governor had intervened, and the nationalistic zealots were either arrested or killed, but the Egyptian had escaped.
Paul assured the tribune that he was not the Egyptian but, rather, spoke proudly about his citizenship of Tarsus . Then Paul asked permission to address the crowd and the tribune allowed him to speak. For some reason the crowd quieted down, and Paul spoke to them in Aramaic. When the Jews heard him addressing them in their native language, they became even quieter.
Paul proceeded to tell them three things. First, he told them about his heritage as a Jew. He related to them his training in the Old Testament Law as a disciple of Gamaliel, the most eminent rabbi of the time, who had died just five years earlier. He talked about his zealous keeping of the Law and his persecution of followers of the Way. In doing this he tried to establish his common ground with them as a Jew by emphasizing both his Jewish birth and his Jewish upbringing.
Next, Paul told of his conversion experience -- how when he was traveling on the road to Damascus, all of a sudden a bright light from heaven had blinded him. Then a voice from heaven spoke to him and identified himself as Jesus of Nazareth. Paul also told about the ministry of Ananias, whom he characterized as a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living in Damascus. It was Ananias who had restored Paul's sight and told him that God had chosen Paul to be His witness.
Finally, he told them of his commission from God to bear witness to all people -- including the Gentiles.
That did it! When Paul said the word, “Gentiles,” he triggered an angry response. In their eyes, what Paul was saying was an abomination. His words were tantamount to declaring that Jews and Gentiles were equal and that both came to God on identical terms. Immediately, the crowd began chanting loudly for Paul's death. Once again, the Roman tribune stepped in to save his prisoner. This time, he ordered Paul to be brought inside the barracks and flogged.
Flogging was done with strips of leather that were studded with pieces of metal or bone. Sometimes, flogging crippled a person for life. Other times, it actually killed the victim.
In spite of the shock and trauma of the moment, Paul – his body bound -- turned to the centurion who was about to administer the flogging and asked, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned?” (Acts 22:25).
Under Roman law, citizens of Rome were not to be tortured without a trial. And here, both the centurion and the tribune were on the verge of committing an infraction punishable by death. When the centurion reported this to the tribune, he asked Paul if that was true. Recalling the stiff bribes he had paid for his own claim to Roman citizenship, he grumbled, “It cost me a large sum of money to get my citizenship.” To which Paul replied, “But I was born a citizen.”
So the tribune released Paul and ordered him to be brought before the Sanhedrin so that he might get to the bottom of this matter. He probably hoped that this would bring to an end his responsibility for this uncommon prisoner.
When Paul faced the Sanhedrin, he knew he was in a lot of trouble. He began by defending himself. He said, "Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God." By using the term, “Brothers,” Paul had seemingly put himself on equal footing with the court. So the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. When they did that, Paul struck out verbally at the high priest, "God will strike you, you white-washed wall!" And then he angrily denounced the high priest for violating his rights.
Paul could not have used a more inflammatory term – “a white-washed wall!” It was the custom to white-wash tombs containing dead bodies to alert a passing Jew of the risk of ceremonial defilement by touching the dead. But Paul had overstepped proper protocol.
Those standing nearby pointed out to Paul that he had just insulted God's high priest, which the Law forbade. When Paul was made aware of his mistake, he apologized by quoting Exodus 22:28, but he did not retract his accusation!
You may recall that when Jesus was slapped in his trial, he responded much more graciously by turning the other cheek. But Paul responded more like we would -- by lashing out.
When you are hurt in a conflict, the first reaction is always to hurt the person who hurt you. But has that ever helped? Has that ever resolved the conflict? No! Usually, it results only in discovering, as Paul did, that you are committing the same offenses as the person who hurt you.
Turning the other cheek is not a mark of being a victim. It is a mark of quiet strength that will not be deterred from our convictions, even we are bullied. It takes a lot of courage to turn the other cheek.
Now, when Paul noticed that some on the council were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he appealed to an old debate that had long divided these two religious parties. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, but the Pharisees did. So Paul said, "I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead" (Acts 23:6b).
Immediately, the Pharisees and the Sadducees started arguing with each other. At first, it seemed like Paul had made a pretty slick maneuver. He had divided his enemies. The Pharisees said, "Well, there's nothing wrong with this guy." But the Sadducees became even more enraged.
Have you ever watched the British Parliament on television when the two parties are really going at each other? One party is on one side facing the other party on the other side. When a speaker from one side rises to the podium, he or she is hooted and ridiculed by the people sitting on the other side.
That is how I envision this scene, with Paul being in the middle of it all. Then, we read, “When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks” (Acts 23:10).
“That night,” Luke writes, “The Lord stood near him (Paul)!” What reassurance there is in those words – “The Lord stood near him!” What reassurance for Paul to be reminded of the Lord's presence.
Doesn't one's awareness of our Lord's presence also provide us with a powerful sense of encouragement in those times when we need it?
Then the Lord said to Paul, "Keep up your courage!” God knows when any of us needs the gift of courage. God knows when we need strength amidst the trials and ordeals we encounter in life. God knows the challenges we face. “Keep up your courage,” the Lord said to Paul.
Then the Lord gave this assurance to Paul, “As you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome.” That's what Paul needed to hear. He needed affirmation and a confirmation of the Lord's strategy for him.
I think there are times when you and I experience the same needs as Paul. When we experience times of struggle and uncertainty, when the going gets rough and we find ourselves wondering, “What's the use?”, when we turn to God, he will respond to us with an assurance that he is with us. We may not hear a voice like Paul did, but he will speak to us through scripture, through fellow believers as well as through an inner voice of conviction within us that is more powerful than any audio message. And there will be no question but that God will see us through to whatever end he has willed.
As the Lord continually gave Paul the courage he needed for his ministry, so the Lord will also give us the courage we need when our faith is tried and our witness challenged.
