Learning Humility
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 7 January 2018
This is the conclusion of the third of Paul's missionary tours, tours in which he not only preached the gospel and established the church, but in which he matured the church. And he collected money from the Gentile congregations to give to the poor saints at Jerusalem as a token of love and as a gesture of unity. We are looking beyond just the historical facts, to the principles and the qualities of spiritual truths that underlie what we see.
As we study this, we can see one great spiritual quality in these passages, and that is the amount of humility. We talked about Paul's power in preaching, we talked about his teaching and his persistence. We have talked about his discipline and his courage. And we have talked about his commitment and his convictions. But there is one that underlies all this, and that is the quality of humility.
We are going to look at the arrest of Paul, but it is the measure of the man who is seen in the midst of these circumstances that stands out. And that should become applicable to my life and yours. I may never get arrested, I may never have to experience what he experienced, but I need to learn that humility that he exemplified and to practice that in my everyday life.
Now, as he goes toward Jerusalem, he doesn't go alone. Verse 15, “And after those days we packed and went up to Jerusalem.” Notice they went up. Everything is up to Jerusalem because it is high on a plateau. And verse 16 says, “Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Mason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to lodge.”
Mason is a common name, and he was a Hellenistic Jew from Cyprus. He was raised in a Greek country and he had a Greek name. And it is probably the reason that they had arranged for Paul and his friends to stay there. So they found a liberal Hellenistic Jew, who was willing to take them in. We are now seeing the last of the ministry of Paul as a free man.
From verse 27 on, Paul becomes, as he called himself in Ephesians 6:20, an ambassador in chains. From here on out, Paul is a prisoner, which does not minimize his ministry in any way at all. It doesn't affect the accomplishment of his objectives. They just changed, and he goes on doing what he always did, whether he was free or a prisoner.
Now, as we look at the passage beginning from verse 17 on, and concluding in verse 36, there are four C's that appear, and we can study only a portion tonight: Communion, concern, compromise and consequence. First we find communion occurs as he arrives. And this is not the Lord's Supper. The word means fellowship or sharing.
Verse 17, “And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.” They were thrilled about the money, not for themselves necessarily, but there were many needy saints. And there was great joy in their hearts because they brought along a group of Gentile converts. They knew that animosities existed between Jews and Gentiles. These were Christian Jews who had fellowship with him unofficially.
The official meeting happened next, verse 18, “On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.” Let us look at how the church leadership changed. When the church at Jerusalem first began, it was ruled by apostles. In Acts 4:35, you have them all bringing their money and putting it at the apostles' feet. But in Acts 15:2, it says that, "Paul, in Jerusalem met with the apostles and the elders."
And now in Acts 21, they go in and meet only James and the elders. So what happened to the apostles? They are not dead, but they are all gone preaching all over the place. And when Paul writes the last of his pastoral epistles, and lays down the organization of the church, the church is to be ruled by elders. And Paul says in Titus 1:5, "Appoint elders in every city." That becomes the pattern.
Verse 19, “When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.” Notice that Paul declared it particularly. He didn't speak in generality. He told them incident after incident of what God had done. He got down to specifics, because there's the thrill. Verse 20, “And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.”
In the Greek the word myriads translates literally to tens of thousands. It is a word used to speak of the angels. And you need many elders to take care of a congregation of 20,000 people. And they were listening to Paul’s report where he told them about all the new churches in Syria and Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, and Asia Minor and all the Jews and Gentiles that were saved.
Do you know that many people boast of their accomplishments, while none of it is theirs, it is all God’s work. There is something about humility that just kind of comes through in these verses. If it's there, you will get it. And with Paul, it is just there, he is so free with giving God the glory, and that is really what humility is all about. Every time he gave a report, it was like that
Look what happened in Acts 14:27, Paul came back from his first journey and listen to his report, “Now when they had come and gathered the church together, they reported all that God had done with them, and that He had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles.” That's so good because they see themselves only as tools while God is doing all the work.
Look at Acts 15:12, when they came to Jerusalem, “Then all the multitude kept silent and listened to Barnabas and Paul declaring how many miracles and wonders God had worked through them among the Gentiles.” Peter did the same thing. He came back and told them that he had won a Gentile (Cornelius) to Christ by the power of God.
Let's look secondly at the concern. These Jewish elders and James, were really concerned because there was a problem. This is what they said about the concern in verse 20, “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.” Tens of thousands Jews believed, but they all want to follow the law. Not the law in terms of salvation, but in terms of the ceremonies.
These were Jewish Christians who hadn't yet lost their Jewish ceremonies. They were still keeping the Passover. They were still keeping the Sabbath. They were still watching what they ate and watching what they wore. They were going through their routines. So the Jews did believe, and they were saved, but they had never eliminated the ceremonies of Judaism.
Why do the Jews still have all their ceremonies? Because God had split the veil of the temple and once the holy of holies was unveiled, all believers have direct access to God. And God had clearly told Peter in Acts 10:15 that there was no more dietary law. God said three times, “What God has cleansed you must not call unclean.” And so they had had plenty of information, but they still found it difficult to change.
The book of Hebrews is the clearest book ever written on the transition from Judaism to Christ that shows you to drop the old and come to the new, and it was written in 68 A.D. God just gave them two years to make that change, and then the whole system was taken away. And do you know that since 70 A.D. until today, those forms don't exist anymore? There are no more sacrifices, and all those features of the temple are gone.
In 70 A.D., you know how God got rid of all Jewish ceremony? He just destroyed Jerusalem. He allowed Titus to come in and wipe the city out, right off the face of the earth. One hundred thousand Jews were killed. Within a few years after that 985 towns in Palestine were destroyed and everybody was killed. He just destroyed Judaism in one fell swoop; and God allowed it to happen.
Verse 21, “but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.” All these Jewish Christians who are hanging onto the old forms have been misinformed by the Judaizers. These people said you should accept Jesus, but you could only do that after you become a Jew.
So, according to them, if you are a Gentile, you have to get circumcised first, to become a Jew, and then you can come to Jesus. And once you did, you had to continue to keep all the Mosaic Law. So consequently, the Judiazers were not saved since they depended on the works of the law. They were undermining Paul by saying that he doesn't' want anything to do with Judaism.
They said that Paul is teaching that you should abandon Moses who was sacred to them. Satan is the father of lies. Paul never taught Jews to forsake Moses. He taught Gentiles not to think they had to become Jews. He taught Gentiles not to be circumcised and not to follow the ceremonies of the Law. But he did teach Jews to be circumcised, and to follow those traditions. In fact, he actually had Timothy circumcised in Acts 16:2-3 because he was a Jew.
Our society is full of lies because Satan is a liar. That is why Paul said to Timothy, “Do not receive an accusation against an elder except from two or three witnesses.” So the Judiazers gave this big lie in verse 21, "He teaches all Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses?” Those are lies. "Saying not to circumcise their children," that's a lie. "In order not to walk after customs," that's another lie.
Verse 22 says, “The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come.” These elders said, this thing could blow up. We have tens of thousands of Christian Jews who have been taught that you're an apostate. But that is wrong. Paul had already written Romans, when in Corinth. And Romans 14:1-8 says, look, if a Jew wants to observe the Sabbath day, that's no big deal. And if a Jew doesn't want to eat certain things, don't force him. Let us not offend him, be loving and be kind to him.
So they come up thirdly with a compromise. Some people think that compromise is a negative where you sacrifice truth for the sake of expediency. But there's a sense in which compromise can be neutral or inconsequential, or even positive. Sometimes you can make a compromise in a relationship that is a very loving act. We can see following this that the elders already have a compromise in mind.
Verses 23-24, “Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. 24 Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that 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.” These men have taken a Nazarite vow, which means they are separated unto God.
Now, as a symbol of separation, he would restrain himself from drinking and from joy. So they say to Paul, "Now, first, take them and purify yourself with them." If you do that, the people will think that you really are on the side of Jewish custom. Then they asked, secondly, to pay all their expenses. Now, that's more involved, because there are a lot of animals sacrificed and all the meals and drinks for seven days.
Now, it's a compromise because Paul did not feel that it was an absolute necessity, but he was willing to listen to them. And he could see that maybe there's the possibility of winning some people over on this basis. And Paul loved unity in the church. This is what Jesus prayed for. And God looks at their hearts. And if their hearts were really pure, God was pleased, even though the form was strictly Jewish.
And so the Apostle Paul does this. But, they want to make one thing clear, in verse 25, “But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.”
Now what is Paul going to do? Look at verse 26, "Then Paul took them in, the four of them, and next day purifying himself with them, entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification." It was seven days, so they went in there to fill out the seven days, "until such a time as the offering could be offered for everyone."
Paul didn't argue, he just went along with the compromise. Was it a mistake? It is wrong to compromise truth for the sake of the method, right? And there are an awful lot of people that do that. But did Paul violate his conscience? I don't think so, because in Acts 18:18, he himself took a Nazarite vow, “He had his hair cut off at Cenchrea, for he had taken a vow.”
We don't know what the results were to the Christian Jews who were there. The only thing you see here is the riot that happens from the unbelievers. It's a good illustration to the elders, which becomes a New Testament principle. Paul submitted himself to the elders to set a pattern for all future church activity. 1 Corinthians 9:19, “I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.”
So how do you see the humility in a man? One, in verses 19-20, he was humble before God. When he came to give his report, he said, "This is what God has done." Second, he humbled himself before Christian authority. The elders said, "Do this." He did it. Thirdly, he even humbled himself to suffer the pain of persecution, because it was God's will. That's true humility. Let us pray.