Mission Conflict
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2024 · 14 January 2024
We continue in this narrative regarding the ministry of Paul as he continues the last leg of his journey toward the city of Jerusalem. This is the conclusion of the third missionary tour. And he collected money from the Gentile congregations to give to the poor saints at Jerusalem as a token of love, and a gesture of unity. So Paul gives a report of what God has done with a group of Gentile converts.
And so with this group of men, and bags of money, he is moving toward Jerusalem. And in our studies of narrative passages, we want to see beyond the historical fact to the principles and the spiritual truths that underlie this narrative. In trying to discover what we could extract from the passage, it is the quality of humility. We’ve talked about Paul’s preaching, his teaching and his persistence.
We’ve talked about his discipline and his courage. We’ve talked about his commitment. But here is the quality of his humility. And that becomes applicable to my life. I need to learn the lessons of humility that he exemplified. Now the goal which consumed his heart was to give this money to the poor saints, and Paul was going to introduce the Jews to the Gentile Christians to unify the church.
Caesarea was that city on the coast. Remember Paul was there for some time living in the house of Philip the evangelist. They packed their bags and went up to Jerusalem for about 64 miles. Notice they went up to Jerusalem because Jerusalem is on a plateau. And they brought them to the home of Mnason which is a common Greek name and he was from Cyprus. So he was a Hellenist Jew.
And it says that this man was an early disciple, which means he was in on the foundations of the church. And he may have been a source for Luke. Now we would assume that Paul arrives at about the Feast of Pentecost, fifty days after the Passover. He wanted to be there at a time when all the folks were congregated together. It was a celebration of Judaism, and he wanted to be a part of it.
You’re going to see 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, the man is a prisoner, which does not minimize his ministry in any way. They just changed, and he goes on doing what he always did, whether he was free or a prisoner; he just continued to fulfill his ministry.
Now as we look at the passage beginning from verse 17 on, there are four C’s that appear, communion, concern, compromise, and consequence. First we find that communion occurs as he arrives. The word means fellowship or sharing. Paul was a tremendous missionary, he had accomplished tremendous things. And he arrives with this money, and it’s a great time of rejoicing.
Verse 17, “When we reached Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters welcomed us warmly.” There was great joy in their hearts, because they brought along a whole group of Gentile converts, and they saw the people that had been won to Jesus Christ. And they were glad because the Gentile church was showing this act of love toward them. And there was the apostle Paul, who was a beloved man.
Verse 18, “The following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.” The “us” includes Luke and the other Gentiles. This is an interesting thing to note just the development of the church. When the church at Jerusalem first began, it was ruled by the apostles. It wasn’t until Acts 6 that the apostles begin to realize that things were getting out of hand, and invited the elders.
By the time of Acts 15:2, it says that, “Paul, when he went to Jerusalem, and met with the apostles and the elders.” So there is a transition. First the apostles did everything, and eventually God began to raise up elders as spiritual leaders. Now in Acts 21, they go in and there’s only James and the elders. What happened to the apostles? They went out preaching all over the place.
So how did the church evolve? You start with apostles ruling in Jerusalem. Then they begin to raise up elders, and you have a combination of apostles and elders. Soon, the apostles go, and you have the church ruled by elders; and that becomes the pattern of the New Testament. And by the time Paul writes the last of his pastoral epistles, the church is ruled by elders or pastors.
Now how many elders were there? There are estimates that there were at least a hundred. Why do you think there were so many? Because there were so many Christians. How many Christians were there? Well, by Acts 5 there were at least 20,000. In Acts 21:20 it says, “You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law.”
It’s interesting that James was still there. So there they arrive, and it’s Paul’s time to report. They had the fellowship, passed out the money, though it doesn’t say anything about that. I’m sure they did, and I’m sure that’s what contributed to the gladness, and I know that they accepted it, because the Lord doesn’t have those kind of purposes at that kind of expense without good results.
And they were all anxious to find out all the details of what had gone on in his ministry, and so he reports to them all this information. This is the point that made me think about Paul’s humility here. Verse 19, “After greeting them, he reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.” Notice he told them incident after incident of what God had done.
Well, how could you be a Christian and be a zealot of the law as it says in verse 20? Not the law in terms of salvation, but the ceremonies. These were Jewish Christians who hadn’t yet shaken off Jewish ceremony. They were still keeping the Sabbath. They were still watching what they ate. They were still watching what they wore. You know, they were going through their routine.
So the point is that the Jews did believe, and they were saved people. But they had never shaken the frames of Judaism. And living within the shadow of the temple and in all the Jewish system, and being raised on that, and having that engrained in your life would be a difficult transition to make. And now that they’re believers, they still haven’t been able to release themselves from the bondage of ceremony.
God did not worry a lot about whether those people got out of those customs. By 70 A.D. God wiped out the whole system anyway. He just destroyed Jerusalem through Titus. He allowed Titus to come in and wipe the city right off the face of the earth. One hundred thousand Jews were killed. A few years after that, 98 towns in Palestine were destroyed, and everybody there was killed.
The clearest book ever written on the transition from Judaism to Christ is the book of Hebrews and it was written in 68 A.D. God just gave the Jews just two years to get their heads on straight, and then the whole religious system was gone. Some people tried to resurrect them in a sort of a spiritual sense. But there are no more sacrifices, and all those features of the old temple are gone.
Secondly, let’s look at the concern. Even though there was a sweet time of sharing and communion, these elders and James were really uptight, because there was a problem. So the concern in verse 21, “But they have been informed about you, that you are teaching the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or to live according to our customs.”
Who do you think would have taught all those Christians, and drilled them on that misinformation? The Judaizers, those were the circumcision people who believed that Jesus was the Messiah, but you couldn’t do that unless you were a Jew. And then once you did, you had to continue to keep all the Mosaic laws. And so consequently, they were not saved, because it was by works.
And so they went around, and said, “You know what Paul does? He’s the guy that tells all the Jews to forsake Moses, and not to circumcise their children, and not to obey the ceremonies.” These things were precious to these Jewish people. It was their life, their culture, their tradition. And these Judaizers were undermining Paul by saying he doesn’t want anything to do with Judaism.
Satan is the father of lies, and he lies about Paul. He never taught Jews to forsake Moses, he taught Gentiles not to think they had to become Jews. Why? Because they didn’t need the ceremonies of the law. He did not teach Jews not to be circumcised, and he did not teach Jews not to follow those traditions. Our society is predicated on lies, because Satan is a liar. So he lies about Paul.
In Galatians 5:11, the Judaizers accused Paul of not teaching circumcision. In Acts 21, they accuse him of not teaching circumcision. Paul had already written Romans, from Corinth before he got to Jerusalem. Paul had already established that we should condescend to the Jew who still wants to follow the customs; be loving, be kind to him, because it’s harmless. Don’t force him to violate his conscience.
Verse 22 says, “So what is to be done? They will certainly hear that you’ve come.” They will say, ‘Hey, this is the guy. We’ve heard about him.’” And, a lot of these elders said, “This is a potential disaster. This thing could blow sky high. We’ve got tens of thousands of Christians who have been drilled that you’re an apostate.” So they come up with a third thing, compromise.
Now the word “compromise,” makes you think of something negative where you sacrifice truth for the sake of expediency. Sometimes you can make a compromise that’s a very loving act, like in verses 23 – 25, “Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have made a vow. 24 Take these men, purify yourself along with them, and pay for them to get their heads shaved.”
“Then everyone will know that what they were told about you amounts to nothing, but that you yourself are also careful about observing the law. 25 With regard to the Gentiles who have believed, we have written a letter containing our decision that they should keep themselves from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.”
This is a Nazarite vow; and it has to do with separation. It comes from Numbers 6. God said that when any Jew wants to separate himself totally unto the Lord, he takes a vow. Now as a symbol of the separation, one, he would restrain himself from drinking. That means he would sacrifice the joy of life. He wouldn’t go to parties anymore. He would restrict himself to the serious matters of life.
Secondly, he cut his hair. The Bible teaches in the New Testament that when it is long like a woman’s hair, it is a reproach to God. I will separate myself from all of the world’s acclaim, and all of the world’s fun, and I will give myself to God.” And these two things were symbolic of such a separation. They were just saying, “God, we want to separate ourselves for You.”
So four guys had taken this vow, and they were nearing the end of it. So these fellows were near the end of this purification process. So they say to Paul, “Now (verse 24) take them and purify yourself with them.” In other words, march on down to the temple and go through the whole seven-day routine. If you do that, the people will think that you really are on the side of Jewish custom.
And all that stuff the Judaizers have been teaching us is wrong. Look at him; he’s down at the temple doing that thing. He goes along with Mosaic ceremony. “Secondly, Paul, pay all their expenses.” There were a lot of animals involved. And all the meals and drinks? And so if you did that, they would even be more convinced that he was for real, because he didn’t have a lot of money.
So anyway, he was ready to do it, and so that they may shave their heads and all may know that those things of which they were drilled about you are nothing, but that you do walk orderly and keep the ceremonies. You show those people by that behavior that it wasn’t true what they said about you, but that you are one who is faithful to Mosaic ceremony.
It’s a compromise, because Paul was willing to listen to them. And anything that he could do to win people over, to make unity in the church he did. This is what Jesus prayed for. And so this doesn’t violate any doctrine just going through the ceremony; it’s rather inconsequential. And God looked at their hearts; and if their hearts were really separated and pure, God would be pleased.
Verse 26, “So the next day, Paul took the men, having purified himself along with them, and entered the temple, announcing the completion of the purification days when the offering would be made for each of them.” There was nothing evil in doing what he did. What he did was a form of tradition. It was a ceremonial thing. His motives were pure. Paul wanted the unity of the fellowship.
We don’t know what the results were, the only thing you see here is the riot that happens from the unbelievers. Paul submitted himself to the elders to set a pattern for all future church activities. When the elders said, “Do this,” he did it. He said, “I became a Jew, so as to win Jews.” Now what were the consequences? Well, we’ll get into these in detail next time. Let us pray.