Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

“shouting, “Israelite men, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place! And furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple, and has defiled this holy place!” (For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, whom they thought that Paul had brought into the temple.)” (Acts 21:28-29)

In chapter twenty-one, Paul continued his journey to Jerusalem. Along the way they stopped at Tyre for the ship’s cargo needed unloading. While he was there, the disciples welcomed him and he stayed a week. But before he left, they told Paul not to go to Jerusalem. He went anyway and took his leave. The same thing happened at Caesarea. He was told through a prophet that the Jews of Jerusalem would bind him. Paul said he was ready for any trial and any punishment in the name of Jesus. He continued his journey.

When he arrived in Jerusalem he met with the believers and told them all of what the Lord was doing in the other areas of the world. Everyone rejoiced and were glad. But then some of the Jews convinced Paul to take an oath and help some others to pay for their oaths, and in this prove that he followed the Law as a Jew. Paul agreed. It was this action that bound him. When the time of this oath was nearly done, he went into the temple and was seen by Jews from Asia who hated what he had done in his ministry. They also had seen Gentiles known to be believers in the city. They ASSUMED that Paul had brought them into the Temple an violated the Law, so they seized Paul and arrested him.

Well, ‘arrested’ is a pretty tame word. They actually seized him, dragged him out of the Temple, and set about killing him. The city was so inflamed and the riot so riotous that the Roman commander had to intervene to keep Paul from being killed. The Roman in charge tried to figure out what was what, but everyone was shouting contradictory things, so he brought Paul back to the barracks. Paul privately defended himself to the commander. Told him it was all a misunderstanding, and asked to address the crowd. Given permission, Paul spoke to the crowds in Hebrew.

Chapter twenty-two opens with Paul’s defense of himself. He spoke of his origins and education. He spoke of his conversion. He spoke of everything that he had done in Jerusalem in the name of Jesus. But when he spoke of being sent by Jesus to the Gentiles, the religious Jews (most of whom hated the Gentiles) started screaming back and rioting again. The Romans pulled Paul inside their barracks. The commander was going to flog him to get the truth out of him, but Paul pointed out he was a Roman citizen by birth. That means that the commander had to follow Roman law. They backed off the flogging. The next day, the commander had the Sanhedrin gathered together and brought Paul before them.

Chapter twenty-three opens with Paul addressing them and giving much the same speech as he had to the people. There was quite a disagreement about Paul and what they were going to do to him, so Paul said to everyone that he was on trial because of the resurrection of the dead (the Pharisees believed in it and the Sadducees did not). So a debate about resurrection broke out and got REALLY heated. It got so bad that the commander worried that Paul was going to be torn apart, so back to the barracks Paul went.

The next day some Jews formed a plot to kill Paul. Paul’s nephew happened to overhear it and reported it to Paul who had him report it to the commander. So the commander gathered a LOT of his men and had Paul transferred to Felix the governor who was in Caesarea. He wrote a letter to Felix explaining the whole situation and the conspiracy against Paul’s life. Felix read it, found out what province Paul was from, told him he would hear Paul’s case when his accusers arrived, and had Paul be guarded in the Praetorium built by Herod.

Summary

Key Players: God, Jesus, Saul, Felix, Jews, Gentiles

Key Verse(s): Acts 21:17-19; 22:6-21; 23:25-30