Acts 21

Acts 21:17-26

21:17-23:35 FINALLY REJECTS THE GOSPEL Danger in Jerusalem (21:17-26) Over the previous ten years the church in Jerusalem had become narrower in its outlook. As leaders of broader outlook such as Peter, John and Barnabas moved out to other areas, the Jewish Christians left in Jerusalem slipped back into legalism. At the Jerusalem meeting of Chapter 15, James and his like-minded fellow elders had successfully defended the Gentiles, but they now had little influence over the members at large. Those who wished to put all Christians under the Jewish law, though silenced at the Jerusalem meeting, had not changed their former views, and now their number had grown to many thousands (see v. 20). The elders of the Jerusalem church were glad to receive the offering from the Gentile churches (17-19), but this had little effect on the thinking of most of the church members. The legalistic Jews were not concerned greatly about what Paul taught the Gentiles, but they were angered to hear reports that he taught the Jews not to keep the law of Moses or the traditions of their ancestors (20-21). James and his friends suggested that Paul prove to the Jerusalemites that he was as religious a Jew as any, by joining with four other Jews in a purification ceremony in the temple (22-25). Being willing to do almost anything to win his fellow Jews, Paul joined in the ceremony (26; cf. 1 Corinthians 9:20-23 ). Whether he was right or wrong in doing so is not clear. Certainly the plan was not a success, for it got Paul into serious trouble that left him a prisoner of Rome for most of the next five years.

Acts 21:27-36

The crowd attacks Paul (21:27-36) Paul, James and the elders were so busy trying to please the Jerusalem Jews that they may have forgotten Paul’s constant enemies, the Asian Jews (cf. 20:18-19; 2 Corinthians 1:8 ). These were the ones who brought about his downfall. Because they saw him in the streets with a Gentile friend from Ephesus, they accused him (wrongly) of taking the Gentile into a part of the temple where Gentiles were forbidden (27-29). When a riot broke out, the mob seized Paul and tried to kill him (30-31). The Roman troops in Jerusalem were well trained to control Jewish riots, and on this occasion only their swift action prevented Paul from being murdered (32). Lysias, the military commander, had no idea who Paul was or what he had done to make the Jews angry, but he was determined to see him dealt with properly according to Roman law, not by mob violence (33-36).

Acts 21:37-22

Paul’s reply to the crowd (21:37-22:29) By his command of the situation, Paul showed much physical courage and mental alertness. One minute he was snatched from a violent death, the next he was able to address a mob of wildly excited Jews who were screaming for his blood. He spoke with such power that a rioting crowd of would-be murderers listened to him in silence (37-40). Paul wanted to show that he was a zealous Jew, called by God to serve him. He told of his Jewish upbringing and education, and of his religious zeal in persecuting those he thought to be law-breakers (22:1-5). But then the risen Jesus intervened and he became a believer (6-11). Through the announcement of a respected and law-abiding Jew named Ananias, he learnt of God’s purpose for him to take the gospel to people everywhere (12-16). Above all he wanted his own people, the Jews, to hear the gospel, and only when they rejected it did God send him to preach it among the Gentiles (17-21). As soon as Paul mentioned his mission to the Gentiles, uproar broke out afresh. All Paul’s speech and all the crowd’s shouting were in Aramaic, which the Roman commander probably could not understand. So he decided there was only one way to find out the truth, and that was by flogging (22-24). When Paul told the soldiers that he was a Roman citizen, they quickly untied him. They knew how close they themselves had come to being law-breakers (25-29).