Acts 21:27-40 And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people… Paul's fifth and final visit to Jerusalem, a chief scene of which this passage depicts, was in the highest degree dramatic. He now saw the Jewish capital for the last time. He had come with the noble object of carrying a contribution from the Gentile Christians in Macedonia and Achaia to the poor among the Jewish mother Church. One of the three leading Hebrew festivals, Pentecost, was in progress. He now met James the brother of Jesus. He magnanimously took upon himself the Nazaritic vow. He conspicuously showed his remarkable tact in addressing a frenzied mob. In a most picturesque situation he declared his Roman citizenship. The scene with which we particularly have to do was the meeting place of Roman power, of Jewish bigotry, and of Christian consecration. The passage that we are to study introduces us to Paul when he was about completing the seven days of the Nazaritic vow, which he had willingly entered into for the sake of mollifying the prejudice against him of the believing Jews in Jerusalem. "The Jews from Asia " had, from their point of view, abundant reason for attacking Paul. Asia, in its New Testament use, was a narrow strip of Asia Minor that bordered on the AEgean Sea. Of this district Ephesus was the chief city, and in Ephesus Paul had recently closed a most astonishing three years' ministry. He "turned the world upside down" there. In the best meaning of the word his preaching was sensational. It was no wonder, then, that the Jews from Asia, stung by the recollection of the triumphs of that Ephesian ministry from which their ranks had so seriously suffered, were swift to wreak their vengeance upon the hated offender now that they had opportunity. This experience of Paul at Jerusalem emphasises two or three lessons of permanent value, which we shall now consider. I. AN AGGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY ENCOUNTERS AFFLICTIONS. If Jesus Christ has made anything clear it is surely this, that the loyalty of His disciples to Himself will provoke persecution. With a noble frankness, worthy of all admiration, He warned all would be disciples of this inevitable fact. "I came not to send peace but a sword." "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves." If His precepts were thus writ large and clear in His own example, why should His disciples expect to escape? Paul followed his Lord in both teaching and precept. He wrote, "All that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Persecution has been the common lot of pronounced ambassadors of Christ, and, with shame be it said, that persecution has in many cases had origin with the so-called people of God themselves. , Savonarola, Huss, Wycliffe, Luther, Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards, Hannington, the , the , the , the Pilgrims: how ample was their heritage of persecution, and with what sublime heroism did they receive it! The suffering of affliction for Christ's sake is inevitable. Why it is so Jesus clearly stated to His unbelieving brothers, as He was about to start to Jerusalem to attend the last Feast of Tabernacles in His earthly ministry. "The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil." This was the real reason of Paul's terrible treatment at Jerusalem at the hands of the unbelieving Jews from Asia, and it has been the spring of all the persecution of Christ's followers the Christian ages through. Persecution is as irrational as it is inevitable. Those Asiatic Jews incited the multitude against Paul on wholly false charges. Listen to them. "This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place; and moreover he brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath defiled this holy place." Every count in this indictment was untrue. At the very moment in which they preferred it Paul's course as to the Nazarite vow proved its utter falsity. II. AFFLICTIONS MANIFEST THE DEPTH OF CHRISTIAN HAPPINESS. God's people are a happy people. Christ's disciples sing for joy in the night of their tribulations, since Christ Himself, who is their Life, possessed a serene joy that no afflictions could ruffle. So strong was His faith in His Father and His love for Him, that these yielded Him a peace whose tranquil deeps the cruel and unrelenting persecution of Pharisee and Sadducee had no power to disturb. "The kingdom of God is joy and peace in the Holy Ghost." Paul's experience of his Lord's love was yet so delightful that he yearned to tell the glad tidings to his very murderers, saying to the commander, "I beseech thee, give me leave to speak unto the people." III. AFFLICTIONS PROVE THE STRENGTH OF CHRISTIAN PURPOSE. They both put it to the test and make it evident. "Tribulation worketh patience, and patience approvedness or tried character, and tried character hope." The crowning glory of Jesus was a glory of the will in the face of a relentless persecution that finally sent Him to the Cross. How strikingly this appears in Luke's description of Him, "He set His face to go to Jerusalem." Jesus' reign over a human soul culminates in the will. Unless He is king there He is no king at all. The history of His influence over men has shown how splendidly He has commanded the will energy of His true disciples in the development of such traits of character as fortitude, endurance, heroism, those virtues which are essentially martial in their temper and make their possessors "terrible as an army with banners." These soldierly qualities thrive under persecution. They seem unable to come to their best quality without it. Paul's last journey to Jerusalem and its climax in the scene in the temple were among the most convincing evidences of will triumph in the midst of crushing afflictions that the annals of heroism furnish. The real heroes of the world are not the Alexanders, the Hannibals, the Caesars, the Napoleons, but Jesus, Paul, , , Simeon, Brainerd, Carey, Mackay. These, and such as these, display the most exalted courage, confronting foes more invincible and threatening than any those great military chieftains ever faced on field s of carnage. The lesson for us of our study of Paul at Jerusalem is this: It sounds out a clarion call to the disciples of Jesus in this generation, in all Christian lands, for fidelity. In our time the love of temporal comfort is almost sovereign. Our sense life is in sore peril of becoming insubordinate by the encouraging environment in which it passes its days. Our civilisation is a selfish civilisation. It is very easy to live a luxurious life. It is very hard to live a self-denying life for Jesus Christ's sake. The apostle Paul, that "good soldier of Jesus Christ," thus owned his loyalty to the Captain of his salvation, "I am ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." (J. M. English, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him, |
    |