The Book of Acts

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets
(Acts 21-22)

After an emotional farewell from the Ephesian elders who accompanied him to the ship, Paul set sail from Miletus to the island of Cos, and from there to Rhodes, the largest of the so-called Dodecanese. They then sailed along the south coast of Lycia as far as Patara. At Patara they found a cargo ship going straight to Syria. This way they gained valuable time, since the cross-sea voyage took half the time of the coasting ship which stopped at every port. On the way they sighted Cyprus on the port side, but they did not stop until they arrived at Tyre.

A warm welcome at Tyre
Finding disciples there they stayed with them seven days. Paul received a warm welcome from the disciples at each place he went, but he also received disturbing prophecies of what to expect in Jerusalem. The disciples at Tyre urged him (repeatedly) through the Spirit not to go to Jerusalem. Had the Spirit then changed His mind? Paul had told the Ephesian elders that he was compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem (20:22). But now the same Spirit was telling him not to go to Jerusalem! The statement here (21:4) is evidently condensed. What the Spirit had been saying was that prison and hardship awaited the apostle in Jerusalem. As a result they urged Paul not to go there, but this was not of the Spirit. The disciples at Caesarea did the same; they pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem (21:12), but the prophet Agabus had only said that Paul would be bound there and handed over to the Gentiles, not that he should stay away.

They stay with Philip
From Tyre he continued his voyage by sea to Ptolemais and Caesarea. He stayed for one day with the brethren at Ptolemais (today's Akka or Acre) before going on to Caesarea. There he stayed with Philip the evangelist, one of the seven (Acts 6). It was Philip who had carried the gospel to the Samaritans and spoken to the Ethiopian eunuch. Since Paul had last seen him he had brought up four daughters who were now prophetesses. It is however Agabus' prophecy which is highlighted. We have already met with Agabus in 11:28 where he had foretold the severe famine which spread across the empire in the reign of Claudius in AD 46. He now takes Paul's belt and binds his own hands and feet. In this way, he says, the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.

The disciples were so insistent that Paul should not go to Jerusalem (pleading and weeping) that Paul was on the point of giving in. His heart was breaking, he said. When, however, they saw that he was not going to be persuaded, they gave up and actually accompanied him all the way to Jerusalem. There he stayed with Mnason, a Cypriote and a founder member of the Jerusalem church.

They go to see James
The day after their arrival they went to see James and the elders. It must have been now that Paul handed to them the gift from the Gentile churches which he had taken so much trouble in collecting. For some reason this is not mentioned here though he does refer to it in 24:17 in his defence before Felix. It would be an argument from silence to conclude that the gift was grudgingly received just because it is not mentioned. It is more charitable to assume that James and the elders were extremely grateful. It is nevertheless strange that nothing is said. This offering meant a tremendous amount to Paul. It was not only an expression of Christian love to the poor saints in Jerusalem, but a recognition of the Gentiles' indebtedness to the Jews for their spiritual blessings (Romans 15:26,27). For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. Representatives from the Gentile churches, those whose names are given in 20:4, had travelled all the way from Corinth in order to be present when Paul handed over their gifts.

Paul takes a vow
James and the elders praised God when Paul reported in detail all that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. But they also expressed grave misgivings about the Jerusalem Christians. These ran into thousands and all of them were zealous for the law. Furthermore they had been misinformed about Paul that he had been teaching the Jews in foreign lands apostasy from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or pay heed to Jewish customs.

This word apostasy is used again only of the fearful falling away associated with the man of sin (2 Thessalonians 2:3). While it was right for Jewish Christians to be zealous for the law, one suspects that many of them had greater sympathy for the Judaizing party than for the enlightened Christianity of James and Peter, and that their zeal was not based on knowledge (Romans 10:2). In view of the situation, Paul was advised to join a group of four men who had taken a Nazirite vow of purification, and to pay their expenses to have their heads shaved. Paul had of his own volition undertaken such a vow at Cenchreae (18:18), so he had no objections to this plan. In fact, it seemed a heaven-sent opportunity since his former vow still awaited completion at Jerusalem. This would surely prove that there was no substance in these reports and that Paul was living in obedience to the law.

Away with him!
But the vow did not avail him much. Before it was completed he was seen in the temple by some Asian Jews who roused the mob, shouting hysterically, "Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple area and defiled this holy place." And all he was doing was fulfilling a purification vow! (24:18). Paul was forcibly dragged out of the inner court, and immediately the gates were shut. Stott remarks, "The slammed gates seemed to symbolize the final Jewish rejection of the gospel."

By now the whole city was in uproar and Paul would have been beaten to death but for the intervention of the ever-vigilant Roman garrison. The soldiers had to carry him to safety because of the violence of the mob who followed after him, shouting Aire auton! Away with him!

Where have we heard these words before? They are the very words yelled by the Jews concerning Jesus (Luke 23:18; John 19:15). The same terrible scenario was in process of unfolding with Paul taking the place of Jesus. It is a second passion, in which the Lord Jesus is condemned all over again in the person of His faithful servant Paul. In reality it was the nation which stood on trial. In condemning Paul they were themselves condemned, with the dire consequences from which they are still suffering the repercussions today.

What's going on?
Paul's defence before his countrymen is the first of five defences he was required to make. Subsequently he defended himself before the Sanhedrin, Felix, Festus, and King Agrippa. Christ also faced five tribunals: Annas (John 18:12-24), the chief priests (Matthew 26:59-68), Pilate (27:11-13), Herod (Luke 23:6-12), and Pilate again (Matthew 27:15-26). Stott notes that Paul's five trials take up six chapters in our Bibles, and nearly 200 verses. "Why did Luke consider it necessary to go into such detail?" he asks. Sir William Ramsay notes that the amount of space assigned to Paul's imprisonment and successive examinations marks this as the most important part of the book, in the author's estimation. The fact is not in dispute, but neither writer seems very clear why it should be so.

Stott finds the answer in the two themes of Jewish opposition and Roman justice, but that in itself is not an adequate explanation. The true significance of these concluding chapters is dispensational. This is the climax of the Jewish dispensation, their moment of truth, the last chapter of their rebellious history when their future was about to be decided for the next two thousand years. Those who persecute the disciples of Jesus persecute Jesus Himself (Acts 9:5). Paul is now the Christ-figure being tormented on Christ's behalf. Paul's passion repeats Christ's passion, and brings to an end the second chance which Israel was granted during the period of Acts.

Paul's defence before the Jews
Paul lent over backwards, so to speak, to be friendly and conciliatory towards this hostile mob. His defence took the form of a personal retrospect, in which he tells again the story of his conversion, the first time we have heard it from his own lips. He speaks in Aramiac, the vernacular of the Palestinian Jews and of non-Greek-speaking Jews everywhere else, and he calls them brothers and fathers, just as Stephen had done (7:2). He emphasises his Jewish upbringing, his training under the revered Gamaliel, his zeal for God which was certainly no less than theirs, a zeal which had led him to persecute the followers of this Way. He recalls the visit of Ananias a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews, and he refers to the Lord Jesus as the Righteous One, as had Peter and Stephen (3:14; 7:52). He notes that it was in the very temple which he is supposed to have defiled that he fell into a trance and saw the Lord. This was probably on the occasion of his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion (Acts 9:26; Galatians 1:18).

It was then that the Lord said to him, "Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles." The crowd listened to him up to that point, but at the mention of Gentiles they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!" Here again we have the fateful Aire toiouton-Away with such a man!

By this time the crowd had gone berserk, shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air. The commander gave orders that Paul be taken into the barracks and be interrogated by means of flogging. Paul however objected that it was illegal to flog a Roman citizen. He thus escaped this cruel torture, and at the same time got one up on the Roman commander who had bought his citizenship at a huge price, probably a bribe.

So ended Paul's first ordeal. But for the law-abiding Romans he could have been killed on at least two occasions. Pilate had caved in and allowed the Lord Jesus to be crucified. But the Lord's hand was on Paul because his course was not yet finished. He still had important work to do for his Lord.