Verse 14 of Acts 21.
Now, let's see, before vacation, we were into
this last September.
You remember, Paul is moving, going back to
Jerusalem, desiring to make Pentecost.
He loved to be there, not so much
that he was still bound by the Jewish
feasts.
It's been 20 years since his conversion, and
his experience with the Lord with his great
revelation in the Arabian desert, you know, personal
revelation.
You ever learn from man, remember, he said,
I did not receive revelation from man, it
was from the Lord.
And he'd already written Romans, Galatians, and 1st
and 2nd Corinthians.
So he knew, you know, that he wasn't
bound by the Jewish rituals and law.
That he was a new creature in Christ.
But he had this desire to be back
there with the family and everything, members, friends,
maybe fellow Pharisees that had not been converted,
that had heard of what happened to him,
just to share his faith.
You remember in Romans chapter 9, he stated
that he wished himself to be accursed.
He loved his Jewish brethren so much.
He wanted them to experience Christ so much,
just like you and I want our relatives
to experience Christ so much.
They don't understand that.
They just see it as foolish fanaticism.
We're trying to push our religion on them,
especially if they're still bound with their habits.
And they don't realize the love and the
joy and the experience of eternal life, of
a forgiven conscience, sins being forgiven.
So Paul said, I have such a burning
desire, I could wish myself accursed from God
for my brethren's sake.
If I would lose my salvation, I'm willing
to give up my redemption, that the Jews
might come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Well, only one person could give his life
for redemption, and that's Jesus Christ.
But Paul was sincerely saying that.
He had this burning desire.
Now you remember Agabus, a friend of his,
a prophet, saw as they were sitting around
the campfire, eating pita bread and hummus and
roast lamb with olive oil and butter.
Oh man, hyssop, dipped in hyssop.
And he looked over, and the Holy Spirit
showed him, you see, that Paul was going
to suffer terribly.
He got in the spirit, the spirit of
prophecy, the word of knowledge.
So he grabbed Paul's girdle, his waistband, that
they carry their money and things in and
cinch up their robes with.
He put it around himself and jumped up
and he said, Thus saith the Lord, the
man that this girdle belongs to, if he
goes to Jerusalem will be beaten and suffer
and all this.
And man, as he said that, Luke and
all the friends, they all got all concerned,
you know, and they tried to talk Paul
out of it.
They said, Oh, can't do this.
It wasn't the Holy Spirit forbidding Paul to
go, but just letting Paul know what was
in front of him if he did go,
to be aware of it.
Now you remember when Paul met Jesus Christ,
he had told Paul immediately when he sent
him to Ananias, he said, Now, when you
get there, I want you to go to
this man's house, Ananias' name, and he'll pray
for thee, and you'll be healed, and you'll
be able to see, you'll receive your sight.
And at the same time he's telling Paul
this, to go to Damascus, the Holy Spirit's
in a vision telling Ananias that there's a
man Saul, the servant of the Lord, coming
to you.
Remember Ananias said, Hey, you don't know what
he's done to the church.
He's wreaked havoc.
I mean, he's coming to my house.
You want me to pray for him?
He's been killing Christians.
Remember the Lord said he's a chosen servant
now, a chosen vessel for me.
And I have shown him the things that
he must suffer for my name's sake.
And so Ananias prayed for him, laid hands
on him.
And it's interesting, he was baptized in the
Holy Spirit, but he didn't speak in tongues
at that time.
He had this separate experience, but he got
a healing.
Remember the scales fell away from his eyes.
He didn't get tongues until later on, but
he was baptized and filled with the Spirit.
And he didn't fall down.
He didn't act fanatic and start shrieking, jumping
up and down or barking.
You know, the Holy Spirit is that wonderful
influence.
The Holy Spirit's no different than God the
Father and God the Son.
All three persons of the Godhead act identically.
They're the same in perfect love, perfect peace.
And so Paul received his healing.
And remember later he was driven into the
desert.
And here God took this man steeped in
the law and took him from law to
the beauty of grace.
The wonder of God's grace, a revelation.
Now they loved him so much.
It changed his life so much.
There was so much grace and love in
his message, in his teaching.
They fell in such love with him.
They did not want Paul to go to
Jerusalem, and so they all tried to talk
him out of it.
And he said, What mean ye to break
my heart and cause me to weep?
I'm willing to die for Jesus Christ.
As much as I love you, if I'm
being led to Jerusalem for the salvation of
others, I'm willing to die for Jesus Christ.
And so they couldn't talk him out of
it.
In fact, he said, You're affecting my heart.
Your love for me is affecting my heart.
But his love for Christ was greater than
his love for his Christian friends.
His desire, you see, because he was a
servant.
He was a slave.
His life was no longer his.
It belonged to Jesus Christ.
And so this is what I find so
wonderful, so quickly.
And through this text, through the narrative, you
always see we.
Luke is including himself.
Luke is always involved in it.
We this.
We that.
Because he's the author.
Remember, he's the eyewitness who's writing the account
to the church.
And in verse 14, he says, And when
he could not be persuaded, we, in other
words, Luke was involved in it, trying to
stop him.
No, don't.
Don't go.
We don't want to see you beaten and
suffer.
Now, none of them were worried about dying.
Paul wasn't worried about dying.
They weren't trying to stop him because they
were afraid of their own lives or knowing
that Paul was afraid of his.
They just didn't want the suffering.
They did not want it to take place.
But this is what I find so wonderful.
When he would not be persuaded, we ceased,
saying, The will of the Lord be done.
There's the spiritual depth and the maturity of
them all at this point in their walk
with the Lord said, The Lord's will be
done.
We're not going to try and twist your
arm or talk you out of it or,
you know, lay a condo trip on you
to try and get our own way.
Now, they knew there's going to be brutality,
suffering.
And this is what I like.
The very next verse.
They didn't say, Well, goodbye, Paul.
We'll pray for you because we know there's
going to be trouble down the road.
We don't want to lose our, you know.
We're not going to, you know, stay in
our own little environment to protect ourselves.
We're in a comfort zone.
That's fine.
Yeah, it's your call, Paul.
We'll just stay here.
We'll pray for you.
We know you're going to suffer.
It might be difficult.
You may not have enough money.
You may not get a job.
You may not, we don't know, you may
not have a house to live in, but
we're not going to give ours up.
We'll just stay.
We'll pray for you.
We'll have a weekly prayer meeting for you,
Paul.
Now, look what they said.
And after those days, we took up our
backpacks, this carriage, our backpacks, and went up
to Jerusalem.
They were in it together.
So wonderful.
No fair weather, Christian, you know.
They said, look it, we're going with you.
We'll lay our lives down with you.
We've just been shown in the Spirit there's
nothing but trouble ahead, but we're in this
with you all the way.
We're going with you.
You see, you've got to have a love
for Jesus to have that attitude.
It'd be so easy to say, well, Paul,
we tried to warn you, we love you,
we'll pray for you, that God's angels and
then start quoting scriptures where he'll be saved.
No, they said, we're going with you.
You remember, they probably all, Paul probably never
did because he didn't have a love for
Christ, but it's possible that Luke saw Jesus
and sat in on teachings, and many of
these men were saved long before Paul.
You remember in Luke 9 where Jesus was
approaching His time to be betrayed, and He
was preparing the disciples for that fellowship of
suffering.
Remember, Paul later writes in Philippians 1.29,
It's given unto us on behalf of Christ
not only to believe on Him, but to
suffer for His sake.
To enter into that fellowship of suffering.
And you remember Jesus, He gathered them together
in one of His Bible studies, and He
said, now the Son of Man is going
to Jerusalem in a few days, and I'm
going to be betrayed by the hands of
men, and I'm going to be crucified and
put to death.
But after three days, I'm going to rise
again.
And then He went on to say, after
He told them what's going to take place,
if you're going to associate with Me, it's
not always going to be easy if you're
going to call yourself a disciple.
And the next verse, He says, now, if
you're going to be My disciple, He that
is My disciple will deny Himself daily.
Deny Myself daily, take up My cross, and
He says, and follow Me.
Now, He just told them He's going to
be beaten and killed.
And they're claiming to be His disciples.
He says, well, this is what's facing Me
if you're going to follow Me.
And because you're a friend of Mine, you
might get swept up into it too.
And here's what's ahead.
Now, you see, in this life, now, beyond
that is eternity with eternal rewards where Paul
says, hey, I reckon that the sufferings of
this life are not worthy to be compared
with the glory it will receive with Him.
And so, He said, if you're going to
be My disciple, you need to deny yourself
daily.
Take up your cross and follow Me.
He that would seek to save his life
will lose it.
You put all your effort into your own
little confine, your own little comfort zone, and
try to just slide through without anything, no
one rocking the boat until the rapture, you're
going to lose your life.
But he that will lose his life for
the Gospel and for My sake, the same
shall save it.
And these men knew that.
They were so in love with Jesus Christ,
they didn't allow some fear or threat of
the future or some danger stop them from
going all the way with Jesus.
Or even consider, well, we'll hold back.
It could be kind of scary.
What's the guarantee we may not be in
trouble?
No.
We.
I like that.
Luke says, I'm with you, Lord.
I'm with you, Paul.
We took up our backpacks.
The word carriage there in the Old English
means backpack or baggage.
The thing we throw over our shoulder with
our belongings.
And went up to Jerusalem.
And this is a blessing too.
And there went with us also certain of
the disciples of Caesarea and brought with them
one Manassan of Cyprus, an old disciple with
whom we should lie.
Here's a man who's an old man.
What an attitude he could have taken.
You know, I'm getting a little too old
for this stuff.
I've been following the Lord.
You younger bucks, you go.
I'm an old man.
And besides, if they find out you're staying
at my house when we get to Jerusalem,
they might come down and burn my house
down.
And I don't have the physical strength.
I don't have retirement.
I don't have a pension or Social Security.
And I don't have a life insurance policy.
I don't know if I want to get
involved with you, Paul.
I'm an old disciple.
And especially to open my home up to
someone like you, I could get in trouble.
I could lose everything I own.
I'll just stay here in Caesarea.
I've served the Lord a long time.
No.
You went with him.
You can stay in my home.
The older I get, Manassan's saying, the more
I love him.
The more I just want of him.
I don't care how it ends.
I don't care how I go out.
I just want to be with him.
My life is not my own anymore.
Rose and I were talking the other night.
And we both realized we've had the blessed
privilege of being together for 38 years as
a man and wife and dating and knowing
each other another 10 years.
And knowing how old I'm going to be
if I have another birthday.
Who cares?
But really, I've only got eight more years
until biblically I'm at the age that he's
going to live, 3 score and 10.
And we got to thinking, Honey, I said,
Honey, what is it that we haven't experienced
in life that if we don't go to
this place or buy this or get to
watch that or get to go here that
we're not going to be happy?
We've experienced it all.
Why not just the rest of Jesus?
There's nothing left.
It's all yours.
We could care less.
We've experienced so much.
But there's going to be so much more
in eternity.
And there's just a few years left.
Let's just totally dedicate and sell out until
we die.
She said, You know, that's a good idea.
And so we both prayed.
Lord, this is it.
Work in our lives that there's nothing in
this world or self anymore that we think
we need to hold back from You just
so we can be happy as a Christian.
Lord, there's nothing more fulfilling than knowing You.
Now, stop and think of Manasseh.
He could have taken the easy way.
But he said, you know what?
He went with him.
When we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren
received us gladly.
He said, Lord, we're in this with you.
I'm going, too.
That reminds me, earlier in action, remember, they
were forbidden, the apostles were forbidden, to speak
in this man's name or mention his name
in the temple area in Jerusalem.
And they were slapped around, you know, beat
up and thrown in jail, beaten some more.
And they all got together and they all
started singing praises unto God, thanking the Lord
that they were worthy to be beaten.
Now, see, a person who doesn't know Christ
at that level, and I certainly don't claim
to know Him at that level, but I
sure want to, I think that's insane.
That's extremism or fanaticism.
No, it isn't.
It's right here in the book of Acts.
It's the record of the movement that formed
Western civilization.
The very freedoms that you and I sit
under came because of the fanaticism of men
who loved Jesus Christ, were willing to just
throw it all away and deny themselves daily
and take up their cross and follow Him.
Now, Satan gets people frightened and says, boy,
if you even think like that, I mean,
God's just going to take everything away from
you, smite you with a disease and say,
this is how you're going to glorify me.
You'll be crippled the rest of your life,
blind and poor.
You'll have to take a vow of poverty.
So, oh, no way am I selling out.
That's such a lie from the devil.
Whatever God does decide, when you just say,
Lord, I'm tired of holding back.
Take it all.
You'd be amazed at how much freedom you
have, how much joy and fulfillment, what a
blessing it is.
What a blessing it is.
And look what it does for one year
old.
I don't see anywhere in the Bible where
someone retires from serving the Lord.
I read in the Bible where pastor so
-and-so retired.
What?
I don't see it in here.
Manasseh was an old disciple.
He says, stay at my house.
I'm going with you.
And so notice, we, we're in this together,
Paul.
We're with you.
It's because they loved Jesus.
They weren't seeking to save their life.
They were losing their life for Him, and
they saved it.
And so the day following, Paul went in
with us.
Luke's with him right there, you know, thinking,
well, what's going to happen?
But I'm going to be with you, Paul.
No matter how frightening, no matter what the
threats, no matter how dangerous the future may
be, I'm with you in this.
And so, Paul went in with us unto
James and all the elders that were present.
And when he had saluted them, or greeted
them in love and respect, he declared particularly
what things God had wrought among the Gentiles
by His ministry.
And when they heard it, they glorified the
Lord.
Now, here you're going to see what happened
to the church in Jerusalem.
To swell the ranks, they began to compromise
to get the Jews into the church.
They began to compromise on the law of
Moses and didn't make it an issue.
They didn't teach them fully, and so to
keep from being persecuted themselves and to swell
the ranks, they allowed the Jews to come
in and the Jews were hanging on to
the old Mosaic ritual and it became law
to them.
They were mixing law with grace just so
they wouldn't be persecuted.
Now, notice their concern.
They were worried about Paul.
It's interesting how people were worried when Paul
showed up.
They didn't know what he was going to
say.
At this particular time in his life, he
creates the sixth riot in his ministry.
Everywhere he went, he created a riot.
This is his sixth riot before the chapter
is over.
Not because he wanted to do it, but
because he was faithful to God and then
God in his providence designed things and took
control of things to use Paul even greater.
And so when they heard it, they glorified
the Lord.
Oh, great, Paul.
The Lord is using you with the Gentiles.
But then, now notice instantly what they said.
And said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how
many thousands of Jews there are which believe,
and they are all zealous of the law.
In other words, putting themselves right back under
works.
Maintaining the feast days, the holy days, and
the law.
Circumcision, the different rituals that Jesus Christ came
to set everyone free from.
And they were still maintaining it.
And when someone puts himself under his own
manner of works or the law to try
and please God, that person always loses their
joy.
Because here's what happens.
When I put myself under my own set
of works or the law, then I begin
to perform and say, God, you have to
bless me.
I've done all these right things.
I've done all these things for you this
week.
You have to bless me.
God doesn't have to bless me at all.
His blessings come through grace.
I can never deserve it.
And I can't force God to bless me.
He won't.
He can't.
And He won't.
Paul, remember, wrote the whole book of Galatians
warning about mixing law and grace, expecting God
to bless you because of your performance.
God, you owe me.
I've done all these things this week.
I've been so faithful.
And a person that expects God to bless
them like that, they may see someone else
not living so strictly and rigidly as they
are, and it seems like they have more
joy and God's doing more for them.
You say, Lord, how can you bless them?
And you find yourself getting angry.
You get angry.
And when someone puts himself under his own
law, under the rules, he'll lose all of
his joy.
He'll be rigid and get angry.
He'll lose your joy.
Grace sets us free.
Lord, I can't deserve a thing.
I'm trusting in you.
I'm trusting and yielding to the Holy Spirit.
And Lord, whatever blessings you're going to bore
up on my life, Lord, I'll just receive
them.
Lord, praise your holy name, Lord.
I yield to you, Lord.
See, that's what pleases God.
That's faith.
The just shall live by faith.
So here you have this mixture in the
church, and they're worried about Paul coming in
because they knew Paul understood the grace message.
And they are informed of thee, that thou
teachest all the Jews which are among the
Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought
not to circumcise their children, neither to walk
after the custom.
Now, Paul never taught that at all.
What he taught was that Jesus Christ has
set us free, that there aren't even issues
anymore.
And they're taking it to maintain control over
the people, and they're saying, Paul taught this,
Paul taught that.
He did not.
He did not forbid anybody from circumcising their
children.
He just said, it's not even an issue
anymore.
You don't have to do it.
It's not even an issue.
Christ has made us free.
There again, he brings it out clearly in
Romans and clearly in Galatians.
And it doesn't make anybody more righteous.
It doesn't make anybody receive more of the
Holy Ghost.
Paul did not teach that.
It wasn't even an issue with Paul.
What is it therefore?
The multitude must needs come together, for they
will hear that Thou art come.
Now stop and think of what's going on.
Twenty years earlier, Paul, a Pharisee of the
Pharisees, deputized by the Sanhedrin to go all
over the Holy Land, all the way to
Damascus, and he was a zealot for the
law, for Moses, and he did everything he
could to kill and persecute Christians and stop
the heresy of the Jesus movement.
That was Paul's life.
And he's on his way to arrest Christians,
to have them put to death, to drag
them back to Jerusalem, and Jesus Christ arrests
him in his love.
And like the love of God does, he's
a changed man.
He's a changed individual.
And he goes from this rigid, self-righteous
anger and judgment of others to being filled
with grace and love.
And the man that once persecuted the church
is now, they think, opposed to Moses.
They don't understand that Christ fulfilled the law
of Moses and it was no longer needed
for righteousness.
And so now here's this one who attacked
Christianity back in Jerusalem and now he's against
them, they believe.
And so the Jews are afraid.
All these people that are calling themselves Jews
and living under the law, they're going to
leave the church.
There may be a riot here.
There could be all kinds of trouble if
Paul preaches grace.
And so what do they say?
Just to maintain the peace, Paul, do therefore
this that we say to thee.
We have four men which have a vow
on them.
Take them and purify them.
Now remember, it's the Feast of Pentecost.
Roman historians who were there, it's on record
there were over 2 million Jews in that
city at this time from all over the
known world fulfilling their obligation to Levitical law
making the feast at Jerusalem.
So there were well over 2 million Jews
in the city.
Now, if there was a riot, Rome gave
freedom to a point.
If there was a riot, Rome would soup
down and slaughter people.
Pax Romana.
The peace of Rome was above all.
The law of Rome.
And if the Jews did not quell the
riot or any kind of disturbance, particularly in
their own religion, they would come down and
quell it with their soldiers in a brutal
way.
If the Roman general or commander of Jerusalem
did not stop the riot, he would lose
his life.
And so the Jewish priests were really concerned
that now that Paul's in the city, we
cannot have a riot.
We cannot have trouble on the day of
Pentecost on the temple area.
Because there were probably 10,000 soldiers in
the confines of Jerusalem and they always swelled
at the Antonia Fortress at the northwest corner
of the Temple Mount.
The Roman soldiers would look down on the
feast to make sure there was no trouble.
They'd have Roman soldiers there just in case.
And so the Jewish priests were thinking, man,
Paul's here, the feast of Pentecost, if we
have a riot, man, you know what's going
to break loose.
So Paul, here's what we've got figured out
to maintain the peace.
Prove to everybody you're still a Jew and
you still go along with the Jewish ritual.
And here's where Paul made a mistake.
Now, Paul was not afraid of anything.
He didn't give in to the elders.
The elders made the terrible mistake by already
compromising and allowing Jewish ritual and keeping it
going when it shouldn't even be an issue
anymore.
It's been done away with in the death
of Christ, fulfilling it.
It all pointed to the sacrifices of Christ.
But the elders compromised.
Now, Paul, you prove to the Jews that
they won't be upset and cause any trouble
and then the Roman authorities have to come
down on the day of Pentecost and beat
everybody.
Here's what you do.
You go through the motions on Pentecost.
We have four men that have a vow.
Now, here's what the vow was.
On any feast day, on any given time,
a Jew that was especially thankful to God
for some special favor or to prove his
love to God under the law would take
a certain amount of days and take a
vow.
He would not work.
He would not eat.
He would fast.
He would not shave his hair or drink
of the fruit of the vine to prove
his love for God.
Then on that special day, and this happened
to be Pentecost, the Jew would go to
the temple with a sacrifice to offer up
a thanksgiving, an animal to be sacrificed.
He would shave his head signifying the end
of his vow, opening himself up to humiliation
of the public with his hair growing long.
Shave the hair, take the sacrifice to the
priest and they'd offer it on the altar
and they would pay the temple fee.
Well, the situation was that many times the
people that took the vows couldn't work.
As they were fasting and isolating themselves, they
had no money to pay the temple fee
or buy the offering the day they wanted
to break the vow and shave their head.
So other Jews on their behalf would pay
charges or pay for their sacrifice and allow
them to break their vow and go in
and sacrifice to God as an act of
love themselves.
So the priest said, here's what we'll do.
You've got four guys here and they don't
have enough money to buy the sacrifice to
go in to the priest.
You, Paul, go alongside them.
You pay the charges.
You go in with the vow so everyone
will know that you're still with the mosaic
situation here.
Now what's Paul's reasoning here?
He knew he didn't have to do that.
Remember what he said in 1 Corinthians 9?
He said, To the Jew I became a
Jew.
I become all things to all people that
I might win them to Christ.
And then the whole chapter of 14 in
Romans, what's he say?
He that is weak in the faith, don't
argue with them and dispute with them.
By your strength and by your meat and
your depth, don't stumble your weaker brother by
arguing with them and trying to make a
point that you don't have to go through
this, you don't have to do that.
So Paul said, Even though I have the
liberty, I'll subject myself to this just so
I won't cast a stumbling block in their
life.
Romans, the whole chapter of Romans 14.
He says, Because the kingdom of God is
not meat nor drink, but righteousness, peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost.
And so Paul had that attitude.
He said, Alright, I'll go along with it.
Now God's going to override it all.
Here the elders are compromising to try and
keep the peace so there'll be no riot.
So they go to Paul.
Paul says, Well, you know, I'm going to
become all things to all people.
I've written letters to the Galatians.
I've been teaching for years that you don't
have to do this since I've had the
revelation, but to maintain the peace to try
and win someone to Christ, okay, I'll go
along with it.
So take them and purify thyself with them,
and be at charges with them, that they
may shave their heads and all may know
that those things whereof they were informed concerning
thee are nothing.
Paul, you're still going along with the Mosaic
law.
But that thou thyself also walkest orderly and
keepest the law.
That's Galatianism.
And there's Paul's mistake.
He's trying to keep the peace.
He listens to the elders of the church
in Jerusalem.
They're compromised, and the whole thing backfires.
When you compromise what you know according to
Scriptures, it always will backfire.
Remember Paul said, Let every man be firmly
persuaded in his own mind, in his own
heart.
Once God has taken you to a level
in a relationship with Jesus Christ, and you
know what God wants you to do, don't
allow some human to cause you to back
down.
Now, we're to have the right attitude when
we make our stand for Christ.
And there's the weakness of the church today.
Remember James was writing, Him to knoweth it
do right, and doeth it not to him
that is sin.
And there's a marvelous freedom in not having
the fear of man, and being concerned with
what people think of you.
Being more concerned with what Jesus thinks of
me.
Asking me to be obedient to Him.
In love.
Not with an attitude, but in love.
And not caring.
I love Jesus too much.
And so I'm going to do what my
Lord's telling me to do.
And Paul made a mistake here.
Trying to keep the peace.
He compromised his own principles that he long
knew wouldn't work.
In this particular case.
And it did backfire.
Instead of maintaining peace, it created another riot.
It seems like everywhere he went, he created
a riot.
As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have
written and concluded that they observe no such
thing.
You see, they were still making a separation
between Jew and Gentile.
Paul said there is no difference.
There's no division between Jew and Gentile anymore.
That middle wall of petition has been taken
down through Christ through His shed blood.
Now on the temple of the Jews, there
was the courts of Solomon, the outer rim.
This 33 acre plaza.
A magnificent site.
Just the bare plaza itself, even with that
dome of the rock that desecrated it.
It's still a beautiful area today.
33 acres.
Outside the whole rim was a portico with
these beautiful columns.
It was called Solomon's Porch.
Inside was this huge area of a rectangular
of the court of the Gentiles that they
were allowed to go in that far.
Now, within the court of the Gentiles, around
the court of men and the holiest of
all, and the temple itself was another wall.
Inside that was the court of the women.
A Gentile could not go past that one
wall into the court of the women, then
through that into the court of the men,
then into the area where the priest alone
could go, and they would be put to
death.
In fact, they found two columns in the
destruction of Jerusalem, they have them in the
museum today, written on it that any Gentile
that passes beyond this point has taken his
life in his own hands and he's dead
because of his own actions.
There's a wall of separation.
The Jew never accepted a Gentile.
Even if they were proselytes, they could not
enter in where the Jews were, because the
Jews felt that God was their God privately,
and they had a greater and a closer
relationship than anybody else, and the Jewish rabbis
thought that Gentiles were created just to keep
the fires of hell burning.
They taught it.
It's in their writings.
Paul comes along, Jesus comes along, and breaks
down the separation.
He's the Savior of all.
There's neither Jew nor Greek, Scythian, bond nor
free.
We're all one in Christ.
Paul said at first there were two, Jewish
and Gentile races.
Now there's one, one man in Christ, the
body of Christ.
The wall of separation has been torn down,
and Paul taught those things.
Now look what happens.
So they're to keep themselves from things offered
to idols, and that's one of the biggest
weaknesses in the Gentile world.
That's the one thing you won't see a
Jew guilty of is idolatry.
Since the Babylonian captivity, you won't see any
Jews really guilty of idolatry, but the Gentile
peoples of the world continually have to have
statues or standing images or some kind of
an image of some kind to remind them
of God, whoever it may be, even Jesus
Christ.
That just shows you the person I have
a good relationship with, Jesus Christ.
That's the last statue you should have as
a Christian, one that represents Jesus Christ.
The Bible forbids those things.
But for Gentiles, for some reason, it's in
their being that they can't show homage or
worship God without a standing image, some kind
of a statue or an idol.
In fact, turn to Leviticus.
Look what we know in Exodus 24, before
they even went in toward the promised land,
they were to have no graven image that
represented him.
But look what he says now to the
priest, because he knew the priest would be
affected by it and tempted.
Leviticus 26.
And the Jews maintained that because many Gentile
converts came in from all kinds of religions.
They had to have statues.
They thought that it had like an emotional,
psychological effect on the senses in their temples
to have these beautiful statues of their gods.
They would kneel down before them.
Well, what does the Lord tell the Jews?
No, we don't do that.
When you know the living God, He's dwelling
in your heart, you shouldn't have to resort
to something like that to feel emotional or
feel closer to God.
It just proves that you're distant from God.
Look what he tells them in Leviticus 26.
You shall make you no idols, nor graven
image, neither rear up a standing image, neither
shall you set up any image of stone
in your land to bow down unto it.
Even if it does represent God.
He forbids it.
It's pagan.
It's heathen.
It's Gentile.
For I am the Lord your God.
You're to have a living relationship with me.
And as you go through Christianity today, it's
amazing how many Gentile Christians still disobey the
Word of God and think that that's pleasing
to God.
Remember, He does not reveal Himself through anything
made by hands.
Paul tells us in Acts.
So whatever voice, whatever direction that someone gets
from a statue, even in Christian circles, it's
demonic.
God will not violate His nature, His character,
and His Word.
There's something about a Gentile that simply has
to have it.
And even in Paul's day, they were concerned
about it.
This is what we are concerned about with
the Gentiles.
That they keep themselves from things offered to
idols, from blood, from strangled, and from fornication.
So then Paul took the men and the
next day purifying himself with them, entering into
the temple to signify the accomplishment of the
days of purification.
Until then, an offering should be offered for
every one of them.
And when the seven days were almost ended,
in other words, the last day of the
Feast of Pentecost, the Jews which are of
Asia, up around Ephesus and what's today Turkey,
Galatia, when they saw Him in the temple,
stirred up all the people and laid hands
on Him.
It backfired.
Jews that had come from Asia to worship
on the Feast of Pentecost recognized Paul from
Ephesus and Galatia.
And the Gospel being preached there maybe the
year earlier or hearing about Paul and had
some of their friends get saved in those
areas.
And here they see Paul and notice what
they say.
They cried out, Men of Israel, help!
This is the man that teacheth all men
everywhere against the people and the law and
this place, and further brought Greeks also into
the temple and hath polluted this holy place.
No, Paul didn't.
He was teaching grace.
People were being freed by the Holy Spirit
realizing this isn't needed anymore.
He did not attack the law.
He did not attack Judaism.
He taught grace.
He taught the New Testament.
And when someone understands the New Testament, they're
set free.
You never win people to Christ by attacking
their religion.
My pastor had a great saying once.
He said, You don't get the darkness out
of the room by beating it with a
bat.
You just turn on the light.
And too many people attack the religion to
get them to Christ.
Jesus said, If I be lifted up, if
I'm really exalted and people understand the cross
and my love and my grace and my
redemption, I will draw all men to me.
Not by attacking.
Paul never attacked the men on Mars Hill.
In fact, he said in very respectful terms,
I perceive that you're all very religious, but
you're worshiping that which you know not.
Never attacked.
Jesus never attacked.
And Paul wasn't attacking.
You see, the message of grace had such
a powerful effect that people automatically were looking
to Christ.
He was so wonderful the way he's portrayed
so truthfully in grace and truth that people
were just walking away from those little things.
And many of the Jews that were in
the temple area knew that some of their
friends had responded to this man back in
their homeland.
And now they see him in the temple.
And of Israel, this man is the guy
that teaches everyone against the law.
And he's polluted this holy place.
How could Paul pollute the holy place?
For they had seen before with him in
the city Trophimus and Ephesians whom they supposed
that Paul had brought into the temple.
Now, they didn't even see him in the
temple, but they saw Trophimus, a Gentile believer
from Ephesus in Jerusalem with Paul.
And so they assumed that Paul had him
inside the court of the Gentiles.
Inside into the court of the women.
He said, he's desecrated the temple.
He's taken a Gentile past this point.
And man, here comes the riot.
It's all assumption.
But who's allowing it all?
God himself.
You know, it says as a man devises
in his heart, it's the Lord that directs
it.
You know, we plot and we plan and
it's amazing.
Nothing's going to take place until God allows
it or in God's timing.
In His time.
He makes all things beautiful in His time.
And I'm starting to learn.
Man, when I see God moving in a
different direction and things aren't going my way,
I'm not striving, trying to beat the devil
and strain.
I can see God, your providence, your hand,
it's just, you don't seem to be in
agreement with me, Lord.
Do you understand, Lord?
If you did it my way, Lord, it'd
take place a lot quicker.
He says, Bill, if I did it your
way, there'd be no Calvary Chapel in New
York.
There'd be nobody showing up if I did
it your way, Bill.
I'd bless in spite of you, Bill.
We have to learn that.
And so he's overriding all these plans and
this compromise to keep anybody from causing any
trouble.
Don't be faithful to the Word of God.
And you know what?
You see it in Christianity and that's why
the church is so weak.
That's why churches have to be entertainment centers
because they can't get people to show up
any other way.
They've got to sweat and scream and work
things up in the flesh and hype things
or people just won't come back.
And so they compromise the truth.
Again, they're worried about, gee, if I teach
this today, Brother so-and-so's there and
he's got quite an income and he's a
big tither.
Lord, I'm just going to skip over that
verse.
He might get offended and leave the church.
Oh, I know so-and-so.
Lord, I know this text is going to
put the finger on so-and-so.
I'm not playing Holy Spirit, but they may
think I'm playing Holy Spirit because this is
what they're doing.
I can't teach that, Lord.
They're here tonight.
And you see the state of the church.
Oh, the city gets stood up.
Notice verse 9.
They had seen Paul with Trophimus the Ephesian.
And all the city was moved and the
people ran together.
They took Paul and drew him out of
the temple.
Forthwith, the doors were shut.
And they went about to kill him.
So much for keeping the peace and compromising
and going through the motions.
And tidings came to the chief captain of
the band, that would be the Roman soldiers,
the commander, that all Jerusalem was in an
uproar.
Here's the riot.
The very thing they're trying to stop.
Who immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran
down under them.
And when they saw the chief captain and
the soldiers, they left beating Paul.
In other words, because they knew.
See, if it continued, they'd all be put
to death by the Romans because it was
forbidden.
So here, isn't it amazing?
The church is too weak to protect Paul.
The church compromises to keep peace because it's
weak and it creates the riot.
And God has to use the Gentile, heathen
world to save His apostle.
The Roman government.
The state authorities.
Amazing.
Then the chief captain came near and took
him and commanded him to be bound with
two chains and demanded who he was and
what he'd done.
In reality, now, you see the commander's chained.
He's arrested by God.
And now he has to, see, listen to
Paul.
And the two Roman soldiers that are chained
to Paul are Paul's men.
All of a sudden, the riot takes place
and everybody's Paul's prisoner.
You see, the rest of this story, God
is so amazing.
This thing goes into reverse, all this conference.
And God works all things to the good
to those that love Him and are called
according to His purposes.
And now, instead of Paul being a prisoner,
here's a whole mob, throngs of Jews, Roman
soldiers, a general, a powerful man, and the
Roman government, they're Paul's prisoner.
Maybe that's happened in your life.
I mean, you're thrust into a situation and
you keep trying to quit your job and
move and change because of the persecution.
And you don't realize that because of your
job that these people that are upset with
you have become your prisoner.
And you're supposed to be sharing the Gospel,
sharing your faith, pleading to get another job
or quit, or just, you know, being all
inward and afraid.
Here we pray that God uses to send
me in the mission field.
And each one of us has a personal
mission field.
And they become your prisoners.
They have to work with you.
They have to live with you.
Why do you keep wanting to go over
to Greece and Africa and South America?
Is everybody saved in the house yet?
In the family?
On the job?
In the neighborhood?
Man, you should have felt it last night.
I did it again.
Both neighbors.
Back, you know, Crusade time.
Let's see, the fourth time, Billy Graham, Greg
Lorries, our own Whitefield, and they saw me
coming with my Titanic track and my invitation.
Walked in, sat down, and boy, you could
just feel it.
One's going hunting, the other one's...
Let's see, what are we doing Friday night?
What are we doing Saturday night?
Aren't we going...
You know what?
They were polite, but they were squirming.
And I was there, and you know what?
I just invited them personally, but it's amazing.
They were my captives.
They're my captives.
They're my neighbors.
They can't get away from me.
And every time I see them in the
yard, I talk to them about Jesus.
Doesn't matter what they say, I can get
Jesus into it.
They're my captives.
You have captives around you unless they can
sell their house and get away.
But isn't it amazing?
You see, Paul's...
Everybody's been taken captive.
And some cried one thing, another among the
multitude cried another.
When he could not know the certainty for
the tumult, he commanded him to be carried
into the castle.
And when he came upon the stairs, so
it was that he was born of the
soldiers for the violence of the people.
The mobs going nuts trying to get him
to kill him, screaming and yelling.
And the soldiers actually pick up Paul and
carry him up the steps of the Antonia
fortress.
And they're all screaming and yelling one thing
and another.
The multitude of the people followed after crying
away with him.
Identical to what they said to Jesus Christ,
didn't they?
He says, Marvel not if the world hates
you, it hated me also.
Exactly what they said to Jesus.
He was so like Jesus that they said
the very same things to him that they
said to Jesus.
And what does Jesus say?
Blessed art thou when you are persecuted for
righteousness sake.
How blessed.
That you'd be so much like Jesus that
people would revile you and persecute you.
What an honor.
I've had my own family members curse me.
My own brother, who I was deeply close
to, since I've become a Christian, he's never
set foot in my home.
In the 22 years I've lived here, he's
never driven here or visited me or stepped
foot in my home.
I go to his house a lot.
Away with him.
It's given unto us not only to believe
on his name but also to suffer.
And there's nothing more honorable than to enter
into the fellowship of the sufferings.
Now, that doesn't mean just physical beating.
That may never happen to some of us.
It's not an automatic given that all of
the fellowship of the sufferings are going to
get hurt.
Isn't it amazing these macho men go out
and get their teeth knocked out playing football?
Go out and play football and smack each
other in the mouth and box and fight.
Go to bars and fight and tear each
other's hair out and feel good about it.
Look at what happened to me last night,
man.
And they're scared to death.
They might insult me if I talk out
loud about Jesus.
I might get hurt.
I might be physically attacked.
Oh, give me a handkerchief with perfume on
it so I can be safe.
I mean, it's crazy.
Guys will fight, box, play football, knock their
teeth out and are afraid they're going to
get persecuted if they can be sold out
for Jesus Christ.
And so Paul was led into the castle.
He said unto the chief captain, May I
speak unto thee?
Who said, Canst thou speak Greek?
Paul spoke to him in perfect Greek.
Remember, he could speak Aramaic, he could speak
Hebrew, and he spoke Greek because it was
a Hellenist area where he grew up, the
common language.
Art not thou that Egyptian which before these
days made us an uproar and led us
out unto the wilderness four thousand men that
were murderers?
Now earlier there was some Egyptian who claimed
to be the Messiah and the Deliverer.
And he gathered together about four thousand men,
radical guys, who were called the Dagger Bearers.
And they'd carry these little eighteen-inch daggers
under their robes and they'd create riots and
disturbances in the streets and start stabbing people
in the riots, in the crowds.
And he got them to follow him.
He said, I am the Deliverer.
I'm going to deliver the Jews.
If you'll follow me.
And he took them over to the Mount
of Olives and he had them believe that
when they got to the Mount of Olives
all the walls of Jerusalem would collapse.
And the Romans would flee and then they'd
march back and he'd set up the kingdom.
Well, it was all a big farce.
And the Romans went after him and he
fled, killed about half the four thousand and
the guy took off.
And this Roman soldier who was not in
Jerusalem at the time is now stationed there
and thinks, maybe this is that Egyptian guy
I heard about creating this riot.
Paul said, I'm a man which am a
Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a
citizen of no mean city, and I beseech
thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
Here again, in deep respect, I'd like to
speak to the people.
And when he had given him license, Paul
stood on the stairs and beckoned with a
hand unto the people.
Now look at this.
Look at the amazing anointing on this man
because he had no fear.
Now remember, there's a riot.
The soldier couldn't calm the people down.
They're all screaming.
The Roman soldiers couldn't shut them up.
And a man, one man, who loves Jesus
Christ in the will of God, who's not
afraid, waves his hand, God's Holy Spirit in
his promise, and absolute silence.
Now who was arrested there?
Who's in control?
Paul stood on the stairs and beckoned with
a hand unto the people and there was
made a great silence.
All he did is just...
You see, God gives you power and authority
when you really give yourself totally to Him.
You never have to fear.
God's power, without any restraint, is available to
each one of us in any given situation
when we yield to Him.
You never have to fear.
Lo, I am with you always, he said.
There's no weapon formed against you that can
prosper.
But the thing is, am I willing to
sacrifice my life for the gospel, for Jesus
Christ, to live for Him in such a
way that I'm not afraid of man, I
don't care what happens to me.
That doesn't mean I live reckless.
But Lord, I'm yielding to you.
Whatever your providence is, whatever you decide, wherever
you want to lead me now from now
on, I'm not going to start holding back
and worrying, trying to control things.
Lord, I want that.
See, the church could be so powerful.
There could be so much being done in
each one of our lives, so much more.
God has this for each one of us
if we're willing.
Does that mean I can't live a normal,
full life?
Absolutely not.
It means it's an abundant life.
Jesus said, I give you an abundant life.
But the power and the anointing of the
Holy Spirit, and it's the anointing of love
and discipline and authority from God.
It's not acting fanatic.
It's not being fake and drawing attention to
yourself, putting on some big show.
All Paul said was, May I speak?
And that's all God needed just to take
control of everything.
Every demon in the area that was creating
the riots and the hatred were bound.
He didn't even have to pray.
Paul didn't even have to pray.
Lord, bind Satan.
He just said, May I speak?
God said, Paul, I am so in love
with you, so proud of you.
You've not forsaken me.
You're not afraid of what people think.
You're not worried about your own personal little
comfort zone.
You're totally dedicated to me.
I'll be with you.
I'll always be with you.
And the anointing and the presence of God
was so powerful, it overwhelmed a crazy mob
that a Roman centurion couldn't come.
All he says, May I speak?
And he's speaking to them in the Hebrew
tongue.
Oh, what he speaks.
Next Wednesday night, we'll see what he says.
Shall we stand?
Now, remember verse 14?
What's the last thing they all said when
they couldn't stop Paul from going to Jerusalem?
They said, God's will be done.
Now here's hundreds of people, Jews, compromising Christians,
Roman soldiers, absolutely the prisoner of the Apostle
Paul in the anointing.
God's will has been done.
If you submit your will to God's life,
God's power, so many wonderful things can be
accomplished.
There is nothing more joyous and wonderful than
serving God and just leaving it in His
hands every day.
Lord, whatever you have planned today, I've got
responsibilities.
There's nothing wrong with being disciplined, and this
is my plan.
But Lord, if you decide to interrupt it,
you're the boss.
I want to be flexible, Lord.
I want you to use me, Lord, for
your glory.
Heavenly Father, how we thank you for the
presence of God Almighty in the midst of
turmoil and chaos.
In the midst of riot, you're there.
And how quickly you can subdue the storm
just as you did, Lord, on that band
of men going across the Sea of Galilee.
You calmed the storm so easily.
You just spoke.
And Lord, there are people here tonight and
their lives are in the midst of a
storm.
It seems like their lives are chaotic.
It just seems like everything is out of
control.
You're the one that can bring everything under
control.
Lord, make us willing that we yield to
your control, that we can walk together at
your pace, in your direction, stopping when you
stop, walking at your speed, going in the
same direction, that we can be agreed to
my bless.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.