Bible Reading for April 16 – Acts 21:27-39

Did anyone understand the truth about Paul? Some of the unbelieving Jews from the area around Ephesus filled the ears of the Jerusalem crowd with lies: they said Paul taught against the Jewish people and against the law and against the Temple. They said that Paul had encouraged uncircumcised people to go into the Temple, which the Law of Moses prohibited. Of course, none of those things were true – in fact, we saw yesterday that Paul was actually helping some of the Jewish Christians continue to observe some of the Old Testament rituals in the Temple. But the lies did what the liars wanted – they made the mob angry enough to try to kill Paul.

But Paul’s Roman rescuers were just as clueless about him and his mission. The tribune took one look at the mob and assumed that Paul must have been some sort of revolutionary leader. Of course that made no more sense than the lies told about Paul in verse 28 – after all, if Paul was trying to lead the mob in revolt against the Romans, why would they have been trying to kill him?

But didn’t Jesus experience the same sort of ignorance? The crowds wanted Him to feed them with manna from Heaven (John 6:15) and lead them in a revolt against the Romans (Luke 23:25). The religious leaders wanted Him to observe all the false teachings they had built up around the Law of Moses. And Pilate had no more clue what to make of Jesus than the tribune knew what to do with Paul – Roman bureaucrats just couldn’t understand anyone who had no interest in worldly power.

So, we shouldn’t wonder that the Church continues to be the subject of all sorts of lies and misunderstandings. Some unbelievers think our main job should just be to feed and clothe and house the needy – as if Christ were only concerned with changing people’s physical circumstances. Others tell lies about us, asserting for example that when we uphold Christ’s teachings on marriage, we have hate for those who experience same-sex attractions. And as long as we continue to proclaim that we are all nothing more than undeserving sinners in need of a Savior, the pride and arrogance of the unbelieving world will have as little use for us as the Jerusalem crowd had for Paul or for Jesus.

So, if the world is telling lies about us, and if the world doesn’t understand us, maybe that’s a good sign that we’re in the right place after all – maybe that means we’re standing with Jesus.

Acts 21:27-39 (ESV)

27 When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him,
28 crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”
29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.
30 Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.
31 And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
32 He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 Then the tribune came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done.
34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.
35 And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd,
36 for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”
37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the tribune, “May I say something to you?” And he said, “Do you know Greek?
38 Are you not the Egyptian, then, who recently stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?”
39 Paul replied, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people.”