I invite you to please turn in your Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 21, Acts chapter 21 as we continue our study through this wonderful book, quickly moving to the end here. And this morning we'll begin reading on page 1184, Acts 21 verse 27, and we'll read through verse 30 of the next chapter. Let's give our attention this morning to the wonderful, inspired word of the Lord, beginning at verse 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, crying out, Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law in this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian, with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. 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. And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 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. 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. 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. and when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, for the mob of the people followed, crying out, away with him. 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? Are you not the Egyptian then who recently stirred up a revolt and led 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness? Paul replied, I'm a Jew from Tarsus and Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city. I beg you, permit me to speak to the people. And when he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the steps, motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great hush, he addressed them in the Hebrew language, saying, brothers and fathers, here are the defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet. And he said, I am a Jew born in Tarsus and Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel. According to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, as all of you are this day, I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on the way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me and I fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? I answered, who are you Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me and i said what shall i do lord and the lord said to me rise and go into damascus and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do and since i could not see because of the brightness of that light i was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into damascus and one ananias a devout man according to the law well spoken by all the Jews who lived there came to me and standing by me said to me brother Saul receive your sight and at that very hour I received my sight and saw him and he said the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard and now why do you wait rise and be baptize and wash away your sins calling on his name when i had returned to jerusalem and was praying in the temple i fell into a trance and saw him saying to me make haste to get out of jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me and i said lord they themselves know that in one synagogue after another i imprisoned and beat those who believed in you and when the blood of stephen your witness was being shed i myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging to find out why they were shouting against him like this. We'll stop there, the reading of God's word. I want to next time, there's a whole separate section in how Paul here handles himself before the Romans and how we notice here he handles himself before the Jews. And that next section needs its own treatment. So we're going to focus here on the section that I read in Paul's testimony. As I came to this section in my studies last week, I knew that I had to keep in front of me the reason and asking the question, why did the Holy Spirit inspire this and why does the Holy Spirit want us to know this? You always have to do that when you're preaching a biblical text to try to get at and understand the main purpose and value that it has for us living in 2019. It's an important question and an important thing that we have to consider. What is the purpose? These are not just a simple collection of details so that we would stand in awe over it and be interested in it, just finding it interesting without applying these things directly to us. And I believe then you have to understand that the particular situation that Paul found himself in in this first century was defending and giving defense for what was known as a religion that was being outlawed, a vicious attempt to outlaw the religion in the empire. Outlawed in Rome. Christians, of course, did not accept that because they believed very clearly that their beliefs, everything that we have believed and taught is the fulfillment of everything that God had promised to Abraham. The fulfillment that came through Jesus of Nazareth. But the Jews slandered them. The Jews wanted to pitch them as a novel religion, as a religion that has no history and Rome loved antiquity. And if they could put it out early, then this whole thing would be over with. But as I looked at this particular passage and thought about the purpose for this, it's really an important purpose for the church today because this is meant for the church to look at and to study and to think about how we are to handle ourselves under times of persecution. It's a really important thing to think about. How are we to handle ourselves in a changing culture and a time where Christianity is no longer being accepted, is being ridiculed and shamed and made to look stupid? And as I've constantly seen and talked to people, what you're going to see in the future is either a mass exodus out of Christianity by some, right? And then you'll see others really starting to take seriously what Christianity is, for in this country too much of it has been shown. Intending here then is Luke is intending to help us and encourage the church that the accusations that are often made even legally against us are groundless the accusations that are made against us even if it comes to legislation are groundless and that we have always been good citizens of the state so far as our conscience and our obedience and convictions regarding the word of god allow us right but it's showing us what the heart of the issue is and why we are often so offensive to this world why is christianity been throughout history right here in this particular time and why today why is it so offensive to the world we have to think through that and there's really one answer that this text shows us it over and over again is the offense of the cross i hope by the end you see that it's the offense of the cross how then if that is the heart of it are we to conduct ourselves in changing times and when the culture rises up against us. That's this particular passage. So you see how important this is. In the first century, the Christians were already facing it. Out of the gates, they were facing these problems. Out of the gates, they were facing these attacks. And as Christianity was more on its way to being outlawed, as it was in their time, and you never know what the future holds in our day, what can we expect? What are we to do? Are we merely trying as Christians to keep our rights and our freedoms? Is that what our great purpose is here? I want us to think about this because this is a passage about purpose. It's a passage about why we're here. It's a passage when Jesus prayed the high priestly prayer and said, I pray that you don't take them out of the earth, but that you keep them from the evil one. This is the reason Jesus prayed that and what it looks like that we're kept in the earth. So that's why Paul's trial and imprisonment here is important to study because it gives us purpose in times like this. It gives us help in times like this. We have to see that everything that comes upon us, as Paul looked at it, even when we stand back and look at this mess and say, what are you doing? Why are you going there? This got you nowhere, was the greatest opportunity for him. That's how Paul looked at it. Everything that happened was opportunity. it was not retreat. It was not to silence us. It was opportunity to speak. And that's what I want to explore here as we look at Paul's arrest and Paul's defense. Just two points this morning, arrest and defense. In the last section, we study what happened to the apostle when he came to Jerusalem. There was this ugly scene here of the Jerusalem believers with James and raising a major concern of Paul's, what they viewed as, anti-Jewishness and his attack of them being Jewish. Especially as he was instructing the Jews of the diaspora out there not to do certain things. They were hearing things, they were hearing rumors, and they had a sort of confrontation about it here at the first part of Acts chapter 21. Rumors were everywhere that Paul had thrown out Moses, that Paul had thrown out circumcision, the law and all the customs of Israel that made them, which was the challenge we looked at last time, that made them Jews in many ways. So they had come up with a plan for Paul. Here's what you're going to do. You are going to, these four guys have taken the Nazarite vow. They're going to shave their heads in taking that vow. This is an Old Testament ceremonial thing. They're going to take this vow, and then they're going to go in. They're going to shave their heads, and they're going to go into the temple, and they're going to perform cleansings in the temple, and you're going to do it. You're going to go. You're going to take a part of this. You're going to pay for it. You're going to give the offering that is required, and you're going to show to everyone and prove to everyone that everything that is said of you is not true. And we were stunned last time that he did it. It's a fascinating moment, and I won't go back into all of that, but it's just fascinating. So here we are in the temple, and somebody said to me last week, Pastor, he had to have been preaching in there as he's doing these sacrifices. Now that's not what that means, you understand. This means Jesus. I'm totally convinced he was preaching in there. Paul didn't keep his mouth shut. Pastors don't, you know that. Here's what happened. In verse 27, when the seven days were almost completed, or in the temple, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, men of Israel, help! This is the man! He had the audacity to come in here. This is the man who is teaching everywhere. Everyone, everywhere, against the people and the law and this place. The first thing I want you to notice here is that really, those were all lies. Those were all lies. It's really important to say that. Those were all lies. James had said these rumors are being said about you everywhere. The worst part about it is they're twisting it. They're not listening to what the apostle taught. They weren't giving careful. This is, I think, why Jesus was so strong in saying to people, take heed how you hear. People will hear whatever they want to hear. Take heed how you hear. They were twisting this with the goal of silencing him. Saying that you're against the law of God. That's not true, of course. Paul was never against the law of God. Paul was always preaching the basic truth of the Christian message that in terms of your justification before God, there's nothing that you can do to be righteous with him. And they were taking that and saying, see, you're against the law. You're against what the law says. And Paul, of course, never said he was against the law. He even wrote in Romans, do we throw out the law? No, we establish the law. It's our way of thanking the Lord, but it's not a way of justifying us before God. No one on that day is going to say, listen, I did good enough. I did good enough to make it into glory. My heart was good. Bible says no. Everywhere. So you can't be justified by the law is what Paul said. But that's not what's being spun here. You'll notice you're against the law, the temple, and the people. So Paul is anti-law, furthest thing from the truth. He's anti-temple, which was also the furthest thing from the truth. He just preached what the fulfillment of the temple is. It's Jesus. You've been doing that everywhere. You're anti our people. His heart bled for these people. None of it's true. None of it's true. Why is he preaching? He loved them. He loved them. This is hard. This is hard. Why? Because it's not so different today. How is culture beginning to pitch Christian views? How is culture characterizing us? You're against LGBT people. We're already nervous even saying that anymore, right? The name. You're against homosexual people. You're against women. We're not. We're not. I'm not against these people. I'm not against sinners. Because I'm one. I'm the chief. I'm not against any of them. We're not against them. Our hearts have deep concern. That's why we have ministry. Because I need to be saved and they need to be saved. That's why we're here. That's why we're doing this. We're not against people. We're called to love even our enemies. What we're saying, as Paul said, is that there are practices and ways of life that people have determined to do and that we have had to come out of ourselves that are against God's law and that is not the way that anyone can be delivered in this life. That's what we say. And that there is only one way of salvation and it's through Jesus. It's through faith and it's through repentance in Jesus as we believe the gospel and as we turn away from ourselves and our own righteousness and look to Jesus for salvation, you can be saved. And I can say with a clear conscience, and I hope you can say with a clear conscience today, I want that for everyone. Wouldn't it be absolutely wonderful if everyone were saved? Penn Teller, who's no model, even said at one point, I could never imagine a more cruel thing that he's not a believer. That if someone really believes people are going to hell for this reason or that reason, and they say absolutely nothing, I could never imagine anything more cruel. What has society labeled this as? Hate speech. All of it. The pain of it is, it's not hate. It's love. But here's what makes matters worse. We then are identified with those who bring the most offense to these agendas. We've got people doing crazy things out there. Did you notice what they did to Paul? Are you not that Egyptian assassin? Who is that? Well, some guy who had led a revolt. And he had got away. And they were still looking for him. And they thought Paul was the guy. What does the culture want to do? Lump us all together with the most extreme radicals that do stupid things. I just saw a pastor lost his job because he put on the church sign, Bruce Jenner is a man. I'm sorry, that's just stupid and obnoxious. If I went out here single-handedly and started putting signs up out here doing that, you need to grab me, okay? And you need to deal with me. That's not wise. That's putting a target. so the pain of it is is that is that these things aren't true but you see all this stuff's happening all these twists are happening in the culture when something's turning against christianity this is this is what's going on so this is what they do moreover he even brought greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place for they had previously seen trophimus the ephesian with them in the city and they supposed that paul had brought them into the temple that's a lie that was being spread about him. Paul knew not to purposely offend this way. Paul knew not to take a Gentile into the upper courts. There's the court of the Gentiles. He didn't do that. They linked Paul with the person they viewed as the most defiled. So what have they done? They've bore false witness. I think we've come to a really important point here in Acts chapter 21. What do you feel when your views are misrepresented, that they're misunderstood, and our intentions are love? We feel nothing but frustration, and it retreats us. The pressure is to be silent. Because none of the things that are being said are true. None of the things that are being said are true. We're preaching a gospel of a Savior. I'm looking forward to a new building, so that doesn't happen anymore. What do you feel when your views are misrepresented? Well, our motivation for people who live in sin is to come and to find forgiveness and to find happiness, true happiness in Christ and true freedom. And what this passage is showing us here, first and foremost, it's not the truth that matters to those who hate Christianity. You ever notice that today? Truth doesn't matter much. it's not the truth of those who hate Christianity. The heart of this hatred is the fact, and I mean this with everything I have as a preacher, it all comes down to one issue. There's only one name by which anyone can be saved. And that everyone has to give an account to Him. And every knee must bow, and every tongue must confess that He is Lord. And that's the last thing anyone wants to do. But you see, I believe this is meant to really encourage us. We look at this great fear, we have this great fear, but it's in the suffering, it's in these attacks that God, this is so beautiful, in the suffering and in these attacks that God is orchestrating and that God is working out His plan to show Jesus. That's the marvel of this. We're silent in prosperity. But in persecution, it becomes this unique opportunity. And that's not how we look at it. And Acts is challenging us on that. Look at what happens here. Then all the city was stirred up. The people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple. And at once, the gates were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him, what did they say? Let's rid this fellow from the earth. That's what we just sung out from the song. They want blood. how do you come to this we look at the situation and we wrestle with what paul did you know why did paul go there why would paul put himself into this if he knew and even agabus said this is what's going to happen what is god doing and and the answer is the lord jesus christ has him right where he wants him but i want you to notice what happens the romans see this thing in uproar and they come and they seize him they come rushing because he's he's he's getting it he's being beaten to a pulp and and they grab him and they seize him and they arrest him and they have no idea why the uproar has happened uh this is what they looked at the jews as is crazy with all of their scruples about their law and when he came to the steps he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd for the mob of the people followed crying out away with him. It's not the Romans who are the problem. The Romans are rescuing him. It's the Jews. So notice what happens here, how it literally reads, what do they say? What do they say to him? And the mob of the people crying out said, away with him. You know what's on their mind? 25 years ago, roughly, maybe my math's off, at this very spot, Pilate asked a question, what do you want me to do with him? And they all yelled out, crucify him, crucify him. You know what this word means here when they say away with him? Lift him up, lift him up. Let's do it again. this story is meant to be shockingly familiar to us false witnesses who are saying blasphemous things a mob beatings raise them up put them on the cross what you have is the life of jesus being reproduced in paul you have the life of jesus being reproduced in paul paul would say this you You know, what we're doing in this life is we're always carrying about in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. And I ask the question, well, why? Why? It's not redemptive. We're not paying for sins. Why is God putting us through this? Why is God, why does He have to do that to us? Let me ask this. why are you here why do you exist what did act say from the beginning you are my witnesses to the ends of the earth what's paul supposed to do as paul was brought into the barracks he said to the tribe may i say something to you you know greek you're the egyptian aren't you that stirred up the revolt and led 4,000 men of the assassins out into the wilderness. I'm a Jew. From Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no obscure city, I beg you, permit me to speak. Let me speak. I just want to speak. And he gives them permission. Providence. So we're out on a little terrace here. Mass multitudes are out. Here's Paul. He just got a pulpit. Paul's standing on the steps, motioning with his hand to the people, and this great hush comes over the crowd as he begins to speak in Hebrew. Who is this? And when they heard that he was addressing him in the Hebrew language, they became more quiet. Now remember what the Lord said when he called Saul, And we know the name changed to Paul. Remember what Jesus said? The Lord said, go to Ananias for he's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name. My account. You are going to be, said Jesus, brought before governors and kings and witnesses and into the Gentiles. And when they hand you over, Jesus said to the disciples, I don't want you to worry about what you're going to say. The Holy Spirit's going to give it to you at that moment. This is it. This is it. I want you to imagine this for a minute with me, that all of a sudden one day you're brought to the Superior Court, San Diego, and you're being tried for hate speech. For all the stuff I said, it's not true. You're in court, and you're going to give an opportunity to testify. and your lawyer says, no, no, no, no, don't you say a word. No, no, I'm speaking. What would you say? What would you say? I would say, none of this is true about me. That's what I would say. I'd start that way. And my first response would be to defend myself. Let me give you a word of my defense. You're viewing me all wrongly. You're not hearing what I'm saying about the law. you're you're it's not true that i'm speaking against the temple let me explain i didn't bring trophimus into the temple i didn't do that what does paul do i have to say this is what drives me somewhat nuts today as christians have adopted the culture's discussion in social justice and things there's a vicious attempt of christians today to get justice it's all about establishing my rights and fighting for every injustice against me under the sun so that others can be established over the oppression it's all theology of glory now is that god's purpose for us is it who was just beaten paul was just beaten flogged you know what paul looks like right now who Jesus sometimes I think we so much want to justify what we're trying to do in the face of charges and attacks that we're always running around defending ourselves and not realizing that the attacks on us are not the issue the oppressions against us are not the issue all of it hear me is a masking of the real attack on the gospel all of it is masking the real attack on the gospel and we're so narcissistic it's all about us fighting for our little rights the hatred for us is designed by God for a greater purpose and the attacks on us have a bigger purpose in the plan of god i'm not saying we should never seek for justice when people harm us the next section paul will use it trust me i'm going to show you that we're not pacifists but we have to know how to turn the other cheek for a good reason what is it we're looking like jesus are his life's being reproduced in us so what do we do under oppression and persecution Pilate remember Jesus when Pilate has Jesus in front of him we have an amazing moment now Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him are you the king of the Jews Jesus said you've said so I have no problem saying who I am but when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders he gave no answer then Pilate said to him do you not hear how many things they testify against you but he gave them no answer not even to a single charge so that the governor was greatly amazed who does this jesus would testify to who he is not a word in the face of their stupid baseless charges why because he was fully submitted to the fact that all of his imprisonment was in the plan of God. The suffering and false witness was in the plan of God but none of that deserved a response. None of it. What is Acts? Well, you are my witnesses to the ends of the earth. You are my witnesses to the ends of the earth. Notice Paul is not attacking the Jews for all of their injustice against him. He's not saying to the Romans, these people, these people. He's saying, can I talk to them? Please? We're not testifying about us. It's not about us. We're testifying. We're not fighting for our rights. We're not fighting all the injustices against us. Why? You will be my witnesses for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. What did I see and hear? What did you see and hear? Paul says, I want to speak. I was just like you, dear brothers and fathers. I had all your zeal. I was brought up right here. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. You all know him. He's the chief rabbi. He was the great law keeper and zealous for the, I was too, for the law. I was zealous for God. I was with you on all this. I stood with you on all this. I persecuted this way to death. I delivered men and women to prison over this. They know me. The high priest can testify to this. These people here know me. They're being silent right now, but they know me. And one day, on the road to Damascus, I was going to persecute and kill, and a light shone all around me, and it dropped me right to the ground, and I heard the voice, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord? It's the Lord. I asked him when he blinded me what he wanted me to do. I went to Damascus and Ananias, whom everyone knows that, everyone knows this man was greatly respected, that I had been appointed, you remember this, by the God of our fathers to see the righteous one and hear the voice of his mouth. I was baptized. My sins were washed away that day and I came back here. And here was the addition to the previous record of Luke. This is Paul's own account of his testimony. When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and I saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they're not going to listen to your testimony about me. I asked him, well, I was the one who persecuted. You don't want me. You can't, you don't want, I did this to Stephen. I was there. I stoned. Go. For I'm sending you away to the Gentiles. What did he just do? I'm going to say something to you right now. It's the greatest encouragement to you ever, I think. All Paul does, the wise, genius, great, inspired Apostle Paul, All he does when he's put on trial is tell his story. I want you to think about this for a minute. He is simply testifying, not answering any of this stupid stuff. He is simply testifying to the power of Jesus in his life, his calling on Paul, and how his mercy changed his life. I'm no better than any of you. I'm the chief of sinners. I have all the same zeal as you. You hear hate in His language towards them. Do you hear frustration towards them? He's bleeding for them. But one day I met our Messiah. I met Him. And I came under His sovereign grip and His love. And I came under His direction, His calling, His will, His mission. You see what he just did? Why is there any power in that? Because when you tell your story, you are saying to others, Jesus got a hold of me too. I'm no longer in my own. That's why I am the way that I am. I'm going to tell you about his resurrection power. And when you start discussing your story, when you start telling what he did for you, not what he can do for everyone else, what he did for you, and you can talk about your story. You have just demonstrated a claim of his resurrection power over you in your life, that it's alive. And that explains why you are and who you are. Richard Bauckham says, witness is non-coercive. It has not power, but the convincingness of the truth to which it witnesses. Witnesses are not expected like lawyers to persuade by the rhetorical power of their speeches, but simply to testify to the truth for which they're qualified to give evidence. But to be adequate witness to the truth of God and the world, witness must be a lived witness involving the whole of life and even death. Did you hear that? Witness must involve your whole life. A life of life and even death. Listen, that's all he's calling you to do. Do you hear me? This is awesome. Which means that you should be able to, in your life, testify to what Jesus pulled you out from, to how he got a hold of you in sovereign grace, What you used to be, identifying your old past, not glorifying it. But now, as a new creature, talking about the life you have in His service and why you are the way that you are in His name. That's all He's asking you to do. Can you give somebody a simple testimony of what the Lord has done for you? Have you ever done it? we might stand back and say, what good's that going to do? It's not very exciting. That's not your business. You're trying to think, well, it may not be exciting enough testimonies like Paul's for it to be effective. Really? He saved you. He loves you. You can't talk about that? Anything that follows by way of response is up to him. It's not yours. Up to this point, they listened to him. Up to what point? His testimony. All until he said, he's sending me to the Gentiles. And when they heard him say that, they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. We'll look at his rescue next time. But what we should see here are a few important things. In the face of opposition, injustice, hardship, persecution, he went forward with courage. in the plan of the Lord, believing it was God's plan, that even if it was God's will that He would die in Jerusalem, that He'd go be with Him. And truth be told, our witness is weak because we're so afraid to die. And we're still holding on so much to this earth. That's me. This is what the Lord has called us to. It's His power in us. And I want to encourage you, This is what we need today. People who are bold and who are willing to say in the face of opposition to not answer the stupidity of the charges against us, but to simply testify to what we are able to testify to by the Holy Spirit's power, His saving work in our lives. Watch Him work. Paul's getting out of this. Watch Him work. But it's that confidence in the gospel we need today. We're not retreatists. We speak in love because we do love, because we've been loved. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for such a glorious text. And we pray, Lord, that you'd help us for a week to be able to speak the truth. We fail. We don't have the strength in and of ourselves and what a great encouragement that these words do indeed come from you. But you've given us a story for our deliverance is a great story. For that deliverance is a story of the cross, a story of Jesus' love, a story of his freedom, a story that the world needs. So give us the boldness and help. And open our mouths, Lord. Open our mouths. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.