THE MEASURE OF A MAN Acts 21:27-40
In looking at this passage tonight, I was more prone to call it the measure of the man than I was to say this is the arrest of Paul. It is the arrest of Paul, but it is the measure of the man who is seen in the midst of the circumstance that interests me.
I may never get arrested. I may never have to face what Paul did, but I need to learn the lessons of humility that he exemplified, and so that’s how it speaks to me.
From verse 27 on, Paul is a prisoner. His days as a free man are up, and from here on he’s a prisoner in various places.
Paul finds himself in an unusual situation
How can one give a positive testimony in a negative situation?.
Now, I suppose that every Christian is faced at times with the dilemma of how to give a positive testimony in a negative situation.
How do you give a positive testimony in a negative situation? Well, I think a good way to learn how is to watch a man who did it.
Rather than just listen to precepts about it, which we could recite to you from 1 Peter, I want you to see a man who did that very thing with his life.
Most Christian’s testimonies are given in church, or in a group of Christians where we get up and tell everybody who knows the Lord how wonderful the Lord is. And we all say, "Yes, he’s so wonderful."
But as we come to the Apostle Paul, we see a man who knew how to take a negative situation and make it into a positive testimony. Now, if we saw in chapter 20 his courage, and in chapter 21 the first 15 verses or so, his humility. Now we are going to see his boldness.
I think, just to add a footnote, as a prisoner from here on out, we ought to get some idea of how Paul viewed his imprisonment. And just to give you a point of reference at which you can make contact, I would call your attention to Ephesians chapter 3, and verse 1. Paul says, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.”
Paul never viewed his situation as anything other than God authored. He never viewed his imprisonment as an imprisonment of men. He doesn’t say, "I write unto you, Paul, a prisoner of Rome." He’s always a prisoner of Jesus Christ. It was Christ who brought him into such predicaments.
He never saw himself as a prisoner of men. He saw himself only as a prisoner of the will of Jesus Christ. And so consequently, his imprisonment represented nothing but a new ministry. It didn’t mean the end of anything. It meant the beginning of something new.
As we move toward verse 27 of Acts 21, we are reminded that Paul has arrived in Jerusalem. He has tried to accommodate the Jewish Christians. The Jewish Christians there in Jerusalem had heard that he was against everything that had been the ceremony and tradition of Jewish life, and that wasn’t true.
He is met by a mob, who in a frenzy try to murder the Apostle Paul, and they haven’t got the foggiest idea what they’re doing, or why they’re doing it.
I. The ATTACK of the mob
We see that beginning in verse 27.
A. The culprits in the attack
Some Jews who were from Asia,
when they saw Paul in the temple, they saw their opportunity.
When they saw him in the temple, they stirred up all the people.
Lies can move people to action quicker than truth oftentimes.
IT IS ALWAYS EASIER TO ROUSE MEN TO FIGHT FOR THEIR RELIGION THAN TO LIVE BY IT.
The culprits in the attacks were religious people, in fact, very religious people.
B. The charges in the attack
Well, that’s a fairly broad indictment
that they brought against Paul "Teacheth all men everywhere." And notice the accusation, "against the people." First accusation he is anti-Semitic. Now, that would be a little difficult to really accuse an individual of being anti-Semitic when he’s a Jew.
Then they said, "and the Law." He’s anti-Moses. He’s anti-biblical. And then to sum it up, "And this place.”
The accusations were general, however, and they really couldn’t do much to the guy for that. So they came up with a specific in verse 28. And further, this is really what he’s done that’s bad: he brought Greeks into the temple and polluted the holy place. Now that’s a very strong accusation.
How do they know he did that? Well, verse 29 says, “For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.”
They didn’t see him in the temple, they just assumed and supposed that. That was another lie. They had no evidence.
After his request was approved, a Fox News photographer quickly used a cell phone to call the local airport to charter a flight. He was told a twin engine plane would be waiting for him at the airport.
Arriving at the airfield, he spotted a plane warming up outside a hanger. He jumped in with his bag, slammed the door shut, and shouted, “Let’s go.”
The pilot taxied out, swung the plane into the wind and took off. Once in the air, the photographer instructed the pilot, “Fly over the valley and make low passes so I can take pictures of the fires on the hillsides.”
“Why?” asked the pilot.
“Because I’m a photographer for Fox Cable News,” he responded. “And I need to get some close up shots."
The pilot was strangely silent for a moment, finally he stammered, “So, what you’re telling me, is . .. you’re NOT my flight instructor?”
For a Gentile to enter the temple was terrible. The Gentiles could only go to the outer court. In fact since that was true, it became known as the Court of the Gentiles. And between that and the inner court, the next court was called the Court of the Women, and it got that name because the women could go into that court. And then further on in the men went, and then of course the priest and the high priest all the way into the holy of holies. But in the outer court, the Gentiles could go.
It was even posted on the wall that no foreigner may enter within, and anyone doing so would have no one but himself to blame for his death. The Romans had granted the Jewish religious leaders the authority to deal with any boy who broke this law, and this included the right of execution.
Now what’s interesting in this: even if Paul had taken Trophimus in there, it would not have been Paul that died, it would’ve been Trophimus. So it shows that the whole thing was out of whack all the way down the line. Paul couldn’t be killed for going in there; he was a Jew. If anybody got killed, it would be the Gentiles who violated it. So the whole thing was a pretense and in all the confusion, the mob had no idea what they were doing, which is like any mob.
Verse 30, "All the city was moved, and the people ran together, took Paul, drew him out of the temple,” and the doors were shut. They wanted to make sure they got him out of there so they could go on worshipping God, while they killed God’s anointed.
Well, fortunately in the great providence of God, the life of Paul was not yet over.
II. The ARREST by the men (Romans)
The one great thing that the Roman Government wanted in its colonies and its possessions was civil order. They didn’t tolerate civil disorder. They didn’t tolerate it from the people, and any commander who allowed it was in real trouble. As a result, they had an observation tower to watch because most of what went on in terms of congregating went on in the temple courtyard, and there was a garrison of at least 1,000 men in the northwest corner of the Temple area.
A. Intervention of the solders
Well, the soldiers looking down saw what was going on. Verse 31, "As they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band that all Jerusalem was in an uproar."
Immediately solders came bursting through the crowd the soldiers and centurions, and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers barreling into the crowd, they stopped beating Paul.
B. Incarceration by the soldiers
Verse 33, “took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains and demanded who he was and what he had done." It is assumed that Paul is guilty of something. He assumes the crown wouldn’t do this unless Paul was guilty of some crime.
I think it’s interesting that this is
fulfilled prophecy. I can imagine Paul just saying, "Yes, what Agabus told me in Caesarea has come to pass.” The Jews have captured him, and he is delivered to the Gentiles, who chain him. The prophecy came true.
C. Investigation by the soldiers
Romans were good at trying to bring
about justice. As a result, they wanted to find out what this man had done, what he was accused of, who he was, what was going on.
Verse 34, "And some cried one thing, some another.” The mob were all hollering all different things. Nobody had the faintest idea what was going on. They were just hollering, and that’s how it was, and they were screaming and yelling.
Paul is carried into the barracks.
The disappointed crowd had been
robbed of its prey, and now it was pushing and shoving, and screaming what it had screamed 25 years before to the master, the Messiah.
Look at it, verse 36, "For the multitude of the people followed after crying, Away with him." And that’s what they said about Jesus.
III. The ATTIUDE of a man (Paul)
In all of this, the Apostle Paul hasn’t struggled or said anything.
I don’t know if there’s any virtue than humility. It’s humility that is usability. It’s when I am nothing but an empty vessel that God can fill me. It’s when I am just a tool to be used that God can use me. It’s when I try to do it myself that I get messed up. Humility, Paul was humble.
I see his humility in three great ways in this
passage.
A. He submitted his success to God.
When he first comes back in verses 19 and 20, and he’s giving the report about his missionary tour, he says unto them, "He declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles." The man did never interject himself into the accomplishment of God. He didn’t say, "Look what I did. Look what I did." It was always what God did, absolutely submissive to God. All he wanted to do was glorify God. That’s humility.
Humility is when I want to glorify God, not myself. And you can tell to what degree you’re humble by how hard the struggle is for you to glorify God.
B. He submitted to God’s servants on earth.
God had given authority in the Church
to the elders, and when the elders said, "Paul, do this," he never said one word. He did it.
C. He submitted to suffering
Humility submits to God, to others, and
to God’s will, even though it involves suffering at the hands of the world. What a man Paul was!
Conclusion:
So we see the attack of the mob and the arrest by the Romans and the attitude of Paul. Next week we will see the address of Paul and how he turned a negative situation into a positive opportunity, but let me state that it all began with a humble and submissive spirit
Paul’s experience can teach us three facts about misunderstandings:
1. The reality of it is inescapable
2. The reason for it is often unpredictable
3. Our reaction to it is need not be questionable!
Our reaction to misunderstandings displays much about our character or the lack thereof.
