Last week, we looked at Paul’s third missionary journey, ending with his emotional final conversation with the Ephesian elders. As Luke depicts the conversation, it is obvious that Paul felt that his days of active mission and ministry were coming to an end. In Luke’s account, he tells the Ephesian elders:
And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace (Acts 20:22-24).
Nevertheless, Paul continued on his journey across the Eastern Mediterranean Sea down the coast towards Jerusalem, stopping at various places along the way.
Marching to a Different Drummer
In Tyre, so much in our thoughts and prayers these days because it is in war-torn Lebanon. There, the local congregation prayed for Paul and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, warned him not to go on with his journey (Acts 21:4). Later, in Caesarea, Agabus, the prophet and the people of the local congregation begged Paul not to go up to Jerusalem (vv. 8-12). Most rational people regard warnings as something to be guided by and suffering as something to be avoided. It is obvious that Paul and the churches he had founded were deeply concerned about his journey to Jerusalem. Nevertheless, he continued on. Why?
One cannot be sure, but I think it was his deep internal commitment to his mission and the church in Jerusalem. Perhaps in the back of his mind was the desire to proclaim the gospel one final time to his native people in the center of their religious homeland—the Temple in Jerusalem. Paul gives as his reason his willingness to suffer, be imprisoned, and even die for the gospel of Christ (Acts 21:13-14). A less fearless person would probably have stopped, turned around, and gone somewhere where the Spirit indicated a successful and safe mission. Certainly, most contemporary pastors would choose this course of action. Paul, however, embodies a different wisdom, what he calls in I Corinthians “the foolishness of the cross” (I Corinthians 1:18):
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power. We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (I Corinthians 2:2-8).
This particular aspect of Paul’s character and ministry is a specific challenge in our time, when so many pastors, preachers, religious groups, and Christian institutions strive so hard to find a way to accommodate the Christian message in such a way as to appeal to and win the approval of its cultural despisers. Paul reminds us that God has his wisdom, way of doing things, and strategy for saving the world—and it is not the strategy of religious experts or secular leaders. It is the preaching of the gospel, living a life of holiness, and submitting one’s self to the ridicule of the world. There is no other way to make sense of the cross.
Into the Belly of the Whale
In the end, Paul was convinced he must go, and so he went up to Jerusalem and was received by the elders of the church there (vv. 17). He was greeted by James, the leader of the Jerusalem church, and the elders and gave them a report on his mission (vv. 18-19). In response, the elders gave glory to God (v. 20). As I previously mentioned, these reports show that Paul was not a freelancer, nor did he reject the guidance of the other apostles and elders, but was submissive to their guidance. Perhaps it is old age, but I am increasingly suspicious of those churches in which there is no order, and every pastor is independent. I am similarly suspicious of those pastors in more orderly religious groups who substitute their wisdom for the group’s wisdom. Paul was capable of independent action—even dramatic and risky, but he was not a lone ranger.
In any case, in this situation, church leaders gave Paul some excellent advice: he should go with some of the local Christians who had taken a vow (a Jewish custom adopted by the early church, and purify himself according to the Jewish law (vv. 23-25). In other words, Paul, being a Jewish Christian, should act according to the Jewish law. In giving this advice to Paul, the elders make it clear that it is for Paul, not Gentile believers, who need only follow the advice the Jerusalem council gave (Acts 15). Paul takes their advice and does as they requested (vv. 26).
Facing a Mob
After seven days of purification, Paul went to the temple to offer a sacrifice (v. 26). There, he was noticed and faced with a mob crying out: “Fellow Israelites, help us! This man teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place.” (v. 28). At least two things are wrong with what is being said:
First, Paul is not speaking out against the law. He is complying with it, as the leaders of the Christian congregation in Jerusalem urged him to do.
Second, as Luke goes on to point out, he has not brought Greeks into the temple in violation of Jewish law (v. 29).
Nevertheless, there is such an uproar that the tribune (a Roman official) is called to the scene and arrests Paul to forestall a larger riot (vv. 29-32). Paul is then placed in chains (v. 33), a mistake because Paul is a Roman citizen. As he was about to be led out of the area into the Roman barracks, Paul asked to speak to the crowd. The tribune, who thought he must be an Egyptian troublemaker, was surprised to hear Paul speak Greek, allowing him to talk (vv. 37-39). Interestingly, Paul does not speak to the Jewish crowd in Greek, which most of them would have been familiar with, but in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament (v. 40).
The Apostle Paul had often told his story to others to bring them to Christ and encourage their faith. His testimony is recorded more than once in Acts and again in Galatians (Acts 22:1-21; 26:4-20; Galatians 1:13-2:21). We can deduce that Paul’s testimony was essential to his mission of sharing the gospel. I imagine Paul told his story hundreds of times in many different homes and cities during his ministry. Now, at near close of Acts, Paul tells his story at length to his fellow Jews. Here is the story as Paul tells it: [1]
I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify. I even obtained letters from them to their associates in Damascus and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished. About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, “Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” I asked. “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. My companions saw the light, but they did not understand the voice of him who was speaking to me. “What shall I do, Lord?” I asked. “Get up,” the Lord said, “and go into Damascus. There you will be told all that you have been assigned to do.” My companions led me by the hand into Damascus, because the brilliance of the light had blinded me. A man named Ananias came to see me. He was a devout observer of the law and highly respected by all the Jews living there. He stood beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight!” And at that very moment I was able to see him. Then he said: “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.” When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance and saw the Lord speaking to me. “Quick!” he said. “Leave Jerusalem immediately, because the people here will not accept your testimony about me.” “Lord,” I replied, “these people know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you. And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.” Then the Lord said to me, “Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22:1-21).
Paul’s testimony has three important features: First, he tells what kind of a person he was before Christ called him to be an apostle. Then, he tells how this happened in a dramatic encounter with Christ, much as the prophets describe their calling. Finally, he tells what happened due to his call to follow Jesus. Before Paul became a Christian, he was a persecutor of Christians. He hated Christ and the Christian faith. Then, he met Christ on the road to Damascus, on his way to persecute the Christians in that city. As a result of his conversion, Paul became a missionary to the Gentiles. Finally, and often missed, is the community Paul entered when he received this call: He was taken into Damascus, where eventually he was accepted by the church and ministered to him. He was welcomed by the Jerusalem church, though not by everyone (Acts 9:8-19). Later, Barnabas came beside Paul and allowed him to use his gifts in Antioch, from where he was sent on his missionary journeys (Acts 11:25-26).
All good testimonies have these four characteristics that Paul incorporates into his testimony:
- What kind of person was I before I encountered Christ?
- How I encountered Christ.
- The difference that faith in Christ makes in my life.
- The community of faith of which I became a part of because of my calling.
Most mature Christians remember how we lived before we became Christians, how they became Christians, and what changed because they became Christians. Most Christians have testimonies of what God has done in their lives and how it changed them for the better. Notice that the story of Paul’s Christian experience does not end with his conversion on the Road to Damascus. Neither does our calling to follow Christ as a disciple of the Risen Lord.
Conclusion
Next week, I will continue to follow Luke’s narrative of Paul’s visit to Jerusalem, imprisonment in Caesarea, and the ultimate trip to Rome.
Copyright 2024, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved
[1] This section of the blog is from Crisis of Discipleship: Renewing the Art of Relational Disciple-Making (Richmond, VA: Living Dialog Ministries, 2023).