December 8, 2025 • 17 mins
What if the hardest road is the holiest one? Walking with Paul through Acts 21, we step into a story charged with prophecy, persuasion, and pressure—friends pleading him to turn back, a prophet naming chains ahead, leaders navigating delicate tensions between Jewish customs and Gentile freedom, and a city that erupts on the fuel of rumors. We don’t glamorize pain here; we get honest about calling. Obedience doesn’t always lead to open doors and applause. Sometimes it leads to handcuffs and a platform you never planned on, with a watching crowd and a chance to speak hope into the noise.
We unpack why the Spirit’s warnings weren’t a red light but a weather report, how James and the elders offer a wise path that honors both the gospel and the conscience of Jewish believers, and why Paul chooses witness over withdrawal when chaos breaks out. Along the way, we talk about the difference between fear that protects and fear that paralyzes, how lies spread faster than context, and what it takes to stay rooted when public opinion sways like a storm. There’s also a practical turn: building space to reflect so truth can take root. We share a simple SOAP framework—Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer—to help you slow down, process, and carry God’s word into your day.
If you’ve ever asked, “Why would God lead me where it hurts?” this conversation offers a clear, compassionate answer: presence. Not always to the left or right, but straight through. Listen, reflect with our new end-of-episode music segment, and then tell us what anchored you most. If this helped you grow, subscribe, leave a five-star review, and share it with someone who needs courage for the road ahead.
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The More We Dig. The More We Find.
Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Well hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
(00:20):
Today, Acts chapter 21.
And if I were to give this one atitle, it would be God is with
us when everything hits the fan.
God is with us when everythinghits the fan.
As we've been journeying throughthis, we're really going to be
focusing on Paul's journey toRome.
We're getting ready to go there,but he doesn't start there.
(00:42):
He starts in going to Jerusalemand all kinds of bad things
happening.
But along the way, God is alwayswith him.
And I hope that really bringssome comfort to us today.
We're going to get into allthat, of course, in just a
moment.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
like, share, and subscribe tothis on YouTube.
If you're doing this on thepodcast, you are my favorite.
Make sure you are leaving us afive-star review because it
(01:04):
really does help kind of get theget everything going and letting
people know what we're doing andcreating this community.
Also, I'd love for you to go toour Facebook group.
Man, there are some people overthere doing some great work,
giving some differentperspectives on the Bible as
we're reading it every singleday.
And I love that so much.
And so I want you just to add tothe conversation because I'm
going to tell you, the more wedig, the more we find.
(01:26):
And especially as it gets intothis last section, because if
you remember, this is written bya guy named Luke, who was a
physician turned investigativejournalist by a guy named
Theopolis.
And he his first work was theGospel of Luke.
And he is going through thecountryside and he's validating
this story about Jesus that hewasn't just a man, wasn't just a
(01:48):
great teacher, he's a king ofkings.
And he writes that first gospel,and then he has the honor of
being inspired by the HolySpirit to then write the
beginning of the early church.
And as we've seen through this,he first talks about the church
and he pivots and he's talkingabout Peter.
Now he's pivoting and he'stalking about Paul because he is
leading the charge intospreading the gospel through the
(02:11):
Gentile world.
And when we get into this lastpart, we're really watching what
happens as Paul, through a setof circumstances that on the
outside looking in, look liketerrible circumstances.
Looks like everything's goingwrong for Paul, unless you
realize that God had called Paulto preach the gospel in Rome.
(02:31):
And so all of these things areactually happening.
So on the outside looking in,it's like, Paul, you've got the
worst luck in the world.
But if you realize what'shappening, you go, Paul, you're
right in the center of what Godis doing.
And oftentimes it's hard to tellwhich is which, which is why we
(02:52):
have the title, God is with us,even when everything hits the
fan.
So what we want to do is we'regoing to read this together and
just kind of put ourselves assomeone who's walking alongside
Paul as he's journeying toJerusalem.
And as he gets there, he's goingto encounter the Jewish people
that are not really friends ofhis anymore.
Remember, they used to be likehis friends.
(03:13):
Like they did this thing calledlife together.
They were against the way ofJesus.
Now he is their enemy, andthey've been waiting to get a
hold of Paul.
So let's read this together andlet's see what the Lord will
kind of reveal to us as we do.
So if you got your Bibles opento uh your NLT Bibles to Acts
chapter 21, got your coffeeready.
Here we go, verse one.
(03:33):
After saying farewell to theEphesian elders, we sailed
straight to the island of Kos.
The next day we reached Rhodesand then went to Pantera.
There we boarded a ship sailingfor Phoenicia.
We sighted the island of Cyprusand passed it on our left and
landed at the harbor of Tyre inSyria, where the ship was to
(03:56):
unload its cargo.
Now, once again, Luke is justhelping them get an idea of
where they are.
Verse 4 When we went ashore, wefound local believers and stayed
with them for a week.
These believers prophesiedthrough the Holy Spirit that
Paul should not go on toJerusalem.
But when we returned to the shipat the end of the week, the
entire congregation, includingwomen and the children, left the
(04:19):
city and came down to the shorewith us.
There we knelt and prayed andsaid our farewells, and we went
aboard and they returned home.
Now pause for a moment.
Isn't that something else?
That these people are warningPaul.
Paul, don't go.
And that's important to realizebecause many times when God
calls us to do something, it'snot always going to look like
(04:40):
the easiest thing to do.
There may even be well-meaningpeople that try to discourage
us.
And it's in those moments thatwe should always listen to the
concerns of others, but alwaysfollow the word of God in our
life.
All right, verse 7.
The next stop after leaving Tyrewas Ptolemaeus, where we were
greeting, where we greeted thebrothers and the sisters and
(05:01):
stayed for one day.
The next day we went on toCaesarea and stayed at the home
of Philip the Evangelist, one ofthe seven who had been chosen to
distribute food.
That's back at the first part ofActs.
Verse 9, he had four unmarrieddaughters who had the gift of
prophecy.
Several days later, a man namedAgabas, who has the also had the
(05:21):
gift of prophecy, arrived inJudea.
He came over, took Paul's belt,and bound his feet and his hands
with it.
And he said, The Holy Spiritdeclares, so shall the owner of
this belt be bound by the Jewishleaders in Jerusalem and turned
over to the Gentiles.
When we heard this, the localbelievers all begged Paul not to
(05:42):
go to Jerusalem.
And he said, Why are you allweeping?
This is breaking my heart.
I am ready not only to be jailedat Jerusalem, but to even die
for the sake of the Lord Jesus.
And when it was clear that wecouldn't persuade him, we gave
up and said, The Lord's will bedone.
Now pause for a moment andrealize, again, people are
(06:03):
warning him.
Nobody's saying here that it'snot God's will for him to go.
Do you notice that?
Nobody's saying that it's notGod's will for you to go to
Jerusalem, Paul.
They're saying if you go toJerusalem, it's going to be
hard.
So we're asking you not to go.
We got to make sure weunderstand that.
They're saying, God's probablycalled you, but we don't want to
see this bad thing happen.
(06:24):
But even notice there at thelast verse, Luke is saying, we
tried to.
So even Luke is saying, I triedto get him to not go.
But man, Paul's saying, when Godcalls you to do something, you
go do it.
And so here they go.
Well, verse 15, they make it.
After we had packed our thingsand left for Jerusalem, some
believers from Caesareaaccompanied us and they took us
(06:44):
to the home of Manson, Manason,excuse me, who was originally
from Cyprus and one of the earlybelievers.
When we arrived, the brothersand sisters in Jerusalem
welcomed us warmly.
The next day, Paul went with usto meet James, and all the
elders of Jerusalem werepresent.
After greeting them, Paul gave adetailed account of these things
(07:04):
that God had accomplished amongthe Gentiles through his
ministry.
After hearing this, they praisedGod, and they all said, You
know, dear brother, how manythousands of Jews have also
believed, and they all followedthe law of Moses very seriously.
But the Jewish believers here inJerusalem have been told that
you were teaching all the Jewsto live among the Gentiles to
(07:26):
turn their back on the laws ofMoses.
They've heard you preach themnot to circumcise their children
and to follow the other Jewishcustoms.
What should we do?
They are certainly here, theywill certainly hear that you
have come.
Here's what I want you to do.
We have four men here who havebeen completing a vow.
Go with them to the temple andjoin them in the purification
(07:49):
ceremony, paying for them tohave their heads ritually
shaved.
Then everyone will know that therumors are false and that you
yourself observe the Jewish law.
As for the Gentile believers,they should do what you've
already told them in the letter.
They should abstain from eatingfood offered to idols, from
consuming blood, or the meat ofstrangled animals, and from
(08:11):
sexual immorality.
So, pause, what's going on here?
There's a lot of JewishChristians who were still
grappling with the idea of whatdoes it mean to be Jewish and to
be Christian?
How exactly does that work?
And so, whereas they had noproblem understanding that
Gentile people didn't have tofollow the customs of the law,
they weren't sure how to do thatas Jewish people because those
(08:33):
customs really represented thecovenant between God and the
Jewish nation.
And so they're having a hardtime thinking that Paul was
saying that they shouldn'tfollow any of the customs as
Jewish people.
Well, the thing is, they knewthat Paul was doing no such
thing.
He wasn't telling the Jewishpeople not to be Jewish.
But that's where they're saying,hey, if you go do these things,
(08:53):
it'll help them realize thatnone of that's true, and we can
keep on going.
So they're trying to find a wayto help Paul be able to kind of
grapple with this.
But watch what happens.
Verse 26.
So Paul went to the temple thenext day with the other men.
They had already started thepurification ritual, so he
publicly announced the date whentheir vows went in, and the
(09:14):
sacrifices would be offered foreach of each of them.
We can see this in the book ofDeuteronomy and the book of
Leviticus.
Verse 27.
Seven days were almost endedwhen some of the Jews from the
province of Asia saw Paul in thetemple and roused a mob against
him.
They grabbed him, yelling, Menof Israel, help us.
This is the man who preachesagainst our people everywhere,
(09:36):
and tells everybody to disobeythe Jewish laws.
He speaks against the temple andeven defiles this holy people by
bringing in Gentiles.
For earlier that day they hadseen him in the city of
Tremophilus, uh withTremophilus, a Gentile from
Ephesus.
They assumed Paul had taken himinto the temple.
So once again, they don't haveinformation, they have
(09:58):
assumptions.
Verse 30, the whole city wasrocked by these accusations, and
a great riot followed.
Paul was grabbed and dragged outof the temple, and immediately
the gates were closed behindhim.
As they were trying to kill him,word reached the commander of
the Roman regiment that allJerusalem was in an uproar.
He immediately called out hissoldiers and officers and ran
(10:20):
down among the crowd.
When the mob saw the commanderand the troops coming, they
stopped beating Paul.
Thank goodness.
Poor Pa you know, Paul is poorPaul.
Everywhere he goes, he gets themess beat out of him.
He goes to Jerusalem and theybeating the mess out of him.
So here we go.
Thank goodness for the Roman guystopping him.
Verse 33.
(10:41):
Then the commander arrested him,and poor Paul.
He stops getting beat to deathso he can get arrested.
Okay.
The commander arrested him andordered him bound with two
chains.
Poor Paul.
He asked the crowd who was withhim what had happened.
So one shouted one thing andsome another.
Since he couldn't find out thetruth and all the uproar and
(11:02):
confusion, he ordered that Paulbe taken to the fortress.
As Paul reached the stairs, themob grew so violent that the
soldiers had to lift him totheir shoulders to protect him.
And the crowd followed behind,shouting, Kill him! Kill him.
Alright, let's finish it up.
Verse 37.
As Paul was about to be takeninside, he said to the
commander, May I have a wordwith you?
(11:24):
Do you know Greek?
The commander asked, surprised.
And by the way, this is becausehe's living in a region where
most likely their main languagewas Aramaic.
And because he was Jewish, hewould have known Hebrew.
But Greek was the language ofthe Romans, and they were
required to know just passableGreek, you know, just to kind of
take instruction from the peoplewho were in charge.
(11:45):
But obviously Paul could speakGreek fluently.
So do you speak Greek?
Aren't you the Egyptian who ledthe rebellion a time ago took
4,000 members of the assassinsout to the desert?
And Paul's like, uh, no.
I am a Jew, a citizen of Tarsusof Cilicia, and I, which is an
important city.
Please let me talk to thesepeople.
(12:07):
The commander agreed.
So Paul stood on the stairs andmotioned to the people to be
quiet.
Soon a deep silence envelopedthe crowd, and he addressed them
in their own language, Aramaic.
So, what's about to happen isPaul's about to get his
opportunity to talk to them.
And what is amazing about thisis all along the way, people are
(12:27):
warning him not to not obey God,but just to remind him that
obeying God is hard.
I mean, they keep telling him,hey man, if you go to Jerusalem,
it's gonna be hard.
It's gonna be difficult, it'sgonna, it's gonna be really,
really difficult to do.
But what Paul keeps telling themalong the way, yeah, but that's
where God's presence is.
That's where God's called me.
(12:49):
And if God has called me, I knowthat God will be with me even
when it all goes south, evenwhen everything hits the fan.
And can I just be just encourageyou?
Sometimes God's presence isright in the middle of the
storm.
Sometimes storms come because wedo bad things.
We make mistakes, we we go downthe wrong road and we have to
(13:11):
suffer the consequences for ourbad actions, right?
Of course.
Sometimes storms just comebecause the Bible says it rains
on the just and the unjustalike.
Sometimes storms come for noreason we can imagine.
But even in that moment, theBible says, Though I walk
through the valley of the shadowof death, I will not be afraid.
Why?
(13:32):
Because you walk close besideme.
Sometimes God's presence is notto the left, not to the right,
but God's presence is straightthrough the middle.
And that's exactly what Paul issaying, where these well-meaning
people are like, man, Paul, youdon't need to go.
If you go, it's gonna be hard.
I know.
If you go, you're gonna bebound, I know.
If you go, they may try to killyou.
I know.
Well then, Paul, why are yougoing?
(13:52):
Because God's there.
Because God has sent me there.
And if he sends me there, he'salso gonna sustain me there.
So I want to encourage you.
If you're in a situation whereyou realize that other than a
complete divine miracle, God'snot gonna get it get you out of
the bad situation you're goingthrough.
Can I tell you?
God doesn't have to deliver youin order to be with you.
(14:13):
God doesn't have to get you outof a bad situation in order for
you to experience Him.
Because sometimes the greatestmiracles happen right in the
middle of the greatestdifficulties.
Can I pray for us?
And I want to say our scripture,and then I want to challenge you
with something brand new todaythat we're gonna start.
But first, let me pray for us.
Father, thank you so much thatyou are with us in every
(14:35):
situation.
God, I have no idea what may behappening in the life of the
person who's listening to thisright now, but I know that you
do.
And I know, God, that you arenot intimidated, worried, or
upset.
Lord, you never once sawsomething that you didn't know
what to do with.
So I pray you will help us andencourage us to realize that
because you are with us and forus, all things work together for
(14:57):
good to those who love you andare called according to your
purpose.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, Jesus said in Acts1, chapter 8, you will receive
power when the Holy Spirit comesupon you.
And then what will we do withit?
We will be his witnesses to theends of the earth.
My prayer today is that youexperience that power so that
(15:17):
you can make a difference inyour world.
Now I want to do something.
Starting today, I'm going to addsome music at the end of this
podcast.
And here's the reason why.
Maybe you're not like me, somaybe you don't need this.
But if you're like me, sometimesI will read God's word and I and
I really have something to thinkabout.
But then what happens is I turnthis off and I go do whatever
(15:39):
else I'm doing, and it justleaves.
What I want to do is, if maybethis is your your Bible time
when you listen to this or youyou watch this, if you're
watching on YouTube, I want togive you a moment and I just
want to play some music.
I'm gonna have a countdown onit.
And before you get up, beforeyou close your Bible, before you
go anywhere else, I want you totake just a couple of minutes,
and I just want you to thinkabout what we have read today.
(16:02):
If you're a journaler, maybe youwant to journal out your soap.
Soap is a Bible study methodwhich stands for scripture,
observation, application, andprayer.
Maybe you want to take a momentand pull out the one verse that
really stood out to you today.
Write down the observation andwhat it meant to you today.
Then application.
What are you gonna do with God'sword today and then a prayer of
(16:24):
your own?
Or maybe you just want to sitand just soak in what God is
doing in your life.
But either way, instead ofrushing off to the next thing,
I'm gonna add a few moments ofmusic for you just to soak on
and then soap on what's beenhappening.
And if you don't want to do it,obviously you don't have to.
But I just want to give you amoment.
I'm gonna turn the music on andjust see if the Lord will speak
(16:45):
to you in this time.
Okay.
Hope you have a good thing.
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Well hello, everybody.
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your
host, Pastor Brandon.
(00:20):
Today, Acts chapter 21.
And if I were to give this one atitle, it would be God is with
us when everything hits the fan.
God is with us when everythinghits the fan.
As we've been journeying throughthis, we're really going to be
focusing on Paul's journey toRome.
We're getting ready to go there,but he doesn't start there.
(00:42):
He starts in going to Jerusalemand all kinds of bad things
happening.
But along the way, God is alwayswith him.
And I hope that really bringssome comfort to us today.
We're going to get into allthat, of course, in just a
moment.
But as always, if you like whatwe're doing here, make sure you
like, share, and subscribe tothis on YouTube.
If you're doing this on thepodcast, you are my favorite.
Make sure you are leaving us afive-star review because it
(01:04):
really does help kind of get theget everything going and letting
people know what we're doing andcreating this community.
Also, I'd love for you to go toour Facebook group.
Man, there are some people overthere doing some great work,
giving some differentperspectives on the Bible as
we're reading it every singleday.
And I love that so much.
And so I want you just to add tothe conversation because I'm
going to tell you, the more wedig, the more we find.
(01:26):
And especially as it gets intothis last section, because if
you remember, this is written bya guy named Luke, who was a
physician turned investigativejournalist by a guy named
Theopolis.
And he his first work was theGospel of Luke.
And he is going through thecountryside and he's validating
this story about Jesus that hewasn't just a man, wasn't just a
(01:48):
great teacher, he's a king ofkings.
And he writes that first gospel,and then he has the honor of
being inspired by the HolySpirit to then write the
beginning of the early church.
And as we've seen through this,he first talks about the church
and he pivots and he's talkingabout Peter.
Now he's pivoting and he'stalking about Paul because he is
leading the charge intospreading the gospel through the
(02:11):
Gentile world.
And when we get into this lastpart, we're really watching what
happens as Paul, through a setof circumstances that on the
outside looking in, look liketerrible circumstances.
Looks like everything's goingwrong for Paul, unless you
realize that God had called Paulto preach the gospel in Rome.
(02:31):
And so all of these things areactually happening.
So on the outside looking in,it's like, Paul, you've got the
worst luck in the world.
But if you realize what'shappening, you go, Paul, you're
right in the center of what Godis doing.
And oftentimes it's hard to tellwhich is which, which is why we
(02:52):
have the title, God is with us,even when everything hits the
fan.
So what we want to do is we'regoing to read this together and
just kind of put ourselves assomeone who's walking alongside
Paul as he's journeying toJerusalem.
And as he gets there, he's goingto encounter the Jewish people
that are not really friends ofhis anymore.
Remember, they used to be likehis friends.
(03:13):
Like they did this thing calledlife together.
They were against the way ofJesus.
Now he is their enemy, andthey've been waiting to get a
hold of Paul.
So let's read this together andlet's see what the Lord will
kind of reveal to us as we do.
So if you got your Bibles opento uh your NLT Bibles to Acts
chapter 21, got your coffeeready.
Here we go, verse one.
(03:33):
After saying farewell to theEphesian elders, we sailed
straight to the island of Kos.
The next day we reached Rhodesand then went to Pantera.
There we boarded a ship sailingfor Phoenicia.
We sighted the island of Cyprusand passed it on our left and
landed at the harbor of Tyre inSyria, where the ship was to
(03:56):
unload its cargo.
Now, once again, Luke is justhelping them get an idea of
where they are.
Verse 4 When we went ashore, wefound local believers and stayed
with them for a week.
These believers prophesiedthrough the Holy Spirit that
Paul should not go on toJerusalem.
But when we returned to the shipat the end of the week, the
entire congregation, includingwomen and the children, left the
(04:19):
city and came down to the shorewith us.
There we knelt and prayed andsaid our farewells, and we went
aboard and they returned home.
Now pause for a moment.
Isn't that something else?
That these people are warningPaul.
Paul, don't go.
And that's important to realizebecause many times when God
calls us to do something, it'snot always going to look like
(04:40):
the easiest thing to do.
There may even be well-meaningpeople that try to discourage
us.
And it's in those moments thatwe should always listen to the
concerns of others, but alwaysfollow the word of God in our
life.
All right, verse 7.
The next stop after leaving Tyrewas Ptolemaeus, where we were
greeting, where we greeted thebrothers and the sisters and
(05:01):
stayed for one day.
The next day we went on toCaesarea and stayed at the home
of Philip the Evangelist, one ofthe seven who had been chosen to
distribute food.
That's back at the first part ofActs.
Verse 9, he had four unmarrieddaughters who had the gift of
prophecy.
Several days later, a man namedAgabas, who has the also had the
(05:21):
gift of prophecy, arrived inJudea.
He came over, took Paul's belt,and bound his feet and his hands
with it.
And he said, The Holy Spiritdeclares, so shall the owner of
this belt be bound by the Jewishleaders in Jerusalem and turned
over to the Gentiles.
When we heard this, the localbelievers all begged Paul not to
(05:42):
go to Jerusalem.
And he said, Why are you allweeping?
This is breaking my heart.
I am ready not only to be jailedat Jerusalem, but to even die
for the sake of the Lord Jesus.
And when it was clear that wecouldn't persuade him, we gave
up and said, The Lord's will bedone.
Now pause for a moment andrealize, again, people are
(06:03):
warning him.
Nobody's saying here that it'snot God's will for him to go.
Do you notice that?
Nobody's saying that it's notGod's will for you to go to
Jerusalem, Paul.
They're saying if you go toJerusalem, it's going to be
hard.
So we're asking you not to go.
We got to make sure weunderstand that.
They're saying, God's probablycalled you, but we don't want to
see this bad thing happen.
(06:24):
But even notice there at thelast verse, Luke is saying, we
tried to.
So even Luke is saying, I triedto get him to not go.
But man, Paul's saying, when Godcalls you to do something, you
go do it.
And so here they go.
Well, verse 15, they make it.
After we had packed our thingsand left for Jerusalem, some
believers from Caesareaaccompanied us and they took us
(06:44):
to the home of Manson, Manason,excuse me, who was originally
from Cyprus and one of the earlybelievers.
When we arrived, the brothersand sisters in Jerusalem
welcomed us warmly.
The next day, Paul went with usto meet James, and all the
elders of Jerusalem werepresent.
After greeting them, Paul gave adetailed account of these things
(07:04):
that God had accomplished amongthe Gentiles through his
ministry.
After hearing this, they praisedGod, and they all said, You
know, dear brother, how manythousands of Jews have also
believed, and they all followedthe law of Moses very seriously.
But the Jewish believers here inJerusalem have been told that
you were teaching all the Jewsto live among the Gentiles to
(07:26):
turn their back on the laws ofMoses.
They've heard you preach themnot to circumcise their children
and to follow the other Jewishcustoms.
What should we do?
They are certainly here, theywill certainly hear that you
have come.
Here's what I want you to do.
We have four men here who havebeen completing a vow.
Go with them to the temple andjoin them in the purification
(07:49):
ceremony, paying for them tohave their heads ritually
shaved.
Then everyone will know that therumors are false and that you
yourself observe the Jewish law.
As for the Gentile believers,they should do what you've
already told them in the letter.
They should abstain from eatingfood offered to idols, from
consuming blood, or the meat ofstrangled animals, and from
(08:11):
sexual immorality.
So, pause, what's going on here?
There's a lot of JewishChristians who were still
grappling with the idea of whatdoes it mean to be Jewish and to
be Christian?
How exactly does that work?
And so, whereas they had noproblem understanding that
Gentile people didn't have tofollow the customs of the law,
they weren't sure how to do thatas Jewish people because those
(08:33):
customs really represented thecovenant between God and the
Jewish nation.
And so they're having a hardtime thinking that Paul was
saying that they shouldn'tfollow any of the customs as
Jewish people.
Well, the thing is, they knewthat Paul was doing no such
thing.
He wasn't telling the Jewishpeople not to be Jewish.
But that's where they're saying,hey, if you go do these things,
(08:53):
it'll help them realize thatnone of that's true, and we can
keep on going.
So they're trying to find a wayto help Paul be able to kind of
grapple with this.
But watch what happens.
Verse 26.
So Paul went to the temple thenext day with the other men.
They had already started thepurification ritual, so he
publicly announced the date whentheir vows went in, and the
(09:14):
sacrifices would be offered foreach of each of them.
We can see this in the book ofDeuteronomy and the book of
Leviticus.
Verse 27.
Seven days were almost endedwhen some of the Jews from the
province of Asia saw Paul in thetemple and roused a mob against
him.
They grabbed him, yelling, Menof Israel, help us.
This is the man who preachesagainst our people everywhere,
(09:36):
and tells everybody to disobeythe Jewish laws.
He speaks against the temple andeven defiles this holy people by
bringing in Gentiles.
For earlier that day they hadseen him in the city of
Tremophilus, uh withTremophilus, a Gentile from
Ephesus.
They assumed Paul had taken himinto the temple.
So once again, they don't haveinformation, they have
(09:58):
assumptions.
Verse 30, the whole city wasrocked by these accusations, and
a great riot followed.
Paul was grabbed and dragged outof the temple, and immediately
the gates were closed behindhim.
As they were trying to kill him,word reached the commander of
the Roman regiment that allJerusalem was in an uproar.
He immediately called out hissoldiers and officers and ran
(10:20):
down among the crowd.
When the mob saw the commanderand the troops coming, they
stopped beating Paul.
Thank goodness.
Poor Pa you know, Paul is poorPaul.
Everywhere he goes, he gets themess beat out of him.
He goes to Jerusalem and theybeating the mess out of him.
So here we go.
Thank goodness for the Roman guystopping him.
Verse 33.
(10:41):
Then the commander arrested him,and poor Paul.
He stops getting beat to deathso he can get arrested.
Okay.
The commander arrested him andordered him bound with two
chains.
Poor Paul.
He asked the crowd who was withhim what had happened.
So one shouted one thing andsome another.
Since he couldn't find out thetruth and all the uproar and
(11:02):
confusion, he ordered that Paulbe taken to the fortress.
As Paul reached the stairs, themob grew so violent that the
soldiers had to lift him totheir shoulders to protect him.
And the crowd followed behind,shouting, Kill him! Kill him.
Alright, let's finish it up.
Verse 37.
As Paul was about to be takeninside, he said to the
commander, May I have a wordwith you?
(11:24):
Do you know Greek?
The commander asked, surprised.
And by the way, this is becausehe's living in a region where
most likely their main languagewas Aramaic.
And because he was Jewish, hewould have known Hebrew.
But Greek was the language ofthe Romans, and they were
required to know just passableGreek, you know, just to kind of
take instruction from the peoplewho were in charge.
(11:45):
But obviously Paul could speakGreek fluently.
So do you speak Greek?
Aren't you the Egyptian who ledthe rebellion a time ago took
4,000 members of the assassinsout to the desert?
And Paul's like, uh, no.
I am a Jew, a citizen of Tarsusof Cilicia, and I, which is an
important city.
Please let me talk to thesepeople.
(12:07):
The commander agreed.
So Paul stood on the stairs andmotioned to the people to be
quiet.
Soon a deep silence envelopedthe crowd, and he addressed them
in their own language, Aramaic.
So, what's about to happen isPaul's about to get his
opportunity to talk to them.
And what is amazing about thisis all along the way, people are
(12:27):
warning him not to not obey God,but just to remind him that
obeying God is hard.
I mean, they keep telling him,hey man, if you go to Jerusalem,
it's gonna be hard.
It's gonna be difficult, it'sgonna, it's gonna be really,
really difficult to do.
But what Paul keeps telling themalong the way, yeah, but that's
where God's presence is.
That's where God's called me.
(12:49):
And if God has called me, I knowthat God will be with me even
when it all goes south, evenwhen everything hits the fan.
And can I just be just encourageyou?
Sometimes God's presence isright in the middle of the
storm.
Sometimes storms come because wedo bad things.
We make mistakes, we we go downthe wrong road and we have to
(13:11):
suffer the consequences for ourbad actions, right?
Of course.
Sometimes storms just comebecause the Bible says it rains
on the just and the unjustalike.
Sometimes storms come for noreason we can imagine.
But even in that moment, theBible says, Though I walk
through the valley of the shadowof death, I will not be afraid.
Why?
(13:32):
Because you walk close besideme.
Sometimes God's presence is notto the left, not to the right,
but God's presence is straightthrough the middle.
And that's exactly what Paul issaying, where these well-meaning
people are like, man, Paul, youdon't need to go.
If you go, it's gonna be hard.
I know.
If you go, you're gonna bebound, I know.
If you go, they may try to killyou.
I know.
Well then, Paul, why are yougoing?
(13:52):
Because God's there.
Because God has sent me there.
And if he sends me there, he'salso gonna sustain me there.
So I want to encourage you.
If you're in a situation whereyou realize that other than a
complete divine miracle, God'snot gonna get it get you out of
the bad situation you're goingthrough.
Can I tell you?
God doesn't have to deliver youin order to be with you.
(14:13):
God doesn't have to get you outof a bad situation in order for
you to experience Him.
Because sometimes the greatestmiracles happen right in the
middle of the greatestdifficulties.
Can I pray for us?
And I want to say our scripture,and then I want to challenge you
with something brand new todaythat we're gonna start.
But first, let me pray for us.
Father, thank you so much thatyou are with us in every
(14:35):
situation.
God, I have no idea what may behappening in the life of the
person who's listening to thisright now, but I know that you
do.
And I know, God, that you arenot intimidated, worried, or
upset.
Lord, you never once sawsomething that you didn't know
what to do with.
So I pray you will help us andencourage us to realize that
because you are with us and forus, all things work together for
(14:57):
good to those who love you andare called according to your
purpose.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Don't forget, Jesus said in Acts1, chapter 8, you will receive
power when the Holy Spirit comesupon you.
And then what will we do withit?
We will be his witnesses to theends of the earth.
My prayer today is that youexperience that power so that
(15:17):
you can make a difference inyour world.
Now I want to do something.
Starting today, I'm going to addsome music at the end of this
podcast.
And here's the reason why.
Maybe you're not like me, somaybe you don't need this.
But if you're like me, sometimesI will read God's word and I and
I really have something to thinkabout.
But then what happens is I turnthis off and I go do whatever
(15:39):
else I'm doing, and it justleaves.
What I want to do is, if maybethis is your your Bible time
when you listen to this or youyou watch this, if you're
watching on YouTube, I want togive you a moment and I just
want to play some music.
I'm gonna have a countdown onit.
And before you get up, beforeyou close your Bible, before you
go anywhere else, I want you totake just a couple of minutes,
and I just want you to thinkabout what we have read today.
(16:02):
If you're a journaler, maybe youwant to journal out your soap.
Soap is a Bible study methodwhich stands for scripture,
observation, application, andprayer.
Maybe you want to take a momentand pull out the one verse that
really stood out to you today.
Write down the observation andwhat it meant to you today.
Then application.
What are you gonna do with God'sword today and then a prayer of
(16:24):
your own?
Or maybe you just want to sitand just soak in what God is
doing in your life.
But either way, instead ofrushing off to the next thing,
I'm gonna add a few moments ofmusic for you just to soak on
and then soap on what's beenhappening.
And if you don't want to do it,obviously you don't have to.
But I just want to give you amoment.
I'm gonna turn the music on andjust see if the Lord will speak
(16:45):
to you in this time.
Okay.
Hope you have a good thing.
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