Have you ever been anxious while on a journey wondering whether or not you would reach your destination and what would happen when you arrived? These kinds of problems also happened to Bible characters.
In Acts 20 and 21 the Bible records the last journey that the apostle Paul made to Jerusalem. It took a long time, with several ships making several stops, and involving several meetings. Acts 21 gives the following record of the journey after the ship set sail. It says, “We came to Cos, the following day to Rhodes, and from there to Patara. And finding a ship sailing over to Phoenicia, we went aboard and set sail. When we had sighted Cyprus, we passed it on the left, sailed to Syria, and landed at Tyre; for there the ship was to unload her cargo. And finding disciples, we stayed there seven days. They told Paul through the Spirit not to go up to Jerusalem” (verses 1, last part–4).
One of the interesting things we find when we study the history of the apostolic church during the first century is that in those days, the church had not yet apostatized. The church was pure, and as a result, throughout the world it had the ministration, guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. In Colossians the first chapter, Paul talks about the spread of the gospel and he says that the gospel has been preached to every creature under heaven (verse 23) and that was in just 20 or 30 years, an example of what can happen when the Holy Spirit is guiding the church.
The time came when by departing from the truth of the Bible and by imitating heathen rites and customs, the church lost the spirit and power of God. The church no longer had the gift of prophecy. However, in the first century, the church was guided by the Holy Spirit and when Paul visited this place, the disciples told him through the Spirit that he should not go up to Jerusalem.
The Bible says, “When we had come to the end of those days, we departed and went on our way; and they all accompanied us, with wives and children, till we were out of the city. And we knelt down on the shore and prayed. When we had taken our leave of one another, we boarded the ship, and they returned home. And when we had finished our voyage from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, greeted the brethren, and stayed with them one day. On the next day we who were Paul’s companions departed and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. Now this man [that is, Philip] had four virgin daughters who prophesied” (Acts 21:5–9).
There were many evangelists, prophets, and apostles in the early apostolic church. Philip was the first one who had been able to break away from Jewish customs to go and preach the gospel to the Gentiles, not treating them as though the truth of the gospel was only for the Jewish people. He went down to Samaria and through his preaching, a multitude of the Samaritans had become Christians. Paul and Philip had a lot in common. They both ministered and preached to the Gentiles.
While Paul was visiting with Philip during the last days of freedom that he would enjoy for a long time, they were visited by another prophet. It says, “As we stayed many days, a certain prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. When he had come to us, he took Paul’s belt, bound his own hands and feet, and said, ‘Thus says the Holy Spirit, “So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man who owns this belt, and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles” ’ ” (verses 10, 11).
Now this was a fearsome prophecy, not just that Paul would be bound by the Jews, but that he was going to suffer the horrors of a Roman imprisonment. Agabus told Paul that he would be delivered to the Gentiles, indicating that he was to be turned over to the Roman authorities. “Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, ‘What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ So when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, ‘The will of the Lord be done’ ” (verses 12–14).
Paul had been warned many times that if he went to Jerusalem, the Jews would deliver him to the Romans and he would suffer Roman imprisonment. Why was it that the apostle Paul felt, in spite of all these perils and dangers, that he had to go to Jerusalem? He wanted to heal a schism, a division in the Christian church that has never been totally healed, even to the present day. It was a division that occurred between Jews and Gentiles over certain theological teachings. There were Jews who had become Christians and had held on to certain Jewish customs and had therefore opposed the apostle Paul in teaching the Gentiles that they no longer needed to observe the ritual laws of the Jews. The Judaizing Christians also had gone all over the world stirring up division and trouble in every church that Paul had raised up.
Paul desperately wanted to try and heal this schism that had developed between the groups of Christians. He believed that the Jewish rites and ceremonies pointed forward to the Messiah and since the Messiah had come, and fulfilled them there was no more need of animal sacrifices or observance of feast days.
Not only were many of the Christians still practicing these rites and ceremonies, but even were some of the apostles and elders. Because of his teaching on this subject, Paul was known by many Christians all over the world at that time as a teacher of dangerous doctrines. He was the focal point of attack himself, but he desired to bring healing between the different churches. One of the things he did, since many of the Jewish Christians were in poverty as a result of accepting Christianity, he had gone to the different Gentile churches and persuaded them to give money to help the poor Jews in Judea. When he came on this last journey, he had a large sum of money for their support. He also brought with him representatives from the principle churches in the world to give these offerings to the Jewish Christians. He was willing to take any kind of danger necessary to try and heal this schism.
This is why he said he was ready to die, if that was what it would take for the churches to have unity. When they saw that he could not be persuaded otherwise, they said, “the will of the Lord be done.” The Bible continues, “After those days we packed and went up to Jerusalem. Also some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and brought with them a certain Mnason of Cyprus, an early disciple, with whom we were to lodge. And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present” (verses 15–18).
Here he is, meeting with the elders to present to them the large sum of money that he has raised from the Gentile churches to help the poor Jewish Christians. Paul knows well that if he goes down to Jerusalem he will be captured, bound, and delivered to the Romans. Since his conversion, his visits to Jerusalem had always been accompanied with anxiety. As he was in the city, he would look at the synagogue where he used to worship and at the apartment of the high priest where he had received his commission to go to Damascus. This was the very spot where he himself had debated with Stephen and approved his martyrdom. He would recollect his former life, especially this time, his last journey to Jerusalem, and as he thought about what had happened to Stephen at his own consent, he wondered, “Will I meet the same fate as Stephen met here on this journey?”
He had never walked the streets of Jerusalem with as sad a heart as this time, because he knew he would find few friends and many enemies. In the crowds that were there for the feast, there were thousands of people, who, if you even mentioned his name, would be excited to madness and fury. This was the city which had been the murderer of the prophets, that had rejected and crucified the Son of God, and over which there now hung threatenings of divine wrath. As the apostle Paul remembered how bitter his own prejudice had been against the followers of Christ, he felt the deepest pity for his deluded countrymen, yet he had little hope he would be able to benefit them, because they had the same blind wrath which had once burned in his own heart, and which was now telling with untold power upon the hearts of a whole nation against him.
The apostle Paul could not count upon even the sympathy and the support of his own brethren in the Christian faith. The unconverted Jews had so closely followed upon his track and had not been slow to circulate the most unfavorable reports at Jerusalem, and these reports concerning Paul and his work, communicated both personally and by letter, had affected even the apostles and elders in the Christian church. Some had received these reports as true, making no attempt to contradict them or manifest any desire to harmonize with him.
But yet, in the midst of all these discouragements, the apostle was not in despair, because he was trusting that the same voice he had heard on the Damascus road that had spoken to his own heart would speak to the hearts of his countrymen. Have you ever wondered why that voice doesn’t speak more to men today? Friend, that voice is trying to speak today, but many people are so busy and the noise in their life is so loud that they don’t hear the still small voice speaking in the conscience.
Read the story of Elijah. God does not usually speak to people in a whirlwind, or a fire, or an earthquake. His usual method of speaking to mankind is through what is called “the still small voice,” the voice of the Holy Spirit in the conscience. Is your life so loud and is there so much noise in your life that you don’t have any time to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to your conscience?
The next day after he arrived at Jerusalem, Paul had a meeting with the elders. It says, “On the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry” (verses 18, 19). The apostle related how that in the worldwide center of heathenism, Ephesus, the Holy Spirit had used him to raise up a very large church. He also told about his experiences with the churches in Galatia, in what we call Turkey today. He told about his experiences with raising up the church in Corinth. He had to tell certain disagreeable things that Judaizing teachers had done to the churches in Galatia and Corinth which had caused him to write some very severe letters to these churches. He told them in detail what had been done, and when they found out, they could not help but see that the signet of God was upon his ministry, and that the Holy Spirit had worked through him in a marvelous way to raise up Christian churches and convert people from heathenism to the gospel all over the world.
“When they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, ‘You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law’ ” (verse 20). Now when the apostle Paul made known to the elders in Jerusalem all of these churches and Gentile believers he had raised up, and they presented the gifts, which was much more than they had anticipated, this was the golden opportunity for the apostles, the elders, and the leaders to confess that they had been prejudiced, and that they should lay their prejudices aside and acknowledge the work of the apostle Paul as being of God. But, instead of confessing their own errors and their own prejudices, and acknowledging that God had been at work in the ministry of the apostle Paul, they threw the burden wholly back upon Paul to solve the problem between the Jews and the Gentiles.
In fact, they actually asked the apostle Paul to do something that would be conceding that he had gone too far in his teaching the Gentile Christians that they did not need to do anything about observing the ceremonial law. Notice the council that they gave. It says, “You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law [the ceremonial law of Jewish rites and ceremonies]; but they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Therefore do what we tell you: We have four men who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law [that is, the ceremonial law]. But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing, except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality” (verses 20–25).
They hoped that if the apostle Paul would make this concession, it would solve the problem. They were saying that if a Jew becomes a Christian, he should still keep all of the Jewish rites and ceremonies. But if a Gentile becomes a Christian, then it is not necessary. This is directly contrary to what the apostle Paul taught. Read the book of Romans. Read the book of first Corinthians. Read the book of Galatians. Not only was it directly contrary to what Paul taught but it was directly contrary to what they themselves had agreed to at the Jerusalem council (see Acts 15). Yet, the apostle Paul conceded, and this is very difficult today for some people to understand. Why would Paul make this concession, which was so contrary to what he had written and taught wherever he went? He wanted desperately to solve the division, to bring harmony among the Christians all over the world so there would not be this continual division and strife between the Gentile and Jewish Christians.
However, Paul conceded more than he should have, for this concession was not in harmony with his teachings. It was not in harmony with the firm integrity that had been manifested in the past in his character. We have to remember that his advisors were not infallible, and though some of these men wrote parts of Scripture under the Spirit of God, yet when not under its direct influence, they sometimes erred. It should be remembered that on one occasion, the apostle Paul withstood Peter to his face in public, because Peter was acting a double part. Because Paul had such a great desire to be in harmony with his brethren, so much tenderness of heart toward the weak in faith, and so much reverence for the apostles who had been with Christ while He had been on the earth, so much reverence for James, the brother of the Lord, and so much a desire to be all things to all men, it is less surprising then, that he deviated from his normal strict integrity to try to conciliate and placate his Jewish brethren and bring harmony into the church.
Unfortunately, this decision on his part did not solve the problem at all but hastened his own capture and imprisonment. Dear friend, whether you’re an apostle, or church leader, whoever you are, it never pays to deviate from strict integrity, even when pressed with anxiety on a courageous journey.
(Unless appearing in quoted references or otherwise identified, Bible texts are from the New King James Version.)
Pastor John J. Grosboll is Director of Steps to Life and pastors the Prairie Meadows Church in Wichita, Kansas. He may be contacted by email at: historic@stepstolife.org, or by telephone at: 316-788-5559.