Sunday Night, August 25, 2019 PM

And that situation, when did he get arrested? It spawns from this moment here in Acts chapter 21. So I'm going to read for us, beginning in verse 17. And Luke is writing about his journeys with Paul. They've been working their way back to Judea, working their way back with a collection of money to alleviate the hunger and the poverty of the Judean churches.

And so in verse 17, he writes, after we arrived in Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. And the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry.

And when they heard it, they began glorifying God. I'll stop right there just to point out that James, the brother of Jesus, is a lead figure in the Jerusalem church. And it makes sense to go talk with him and the elders of the Jerusalem church.

And they received him gladly, and there's good news to be had all around. And so now we have the complication in the middle of verse 20. And they said to him, you see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed.

They are all zealous for the law, and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs.

What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. So Paul's arrival, they're glad that he came. They're glad to hear about the news of the Gentiles coming to faith in Christ. But they're also pointing out that his arrival has caused, is going to cause some complications.

It's going to cause some problems. And not because Paul has done something wrong, but that everything he's been doing has been reported in a very negative light. So his reputation, while he's been away, his reputation has been soiled amongst the Jews in Jerusalem.

So that even those who are believing on Christ, even the Jews who have turned to faith in Christ, they have received a very negative opinion about the apostle Paul. And so they're just pointing out to him the fact that, you know, we're glad you're here.

Of course, he's bringing relief offering and everything else. They say that we've got this problem, we've got this complication. It's also helpful to remember that at this time, there was a great deal of conflict, rising tension within Jerusalem.

The emperor Caligula has already tried to have his image erected in the temple.

Okay.

And he had had his statue sent that way, and the soldiers were supposed to go put it up. And there was such violent protests and rioting that there was some concern that the Roman armies may just go ahead and come and put everybody down by force.

There was great tension about, and great concern at this time about Gentile, about Gentile pollution of the temple. Okay. This is a very high concern. People have already shed blood over this issue in defense of the holiness of the temple.

So everyone's in very high national and zealous fervor.

Okay.

So Paul is one of those that are on the watch list because he's been going around preaching, for instance, Galatians. Circumcision is not necessary. And you can't put your faith in circumcision. You shouldn't trust that as part of your salvation.

He's been going around preaching the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the word is coming back that he is actually telling the Jews to forsake Moses. And we don't find Paul actually writing that anywhere.

He's not writing that the law is evil or that Moses is evil. He's presenting Christ as the fulfillment of Moses. Moses is pointing forward to Christ. And is he telling Jews not to circumcise their children?

Is he telling Jews not to circumcise their children? No, he's telling Jews, stop making the Gentiles circumcise their children. That's what he's saying. But in the middle of a conflict, sometimes people aren't careful with their words and reporting what somebody is saying.

So anyway, so Paul's on a watch list and there's gonna be a lot of people who are very upset that he has come to Jerusalem and very concerned. So the elders, James and the elders of the church in Jerusalem have hatched a plan to try to help bring unity and understanding between the apostle Paul and the Jews who are in high spirits.

Okay, so verse 22, what then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore, do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. We will, and it says, take them and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads.

Meaning they've taken the Nazirite vow and they want to go ahead and complete their seven days and then they can go ahead and cut their hair, right? So they can't cut their hair during the time that they have taken the Nazirite vow.

And so the idea is that the apostle Paul will be their sponsor in completing this. And so Paul has come back with this offering. These men have taken a Nazirite vow. Things are really difficult. Shall we say that the economy is in really, really, really bad shape.

They don't have enough to finish their vow. They've taken this vow, but they don't have enough means by which to finish their vow. And so they're asking the apostle Paul who has come to relieve situations like this within the Judean church among the Judean Christians to help them out, to sponsor them so that they can go ahead and finish the Nazirite vow paying their sacrifices.

Okay, so they think this is gonna be a good thing because here is, look, the apostle Paul, the apostle Paul is participating with and encouraging those who are holding to the customs handed down to us by Moses.

See, the apostle Paul is not what has been reported to you. Here is prime evidence. They're trying to think it's gonna be a great way to bring some kind of unity. Okay, and so, and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the law.

Remember, Paul says to those who are under the law, become as one that is under the law, even though I'm not under the law, but under the law of Christ. He said, I become all things to all people so that by all means, I may win some.

But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrifice to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication. And this is referring back to Acts 15, talking about a way forward for Gentiles and Jews to be at the same table together in the same church.

How is that gonna work, right? Well, there's gonna be a deference to the convictions and the concerns of the Jews. And so, if you have a church full of Jews and Gentiles and you're sitting down at the same table, well, there's some dietary considerations and those who are strong will defer to those who are weak in terms of convictions, right?

So, they're reminding Paul of this earlier decision. Verse 26, then Paul took the men in the next day, purifying himself along with them, meaning he did what he needed to do before entering the temple.

They went into the temple, giving notice of the completion of the days of purification until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them. And again, the sacrifice that they were supposed to offer was in completion of their vow, okay?

In the completion of their vow, they would offer a sacrifice to God. Now, what we have here is a very messy situation. And what we have throughout Acts is a lot of messy situation, okay? And one of the reasons that that is so is because as we were talking about this morning, the difference between the Old and New Covenant, difference between the Old and New Covenant, we know that there's a difference, but the Old Covenant's end did not, in terms of time, completely coincide with the exact point when the New Covenant started.

The Old Covenant was still around at the time that the New Covenant had been started. And that's why you have a lot of mess in the Book of Acts. It's confusing. You got pockets of people who heard John the Baptist's message and they're out there trying to do their thing, but then they have to be found and basically evangelized and shown the truth about the New Covenant.

You've got the Jewish church figuring, what are we supposed to do with these Gentiles? And how are we supposed to get along? And they're trying to figure out, how do we be faithful to the word we've been given and still follow Jesus?

And you know what? It's pretty messy in the Book of Acts. And they're trying to figure out how this works. Well, it wasn't until, think about the issue that Paul has here.

All right.

So he's in the temple. He's helping these Jewish Christians fulfill their Nazarite vow. And he's about to get pegged by the people who hate him. And he's gonna end up, they say he caused the riot. They caused the riot.

But they say he caused the riot and he's gonna be put into protective custody from which he was never going to emerge. He's gonna be in some sort of incarceration from this point on until he's beheaded.

But you know what?

Paul wouldn't have this problem at all if there was no temple, would he?

Right?

The opportunity to get yourself in this kind of hot water would be absolutely gone when the temple was gone. And the temple did go away in AD 70. The temple went away. This is why the Book of Hebrews says, the Old Covenant, the New Covenant has come.

The Old Covenant is obsolete and is passing away.

Right?

It hasn't passed away. It is passing away. It is ineffectual. There is no reason to keep on with this. And the writer of Hebrews is telling Jews, look, just go ahead and let go. Let go of the sacrifices.

You don't have to go hunt up a descendant of Levi to be your priest, to offer up a sacrifice. That's not what you're supposed to do. Jesus Christ has come. We see how superior Christ is in every way, to everything that we've seen.

The Old Covenant's intention was to point towards Christ. And therefore, that would be made absolutely clear in AD 70. The Old Covenant would be no more. Biblical Judaism has ceased to exist in the face of the earth since AD 70.

Rabbinical Judaism is in existence. Rabbinical Judaism says, this is how we try to be true to our faith without a temple, without a priesthood, without an Ark of the Covenant. How are we supposed to offer sacrifices on the appropriate altar after washing our hands in the proper brazen labor?

And how are we supposed to sprinkle blood of sacrifices upon an Ark of the Covenant? How does anybody practice Biblical Judaism today without the temple that is supposed to be located in Jerusalem? You can't.

You can't. You absolutely cannot. Biblical Judaism doesn't exist. It ceased in AD 70. That's at the cessation of the Old Covenant. So what Paul has got himself into here is a mess because of the complications going on.

And of course, Paul is, again, he is willing to go forward with this. He wants to show his grave concern. I mean, what would he be sitting there talking about with these Christians for seven days? Can you imagine spending seven days with Paul?

You know, nothing to do. But we're just going to sit here and talk about the things of God. What a wonderful thing. And he's there in the temple, making himself a gospel witness. This is all very good.

But then the riot breaks out and he is arrested. And what is in contrast is that Paul purified himself. He was trying to do what was commanded of him. And it says, verse 27, when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and lay hands on him.

Which means here's Paul trying to do his best to keep the law in terms of the Nazarite vow, trying to fulfill what was required as the sponsor of these four other Jewish Christians. He's trying to do the right thing.

But the ones who are mad at him and accuse him of being anti-Moses break Mosaic law by interfering with him keeping the oath.

Right?

They show themselves to be breakers of the covenant. And then in contrast to Paul, who takes a holy vow, they later on take a vow that they're not going to eat until they've seen Paul dead.

Right?

And so as Luke's writing the story, to most honorable Theophilus, let's just be sure about the facts here. You've heard of this riot thing that happened. Here's what really happened.

Okay.

So he's laying out very carefully who really was at fault in this chaos that ended up leading to Paul's incarceration and brought to Rome. And if anybody in Rome were concerned about actual justice, Luke's got a great record to share with him.

Right?

To offer in the defense of Paul.

Right?

Who's in prison, but he shouldn't be. So the question was about what kind of sacrifice is this? This is a sacrifice related to the Nazarite vow.

Okay.

Do we have any other questions? Additional information about this morning sermon that I did not have time to share.

Yes.

I don't remember what parts I was glossing through though. So if I remember, I will try to put it on my blog on the leftovers. I do that from time to time. I write a blog on occasion. I'll put in leftovers from Sunday.

So I'll think about that. It's a good question. But I am going to next week, Lord, if the Lord allows, I'm going to try to, the next sermon is going to start in verse 31, not 35, because I'm going to start back in 31 and then move forward.

So I think there's going to be a little bit overlapping. So it may be that I can come back. Unless you have a specific question.

Okay. Okay.

Probably so. Ken, you had your hand up.

You get a blessing because of what you did. And then that's how it plays out. And God brings that past.

Yes.

So I don't understand how that fits together. He condemns them that God honors Jacob's condemnation by bringing the past, what Jacob says will happen.

Yeah.

So there's the story of it. And then there's the use of the story.

Okay.

So that,.

So what happened actually happened is historical, historical fact. What happened? This is how the Hivites died. This is how Shechem ceased to be a city. And the reasoning behind it is, of course, very much like the way Absalom handled things,.

Right?

Because the system of justice did not do what it was supposed to, because Jacob and Hamor did not take care of Shechem the way that they should have. Then the brothers of the violated sister went to take care of it in their own way.

And these are the things that happened.

Okay.

And so same thing as Absalom having Amnon killed because of the way he treated Tamar. So it's a similar situation. So there's the story of what happened. It is indeed a revenge story. It is indeed a cunning way to make sure that they could kill all the men of Shechem without,.

You know,.

And it was the way that they could do it without themselves being killed. And Jacob does condemn them about that. Puts them together, lumps them together. Simeon and Levi are lumped together now in the mind of Jacob, because they did this thing together.

And Genesis 49, Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are implements of violence. Let my soul not enter into their counsel. Let not my glory be united with their assembly. Because in their anger, they slew men.

And in their self-will, they lamed oxen. Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce. And their wrath, for it is cruel. I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. And indeed, they were dispersed.

Levi was in God's good plan. Levi was salted out throughout their land. But God used it for good. But that was connected to their violent anger and vengeful tactics. And then Simeon was basically, it was Simeon who was basically absorbed into Judah.

Kind of,.

You know,.

They didn't really have a clear territory. They were just kind of absorbed into Judah and,.

You know,.

Don't really have them distinctly set apart as their own. So yes, so Jacob's prophecy comes true. So we have the story and the story is as it happened. So now the use of it. So there's the story that happened.

Now the question is, as it was with any kind of story in the Bible, why is it that God included it? And the question has to be answered at the beginning for the first audience and then extrapolated to us.

So the first audience is Moses' people, right? Moses wrote the book of Genesis and he is writing it. As best as I can tell, he's writing it. The story was well known, but he's writing it down at the time of the second generation.

They're in the Acacia Grove under the shadow of Mount Peor next to the Jordan River, anticipating crossing over at some point, entering the land. And conquering it. So this is his primary audience. This is his first audience.

And he's writing this to them. So there's the facts of it, but now what about the use of it? So is this a story that is primarily being used to warn young men about rash anger? Well, it could be. But the word choices that Moses makes here are significant.

Holy Spirit inspires him to talk of the Jacob entering into the land of Canaan at Shechem, just like Abraham did. After they have this violent encounter with Shechem, then they go to Bethel, which is the place at which Joshua spoke to the children of Israel about whom shall you serve?

God's promises are fulfilled. Whom shall you serve? So there's some connections here, but when he writes in verse, for instance, verse seven of Genesis 34. Now, the sons of Jacob came in from the field and they heard it and the men were grieved and they were very angry because he had done a disgraceful thing in Israel, right?

A disgraceful thing in Israel by lying with Jacob's daughter for such a thing ought not to be done. If you remove the words in Israel, it's straight up true. This is a universal truth. If this happens, you know, if it happened just a thousand years ago, halfway around the world, somewhere in China, it's still exactly this, disgraceful.

Okay, why is it that Moses says in Israel? Why is it that he stresses, why is it that he stresses, this is the Hivites versus the Israelites? Why is it after the Hivites are destroyed that Jacob is concerned about the Canaanites and the Perizzites and whether or not they have enough men to fight adequately?

Just after this story of violence, there is the language of God putting a terror on all the peoples of the land so that they do not overwhelm Jacob. And it's the same language that is used in God's promise in the victory of the Israelites over the Canaanites.

He says, I will put a terror upon the people of the land. Okay, so there are connections here that the story is being told. And I think one of the reasons why this story is told at this point in the storyline, and the story is told from Moses through the Levites to the people of what happened, I think one of the uses of it is to say, there's going to be conflict between Israel and these wicked tribes, right?

There's going to be this kind of conflict that happens. And really it's a very useful story in this. Our tendency, I think overall in general, is to not get into conflict, but get into compromise. That's the tendency, is to get into compromise over conflict.

And in this story, Israel has a stupendous opportunity for compromise. What an awful thing that happened to Dinah. But look at all of the benefits of simply compromising with the Hivites, going along with it, joining up people groups, and Hamor stresses all the financial benefits.

And of course it means that a marriage and further integration will cover over that sin with a multitude of getting along with this great alliance. And there's just this real proposal of being fully integrated as a people group, Hivites and Israelites together, fully integrated.

And we find out later that after they've looted the entire land, the entire city of Shechem and they move forward, Jacob has to tell them to go bury all the idols they grabbed out of Shechem and go bury them under a tree.

Leave those things behind. So Shechem is a city full of idols. So this is a situation of compromise looks very, very appealing, but in the end conflict was the choice. And moving forward, we see that even though they got into this battle and they got into this conflict, it did not mean that was the end of Israel because God put a fear on the nations of them so that they were not overwhelmed.

And so we see two men taking out an entire city. Again, I don't think that Moses is by any means condoning taking personal vengeance and going, you know, and we have, I think, Jacob's prophecy to clarify that.

There was nothing righteous in their hot anger, just killing men cold-blooded, okay? But then there's the use of the story in the context of Israel that is very, I think very helpful and for a direction for the people.

When it comes, you're not supposed to compromise. You're supposed to be in conflict. And when the conflict comes, God's gonna give the victory and so on and so forth. So I think that, is that clarifying at all?

Oh, exactly, right. So there's a lot of applications from this passage. I mean, yeah, talk about the issue, like the long-term impact of the vengeful actions of Simeon and Levi. I mean, they're branded together because of that violent act.

Is that really what you wanna be known for for the rest of your life? And certainly what their father thought of them every time he looked at him was this. I mean, is that really the path you wanna go down?

There's the application, at least to, about Hamor and Jacob that when we noticed that not only did Hamor do nothing about Shechem, Jacob did nothing about Simeon and Levi. So we've got fathers just kind of really wish he hadn't done that, but that's it.

There's no actual, and in fact, in terms of the city of Shechem, we see the unjust, unrighteous, wicked culture in which they let this thing go on and then see how they can turn into a financial advantage.

We live in a culture of pornography where we have the oppression of human trafficking and in the unjust, wicked society, it's turned into profiteering. How can we profit off of this? That was happening in Shechem.

So we see that because of that wickedness, because of that culture, because of that, that's the way they just dealt with things. This is just the way they rolled. Well, eventually you're gonna run into disaster, right?

This wickedness is going to consume you. So there's a lot of applications, I think, from the text, but I think what I was trying to talk about last week was trying to understand what would be the message to Moses' original audience?

How would this be helpful to them?

So, yes, because you have made me odious.

Yeah, I think it's more fear. Again, he slinks away from Laban because he's afraid of what Laban might do. He goes through all these machinations trying to placate Esau because he's afraid of what Esau might do.

Here, he's really upset with Simeon and Levi because of now what the Perizzites and Canaanites might do. It's just kind of over and over and over again. He's afraid. Yeah, well, some of the sons don't get really mentioned about what they did or did not do, but certainly his first four were no prize.

And you also notice that Judah was no prize for a lot of reasons, but he ended up having the blessing of the Messianic line. So, yes. And as a final connecting point, I think that's good. As a final connecting point, remember who's telling the story?

Like Moses.

Yeah.

Well, again, yeah. Remember who's telling the story? It's Moses. He's a Levite. It's Moses. He killed a man. Remember? He saw something wrong going down. He went over and killed the man. And then what happened?

So, I think you think about the guy telling the story, how significant is the story to him as he's telling it? Yeah, well, the anticipation of the war, I think that's right.

I don't know.

Again, you have to think about why did they kill all the people? Why did they kill all the males? Because all the males at the city gate of Shechem agreed to Hamor and Shechem's proposal that they were going to profit off the rape of Dinah by bringing the Israelites into their culture, into their society, and they would end up with their livestock and end up with their riches and their wealth.

So, there is such a thing as accessory, right? So, some Bible scholars would say, well, this was overly done, that they shouldn't even have thought about killing these other men. But the fact of the matter is they could have said, no, we're not doing that.

And I don't know what would have happened, but if they had said, no, we're not doing that, they wouldn't have been circumcised, they wouldn't have been disabled, and they would not have been killed. But they were complicit in it.

They signed up for it. So, that's one of the reasons why they died. And was Simeon and Levi vengeful and too hot under the collar?

Yes.

But they put a target on them by being complicit. I think it anticipates, yeah. I think it anticipates, but I would, you know. And so, and again, and part of what Jacob saw about Simeon and Levi too, is that they not only killed all the men in the city, that they apparently also killed the oxen, which bothered him.

It's like, you know, what is the wicked attitude towards his animal? The wicked is cruel towards his own animal. Just that, why did you kill the oxen? That signifies that they were just so angry, they were just killing everything that they could find.

So.

God has never had much to work with, yeah. Started X-ing the helo, and then the stuff he had after that wasn't all that great. All right, let's go ahead and close by seeing the doxology. And then after we do that, Truth Group.