Chapter 36

The Misunderstood Missionary

Acts 21

 

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "To be great is to be misunderstood.  Pythagorus was misunderstood and Socrates and Galileo and Newton.  Jesus was misunderstood.  Is it so bad then to be misunderstood?  To be great is to be misunderstood."  Emerson might have added that the apostle Paul was misunderstood by friends and foes alike.  Three of these misunderstandings and their consequences are recorded in Acts 21.

 

 

Paul's Friends Misunderstood His Plans, 21:1-14

 

Paul had to tear himself away from the Ephesians elders, so great was his love for them.  (That is the meaning of the Greek verb translated "after we were gotten from them".  It means dragged or forced.)  He and his partners sailed from Miletus to Cos, then to Rhodes, and then to Patara, a total of three days' journey, v. 1.  At Patara he left the boat that stopped at every little port and found a ship sailing directly to Phoenicia, about 400 miles, v. 2.  They sailed within site of the island of Cyrpus and then on to the region known as Syria and specifically to the city of Tyre.

 

Tyre, vv. 3-6.  Paul had to search out believers in Tyre, an indication that the church was small in number.  I am impressed when a traveling Christian makes it a point to find a church, even when his stay is short.  (We do).  This is Paul's first contact with the believers in Tyre, although it is likely that his persecution of the Jerusalem church helped get this church started, Acts 11:19.  While his ship unloaded and then re-loaded cargo, Paul stayed a week with his new Christian friends.

 

First century Christianity was under a constant threat of division, particularly along the lines of Jew vs. Gentiles.  To promote unity among the churches, Paul had taken up an offering from the Gentile congregations and was taking it to Jerusalem.  It was a way of expressing appreciation for the Jewish sharing the gospel with the Gentiles, Romans 15:25-27.  There was an extreme movement going on within the Jewish side of Christianity which promoted the keeping of Old Testament laws, like circumcision.  Some false Christian teachers were following Paul around (keeping their distance of course) and proselytizing the Gentile churches to their position and then spreading vicious rumors about the ministry of Paul to the Jews.  And so, Paul's tenacious determination to go to Jerusalem was for the purpose of producing oneness between Jewish and Gentile Christians. 

 

But all along the way, he received warnings from friends and prophetic utterances from the Holy Spirit about this trip to Jerusalem, see 20:22-24.  One such incident took place in Tyre, 21:4.  They told him not to go to Jerusalem.  But he went anyhow!  Verse 5 says that they followed him to the ship where they prayed together.  Isn't it amazing how fast Christians can become close?

 

Caesarea, vv.  7-14.  From Tyre they traveled to Ptolemais for a day (v. 7) and then on to Caesarea to the house of Philip the evangelist, v. 8.  Philip was originally one of the seven deacons in the church at Jerusalem but now he lives in Caesarea and is an evangelist.  (He is the only evangelist specifically identified as such in Scripture.  What is the work of an evangelist?  Itinerant preaching and church planting, personal soul winning, Acts 8.)

 

In Caesarea, Paul got a second warning from a Prophet.  Agabus (Acts 11:28).  In verse 11, Agabus gave Paul a very dramatic object lesson.  And so, verse 12 says that everyone, Philip, his four virgin daughters who proclaimed God's word, Luke and those on the traveling team all told Paul not to go to Jerusalem.  But, according to verses 13-14, Paul told them that he was going to Jerusalem even if it meant imprisonment or death.  And so they said, "The will of the Lord be done."

 

We could pause here for a moment and ask ourselves, "Was Paul right or wrong to go on to Jerusalem?  Was his decision courageous and full of conviction or was it stubbornness?"  What do you think?

 

You might conclude that these were prophetic utterances from good and godly friends and their counsel should have been heeded.  You might go on to say that what they predicted indeed came to pass.  Paul was arrested, imprisoned in Caesarea for two years, put on trial, appealed his case to Rome and so was sent to Rome as a prisoner, suffered a near fatal shipwreck along the way, and spent two more years under house arrest in Rome.  Just think of all that could have been done for the work of the Lord had Paul avoided this confrontation and kept his freedom.

 

It is probably more accurate however to understand these prophetic utterances as warnings rather than as prohibitions.  That's what the commentators say.  Agabus did not prohibit Paul from going to Jerusalem, he simply warned of what would happen if he went.  They also point out that the construction of the grammar in Greek in verse 4 is not an absolute prohibition but advise and warning.  The pleads of his friends were, of course, out of a sense of personal concern for Paul's safety and well being not the same as godly counsel

 

This is a reminder to us that the most important question is not passive - what is God's will - but active - what constitutes a wise decision.  Ultimately, Paul had the freedom of choice about whether or not he should go to Jerusalem.  He made his decision on the basis of his personal conviction that this was the right thing to do, no matter what happened, no matter what anyone else said. 

 

His Christian friends may have misunderstood his plans, but Paul took that risk and pressed on to Jerusalem.  He was willing to be misunderstood, willing to be criticized, willing to pay the price - loss of freedom and reputation even loss of life - because of conviction about his purpose.

 

 

The First Church Misunderstood His Message, 21:15-26

 

The trip from Caesarea to Jerusalem was, of course, overland, v. 15.  Paul and his ministry were not alone, being accompanied by Christians from Caesarea, v. 16.

 

The good news was that Paul was received by the leaders of the church warmly, v. 17.  The initial meeting was just for personal fellowship.  The discussion took place the next day, v. 18.  Paul first gave to them a full and accurate report of his ministry, not of what he had done, but of what the Lord had done through his ministry.  These elders rejoiced at what they heard, vv. 19-20a. 

 

The joy that these leaders had over the conversions of Gentiles was mixed with concern over certain rumors which were be circulated about Paul.  Their in Judea and Jerusalem there  were thousands of Jews who had become Christians but who remained zealous of the law.  Being Christians caused them to desire obedience and the Old Testament was all the scripture in their possession.  (They didn't have Romans or Galatians or Hebrews yet).  They were not trusting in their keeping of the law for salvation but remained "Jewish" in certain Jewish customs and rituals - feast days, rest on the Sabbath, ritual vows and dietary restriction.  So long as they did not require law keeping for salvation nor impose their customs on the Gentile believers, the apostles and elders did not condemn those practices.

 

But the rumor that was being spread was that Paul (v. 21) was traveling throughout the Roman empire telling Jews in foreign countries to forsake Moses, not circumcise their sons and drop all the Jewish customs.  That rumor was not based in any facts.  Paul had circumcised Timothy (2nd missionary journey) and had also kept the Nazarite vow in Corinth (third journey) and had been careful not to purposely violate customs of the law of Moses, I Corinthians 9:19-23.  Two things are true about rumors - even though they don't have a leg to stand on, they sure can travel fast  and ...they are usually not based on facts but on half-truths, prejudices and outright lies.

 

The leaders felt like there needed to be a public symbolic act on the part of Paul that would serve as a unifying force within the kinds of Christians.  They suggested that Paul demonstrate publicly his reverence for the Jewish law.  They asked him to publicly identify himself with four men under a Nazarite vow, pay for their sacrifices and be with them in the temple for their time of purification, vv. 22-24.  According to verse 25, they made it clear that this was not required of the Gentiles (meaning that it was not a part of salvation) and that they still stood by the letter they had sent with Paul in Acts 15.  This was practical and personal Christian living not doctrinal nor about salvation. 

 

Paul agreed to do it.  He reported to the priest the next day and share in the purification ceremony, but he himself did not take any vows.  He and the four men had to wait seven days and then offer the prescribed sacrifices.  The whole plan appeared to be safe and wise, but it did not work.  Instead of bringing peace, it caused an uproar and Paul ended up arrested.

 

 

The Jews Misunderstood Paul's Ministry, 21:27-40

 

In the temple, separating the Court of the Gentiles from the other courts, stood a way beyond which no Gentile was allowed to go.  The Romans had granted the Jewish religious leaders authority to deal with anybody who broke this law and this included the right of execution.  This law plays an important role in what happened to Paul.

 

Some Jews from Asia saw Paul in the temple and jumped to the conclusion that he had polluted their sacred building by bringing Gentiles past the barricade.  They were probably from Ephesus  They had seen him in the city with someone they recognized - Trophimus - and had assumed that where Paul went Trophimus went and so Trophimus had been in the Temple.  They had no use of Paul anyway, vv. 28-29. 

 

They seized Paul and would have killed him had not the Romans guards intervened.  The temple crowd was in an uproar completely ignorant of what was going on.  It required some effort and several soldiers (centurion = over 100; it is plural here 2 or more and 200 soldiers) to bring the mob under control and to rescue Paul.  According to verse 38, the captain of the guard actually thought that Paul was an "at large" Egyptian rebel who was wanted by the Romans for inciting a revolt.  The soldiers did not get a clear picture from the crowd (vv.  33-34).  Finally, the captain decided to interrogate Paul.  He was moving him to a different place while the angry crowd cried, "Away with him!"  When Paul spoke, the captain was amazed that this dangerous criminal could speak Greek.  Paul introduced himself (v. 39) and asked for permission to speak to the crowd.  He was given permission and silenced the crowd and spoke to them in the Hebrew language.  Chapter 22 is the record of what Paul said.

 

This marks an important transition in the life of Paul - from traveling missionary to writing prisoner.  Here again, Paul was misunderstood.  He was charged with being anti-Semitic by the Jews and a troublemaker by the Romans.

 

If you will risk doing something daring for God, you can expect to be misunderstood by your friends, by the church and by your enemies.  But to be great is to be misunderstood.  Is it so bad to be misunderstood?