August 30, 2023 | Be On Mission
Paul is Arrested, Chained, and Imprisoned
Scripture: Acts 21:27-36(NIV)
27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the temple. They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who 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.” 29 (They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple.)
30 The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple, and immediately the gates were shut. 31 While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. 32 He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.
33 The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with two chains. Then he asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd shouted one thing and some another, and since the commander could not get at the truth because of the uproar, he ordered that Paul be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. 36 The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!”
Devotional
In the previous reading, we saw how Paul paid the expenses for four Jewish men to make sacrificial offerings in order to rededicate themselves to a Nazirite vow. When this weeklong period of purification was over, he took the men to the temple. Some onlookers falsely accused him of taking Gentiles into the temple, which was reserved for Jews only. The place went crazy.
Over the previous decade, Paul’s three missionary journeys took him to modern-day Syria, Turkey and Greece, among other places. Along the way his message of the gospel of Christ led thousands of people to become followers of Jesus, and untold thousands more to riot against him in places like Lystra, Philippi, Corinth, Thessalonica, and Ephesus. This uproar in Jerusalem was nothing new.
Paul’s efforts to show that he was honoring the Jewish religious law fell on deaf ears. They loudly condemned him, “This is the man who teaches everyone (both Jews and Gentiles) everywhere (throughout the Roman Empire) against our people (the Jews) and our law (the first five books of the Old Testament) and this place (Jerusalem).” It was a piercing accusation.
Of course, the opposite was true. Paul taught everyone everywhere that all could be saved through the grace of Jesus Christ. But it didn’t matter. Less than thirty years after crucifying Jesus in Jerusalem, the next generation of angry religious people were ready to do away with the Lord’s leading evangelist. Their final words in today’s reading say it all: “Get rid of him!”
A decade later, they did just that when Paul was executed in Rome. They got rid of him, but they couldn’t eradicate his message of salvation in Jesus. The same has been true down through the ages. Even today, people are sharing the good news of Jesus while facing harsh news of persecutors all around them. Pray for those who are bravely spreading the gospel of Christ throughout the world.
Poem
All Stirred Up
There are patterns in the Bible
There are patterns in our lives
We need stop and pay attention
We need heed the warning: Strife!
When you hear of people murmurs
When you see a gathering crowd
When you feel the storm clouds’ shadow
When the thundering gets loud
As you see the evil stirring
And the riots forming hate
As you notice persecution
And as righteousness abates
As they yell and stone the prophets
As they shout against the truth
As they nail the King to crosses
As they trample on the youth
You need stop and pay attention
As to where your feet do stand
Check to make sure you are praying
And don’t have a stone in hand
Do not be one who’s tempted
To join in the gathering crowd
Be aware you’re not stirred up
Just because the anger’s loud
Find the closet of Christ’s silence
Rest among the martyrs’ seat
That you may enter glory
Undefiled and full complete
