Bible Guys Classics: Acts 21 Part 2

Hey, everybody, we're the Bible guys. And if you're just tuning in recently, just know that we are showing a little bit of reruns for a few months, and then we'll be back bigger and better than ever on August thirty first, because behind the scenes, we're taking a hiatus to do some very important things. Yeah, we're building building out a new studio and we've got some new structure. Super excited about it. So August thirty first, brand new content. But in the meantime, enjoy some of our greatest hits. Well, today, Paul's gonna hear some music really bad boys, bad boys that you're gonna do. Yeah, but he's getting arrested. The prophecy came and told him he's gonna get arrested. Yes, that's what happened, slamming. He gets arrested. Slamming in the slammer. So he's Chris and I'm Jeff and we're the Bible guys. All right, Jeff, Well, today we're going to do the Whisper Challenge. Oh yeah, this is a fun one. Yeah, And Wesley West and I did this last week when you were out of town, and uh, we actually did pretty decent. Yeah, yeah, you guys nailed it. I'm terrible at this one. Well I am actually most of the time. Yeah yeah, So you guys did a good job on it. Yeah, well you pulled one out. Man, that was a tough one. If people miss it, you go back and watch it. Yes, yeah, you did a good job. All right, I'm gonna put these on. Yes, you're putting. It's gonna be loud music. It's definitely gonna be loud. Okay, sorry, it's not Taylor Swift, is it? No, it is any grammar. Here we go, ready, yep, okay, okay, here we. Go ready, all right? Forescore in seven years ago? Oh I got that one. Four score and seven years ago? Yeah you got it? Yeah wow yeah yeah Abraham Lincoln. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. So too famous of a quote? Four score? Is there? There is no other? You know, because I'm just watching your mouth. Yeah yeah, so for who else said four score? Right, that's true, that's true. All right. If I'd messed it up and thought four square, maybe you're maybe you're super in the playground game. Four Square is my favorite game. Okay, yeah yeah, yeah. Hey, we're moving along pretty quick on this, so maybe. Yeah, maybe we can do another phrase. Here we go. Okay, okay, I got a press play. Excellence is not an act but a habit. Wow, I have no idea. Say it again, excellence is not an act but a habit. Be happy. I think you said excellence is not an act but a habit. Oh, it's not a habit, it's it's happy. You said happy. I said habit. I'm kidding. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yea, yeahh is Aristotle by. The way, Yeah, yeah, that is very sistic. Okay, let let's try. Let's do another way. Let's do another one. Those are fun? Yeah, these are we go? Ready, yep, all right, I'm gonna give him Bible verse. Guys, here we go. For where your treasure is there, will your heart be also? So? Oh, I have no idea I do it again? Or where your treasure is there? Will your heart? For where your treasure is there, will your heart be also? Yes? Yes, yes, okay, Hey, I'm feeling good about this. Hey, well I really mouthed that. You You pretty much gave that to me as a layup. Yeah, all right, one more okay. Let me have I have one more here for you, I. Said to the crowd beforehand. I said, I'm gonna give him a Bible verse, ladies and gentlemen. Oh there you go. Well, then of course I should get that one right, the Bible guy. Okay, you're ready, and when you're ready, I play. I'm ready. Okay. You can never beat a person who refuses to give up. That is a long phrase. You can never beat a person who refuses to give up. Dude, it's not even close. I literally can't even just a single word. You can never beat a person who refuses to give up. Oh gotcha, baby ruth, baby ruth. Yea yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, I'm sorry. That was too hard. No, no, you just said that very fast. You can never Well that's what I did for you. Let me be knownt it be known across the lands? Okay? Good, Yeah, that was a hard one then. Yeah, okay, you're like this, You're like, all right, here's my word ready. I was trying to do it. I was trying to do it like a like a ventriloquist, not move my lips at all. Yeah. Okay, Well, they prophesied that this was going to happen, and you know what, sure enough. It does, but that I would not win the whispers journe. No no, no, no, that always going to get a rest. Everything's about you, got it right, got it? So, uh, here we go. We're going to read much of the rest of this chapter. It's only ten verses here from twenty six to thirty six in Acts chapter twenty one. So, so do you remember he just finished up and he told them, Hey, these four guys, they're getting ready to go through their purification ritual, So go ahead, shave your heads, get purified, get ready, and will meet you at the temple. Right, and then he reminds them, but to the gentiles. To the gentiles, just avoid meat offered to idols, avoid meat that was strangled, stayway from sexual immorality, keep yourself pure and clean in front of God. But you're not required to follow the Jewish laws and rules. So Paul is both supporting the Jewish Christians who still follow many of the Jewish laws their rules, and he's at the same time reaffirming that the gentile Christians truly are believers and can honor God with their life too. So now they're going to the temple. That's what happened in the previous passage, and so it say so Paul went to the temple the next day with the other men. They had already started the purification ritual, so he publicly announced the date when their vows would end, and sacrifices to be offered for each of them. The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul in the temple and roused a mob against him, and they grabbed him, yelling, men of Israel, help us. This is the man who preaches against our people everywhere and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He speaks against the temple and even defiles this holy place by bringing in gentiles. For earlier that day they had seen him in the city with Trophi, miss the gentile from Ephesus. Then they assumed Paul had taken him into the temple. The whole city was rocked by these accusations, and a great riot followed. Paul was grabbed and dragged out of the temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him. As they were trying to kill him. Word reached the commander of the Roman regiment that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately called out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the commander and the troops coming, they stopped beating Paul. Then the commander arrested him and ordered him bound with two chains, and he asked the crowd who he was and what he had done. Some shouted one thing and some another instance. He couldn't find out the truth and all the uproar and confusion, he ordered that Paul be taken to the fortress. As Paul reached the stairs, the mob grew so violent the soldiers had to lift him to their shoulders to protect him, and the crowd followed behind, shouting kill him, kill him, good gravy. Yeah, that's a rough one. Talk about danger kind of stepped in it there, Danger, danger, Will Robinson. You know, it's so funny because you know, Paul has already, as we said yesterday, he sort of told the people, hey, I'm ready, I'm ready to be killed, I'm ready for persecution. He heads there, he gets arrested, and the bottom line is is it's it's a rough one, and and it's all because they're saying that he is. He's telling everybody to disobey the Jewish laws, and he's allowing gentiles and defiling their place of worship. Yeah, and you think most of our listeners have a hard time comprehending how offended the Jewish people were by Paul's message. And it got so bad that the uproar was so bad the Roman soldiers had to put him on their shoulders to get him out of the crowd, out of the mob. Right. That's I don't know that we have anything in our life that is you know, in our culture that is that aggressive. Well, you know, it's sort of like you know, like today, it's hard for us to understand how our faith could be intertwined with everything. So like I remember one time we did a series on this and it was on uh, you know, Passover and Shabbat, and we did all these Jewish you know, celebration and we sort of analyzed it. And the only thing that we and again it's it's not it's very very different. But like, have you ever talked with a Muslim and and and understood that, like their faith intertwines in every single thing that they do. Yes, So, I mean it's where they shop, it's where they eat, it's it's how they socialize, that everything revolves around the faith. It's like the faith is the foundation to every aspect of their lives and the only reason why I even bring up Muslim although radically different than a Christian right, that that culture is something that we're not really familiar with. When it comes to the Jewish culture, I think the Jewish culture is the same way as I'm trying to say. Sure, right was very similar back then. I think the thing that's different for us is as Christians, Bible based Christians, grace based Christians, we understand there's not a set group of laws and rules you have to keep in order to appease God and in order to go to Heaven. Right, So grace doesn't require a specific obedience to certain laws. Instead, grace is built around the idea that I turn from my sin and turned to God. Right, so I repent of my sin, I turned to God, and I put my faith and trust in Him. But for this group, this version of Judaism, which is different from a lot of the modern Judaism today, it's more similar to the orthodox Judaism and then much of Islam. It's more about appeasing God. It's more about the rules that have to be kept, and so because of that, then the rules have permeated every part of their life to the point that they avoid being defiled by other people who don't keep those same rules because they're afraid if I hang around people who don't keep these same rules, then I'm going to be defiled and God's going to be mad at me. Right, So it's about it just premiates it. I think it's important for us as Christians. I think our faith should completely one percent permeate and inform every bit of our lifestyle. Right. The difference was for them it was a rule based thing, whereas God's grace should permeate every part of our lifestyle today. Right Between those two things, yeah. And uh and so so they're radically offended. And keep in mind as well that like this church that Paul is, you know, visiting in Jerusalem. It's a temple. It's Herod's temple. It's Herod's temple. Yeah, yeah, it's it's it's very different than him being in a church. Perhaps that he started himself on his missionary journeys where he would preach the Gospel. There'd be people converted to Christ and then they believe in the message and all of a sudden, this you know, church brings up where Paul is sort of the founder. Right, So Paul finds himself in Jerusalem and a temple, Herid's Temple, and. Which is the holiest place in Judaism, Right, there's nothing. This is where the holy of holies is, This is where the sacrifices are done. This is where the high priest does his work for the nation. And so this is the holiest place. And in the notes, in my mind, well. You could argue and say it is the symbol that represents the Old Testament ways of appeasing God more than any other place. Ever, right, Right, it was it was all about that spot, right, and in spectacular in design and in scale, and it was incredibly prominent in Jerusalem, all these things, and so it really represented not only their culture but and also their religion, but their ability to connect with God. Right. And when you have a rules based religion, you become very convinced that you are one hundred percent completely right and everybody else is one hundred percent completely wrong. And then those others are enemies, right, they become enemies. And that was it is that, hey, you're not only attacking our faith, but you're attacking our culture. And now we are furious with you. And then we have to remember too, he was the poster boy for their religion when he was a terrorist basically killing other people and that, you know, Christians, and then now he becomes the poster boy for Christianity. So there's also I think resentment culturally that he's a trader, right, so he betrayed us and he's you know, going against us and all this stuff. But here's an interesting thing what we discovered. I love how archaeology support scripture. So there were notices in Greek and Hebrew that warned non Jews to not enter the inner court of Herod's temple on pain of death. One whole copy and part of another in Greek had been found. This was standing outside the temple at the time of Christ and the Apostles. When Paul entered the temple to help some Jewish Christians for phili Vau, the Jews were mistakenly thought Paul had taken Trophemus, a gentile from Ephesus, into the temple. This aroused great anger against Paul, a mob formed who wanted to kill him. Paul was referring to this wall when he said that God broke down the wall that divided Jews and Gentiles, and he did this through the crucifixion of Jesus. Paul mentions this in the Book of Ephesians, right, that God broke down the wall between Jews and Gentiles. Right, this is the wall. The sign literally said, if any Gentile goes beyond this point, you're going to suffer the consequence of death, penalty consequence. And so the Jews thought, just because Paul was hanging out with Trophemus the day before that, he probably just brought him in, right, So he's guilty by association and all that. But what an astounding thing to think. Can you imagine if we had a sign outside our church that said, if you're not just like us, we're gonna kill you, right right, yeah. Do not enter if you're not like us. You know, it's so interesting because I think a lot of churches have invisible signs, you know, they have signs that are unspoken. And you know, if you wander into a church of a different faith or a different you know, race, or a different custom or or you know, they just they practice differently, and especially if you stand out, and you know, sometimes it's not the most welcoming environment. I think you know, I think I think the church is guilty of that. And and really this is a great example of of you know, how it shouldn't be right. Can I tell you a quick story. So, so I love black gospel music, love it, love it, love it, love it, and absolutely just I have always talked about it with my good friends. And I was on staff here in Michigan at a very large church and my worship leader had taken a break with her husband and had not you know, come on a Sunday and had been off and and they decided to wander into this church. It was a black gospel choir that they absolutely loved. And so they came back and said, Chris, you're gonna have to go and visit this church when you have a day off, because we know that you would love their choir. Right. You ever see Whitney Houston and that I called the Preacher's Wife. It's that kind of a vibe, right, It's that kind of vibe which is just wonderful. They all get robes and they're singing, and they're just unbelievable their voices, you know. So I thought, man, I'm gonna go do this, you know. So and I said, well, what do I wear? And they said, well, you know, it's definitely not a jeans and a button down, which is what you normally wear on a Sunday morning. You know, it's definitely not that. Now, what they should have said was, if you don't wear a suit, you'll be the only human being in the room without a suit. Right, So I'm thinking I'm gonna upgrade to slacks. So I put doctors on. Actually not even slacks, doctors, and I tucked my shirt in. Ooh, look at me being fancy, wear dress shoes and put out a belt. You know, I'm thinking this is good enough. You know, this is way above what I do, what I normally do. And as soon as I walked in, I could just feel like people were judging me because I was didn't look like everybody else, because everybody's dressed to the nines, right, And it's just and I felt like I was. Treated that way and then and it wouldn't have to be that they were judging you. They could have just been surprised you that it was so they'd never seen that before, yeah, right, right right. And there was another guy who was, you know, Caucasian, and uh, but but boy did he look good. He had this suit on. Man, he looked. You can tell he's been there before, you know. And so anyway, I sat down in the middle of this church and there was a point in time where the pastor said, hey, if you're a visitor, they seated, and if everybody else stand up and everybody go, welcome visitors. So I'm thinking, oh, here it is here, it is finally. Right. Well, I'd already been the first one there and I had sat down in the middle, and I felt like everybody like, uh you ever do you ever see that commercial where they do the down liquid soap where they drop it and everything moves out right, That's that's what that was me in the middle of this in the pews, right, everybody every had a radius before they were sitting around me. Something I didn't washed this morning. I shaphood. Anyway, so now go welcome the visitor. I'm thinking, finally somebody could come up and say hi to me, right And literally they stood up and welcomed every single person around me, and everybody avoided me. And I was sitting alone in the center, like five pews back in the center section, and not a single person came up and said onto me, by the way, you get worse than that too. I'm just not going to dog in the stretch too much. But anyway, all that to say, I walked away from that experience and I actually thought to myself, thank God that we go to a church and that I'm the pastor of a church that doesn't do those things, because listen. Hard to make everybody feel comfortable, feel welcome now to. Give them a little grace. Maybe I offended them, and maybe I did something maybe you know, maybe I by. Not not understanding the cultural norms. Yea, I might have felt disrespectful. So granted, I mean, I'm not trying to dog them too hard. But what I am saying is is that I think that sometimes there's an invisible wall that says, hey, man, you better be like us or else we're not going to like you. And yeah, you know, I have I have a lot of friends that are you know, a mom in mosques. I have friends that are rabbis in synagogues. And so this is not an anti Jewish passage, and we're not taking an anti Jewish perspective or we're not taking an anti Muslim or Islamic position here. What we're saying is that when the rules become more important than the people, and when rules are the defining element of your religion, you run the risk then of alienating and even maybe begin to feel like you need to push away or even begin to hate people who don't follow those exact same rules. Right. And that's what's happening here. Right, And it's really important to understand that this was new information. Jesus had come along on the scene and said, Hey, the Gospel and my sacrifice is not only for Jews, the Jewish people, but it's for gentiles. And that was new. And even though that we've heard that before, we can't even imagine the idea of jesus sacrifice only being to one group that believe it or not was brand new information. And poor Paul, in all fairness, he was not disrespectful in this moment, right. It didn't bring in trophemous, right, and he was honoring these four guys who were going through this Jewish purification ritual that lasted seven days. And he had been a pharisee, so he knows how to lead through this whole process, and he's helping them lead, he's honoring their belief system. And even while he's trying to honor them, wrong place, wrong time, And the enemies of Paul decided to take advantage of this spread a rumor that wasn't true, and that rumor just jacked up a bunch of people who didn't know their scriptures. Because you know, if you really look into the Jewish law and you look into the Jewish scriptures, there was nothing against Paul doing what Paul was doing then that day, right, So he wasn't breaking any laws that day. But sometimes if we don't know the words of God, and somebody else can come in and just say and pretend like they're telling you God said, And if you don't know them, well, then you can kind of get sucked into groupthink, into mob mentality, and all of a sudden do way more damage than you should have done with your faith. And so I'm not saying rules aren't important. They are. I'm not saying that cultural norms aren't important. They are. I'm not saying that we shouldn't be respectful of cultural norms. We should be. We should always be. Paul said he tried to be all things to all men so that by all possible means he might save some right and and So Paul worked hard to honor and respect culture. But in this situation, it wasn't his missteps, it was the accusations, and he gets sucked into the accusations of this, and it was just because bad guys decided to do bad things. You know, if you really think about this, there's a direct line connected from the Gospels and Paul's, you know, explosion of the church directly connected to us and our church experiences, like they're like we're standing on his shoulders, and you know, the things we experienced today are a direct result of what's happening here. Right, And so let me just say this. So Jesus is in the middle of a dusty field. He asks the disciples, who do you say that I am? You know? Some say Elijah, some say you know your reincarnation. And then he says, who do you say that I am? Peter gets the right answer, you you're the son of the Living God. Right. And then Jesus makes this statement and says, on this, which is, you know, on this proclamation, right, I will build my church and the gates of Hell should not prevail against it. And so think about it. So the fact that Jesus Christ is the son of the Living God. You know, the fact that you know, it's built on the fact that Jesus came down in the earth, died on across rose from the grave, that he is God's son given to us. If a church believes that, no matter how different they are, because there are a lot of differences, right, So you look at all the different churches with different you know, denominations and different names, and they all have different little different nuances to them. You know, they and their kids to different colleges. They may worship different they may do baptism slightly differently, they may you know, dress differently, as we just pointed out right, and they different different, different, different, different, different. But put us all in one room, and what's the one thing we have in common, Jesus, Right that we all believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. And that's what unites us now, granted as long as the church believes that. So here's what I would say. I would say if that's the case, and this is what you're speaking on the Sunday, which is, if that's the case, then we are way more alike than we are different. We have much more in common than we don't. So it's just important. You know. Maybe that's a great application for our listeners to understand that the church down the street is not a competition. Right. Jesus prayed that the church would be one. And if a church recognizes Jesus as the Son of God and lines up, you know, the doctrines about who God is and who we are and everything else, regardless of nuances. You know, we need to consider them as being on the same team, and. We need to tear down the wall that has the sign that says do not enter. That's correct. Everybody's welcome, right right. In the Book of Ephesians and Book of Galatians, Paul says there's no more Jew or Greek, there's no more slaver free, there's no more male or female. We're all one in Christ. And that's God's desire for us, is that we'd be one. That's awesome. Well, that's a good place to end, and we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,