Acts chapter 21 and we'll read
from verse 27. So perhaps you'll remember that
Paul was going to take a vow in the temple. We did wonder
about the wisdom of that, but here we are approaching the end
of the days in which that vow was taken. And we read in verse
27. And when the seven days were
almost ended, the Jews, which were of Asia, when they saw him
in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on
him. crying out, Men of Israel, help! This is the man that teacheth
all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this
place, and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath
polluted this holy place. For they had seen before with
him in the city, Trophimus, an Ephesian, whom they supposed
that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the city was
moved, and the people ran together. And they took Paul and drew him
out of the temple, and forthwith the doors were shut. And as they
went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of
the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar, who immediately
took soldiers and centurions and ran down unto them. And when
they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating
of Paul. Then the chief captain came near
and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains and
demanded who he was and what he had done. And some cried one
thing and some another among the multitude and when he could
not know the certainty for the tumult he commanded him to be
carried into the castle And when he came upon the stairs, so it
was that he was born of the soldiers for the violence of the people,
for the multitude of the people followed after, crying away with
him. And as Paul was to be led into
the castle, he said unto the chief captain, May I speak unto
thee? Who said, Canst thou speak Greek? Art not thou that Egyptian which
before these days madest an uproar and leadest out into the wilderness
four thousand men that were murderers? But Paul said, I am a man which
am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean
city, and I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.
And when he had given him license, Paul stood on the stairs and
beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made
a great silence, he spake unto them in Hebrew tongue, in the
Hebrew tongue, saying. And we're not going to find out
what he said until the next chapter. Last time when we were thinking
about this passage, we saw how that Paul... at James's request,
was preparing to take a vow to make a sacrifice in the temple. And as I've already mentioned,
we wondered about the wisdom of that. It seems as if Paul
and James together were anxious that the population might be
placated because there was anxiety, there was a sense of trouble
that Paul was in the city and that he had a reputation for
undermining the Jewish faith and Jewish worship, principally
the law of God and the obedience of people to that law. And so
Paul was getting ready to take this vow and it seems to have
been what we call a Nazarite vow and it requires a number
of days preparation and it seems to be in this passage that we're
told it was coming near the end of those days, those seven days,
and Paul was getting ready to go into the temple in order to
make his sacrifice and be part of that ceremony. But the interesting
thing is this, that while Paul and James had this plan together,
the Lord Jesus Christ had another plan. And that reminded me as
I thought about this passage of Proverbs chapter 16 and verse
9. And that little verse says, A
man's heart diviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. Can you just think about that
with me for a moment? Think about what that little
verse is saying. A man's heart deviseth his way. A man thinks about what it is
that he wants to do. A man's passions, a man's desires,
a person's intentions are one thing. But in the event, no matter
what we want to do, no matter what we think that we should
do, it is God who ultimately directs our steps. We might have a plan to do something,
but God will work out what actually happens. And here we find in
Paul's life that there were a number of Jews of Asia, and these people
might well have been from Ephesus. And I'll tell you why that was
in a moment. We're told that they were from
Asia and this is that part of Turkey where Paul had done a
lot of his ministry and these people knew Paul and hated Paul
and they wanted to kill Paul. and they saw him, they had come
up to Jerusalem as well perhaps to go to the feast or perhaps
more likely they were pursuing Paul through all his journey
and now followed him to Jerusalem planning to kill him if they
got the opportunity and they saw him in the temple. and they
called on the people around about to help them in their wicked
plan of killing Paul. And as I was reading this, I
thought to myself, I wonder why they shouted for help. I wonder
why they just didn't kill Paul there and then. If he wasn't
suspecting it, we know that he wasn't a... A man who carried
any weapons. He wasn't a man who was big and
strong. He was, in fact, a rather small
man, it appears. and yet here it seems that they
shouted for others to come and help them to slay Paul. And that's why I wonder if perhaps
these people were from Ephesus because maybe you can remember
that there was a riot in Ephesus and maybe these people thought
to themselves, you know what, this would be a good way for
us to commit murder without anyone being held personally responsible. If we can get Paul murdered as
part of a riot, then everybody will be able to say, well it
wasn't me, it wasn't me, and nobody will be held personally
responsible for his death. and so they caused, they generated
this commotion. They called for help and they
started a disturbance during which they grabbed Paul, they
dragged him out of the temple and they started to put him to
death. They started to kick him, they
started to punch him, they started to stamp on his body when he
fell to the ground. And we're told in verse 30 that
as a result of this commotion, as a result of this assault that
went on against Paul, that the whole city was moved. Perhaps you heard me reading
that in verse 30. And all the people ran together. There was a shout went up in
the city, something's happening, something's going on at the temple
gate. And everybody in the city ran
to the temple to see what it was that was happening, such
that there was a large mob of people And it's very interesting because
what we discover here is that the riot was too successful.
Everybody ran together to the place, so much so that the Roman
soldiers that were stationed near the temple, they heard the
noise, they saw all the people running to the temple. And so
the captain of the band or the captain of the soldiers, he also
sent a large number of soldiers out into the street. It's called Soldiers and Centurions. Now, if any of the younger people
who are listening are kind of clever about what a centurion
was, they would know that he was in charge of a hundred soldiers. So here are at least several
centurions, So there are soldiers and centurions. So there may
have been hundreds of soldiers all running out into the street
in order to quieten the people and cause there to be peace restored
in the city where this tumult, where this riot was taking place. In fact, a little bit later in
Acts, we'll come to it in a few weeks' time perhaps, This man
who was the captain of the band, he called these soldiers an army. And so this gives us some sense
of the number of troops that were sent out into the streets
to restore order. And when the Jews there in Jerusalem
saw all these soldiers running towards them with their swords
and their spears, they left off beating Paul. and Paul was not actually killed. He was beaten, he was battered,
but he wasn't actually killed because the Roman soldiers were
running to his defence. He was arrested and we're told
that he was put into two chains. And we're also told that the
captain of the guard said, what is all this about? but no one
could properly explain why Paul was being attacked. So the captain
of the soldiers commanded that Paul, and this is interesting,
not be led to the castle or the tower that was at the castle
where the soldiers were stationed, but he was carried there. These
soldiers had to put Paul above their heads and carry him into
the tower because there were so many people standing round
about the shoulders trying to punch Paul and shouting at him
for him to be killed. It's interesting that they cried
away with him. These were the very same words
that were used when the Lord Jesus was being crucified and
it seems as if Paul was about to follow the same pattern as
the Lord. And these people were shouting,
away with him, kill him, let him be slain, let him be executed. But what I want to draw your
attention to, and I've not got too much more to say about this,
but I just want to draw your attention to something which
I think is very important, because we've been a little bit surprised
at what Paul did in taking this vow. But here, right now, as
Paul is being led up these stairs, we discover where Paul's true
passion lay. What was at the bottom of Paul's
intention, what was at the heart of his desire, was to preach
the Gospel, to preach the Lord Jesus Christ and Amazingly, in
the midst of this riot, when Paul had all these fists and
feet and elbows and arms coming down on top of him as he was
lying there getting beaten and then being carried in chains
up the stairs into the prison and into the tower where this
Roman commander would have him put, he suddenly thought to himself,
This is perhaps the largest congregation, the largest audience that I've
ever had. He had a full city of people
and he had a whole army of Roman soldiers before him. And he says
to the commander, can I speak to these people? Can I say a
few words? And I think that is absolutely
wonderful. I think that only God could have
arranged that. James and Paul thought, let's
not cause any trouble in the city. Let's try and keep things
quiet so that I'll have an opportunity to preach the gospel to the church
and to anyone who will listen to me. But God had a different
plan. He said no. First of all, he
saved Paul from actually making that vow and sacrificing in the
temple, which was a very inappropriate thing for him to do. Secondly,
he caused that riot to take place. But thirdly, he used the occasion
of that riot to have Paul preach to such a vast crowd of people. that perhaps it was the largest
audience that the Apostle Paul had ever had in one place at
one time. So he asks the permission of
the captain. The captain isn't sure who this
man is. He thought he was an Egyptian.
He thought he was somebody else. Turns out Paul is able to say
to him, I'm a Roman citizen. I'm from the city of Tarsus.
And that granted Paul special privileges. And so the captain
agreed that he should address this huge crowd. And here we
see the hand of God at work, the Lord Jesus Christ's providence
in this wonderful opportunity for the Apostle Paul to preach
the Lord Jesus Christ, to preach the gospel and to give his testimony
and to speak simply about what the Lord Jesus Christ had done
for him. So our lesson today is simply
this. We don't know how things will turn out. and we make the
best decisions that we can given the demands and the circumstances. But we do not need to fear what
will happen if we are the Lords, because what this passage reminds
us is that our God, our Saviour, is in control of every situation. Do you remember Joseph and his
brethren, how Joseph was sent down to Egypt as a slave? And
many years later, he could say to his brothers, You thought
evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass
as it is this day, to save much people alive. And we're reminded
by Paul elsewhere that the Lord Jesus Christ was given for us,
that God the Father spared not his own son, but delivered him
up for us all. How shall he not with them also
freely give us all things? The Lord directs our steps, even
in the mistakes that we make. And does that not lift a great
weight from off our shoulders and off of our conscience to
know that even our mistakes, even our errors, even our sins
can be used by God to accomplish his purpose and to do his people
good. May the Lord bless us in these
thoughts this morning.