Acts chapter 21 and we'll read
from verse 17. So we're at the end of Paul's
third missionary journey and he has come to Jerusalem and
we read together from verse 17. And when we were come to Jerusalem,
the brethren received us gladly. And the day following, Paul went
in with us unto James, and all the elders were present. And
when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things
God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. And when they
heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou
seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe,
and they are all zealous of the law. and they are informed of
thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles
to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise
their children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it
therefore? The multitude must needs come
together, for they will hear that thou art come. Do therefore
this, that we say to thee, We have four men which have a vow
on them, them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at
charges with them, that they may shave their heads, and all
may know that those things whereof they were informed concerning
thee are nothing, but that thou thyself also walkest orderly,
and keepest the law. as touching the Gentiles which
believe we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing
save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols
and from blood and from strangled and from fornication. Then Paul
took the men, and the next day, purifying himself with them,
entered into the temple to signify the accomplishment of the days
of purification, until that an offering should be offered for
every one of them. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. Again, it's quite a short reading
this morning because I wanted to take... this passage in a
couple of parts because I think there's a real importance in
this passage for us to understand and to pause upon and to reflect
upon. I believe that this passage shows
us a wonderful example of God's care and kindness and his providence
and protection of his people and particularly in this situation
his servant the Apostle Paul and that in the face of great
pressure that Paul had been brought under here in Jerusalem. Paul
had been eager, as we've learned in the preceding passages, he
had been eager to go to Jerusalem for some time. And we discovered
right back when he was in Europe that he had determined that he
would go to Jerusalem for the feast, undoubtedly surmising
that this would be an opportunity to speak about Christ, to preach
the gospel, to take a stand amongst a city that would be full, full
of people, heaving with people who had gathered for this significant
religious feast in Jerusalem. And despite the warning of trouble
that would befall him, the apostle was determined to go to Jerusalem
and had even said goodbye, for example, to the Ephesians. He had spent time at Troas and
he had there said his as it was likely to be, his last goodbyes
to friends, knowing that there was danger at Jerusalem. And throughout that journey back
towards the city, he was beset by people telling him that he
ought not to go. Believers prophesying, saying,
don't go up there, rather stay with us. And you'll recall perhaps
in verse 13 in the previous passage that we read before, how Paul
said, I am ready to die at Jerusalem. Don't make me weep. I am ready
to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And so we
come to the passage, the verses today, and we see that Paul has
arrived in the city, and at once he goes to visit James. Now this is not James, the brother
of John, because we know he was killed by Herod some long time
before, but this is James, the son of Alphaeus, who is also
spoken of in the list of the disciples. So he is a disciple,
And he's probably kinsman to the Lord Jesus Christ also. Some
say that he's a brother, some say that it's like a cousin,
but this is James the son of Alphaeus. And when we realise
that it is James who is here, we see also that he is with a
group of elders. Now that suggests to us that
very likely there were no other apostles in Jerusalem at that
time. So it seems as if after some
period of time that all of the apostles, save James, had gone
out to pursue their own ministries and that great apostolic commission
of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth and only James now
seems to be at Jerusalem and Paul goes to greet him immediately
to honour him and to honour the governance of the church there
in Jerusalem. And we see that the party that
Paul is with, because he takes Luke, he takes the us that we've
spoken about a few times recently, and they all go to visit James
and the elders are present. So it's quite a large meeting. The party is welcomed and their
right hand of fellowship is extended. They call one another brethren
and Paul speaks to them about all of the things that the Lord
God had accomplished through him, through the preaching of
the gospel to the Gentiles and the various things that had happened
both in Europe and in Asia and how churches had been established.
people had been converted and the gospel had grown and been
enlarged. But James has a problem and this
is the problem that in Jerusalem the message had come back that
the things that Paul was saying to the Gentiles he was also applying
to the Jews that lived amongst the Gentiles and James begins
the expression of this issue that he has by directing the
apostle to look at all the converts. Now we may be talking here around
about 25 years that has transpired since the the ascension of the
Lord Jesus Christ and that preaching of the Apostle Peter in Jerusalem. It's kind of amazing to think
about that length of time having passed in the chapters that we've
read together. So that's what, second chapter
of Acts is Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost. Here we
are in chapter 21. And in that time, probably around
25, 26 years, had transpired and James is saying look at all
the thousands. Now we know that on the day of
Pentecost there were at least 3,000 and then there were many
more converted so it may be that these are the thousands that
are being spoken about. I don't know whether there had
been a huge increase in Jerusalem since that time, or it may indeed
be that there were many more thousands of converts. But James
speaks about the thousands and he speaks about these people,
but he speaks about them as being, interestingly, passionate about
the law. And it seems as if the church
here in Jerusalem had indeed many converts amongst them, but
these people had not broken with the rituals of the Jews and with
the temple worship. And they were trying to combine
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ with the sacrifices of
the Old Testament. They hadn't been able to distinguish
and to separate the two. They believed in Jesus Christ. They believed that he had come.
But they wanted to keep doing the things that said the Messiah
had yet to come. And there was another problem.
Jerusalem was full of people for the feast. And they knew
that Paul had come to Jerusalem. And these rumours had spread
that Paul taught Jews not to honour the temple or the sacrifices. And James seems to be aware that
there is a very real risk of trouble. there's a risk of violence
and perhaps even there is the likelihood that there could be
persecution upon the church because of the presence here of Paul
and his associates. And James seems to be very anxious
about this. But he had a plan. So this passage
today tells us about James's plan in order to cause the problem
that he foresaw to disappear. He thinks to himself, if Paul
would in some way honour the temple, if Saul would take a
vow according to the Old Testament rituals, if he would make a sacrifice
at the temple, then everyone would be happy. It would show
that Paul was not against the Jews practising their faith. It would distinguish between
Jews and Gentiles. And so peace could be maintained
in Jerusalem at this time when the city was like a tinderbox
and there was all the potential that it could just burst into
flames. It seems to me that the Jerusalem
church in the person of James and what he's saying here had
compromised the gospel in its clarity and in its particularity. And it seems to me that now they
were asking Paul to do the same in order to avoid trouble. And it seems to me that the Apostle
Paul had been put into a lot of pressure at this moment, having
arrived at Jerusalem to fulfil this ritual in order to cause
the likelihood of trouble to dissipate. And I think that perhaps
against his better judgment, the Apostle Paul agrees. Now we could spend some time
discussing why I think Paul made this maybe impetuous, maybe this
rather quick calculation. But I draw your attention to
that little comment that he made back in verse 13, where he said,
I am ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.
I am ready to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And I wonder if Paul thought
to himself, but I need not die for the sake of a Jewish vow. And thus he chose to sidestep
the trouble and live to fight another day. He thought if I
just fulfil this vow, if I just do as I'm being asked, then I'll
still have opportunity to preach the gospel to these people. Now I, it may sound a little
presumptuous of me, but I question the wisdom of that approach,
both on the part of James and on the part of Paul. And I confess
it does seem presumptuous that I should be challenging two of
the apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ. But you see, This appears
to be a compromise and what it teaches us is that if we compromise
once, then it is harder to stay true to the gospel a second time. The Apostle Paul had done better
than this on numerous occasions while amongst the Gentiles and
he had challenged Peter, he tells us, in the Book of Galatians
when Peter had come to Antioch and then withdrew himself from
the Gentiles when the Jews had come from Jerusalem. He challenged
Peter on that time. He said, this isn't right that
we should separate. And nor was it right now that
he should distinguish between the gospel that goes to the Gentiles
and the gospel that was preached in Jerusalem. Such compromise weakens our resolve,
but it also strengthens the enemy. And I don't doubt that the Apostle
Paul had his reasons for doing this. I can speak a little bit
personally on this point because many years ago I was in a similar
position where in a gathering I was called upon to make a statement,
I've perhaps mentioned this to you before, to make a statement
about a particular doctrine. And because I was in the minority
and because I was alone in the company of these who were grander
and better and more established men in the faith than I was,
I put my hand up with them in the matter of a vote. And I've
had cause to regret that ever since. And we discover that we
have to lay hold upon the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals
to us, and that is the place that we have to stand. We don't
ask people to take a stand on things that they don't believe,
but if the Lord has revealed the truth to us, then that is
where we stand. There are all kinds of compromise
around us in the churches today. And preachers imagine that they
can preach free will, get people saved, and then teach them about
sovereign grace later. Or that they can blend the free
gift of grace with contributing acts of obedience on the part
of the believer and the individual. But that won't do. This gospel
message is clear. These doctrines are doctrines
of free and sovereign grace which we must stand by and which we
must proclaim. And we will not compromise them. Another lesson perhaps that this
passage gives us is that it encourages us to remember that not one of
us is beyond making a mistake. None of us is incapable of error. We all make mistakes. Only the
Lord Jesus Christ is the Only Jesus is the way of truth and
life. Only Jesus brings holiness and
purity and justification to sinners. And if we look to men, we will
be disappointed. Moses was a great leader, and
he worked ceaselessly to honour God and to bring in the revelation
of God to the Church in the Old Testament. Elijah was a great
prophet and he too laboured for the well-being of the Church
of the Old Testament. Paul was a great apostle But
we must look beyond these men to see the Saviour. We must lift
up our eyes to see Christ alone. And may we all be like Peter
and James and John, this is the other James this time, James
the son of Zebedee. May we all be like Peter, James
and John on that mountain of transfiguration where Moses and
Elijah and Jesus were present together. When these disciples,
at the end of that meeting, we are told that they lifted up
their eyes, and when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no man
save Jesus only. And may that be the lesson that
we take from this little passage here, that we see no man save
Jesus only, for it is in him that all our salvation and all
our righteousness and all our blessedness will be found. Amen.