A STUDY GUIDE ACTS 21:18-40

1. A Study Guide

a) A study guide of Acts of the Apostles. It is intended to be expository — to explain and bring out the meaning of the original text. You may use this for your personal bible study or even group bible study.

2. Acts 21:18-40

a) The verses describe Paul’s troubles in Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey.

#1) Acts 21:18-20
18 And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. 19 After he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. 20 And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law;

i) Arrival in Jerusalem. This is the fourth recorded visit of Paul to Jerusalem. The previous three visits are recorded in Acts 9:26-30, Acts 11:28-30, Acts 15. 

ii) Greeted, reported. Paul had a good relationship with the Jerusalem church and its elders, and with the apostles. The church in Jerusalem and Judea had thousands of members and was very Jewish in its customs. Among its converts were some who were zealous for the law of Moses and believed Christians should keep it. Paul’s ministry was to Jews dispersed among the Gentiles, and to the Gentiles themselves who had no zeal for practicing Judaism. This put a lot of tension in the good relationship, so Paul had to tread carefully. On this occasion he encourages the church by detailing the work of his third journey. He may also have brought and presented some of the money donated to the poor in Jerusalem by many Gentile churches at Paul’s urging (1 Corinthians 16:1-5).

#2) Acts 21:21-24
21 and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. 22 What, then, is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. 23 Therefore do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; 24 take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads; and all will know that there is nothing to the things which they have been told about you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the Law.

i) You see brother. After Paul had done with the niceties, and had succeeded in his encouragement, the church refers to a serious problem of disinformation about his ministry, and Paul is confronted (as he probably expected to be) with the need to face this problem and fix it.

ii) To forsake Moses. Paul had not, as rumored, taught Jews dispersed among the Gentiles to abandon their customs or their observance of the law. He had rather insisted on four things:

@1. that these observances are not the way of salvation for anyone (Galatians 2:16, Galatians 3:23-29).

@2. that the law of Moses must not be bound upon Gentile Christians. Paul and Barnabas had great dissension and debate with those who said that Gentile Christians should be circumcised and keep the law of Moses (Acts 15:1-2,5).

@3. that whether or not a person observes Jewish customs and rules must not be a subject for judging one another, but should be a matter of individual conscience which should not be injured (Colossians 2:16, Romans 14).

@4. that he himself should be "to those who are under the law as under the law, though not being myself under the law... to those who are without law, as without law, though not being myself without law but under the law of Christ" (1 Corinthians 9:19-21).

iii) Taken a vow. It wasn't proposed that Paul take a vow on this occasion, but only that he pay the costs for the four men who were under a vow. (Acts 18:18).

iv) You also observe the law. It was not required of Paul that he be zealous for the law, but only that he be seen to observe it. The laws of Moses, and the associated customs and rules, were not merely religious laws but were the very threads of the social fabric of Jewish life, especially in Jerusalem. Paul had to be seen to respect these laws by his conduct.

#3) Acts 21:25
25 But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.”

i) The Gentiles. James repeats the terms of the resolution of the council in Jerusalem some years previously, between Paul’s first and second missionary journeys (Acts 15). It reinforced Paul’s principles that the law of Moses was not the way of salvation, and that therefore Gentiles should not be made to keep it.

#4) Acts 21:26
26 Then Paul took the men, and the next day, purifying himself along with them, went into the temple giving notice of the completion of the days of purification, until the sacrifice was offered for each one of them.

i) Purified himself. Although Paul was not himself under a vow, he was associating himself with the four men who were, and going with them into the temple. In this circumstance it would be proper for him to undergo purification ritual.

ii) A sacrifice for each. The sacrifices would be offered on behalf of the four men, and Paul was paying for the purchase of the things to be sacrificed (Matthew 21:12). It doesn't appear that any sacrifice was made on behalf of Paul, since he had not taken the vow.

iii) Paul’s aim. Paul’s normal strategy was to be all things to all men. For a Jew under the law, Paul would conduct himself as a Jew under the law, even though he wasn't under the law. As we see in the passage mentioned earlier, the goal of this difficult balancing act was to save souls (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

#5) Acts 21:27-29
27 When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, 28 crying out, “Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.

i) Stirred the multitude. The strategy failed which James and the elders suggested, and which Paul followed since it was according to his principles. The plan failed, not because it was a bad plan, but because prejudice made Paul’s enemies misconstrue what he was doing.

#6) Acts 21:30-34
30 Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. 31 While they were seeking to kill him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. 32 At once he took along some soldiers and centurions and ran down to them; and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the commander came up and took hold of him, and ordered him to be bound with two chains; and he began asking who he was and what he had done. 34 But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks.

i) Soldiers save Paul. The mob would have killed Paul had the soldiers not carried him to safety. Someone slammed shut the temple doors —perhaps that Paul’s blood should not contaminate the holy place. Whilst Jerusalem had its own culture and government, it was nevertheless under Roman occupation. One thing Rome didn't countenance was riot. This commander was a chiliarch, in charge of all the local troops and their centurions. The commander’s name, by the way, was Claudias Lysias (Acts 23:26). So Paul finds himself in the hands of a very powerful man.

#7) Acts 21:35-40

35 When he got to the stairs, he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob; 36 for the multitude of the people kept following them, shouting, “Away with him!”

37 As Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, “May I say something to you?” And he *said, “Do you know Greek? 38 Then you are not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt and led the four thousand men of the Assassins out into the wilderness?” 39 But Paul said, “I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city; and I beg you, allow me to speak to the people.” 40 When he had given him permission, Paul, standing on the stairs, motioned to the people with his hand; and when there was a great hush, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect, saying,

i) Paul permitted to speak. The commander had no idea who Paul was. Yet when Paul identified himself as a citizen of Tarsus, capital of the Roman province of Cilicia, the commander seemed to trust Paul, and gave him permission to address the crowd.  

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