COURAGE AMID OPPOSITION

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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. 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.

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.

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. When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great he had to be carried by the soldiers. The crowd that followed kept shouting, “Get rid of him!”

As the soldiers were about to take Paul into the barracks, he asked the commander, “May I say something to you?”

“Do you speak Greek?” he replied. “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?”

Paul answered, “I am a Jew, from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no ordinary city. Please let me speak to the people.”

After receiving the commander’s permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned to the crowd. When they were all silent, he said to them in Aramaic:

“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”

When they heard him speak to them in Aramaic, they became very quiet.

Acts 21:31-40, 22:1-2

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

When we face adversity, we can respond in one of two ways:

We can either stand up to it with courage or we can run away from it.

The latter is obviously much easier than the former.

Given this, which path would you have chosen if you were in Paul’s place as we look at the closing verses of chapter 21 and the opening two verses if chapter 22?

As we saw in yesterday’s message, Paul, Luke, and their entourage had arrived in Jerusalem and Paul immediately met with a group of elders there who advised him to undergo purification rites with four other men over a seven day period. This was to offset rumors that Paul had openly encouraged Jews to violate the Law of Moses during his missionary journeys.

Accepting and carrying out the counsel of the elders, engaged in the rites but before he reached the prescribed seven day mark, a group of Asian Jews stirred up trouble asserting that Paul had taken a Greek into the temple with him, an act that would be considered desecration of God’s holy place. Of course, the accusation was tied to an unverified assumption because Paul had been seen with the Greek in the city and so the Asian Jews presumed that the Greek continued joining Paul everywhere to include the temple, something that never happened.

Nonetheless, the Asian Jews were successful in stirring up opposition to Paul and he was seized by an angry mob which dragged him from the temple. Paul was in a bad place and the situation was about to get worse. We know this as we look at our passage for today where we read right away that the crowd was trying to kill Paul out of a blind, murderous rage.

Meanwhile, news was spreading through Jerusalem and it reached “the commander of the Roman troops” who “took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd”. As the Roman soldiers arrived on scene and intervened, the scriptures tell us the crowd “stopped beating Paul” who was arrested by the commander and “bound with two chains” before being interrogated. The Roman official wanted to know who Paul was and what he had done to cause such a riot.

We read where the crowd didn’t remain silent. We read where there was lots of shouting and the environment was so loud that the commanded ordered that Paul “be taken into the barracks”. The “violence of the mob was so great” that Paul couldn’t even walk the stairs on his own accord. Instead, he was “carried by the soldiers” while crowd continued to shout, “Get rid of him!”

Note that up to this point, Paul had not uttered a single word but that changed as they were taking him into the barracks. For the scriptures tell us he requested to say something to the Roman commander who first assumed Paul spoke Greek and then thought he was an Egyptian who had “started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago”. Of course, there was a clear case of mistaken identity in play as Paul was neither a Greek nor an Egyptian.

And so, Paul set the record straight and let the commander know that although he was “a citizen of no ordinary city”, he was a Jew which meant he was being assailed by his own people. Then, in what had to be a rather incredible request in the eyes of the Roman commander, Paul courageously asked to be able to address the people, the very people who wanted to kill him.

Well, the Roman commander gave Paul the green light to speak and so he “stood on the steps” to the barracks and “motioned to the crowd” who grew silent as Paul said these words in Aramaic:

“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense.”

You could hear a pin drop as the crowd readied themselves to hear what Paul had to say. Tomorrow and for three messages afterwards, we’ll look closely at Paul’s message to the crown as he boldly and unashamedly proclaims the Gospel.

All because Paul showed courage in the midst of opposition, courage grounded in the very Lord he served so faithfully. When adversity came, Paul didn’t run from it but rather ran towards it because he knew the Lord was with him and would grant the words to say as he addressed the people gathered.

Friends, the Lord still helps rescue and deliver people who face opposition today. Therefore, we can stare opposition in the face knowing that our God is greater than anything that might stand against us (Romans 8:31). Paul shows us it is more than possible.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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