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Reading Acts 21:17-26 where the Apostle Paul is in Jerusalem and warnings are given that the Jews want to kill him for teaching justification by faith, which they claim undoes the law. Visit wwutt.com for all our videos!
Yes, there are certain laws that are given in the Bible that we don't have to keep. Those laws pointed to Christ who fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, and it's through Jesus we are saved, when we understand the text.
This is When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible study in the Word of Christ that men and women of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. Tell your friends about our ministry at www .utt .com.
Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.
Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Acts, we come back to chapter 21. The Apostle Paul has made it to Jerusalem, and sure enough, there are some Jews there who wish to do him harm. Let me begin reading in verse 17, and we'll go through verse 26.
Hear the word of the Lord. And after we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us gladly. And the following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. And after he had greeted them, he began to relate, one by one, the things which God did among the Gentiles through his ministry.
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.
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. What then is to be done?
They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore, do this that we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow. Take them and purify yourself along with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads.
Then 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. But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should keep from meat sacrifice to idols, and from blood, and from what is strangled, and from sexual immorality.
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.
Now the interesting thing about this conversation that Paul has with James and the other elders of the church there at Jerusalem, is that we have a reminder of the Jerusalem council that we read about in Acts chapter 15.
What was it that the council decided? Remember that there were many believing Jews. It actually does say in Acts 14 and 15 that these were believing Jews. These were Jews who believed that Jesus is the Christ, but they were still imposing upon people that you have to keep the law in order to be saved.
What said there in Acts 15 .1 is that you have to be circumcised in order to be saved. How do we respond to this? How do we tell the Gentiles what laws they need to keep? That was kind of the nature of the discussion at the Jerusalem council.
We know it's by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved. But now what do the Gentiles need to concern themselves with regarding holy living? Do they have to keep the whole law? And so they decided that what needed to be said to the Gentiles, there was a letter that was written.
It was decided upon by the apostles and the elders that were there. The Gentiles were told to keep themselves from meat sacrifice to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from sexual immorality.
And so that is repeated again here in chapter 21. Meanwhile, there are still Jews that believe that you have to keep the law in order to be saved. So I want to come back to that again, just as we had discussed it in Acts 15.
So it comes up here again. I want to mention that again so that we are all reminded that it is not by our keeping of the law that we are saved, but it is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that we are justified.
Let's be reminded of that once again. First of all, let me go through what happens here in the narrative when Paul comes to Jerusalem. So going back up to verse 17, after we arrived in Jerusalem, the brothers welcomed us gladly.
And the following day, Paul went in with us to James and all the elders were present. James was at the Jerusalem council in Acts chapter 15. This is James who is the half brother of Jesus. We read about James, the brother of John, who was killed with the sword.
Herod killed him. That was earlier in Acts. This James is also the author of the book of James that we have later on in the New Testament. This is that same James. So he is one of the more prominent elders there at the church in Jerusalem.
Now I believe that among an eldership, the elders are all equal. That's the way it is at my church. I'm a pastor. Chris is a pastor. Alan is a pastor. We are all equal standing elders, even though I may have the responsibility of doing the most teaching.
That's what they pay me to do, but that doesn't mean that I have more prominence or more importance rather than I'm higher up on the list of hierarchy in my church than the other pastors. That's not the case.
We're all the same. We're all equal. It's common, though, to think of the guy that's up front doing most of the teaching as being the elder that is most in charge. But elders should have an equal standing.
I say James is the most prominent simply because he's the most recognized. He would have the most recognition being the half-brother of Jesus. Now even when he is talked about in Scripture, it is said of him that he is the brother of the Lord, but only in the sense that this is a man who is able to testify to the things that he saw concerning Jesus Christ.
It doesn't mean that James is even higher in rank among the apostles because he was the half-brother of Jesus. That doesn't gain him any more prominence. But he does have a lot of recognition because of his close association with Jesus.
He would have been another one of Mary's children, just not virgin-born. So of course, as Jesus was. Jesus did not have an earthly father. He was not sired by any man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.
James was also born of Mary later, so he's the half-younger brother of Jesus. And not believing in Jesus during Jesus' earthly ministry, so he came to faith in his own earthly half-brother after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven.
Well, after Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to James. That's talked about in 1 Corinthians 15. So somewhere in there before his ascension into heaven is when James became a believer. So then verse 19, after he had greeted them, he began to relate one by one the things which God did among the Gentiles through his ministry.
We've seen this elsewhere. Peter even talks about this in Acts chapters 10 and 11, when he talks about going to the household of Cornelius and when he preached the gospel there to that household full of Gentiles, they came to faith, they demonstrated the Holy Spirit's favor upon them by speaking in tongues.
Peter was there. The other Jews were there and saw this happen. So they testified to the fact that the gospel is going even to Gentiles. And the same Holy Spirit that has fallen upon us, we're seeing that Spirit fall upon Gentiles as well.
So Paul is recounting the things that he's seen. And what Paul's able to talk about here is more than just a visit to a household, but everything that he's experienced going through Asia, the years that he was in Ephesus, he's talking about that with these brothers, and they are rejoicing to hear about how far and wide the gospel has gone and brought many into the kingdom of God.
That's what excites them, that God's kingdom is growing even among the Gentiles. And it is by faith in Jesus. It's not through some crazy political movement. It's not even proselytizing the Jewish faith.
It's not through some civil rights movement. It's simply preaching the gospel. And the Holy Spirit is doing the work of transforming hearts, bringing them to Christ, and into the kingdom of God. So this excites the believers there in Jerusalem.
They glorify God, and they say to Paul, you see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. So once again, this is being said of these Jews that they are believers.
They believe that Jesus is the Christ, but they have a zealousness for the law, just as what we saw in Acts 15 .1. They are believers, but saying you have to be circumcised in order to be saved. This is heresy.
It is adding works to justification by faith. We are not saved by our works. But since the Jews feel so zealously about the law, they would be willing to put somebody to death who is proclaiming that it is by faith in Jesus that you are saved.
They've been told about you, James and the brothers say, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles. So talking about those Jews that Paul has ministered to that live in these Gentile cities far outside of Jerusalem and throughout the Roman empire, word has come back to these Jews in Jerusalem that you're telling the Jews elsewhere in the empire that they need to forsake Moses.
You're telling them not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs. Now, Paul was not saying that, actually. That never has been part of his ministry. He was not telling Jews to no longer keep the law.
But he's saying you don't have to keep the law in order to be saved. And the letter that was decided upon by the Jerusalem council and was going out to the Gentiles was saying to them, they don't have to circumcise their children in order to be saved.
There is no obligation upon them at all to learn the Torah and keep the Torah, all of the different Sabbaths and holy days and ritual sacrifices and ritual practices and things like this. None of these things are going to save you, nor are you condemned if you do not do them.
And because that is the testimony that's been going out to Gentiles, like even James agrees with that because James was at the Jerusalem council. James is not in disagreement with that. But James is not the one going out into the world, telling Jews and Gentiles that it's only by faith in Jesus that you can be saved.
James is just right there in Jerusalem. He is not gaining the kind of hate, even among believers, that Paul is gaining. So they're telling Paul, they believe you're telling them not to circumcise their children nor walk according to the customs.
What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. We don't know what they're going to do to you if they hear that you have come. So therefore do this, do this thing that we tell you.
And they say, we have these four men who are under a vow. Now, everything that is described here regarding that vow, it appears to be the Nazarite vow as talked about in Numbers chapter six. I don't know why Luke doesn't think to include that, to label it as the Nazarite vow.
But when you read all of the different stipulations of the vow in Numbers six, it matches with these things that Paul is being told to do. So it appears as if Paul was under this vow. These men were under this vow.
Paul had said earlier that he was going to Jerusalem because of a vow. This may have been the vow. So they're all under this vow. And if they go into the temple to fulfill the vow, there are people that are going to see that Paul himself is fulfilling the vow.
He's even paying for the men to fulfill this vow. And so it's going to look to everybody else, well, Paul's keeping the law. So everything that we've heard about Paul, about disobeying the law, apparently none of that's true.
So that's what they're hoping this is going to do. That's the effect that they're hoping for in giving Paul this advice. So take these four men with you, purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads.
Then 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, specifically the Nazarite vow in Numbers chapter six.
But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should keep from meat sacrifice to idols and from blood and for what is strangled and from sexual immorality. As far as the law goes, as it would be applied to Gentiles, these are the things that they should concern themselves with in matters of holiness.
But it has always been said throughout the book of Acts that justification is by faith and not by works. We have other instances of this, like, for example, Acts 13, when Paul is in Pisidian Antioch, he says in verses 38 and 39, let it be known to you, therefore, brothers, that through this man, Jesus Christ, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.
And by him, everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. You could not be set free. You could not be made right in the eyes of God by keeping the law.
That was never the case. You couldn't do it as a Jew. You can't do it as a Gentile. It is only by faith. Everyone who believes in him, again, this is Acts 13, 39, is freed from everything which you could not be freed from by the law of Moses.
At the Jerusalem council, even when we were in Acts chapter 15, Peter had said, brothers, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. This is Peter recalling when he went to the house of Cornelius. He made no distinction between us and them having cleansed their hearts by faith.
God had cleansed the hearts of the Gentiles by faith. And as Peter goes on now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of our Lord Jesus, just as they will. Acts chapter 10, verse 43, in the household of Cornelius, Peter had said to him, all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
That is what Peter preached to the Gentiles. Not justification by works, but by faith in Jesus. Remember what Paul said to the Philippian jailer in Acts 16, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.
And even later on in Acts, when Paul is going to share his testimony, he's going to talk about how it is only by faith in Jesus that we are forgiven our sins and we are sanctified and made right with God.
Faith in Jesus Christ. Now, the reason why I talk about this and the reason why I'm putting so much emphasis on this again, as we come back to this statement in Acts chapter 21, recalling the Jerusalem council is because I am seeing a growing movement among professing Christians.
This is probably more so online than I encounter it publicly, but I know that I am going to start encountering it more publicly than I presently do. But there is this growing movement of what are called Torah observers.
You may be familiar with the Hebrew roots movement from a few years ago. Wasn't that long ago that the Hebrew roots movement was kind of a fad. It still is a thing. I know of certain Hebrew roots churches that are out there, but now there's something that's called Torah observance.
Like we need to be focused on the Torah, the first five books of the Bible, or even the law of the Jews altogether. And we need to be keeping those laws. And you're not really a Christian if you're not keeping those laws.
That's being imposed upon Christians. Again, the same error that these Torah observant Jews were committing here in the book of Acts. There were some Jews that were not yet convinced that we need to let go of some of these laws that have been fulfilled in Christ.
So Paul is not compromising their consciences. He's not violating their consciences saying, you don't have to do this anymore. And that's part of the strategy with having him go into the temple and fulfill his vow because even he himself is committed to keeping the law of God.
But what was the former order, it's talked about in the book of Hebrews, what has been is ready to pass away. And it would truly pass away with the destruction of the temple that was coming in just a few years in 70 AD.
Once the temple's gone, there's nowhere to make sacrifices. And so who are you looking to now after that? But Jesus Christ who fulfilled the sacrificial system and all of those laws, even the Sabbaths that were meant to point to him.
He is our Sabbath rest. He is our access to God. We are made right with God through faith in Jesus and not by works of the law. So we've seen that pattern throughout Acts. We see it even now with the reiterating of the Jerusalem Council.
Be wary of those people out there who are still like these Judaizers, who are going to try to impose upon you that you have to keep the law in order to be safe. There are certainly things that we must do as Christians, but keeping all of these laws and customs that Jesus had fulfilled with his life and death, that's not a requirement for our salvation.
Ephesians 2 14, for he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.
So making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who are far off Gentiles and peace to you who were near Jews for through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father.
Heavenly father, we thank you for what we have read. And I pray that it would still be in our hearts to understand we are justified by faith and not by our works or our keeping of the law. Lord, may we continue to look to Christ for our assurance that we have been forgiven our sins and given eternal life, not because of anything that we have done, but because of what Christ has done.
And now as Christians, there are certain things that we are to do that demonstrate the righteousness that we have received by faith in Jesus Christ. Guide us in your truth in that sense, so that we may know how we ought to live in light of the gospel of Christ that was preached to us.
It is in the name of Jesus that we pray. Amen.