Acts 21:16-26

It’s not always a bad thing to have somebody filling in. The story is told of a minister who was preoccupied with thoughts of how after the worship service he was going to ask the congregation to come up with more money than they were expecting for repairs of the church building. So therefore when he showed up to church he was a little bit annoyed to find that a regular organist in the church was sick and a substitute had been brought in at the last minute. The substitute wanted to know what to play and he was not a regular organist in the church. The minister gave a copy of the service to the organist and said just follow this order but only thing I don’t have is I don’t have anything for you to play after I make the announcement about the finances.

During the service the minister paused and said brothers and sisters we are in difficulty. The roof repairs cost twice as much as we expected and we need four thousand more. Any of you who can pledge one hundred or more please stand up. At that moment the substitute organist played the Star Spangled Banner and that is how the substitute organist became the regular organist in the church. All this to say sometimes it’s good to have others filling in.

I’m grateful for the four men of God who filled in for me the last four weeks allowing me to travel to India for a couple of weeks and also to take a break from regular preaching for a couple of weeks on a Sunday morning.

So grateful to be back with you. As I mentioned last night I definitely missed all of you more than you probably miss me and it was so wonderful to have amazing worship this morning as well just a reminder of how wonderful it is to be in this church with God’s people. There’s a tremendous presence of God that is in this building with God’s people here at Restoration Church.

Thankful for all of you. Thank you so much for your prayers. God was good. Very busy couple of weeks of meetings but the Heavenly Father helped and His Holy Spirit was so evident and the power of the Spirit of God was really evident in every single one of the meetings. Pastor Dadu and family sends their, the church there sends their greetings to all of you. Please continue to remember them in your valuable prayers as well.

I don’t know if you remember what we were covering a couple of months ago when we took a little bit of a break from the Book of Acts and we had our four weeks of Advent series and then we had the last four weeks when we had all things new being preached to us. But we’ll be once again going back to the Book of Acts again today.

By the way, it is so good to have many, some of our loved ones who are very sick back with us this morning. So we’re really grateful especially Molly Mama who is back worshiping with us and Joey Chan is with us as well. So grateful for God’s continued healing in both of your lives.

And we, we’re in Acts chapter 21. I hope you remember where we left off in Acts chapter 21. We’re continuing with our series this morning. Church on the move as we finish Acts Lord willing in the next few months. We’re in Acts 21:16-26 this morning. Acts 21:16-26.

We left you in verse 15 towards the end of November. There, Paul was on his way to Jerusalem towards the end of his third missionary journey. Having compelled by the Spirit to go back to Jerusalem even though the Word of God was very clear. There was bondage, affliction and trouble that is awaiting for you in every city that you go on. In fact, what we will start to see here in a few verses is that the Apostle Paul will be arrested and he will never truly enjoy freedom again, at least throughout the book of Acts as it is recorded to us in church history. It is thought that there was momentary months of freedom before he was arrested again, but we are not a hundred percent sure of that. But what is about to happen to his life will change church history forever.

So in verse 16, Acts chapter 21, he is still on his way back to Jerusalem. Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us. Why did some of the disciples from Caesarea came with us? Remember he was at the house of Philip the Evangelist in Caesarea. Now there’s a journey of almost 60 miles from Caesarea to Jerusalem. These men came with him, Gentile believers, came from Caesarea, probably a mix of Gentiles and Jews, came with him because remember what he’s carrying with him. He is carrying with him money that he collected from all the Gentile churches and he’s bringing it back to the needy families, the needy individuals in the church in Jerusalem. At that time, robbery was very, very common, especially as you’re traveling by road and by foot. There was always strength in numbers. So people of God often traveled in numbers and that’s probably why these men also went with Luke and Paul as they were traveling back to Jerusalem because of the strength in numbers and to make sure that the gifts that were so valuable gifts that were collected from different parts of the world would safely make its way into the church at Jerusalem.

They brought them to the home of Nason where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples. This is the only mention of this man that is found in God’s word. The thinking here is that remember in the first missionary journey, Cyprus was one of the earliest cities that they had visited. There along with Barnabas and Paul going to Cyprus, Nason is thought to be one of the early disciples that came to the faith in the Lord. Now years later, Paul is able to kind of have his home as a halfway point between Caesarea and Jerusalem. The distance of 60 miles can only be traveled if you’re really going really fast in a time period of two to three days and so it is necessary for them to lodge somewhere and the house of Nason would be the place where they would lodge before they will continue with their journey all the way back to Jerusalem.

Verse 17, when we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers and sisters received us warmly. What a difference a couple of decades make. When he had gone to Jerusalem the first time after his conversion, we read in the book of Acts chapter 9 how the church did not want to have anything to do with him because they did not believe that his conversion was real and they thought this was another ploy in the mind of Paul to somehow continue persecuting the church. But now everything has changed and there is a great deal of warmth in receiving the man of God as he comes back to Jerusalem.

And then in verse 18, the Bible tells us, the next day Paul and the rest of us including Luke went to see James and all the elders were present there at that time as well. There are a lot of James and John being mentioned in God’s Word and you have to keep them all separate. We already learned from Acts chapter 12 about James who was one of the disciples, the original apostle of the pastor of the church in Jerusalem who was beheaded. Here the Bible tells us about another James. Who is this James the Bible is talking about?

In a world filled with people who take the title of great, it is so interesting who this James is. His name is known in church history as James the less. I don’t know of anybody who wants to be known as so-and-so the less. Even if you don’t want to have a title of a great, at least in your heart, you want somebody to recognize that you’re somewhat great. But look at this guy. He’s not great. He’s not somewhat great. He goes to the other extreme and says James the less. This is not because he is not lesser of a person. It is because of the fact that he was younger to the older James and to distinguish between the older one and the younger one, church history gave him the name James the less. But I love this title for him because it is also indicative of the kind of person that he is. I don’t think he was given this name James the less only because of his age. He was a man who was marked with much humility in his life as well.

Who is this James the Bible is talking about? We first find him in the Gospels and that is not in a good light. In John chapter 7, we find him there during the ministry of our Lord. This is one of the half brothers of our Lord, meaning born to Mary and Joseph. And there was something that was very common among the half brothers of our Lord. None of them wanted anything to do with Jesus or his ministry. In fact, no prophet is honored in his own home and Jesus was very less not only on favor in his own home. They did not believe in him. They did not believe in his ministry. They were highly skeptical that the person who grew up in their own household would be the God from heaven. And can’t really blame them for that. The Bible tells us Jesus never sinned, but I wonder what kind of a child he was. Did he go around doing the normal things with his brothers? He pick on fights with them? Probably not like we do, but to an extent I’m sure some things he did being just a normal child. It was didn’t come up to the level of sinfulness because he never committed any sin, but he probably had tendencies that his brothers did not like. Whatever the case might be, when he would grow up, they would be the last ones to ever accept him as the divine one from heaven.

What made all the difference? The clue is given to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, where the apostle Paul is telling us about the resurrection of our Lord. And he makes it a very point, he makes it very clear that he appeared to everyone, including James. And guess what happened? That changed his life. Even if you are a skeptic, when you see your half-brother being risen from the dead, appearing before you in flesh, even the skeptic James has to believe that he is God in flesh and that’s exactly what he did. In fact, we find James being one of the 120 plus who are waiting in the upper room for the promise of the Holy Spirit. We see them being actively involved in the New Testament church. Church history tells us that he became the first bishop of the church in Jerusalem. All of this happened to him, and he would also write to us the epistle of James. And look at the way he starts the epistle of James, James chapter 1 verse 1, James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every single person that I know would have somehow slipped in James, a servant of God and the half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. But look what he calls himself, a doulos, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, in all of his writings, there is not a single mention of the fact that he is a half-brother of our Lord. James the Less had lived his life with humility that truly marked the life that he had in humbleness before the Lord.

Church history tells us about six years after this encounter with Paul, when he was leading the church in Jerusalem, this James would be killed by the same Jewish people that he tried to protect in AD 62, and he himself will become a martyr.

But here is what happened in verse 19. They have this meeting, Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done. Paul greeted them and reported in detail what Paul had done? No, what God had done. This is an important way to share your testimony before the people of God. When you do something for the Lord, when you come back from long missionary journeys or long ignorant travel of preaching the gospel, the credit is not to you. The credit goes to the one who does everything ultimately, even in the doing that you are doing. You recognize that through and through, from the beginning to the end, whatever you have done is done by the Lord. And so when he shares what he does to them, he says, what God had done, let me tell you what God had done. In fact, this is a mark of every single testimony of the life of the apostle Paul. Look what he tells to us in Acts 14 verse 27, when they had arrived and gathered the church together, they began to report all things that God had done with them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. Look at Acts 15 verse 4, when they arrived at Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them. Acts 15 verse 12, all the people kept silent. They were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. You see the commonality in all these testimonies? These are all in different circumstances, recounting different things, signs and wonders, open doors, miracles, preaching of the gospel, conversion of the Gentiles, but they all have one thing in common. The testimonies are different. The audiences are different. The company of people are different, but the verbiage is still the same. Look what God had done.

In our life today, every testimony that you have of anything especially done to the Lord is not you. It is what God had done. It is at your heart all the time. I am what I am because of His grace, and I can only do what I’m doing because He is doing it through me. There’s a power that is at work within me that enables me to do above and beyond what is humanly possible, and if I have done something that is worth noting, it is because the God of all grace has done it through me, and I will always make sure that I give Him the glory that is due under His holy name. After all, all glory belongs to Him, and when I give Him glory, I’m not adding to His glory. I am only giving back the glory that He so lovingly has shared with me. We all sometimes use the phrase, giving glory to God, as if we’re adding to the glory of God. We’re not. We’re not doing anything. God alone has all the glory, but in His grace, you know what He does? He shares His glory with us, and He allows us to do certain things, but then when we do those things, you know what we do? We take whatever glory He has given to us, and we say, no, no, it doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to you to begin with, and we give it right back to Him. That’s what we mean by when we say, we give glory to God. He all glory belongs to Him. Don’t take anything that belongs to Him. It is what God has done.

Look at Romans 15:17-18. Therefore, I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done. He says, for everything I have done, I give glory to God. And not only that, I will not venture, I will not even attempt to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God, but what I have said and done.

Paul has a lot of wonderful testimonies to share with the church in Jerusalem. John Phillips on his beautiful writing writes like this. Paul began surely with his first visit to Galatia and told the thrilling story of his three missionary journeys. The names rolled off his tongue like a roll call of the nations. Salamis, Taphos, Perga, Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Illyricum. Not just places, but people. These are not just random places. People of different nations, people of different backgrounds, all have been transformed by the power of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only that, thousands upon thousands of people saved by faith, washed in the blood of the Lamb, baptized by the Holy Spirit into the church of Christ. And not only places and people, but anecdotes of stories of prison and persecution, stories of Mars Hill, stories of miracles, magicians, and a mighty movements of the Spirit. Never had these Jerusalem Christians with a narrow parochial interest heard the like. See, we have been tracing through this story for the last several chapters, but these people are hearing the story for the first time. At that time, there was no email, there’s no communications like that to give update on missionary journey. So can you imagine, they’re all sitting in a room and they’re hearing about one place after the other where God had done tremendous work. I don’t think this was a one-hour meeting. I think it probably lasted for hours and hours to recount all the miracles and signs and wonders that God did in every place. Luke the historian, Luke the doctor with his good memory and his good note-taking skills probably aided in filling in the details as he wrote the book of Acts and telling the church in Jerusalem the wondrous works of God.

And they’re bursting out in praise. Look at verse 20, when they heard this, they praised God. When they heard this, they praised God. The language there for praising God is in the imperfect tense, which means they continued praising God. It was a continuous worship that broke out in that room in Jerusalem when the people in Jerusalem heard about the wondrous works that God has done. Oh, they started worshiping God, they started singing his praises, and they started thinking about the thousands upon thousands of people who have now come to the knowledge of the saving faith in the Lord.

But there’s a problem. And they said to Paul, you see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed and all of them are zealous for the law. The first part is really good part. Thousands have believed, good report, just like the Gentiles. There’s a problem. They are still zealous for the law. If you have been told one thing for thousands of years, do this every day, do this every week, all of a sudden the gospel comes. The gospel says you’re saved by faith. Jesus has died for you. All well and good. It is really difficult to let go of the past. You’ll have to go to that temple. The temple is still standing. In fact, it would be another 14 years before the temple would be destroyed. The temple is still there in all of its pomp. To add a little bit of context also to why they were so zealous for the law at that time. Uprising against Rome was happening all around Jerusalem during this time. In fact, Felix, the governor, was crushing them one by one, thus earning the pleasing of the Roman Empire. But this great idea that somehow we are to protect our Jewish customs and our Jewish way of living was so high in the mind of the people of that time. Politics was going everywhere. They were being oppressed by the Romans and they thought all of their way of life and their country and their land and their temple was all slipping away from them. So even in the midst of conversion, they wanted to hold on to their Jewish customs as closely as possible. And he tells them this is what is happening.

Verse 21. All these people that believed, that are still zealous for the law, have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses. Again, lie. Paul never taught or preached that you should turn away from Moses. Telling them not to circumcise their children. Also a lie. In fact, remember in Acts chapter 16, when he took Timothy with him, one of the things that he did was he circumcised Timothy for the sake of the Jewish people. Paul never said you should not circumcise your children. All that he preached was circumcision does not save you. It’s a big difference between one and the other. But these people are not interested in truth. They’re spreading false rumors and lies about the apostle Paul or live according to our customs. Remember, early on in chapter 18, we saw how he himself had taken some kind of Jewish vow. We also see how he observed the Passover. We also saw how he was looking forward to the festival of Pentecost. So he is still practicing many Jewish customs of that time. And they are spreading all kinds of lies about him.

But they have a problem. Because they know that if they don’t handle this issue properly, the church in Jerusalem will face persecution and opposition from Jewish people like never before. In fact, even people among their own ranks might leave the church. Look at verse 22. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come. And so they have a solution for him. Verse 23. Do what we tell you. There are four men with us who has made a vow. The Bible doesn’t specifically tell us what vow it is. But when we study the Old Testament and when we understand exactly what they’re about to do, we understand it to be a Nazirite vow. A Nazirite vow is something that is taken for a specific period of time. It can be taken by a man or a woman and it’s strictly voluntary. The instructions for that are given to us in Numbers chapter 6 when God says, if any one of you want to consecrate yourself for a specific time, kind of like how we do fasting and prayer for a specific period of time, you can take something called the Nazirite vow. Now some people are ordained by God that they be a Nazirite for the rest of their life. One such person is Samson. But usually the Nazirite vow is for a specific period of time, usually 30 days. And at that time, there are specific instructions that are given to you that you have to follow. The number one thing is that you are not to cut your hair during that time. You are not to touch a dead body at that time, even if one of your relatives happen to be the one that is dead. You are not to have any kind of strong drink. In fact, you are supposed to stay away from all kinds of strong drink and even any kind of a grape juice and even the seeds of grapes or even the skin of grape are forbidden for you going through this Nazirite vow. You go through this time of prayer and consecration and waiting upon the Lord for 30 periods. You don’t shave your head during that time. And then here’s what you’re supposed to do at the end of it.

In verse 24, he tells them, these four men, take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses. What is their expenses? Look at Numbers chapter 6 verse 13. This is the law of the Nazirite. When the period of the dedication is over, they are to be brought to the entrance to the tent of meeting. Verse 14, there they are to present their offerings to the Lord, a year old male lamb without defect for a burned offering, a year old ewe lamb without defect for a sin offering, a ram without defect for a fellowship offering. So two different lambs, one for a sin offering, one for a burnt offering and a ram for a fellowship offering. This is not a cheap offering. Three animals has to be brought at the end of this vow period. And remember who these people are. They’re poor to begin with. They’re made a vow to the Lord. And so in order to buy these animals for sacrifice, you have to put up money or you have to buy them. What they’re proposing is that the apostle Paul be the one to pay for the expenses of the sacrifices of these four men so that they can finally shave their head and end their time period of the Nazirite vow. And the suggestion from the Jerusalem church is this. When you do that, you will prove to all of these liars around you that you are not against Jewish customs, that you are after a man who respects the customs of the Jewish people. The only thing that you’re against is making the Jewish customs necessary for salvation. So try to go along with this and do what they’re asking you to do.

And in verse 15, they’re supposed to together with all these animals, bring the grain offerings, drink offerings and a basket of bread made with the finest flour without yeast, thick loaves with olive oil mixed in and thin loaves brushed with olive oil. All these things have to be brought in. Then they shave their head, they take the hair and they literally burn it in the fire. And that is how they end their vow before the Lord. Somebody has to pay the expenses. In fact, Josephus the historian tells us that in 8041 when Herod Agrippa was ruling over Jewish people in order to actually gain their favor, he actually ended up paying for the expenses of so many hundreds of Jewish people who had taken the Nazirite vow to show his allegiance and his solidarity with them. The same kind of thing is required here of Apostle Paul as well.

There’s a big deal of debate even among Christian theologians as to whether what Paul agreed to do was right in the eyes of God. Donald Barnhouse says in all the ministry of the Apostle Paul, this was the biggest mistake that he ever made. One of them says here’s a grumpy old man unwilling to let go of his old Jewish traditions. Others say that the one who had preached so much about grace, salvation by faith alone compromised when it came to this request. They’re all smart people, but I don’t think that is the case at all. I don’t think the apostle Paul filled with the Spirit of God would have done something like this unless and until it was permitted by the Lord.

Verse 25 he told them, you do this as Gentile believers, same instructions as before. We have returned to them our decision that they should abstain from food, sacrifice to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.

So what does Paul do? Verse 26, the next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Now the question comes, why did he have to be purified? Remember what he was doing all along for the last several years. He’s been traveling all through our Gentile country. Before you can get into the temple in Jerusalem, you have to go through the process of purification and he did that. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them. Then he paid for their expenses of these four men and he allowed them to cast those sacrifices as an end to the Nazarite vow.

Why did Paul agree to the request of the church in Jerusalem? In fact, in the following verse we see that all of these efforts to accommodate them really did not do any kind of favor for him anyway. Then why did God allow this to do that? I think the principle can be found in 1 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 20. To the Jews, I became like a Jew to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became like one under the law. Though I myself am not under the law, so as to win those who are still under the law. What is he doing? He is trying, he is willing to make any necessary accommodation that he can in order to somehow not cause problems to the church in Jerusalem, but also to bring the Jewish people’s minds to the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anywhere that he could compromise in a way, without compromising scriptures, he did. But he only drew the line when they tried to make these customs to be necessary for salvation.

In fact, these people will continue to follow this pattern for many, many years. Many people think that it was a destruction of the temple that finally made them end many of these practices. Not only that, the book of Hebrews was written later on, as one theologian has said, the book of Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to tell the Hebrews to stop being a Hebrew. Until then, they would follow all of these practices and they would continue to go to the temple. Remember, even John and Peter at the ninth hour is still going to the temple, even after they were believers of the Lord Jesus Christ. So there was a mixture of Judaism and Christianity that was going on within the church. Paul was willing to do these things, not because he thought they were doing everything right, but because he did not see anything inherently wrong in what they were doing, as long as it was not mixed in with the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look at verse 22 and 23, same chapter, to the weak, I became weak to win the weak. He’s saying I became weak, not because I’m weak, but I did that so that I can win the weak. I have become all things to all people. That does not mean that you become a drunkard to save the drunkard. That’s not what he’s saying. I have become all things to all people, so that by all possible means that are allowed by the scriptures, I might save some. I do all this for what, for the sake of the gospel that I may share in his blessings. The gospel is central to everything that he’s doing. So if the gospel says, spend some money, he’ll do it. The gospel says, go with them to the temple, he will do it. Because his main concern is that the gospel, the gospel that saved him is available to every man, weak, strong, Jew, Gentile. He is willing to make any kind of compromise for the gospel because he understands everything is contained in the power of the gospel.

I just came back of two weeks of seeing the power of the gospel. I see people who are possessed by demons, oppressed by them, set free only by the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of this to show to us once again, the only hope for the world, in a world country like India, where people are so, as we talked about Sunday school this morning, openly sometimes demonically oppressed, is the gospel. But even in here, where the works of the enemy are more subtle, and he works in the hearts of the people, keeping them in bondage, in chains, and through all the things that he’s propagating in the world that we’re living in, the answer is still the gospel. And the question to all of us this morning is this, are you willing to pay the price for the gospel? Are you willing to say, no, you know, it’s not what I really want to do, but I will do whatever I can for the sake of the gospel. The sake of the gospel. I am going to be in uncomfortable situations for the sake of the gospel. I will have uncomfortable friendships for the sake of the gospel. I will go places that I don’t really want to go to for the sake of the gospel. Because I understand the power that is contained in it and the only hope for the world that is available through the gospel.

So James the Less would be a man of humility because the gospel changed him. The Apostle Paul would become a Jew, at least for a moment, and follow those customs again for the gospel as well. May that kind of a commitment and motivation be the inspiration in our life as well, to live for the gospel and the gospel alone.

Let’s look to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we thank you for your word, we pray, O God, that we will be marked with humility like James, that we will also always give glory to you and in the victories that you give to us and the things that we are able to do, as little as they are, we will still acknowledge that God has done it and glory belongs to you and you alone. I pray, O God, that just like Paul was willing to be weak for the sake of the weak, we will also be willing to be all things as humanly possible for the sake of the gospel. To that end, O God, change us, transform us, give us your strength, give us your mind to see the things that you want us to see. Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayer. In the name of the Lord, Jesus, that we pray.