Acts 21:27-22:5 “Paul, Carried Away”
I would like to start this morning with a personal observation about Paul the Apostle. As you all know, after two thousand years of Christian history, Paul is still one of the most controversial leaders of the church. I have heard personally a wide range of opinions about him from a variety of sources. People are wont to suppose one thing or the other about him.
I recall being in a “Bible as Literature” course in my undergraduate studies at Cal State. When the professor in the class asked for what people’s opinions of Paul were, one young lady put up her hand and said, “Paul was a jerk.” She then explained that she thought that Paul was misogynist, a person who hated women, because of the places in his writings that seemed to make women subservient to men. Such statements as these sadden me greatly.
When we consider what Paul does in our Scripture for this morning, we must ask ourselves what we should call a man who stands up for his faith, for what he believes, for his God to an entire mob of people. I think we used to call such a man a hero. I think Paul is a hero. You can think whatever else you want to about him; however, it took an extreme amount of bravery for him to come back down to Jerusalem to face the mob there. I have the deepest respect for Saint Paul. He is rightfully called a saint.
In our Scripture for today, I see four things that Paul does bravely that is critical to the church in general, and to our individual ministries as well. The first thing is that when Paul goes to Jerusalem to share his faith, he does not go off as he did to Damascus when he was going to bring in the Christians. He does not see the Jews as his adversaries. He is a Jew himself. He goes through great care to make sure that people see that and recognize that about him. He goes up into the Temple in Jerusalem with shaved head as a true penitent. He goes through the rite of purification for seven days. And then, even when he is carried away by the Romans to save him from the mob, he does not just seek a hiding place. He turns and asks if he can address the mob. When he addresses them, what does he call them? “Brothers and fathers.” He does not try to denigrate them. He lifts them up in his own humility. He honors his listeners.
The rule here is that you cannot come into a meaningful conversation with another person if you do not have some respect for that person. Even after Paul has been shown such crude anger (the crowd wanted to kill him untried), he still addresses the crowd with honorable language.
Some of us say when we are in dispute with another: “Whatever happens, I will not lower myself to that other person’s level. I will keep my own dignity.” How easy it would have been for Paul to rail against the mob. I mean really, I get upset with just the telemarketers calling! What a tremendous amount of personal grace Paul shows to turn and address the crowd that was about to kill him in a civil and respectful tone.
We are called as Christians to always think of the other person as our brother or sister, mother or father. No matter what shame or hurt we may endure in this world, we have to be able to turn to that other person and still show the love of Christ to him or her. We need to be able to turn the other cheek. We need to return good for evil. We have to remember that Paul did not go back to Jerusalem for his health! He went back to save more souls for Christ.
The second thing that Paul does that is critical still today in our ministries is that he speaks the same language as his accusers. The Romans ask him if he can speak Greek, but then he turns and addresses the crowd in native Aramaic. Paul is a very learned man and can speak at least four tongues.
I recall when Helen and I were missionaries in Thailand and still in the language school there. We met two men from a different American mission who were in the same class as us. They were also on a long-term assignment. About a month into the course, we noticed that both men were gone for about a week. When they did return to the class, we asked them where they had been. They told us that they had gone with their mission up into the hills in the north of the country to visit a tribe there to bring them the gospel.
They then went on to explain their journey to the village and the difficulty they had reaching the village because of all the equipment they were carrying. They had to carry a large screen television, a video player, and of course an electric generator and gasoline for a two day walk through the dense jungle.
I was somewhat impressed with journey, but had to inquire about what was on the video that they showed. They said that it had been one of their pastors in the United States sharing the message through preaching. I asked if that pastor in the United States had preached on the tape in Thai. The answer was that the pastor had preached in English of course. I asked if the villagers spoke English. No. I think Helen and I really did not know what to make of it. The villagers were probably impressed by television but had not understood a word of it.
If you are going to share the message, one must be able to speak to the people. I should just add that those two missionaries lasted only a few more weeks in the language course and then apparently returned to the US. We never heard from them again.
We should all recall that the original missionaries to Kauai, Sam Whitney and Sam Ruggles both learned Hawaiian from King Kaumualii’s son while on the ship for nine months coming over. What a blessing that must have been to get off the ship and be able to speak with the people here already somewhat.
However, as for today, we must realize that the language barrier that we face is mostly generational. I recall talking with one of the high school students about two years ago. I guess I was using words and ideas that he was not familiar with. He stopped me mid-sentence, saying, “I see your lips moving, but I don’t understand what you are saying.”
We have got to speak the same language if we are going to get our message of hope and salvation across to others!
The third thing that Paul shows us in this scripture (besides honoring the listener and speaking the same language) is that he finds common interests and mutual understanding. In fact, Paul does a little namedropping if you will. He mentions that he has studied under Gamaliel. Gamaliel, if you recall, is the greatest Rabbi of all time. This causes the crowd to consider his words more carefully since they already have respect for this great Rabbi.
You know, my home church where I grew up always hosted a Super Bowl party. My father did not like to watch television and never warmed to American football, being a good German, so our family never went to it. Yet, I would hear stories about how all the church people would have a grand time together. That church also encouraged a church-wide vacation together at which the congregants took over an entire hotel on a lake and played golf, boated, water skied, and dined together. That, our family did go to!
The proper term for this today is “Affinity Evangelism.” You share the gospel by finding something in common with the other person, getting close to that person in an unassuming environment, and then just lead a conversation that shares your personal faith experience.
Jesus himself was the master at this kind of finding something in common with people. He would fish with the fisherman, talk about sheep with the shepherds, and talk money with the wealthy and tax collectors. He knew precisely how to grab someone’s attention and then inject the godly into it.
The final thing I want to lift out off this situation with Paul in Jerusalem is the last thing that Paul does before the crowd that had wanted to kill him. Now that he has honored the listeners, has spoken the same language with them, and has shared in common understanding, he puts out his personal witness. Please note that he does not just talk about others or quotes scripture. He talks about his personal experience with Christ. He tells the story of how he was on his way to Damascus when he was blinded by a bright light. He met Jesus there. His heart was changed. He was taken to Damascus where man named Ananias healed his sight. Amen to that!
Now we can also see from today’s scripture that the mob was then turned against him again and he had to seek further protection from the Roman guard by claiming that he was a Roman. But, in that short moment when he had the crowd’s attention and he was telling of his personal story, the name of Jesus was lifted up. Just like Paul was lifted up by the Roman guard for his own safety, Jesus was lifted up when Paul got carried away and addressed that crowd in Jerusalem.
I hope that
everyone of us can get carried away. I hope that we will consider how best to
share the gospel with others. Honor the listener. Speak the same language. Find
a common point of interest. Share your personal faith. Lift up the Lord. Not
for yourself, but for God and for the world. Amen.