'TAKING UP THE SHIELD OF FAITH...'
SERIES: PAUL, AN INSTRUMENT OF THE RISEN CHRIST CHRIST
By Ron Ritchie
During my youth and into my early twenties, the most wonderful person in
the world to me was my maternal grandmother. She was born into a Roman Catholic
home in Florence, Italy. In the early part of this century, together with
my grandfather, she came to America. Along with thousands of other Italians
immigrants they entered this country through Ellis Island, settling in Philadelphia
and raising four children. Both of my grandparents died in the city of brotherly
love in the late '50's. A practicing Catholic all her life, my grandmother
came to faith in Jesus Christ as her personal Lord and Savior in her seventieth
year.
Shortly after she had made her decision, we sat down together and she shared
with me her fears about certain aspects of her decision. As a born again
Christian, she wondered if she now had to leave the Catholic church. The
church had always been fundamental to her spiritual, emotional, and social
life and she feared being rejected by her Catholic friends. She felt she
would be isolated in the market place where she shopped every day. Further,
she was afraid that her priest would accuse her of heresy. Up to this point,
the Catholic faith had been her whole life. She did not know any other way
to live.
The born again Jews of the apostle Paul's day in the first century A.D.
had similar questions. They wondered whether converted Jews should forsake
the Temple, nullify the Law of Moses, cease circumcising their sons, and
drop the various religious feasts from their calendar. Similarly, converted
Gentiles in the early church experienced times of spiritual confusion. Occasionally,
emotional outbursts from the Jews led to persecution and even execution
of Christians whom they felt were to blame for the religious confusion which
was evident on all sides. The apostle felt the brunt of this confusion on
more than one occasion. Early in his Christian life, therefore, he learned
to walk by faith in Jesus Christ lest the enemy destroy him either spiritually,
emotionally, or physically.
In our studies in the life of Paul we have reached the point where the apostle
at last has arrived in Jerusalem following the completion of his third missionary
journey. He had set his heart on arriving in the city before the Feast of
Pentecost, bringing with him the monies which had been collected from the
Greek churches for the famine relief effort in the city. He hoped that this
collection would serve to help unite the Jewish and Gentile factions in
the early church. As he headed toward Jerusalem from Asia Minor, however,
he was given several warnings from the Holy Spirit through the mouths of
fellow-believers and disciples to abandon his journey or he would face Imprisonment.
But Paul would have none of it. He had made up his mind, and he would not
be persuaded otherwise. The disciples in Caesarea uttered these key words
following the apostle's refusal to heed their warning, recorded in Acts
21:14, "And since he would not be persuaded, we fell silent, remarking,
'The will of the Lord be done!'"
We have also seen in our studies that during his missionary journeys the
apostle was constantly confronted with spiritual warfare. This is a fact
that Christians in all ages must be aware of. Spiritual warfare is just
as prevalent today as it was in the first century. Paul spoke to this issue
in his Ephesian letter, written some four years later from his prison cell,
in these oft-quoted words,
....be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might. Put
on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the
schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,
but against the rules , against the powers, against the world forces of
this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly
places...Stand firm, therefore, having girded your lions with truth, and
having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet
with the preparation of the gospel of peace; in addition to all, taking
up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the
flaming missiles of the evil one...
A Roman soldier carried his shield with him when he entered battle. The
shield, which was about the size of a door, protected the soldier's body
from head to foot from the lighted arrows which were fired at him by the
enemy. Here Paul counsels believers that they too should take up their shield
in the spiritual battle which they had to face daily. But their defense
was the "shield of faith." Faith, according to Hebrews is "the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."
Jesus said, "in this world you have tribulation , but take courage,
I have overcome the world." These are the words which the Christian
may take comfort in as he battles to ward off the "flaming darts of
the evil one." In reality, of course, these are attacks against the
character of Christ, the truth of the word of God, and the fact of the Christian's
salvation. If these darts get through to us they can cause fear, anxiety,
depression, and doubt.
The enemy had gone before Paul and placed a lie into the mouths of the Judaizers,
i.e. the Jews who had accepted Christ as their Messiah but who still remained
under the Law. Thus when Paul arrived in Jerusalem the spiritual battle
against him and against the gospel of grace was already raging
.
I. Faith in the midst of confusion, 21:17-26
And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us
gladly. And now 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 had done 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 in order 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. 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." 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 of them.
This is the apostle's fifth visit, and his first in five years, with James
and the elders in Jerusalem.
Paul and his disciples were received gladly and the next day, taking the
offering with them, he and his companions went into see James and all the
elders. At the meeting Paul began to "relate one by one the things
which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry," the period
covering the five years since his last visit.
He shared about his revisiting the Galatian churches; the three-year ministry
in Ephesus; the visit to Corinth; the writing of the letters to the Corinthians,
Galatians and Romans; his second visit to the Corinthians; the collection
from the Greek churches; the death and resurrection of Eutychus in Troas;
his visit with the elders of Ephesus at Miletus; and his visit with the
disciples in Tyre, Ptolemais and Caesarea. The reaction of James and the
elders to Paul's good news was very favorable: "And when they heard
it they began glorifying God," says the text.
James then shared the good news about the church in Jerusalem, telling Paul
that since his last visit some 10,000 Jews had come to know Jesus Christ
as their Messiah, Lord and Savior, and that all of them were "zealous
for the Law." Not only had the Jews accepted Jesus as Messiah, they
wanted to continue going to temple worship and keeping the Law, the traditions
and feasts ordained in the Book of Deuteronomy.
While it was true that at the Jerusalem Council Paul had demonstrated that
Gentile Christians were not under the Law--and the Council had agreed with
that argument--nevertheless, the Council decreed, Paul should keep in mind
the traditions handed down by the fathers. Thus they requested that the
Gentiles not do anything to offend their Jewish brothers. They could accomplish
this by abstaining from things sacrificed to idols and from blood, and from
things strangled, and from fornication (Acts 15: 29). Thus the Council
never did begin to deal with the question of the Jewish customs but rather
sought to stop the Judaizers from forcing Gentile Christians to be circumcised
and making them keep the Law of Moses.
So here in Jerusalem, although thousands of Jews had accepted Jesus as Messiah,
their leaders had not asked them to cease from participating in the Jewish
traditions.
Then James went on to give Paul the bad news. The new Jewish converts had
been told by the Judaizers that Paul was "teaching all the Jews 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."
The Judaizers were actually charging Paul with apostasy. But Paul never
taught any Jewish convert to forsake the traditions of Moses. That was not
part of his gospel of grace to the Jews. Rather he was trying to show from
the Old Testament that Jesus was the Messiah. The apostle's mission to the
Jews involved their salvation, not their forsaking of the Law at this time;
while his mission with the Gentiles was their salvation. His aim at the
Jerusalem Council, as we have seen, was to stop the Judaizers from bringing
Gentiles under the Law.
The apostle's principles of ministry among both Jews and Gentiles are clearly
set out in the following verses from his first letter to the Corinthians:
For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave
to all, that I might win the more. And to the Jews I became as a Jew, that
I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law, though
not being myself under the Law, that I might win those who are under the
Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without
the Law of God but under the law of Christ, that I might win those who are
without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have
become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some (1 Cor.
9:19-22).
Talking about "becoming all things to all men," reminds me of
being invited to a Passover dinner by some Jewish friends a few years ago.
During the evening, the mother of the family invited a couple of the family
members to share the Passover story. But their attempts at doing so were
way off the mark. In fact, they did not know even the fundamentals. I said
I would be glad to share what I knew about the feast, and I proceeded to
trace from the Old Testament the events of the Passover, concluding the
story with events from Christ's life and ministry. When I finished, the
mother brought a smile to all present when she said to me, "Why aren't
you our rabbi?"
These verses from 1 Corinthians, then, reveal Paul's principles and motives
for ministry among both Jews and Gentiles.
James comes up with a solution to Paul's problem which had arisen due to
the lies of the Judaizers. Apparently there were four men among the fellowship
in Jerusalem who had contracted some ceremonial defilement and they had
to undergo a purification rite in the temple. Seven days had to elapse
before a Nazirite could be purified. He would shave his head on the seventh
day and on the eighth day bring his offering to the temple. So Paul, at
James' suggestion, joined these four men in the purification rite, hoping
that his actions would counteract the lie that he was teaching the Jews
to forsake the Law of Moses, cease circumcising their children and not walking
according to the customs. James was pointing out that actions speak louder
than words. "All will know that there is nothing to the things which
they have been told about you," said James, "but that you yourself
also walk orderly, keeping the Law." What would the Gentile believers
think about Paul's joining in this ceremonial rite? James answered by saying
that this issue had been solved at the Jerusalem Council eight years earlier,
when Gentiles were asked to abstain from practices that would have greatly
offended the Jewish Christians at that time.
In his response, Paul accepted the advice of James in order to keep the
door open to preach and teach the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ to
the Jews at the Feast of Pentecost. As he wrote in his letter to the Romans,
"For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ
for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen ..." (Rom.9:3).
Some think that Paul by his actions gave in to James and compromised the
gospel of grace. But in reality neither the risen Lord nor his apostles
ever taught the Jews to forsake the temple rites in these early days of
the Age of the Spirit. The Lord himself arranged all that in 70 A.D. when
the Romans destroyed the temple and took the Jews into captivity. But before
that event, the Lord through the Holy Spirit gave to the the church the
book of Hebrews, which was written in 69 A.D. I remember hearing Dr. Donald
Grey Barnhouse saying of this book, which was to become so relevant to the
first century Jewish Christians, "Hebrews was written by a Hebrew to
tell the Hebrews to stop acting like Hebrews!"
The spiritual principle here is that Paul well knew that the Law was good,
for he had written earlier to the Galatians, "Before faith came, we
were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was
later revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ,
that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no
longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus." (3:23f) .
The rites of the Law, the feasts and the sacrifices all pointed to Christ
Jesus. Paul therefore could attend the feasts and use them as teachable
moments to the unbelieving Jews to declare that Jesus was the fulfillment
of the Passover Lamb, as John the Baptist stated when he saw Jesus coming
toward him, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world"
(1:28).
In her new book Jesus For Jews, Ruth Rosen tells the story
of the conversion of a Jewish friend of mine named Jerry. She quotes Jerry
as saying, "We celebrated the Jewish holidays in great style. At Passover,
my grandmother would have the house thoroughly scrubbed from top to bottom.
We'd bring in separate sets of pots and pans for those eight days. There
was no such thing as Kosher for Passover milk products back then, so we
ate only meat dishes ... My kosher upbringing and holiday celebrations
are clearly etched memories..." Through certain relationships and friendships
initiated by his wife, who had become a Christian, one evening Jerry attended
a concert with the Jews for Jesus group, the Liberated Wailing Wall, and
he came to faith in Christ under the teaching of Tuvya Zaretsky. The book
goes on to say, again quoting Jerry, " It is true that Jews who believe
in Jesus are often misunderstood and misjudged by our closest family and
friends...My mother has also come to faith in Jesus. She, too, worried about
how the family would respond. Maybe it was a little easier for her, knowing
that I believed and had not turned my back on my Jewish identity. But to
us the final question was not whether it would be easy or hard to face people
as a Jew who believes in Jesus. Eventually, we had to ask, is it right to
believe? It is!" was his response.
Paul was carrying his "shield of faith" when he entered Jerusalem
that day with the collection for the Jewish famine relief fund. The evil
one had thrown the dart that Paul was teaching the Jewish Christians to
forsake the Law of Moses, to not circumcise their children and walk according
to the customs. But the apostle trusted the Lord to be with him as he went
into the temple and participated with the four Jewish men in the purification
rite so as to eliminate any confusion. By doing so he would hopefully gain
an opportunity to preach the gospel of the grace of Jesus Christ.
But now he would need to once more lift up his shield of faith in the midst
of persecution.
II. The shield of faith in the midst of persecution, 21:27-36
And when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing
him in the temple, began to stir up all the multitude and laid hands on
him, 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
the holy place." For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian
in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the
temple. And all the city was aroused, and the people rushed together; and
taking hold of Paul, they dragged him out of the temple; and immediately
the doors were shut. And while they were seeking to kill him, a report came
up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion.
And 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. 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.
But among the crowd some were shouting one thing and some another, and when
he could not find out the facts on account of the uproar, he ordered him
to be brought into the barracks. And when he got to the stairs, it so happened
that he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob;
for the multitude of the people kept following behind, crying out, "Away
with him!"
As Paul was in the temple, near the end of the seven days of purification
rites, a group of Jews from Asia, pilgrims for the Feast of Pentecost, spotted
him. It is possible that these Jews had heard the apostle preach earlier
in the city of Ephesus and they had rejected his message. Perhaps they were
among those who had even sought to kill him back then. In any event, these
men stirred up the crowd in the temple, calling out, "Men of Israel,
come to our aid!" And here was the charge they leveled against Paul,
the flaming dart they fired at him, lie #2: "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 defiled this holy
place."
The charge against Paul was four-fold. First, the Jews accused him of "preaching
to all men everywhere against our people." But what the apostle actually
had preached along these lines is found in Galatians 3:28: "There is
neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither
male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Second, they
charged that Paul was preaching against the Law of Moses. But what Paul
was actually preaching was the words of Romans 9:31: "...but Israel,
pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why, because
they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works." He
was not preaching against the law, but against the efforts of the Jews to
achieve righteousness through works, and not by faith." Third, they
charged that Paul was preaching against the temple. But what the apostle
had declared was that the Christian's body was the temple of the Holy Spirit.
But the most serious charge leveled against Paul was contained in the words,
"he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy
place." While God-fearing Gentiles were allowed into the temple area,
within the Courts of the Gentiles, between that court and the Court of the
Women, there was a wall upon which was written the words, "No man of
alien race is to enter within the balustrade and the fence that goes round
the Temple, and if anyone is taken in the act, let him know that he has
himself to blame for the penalty of death that follows." Even the
Romans took this so seriously they allowed the Jews to carry out the death
penalty if this provision was violated.
The result of these charges against Paul was that "all the city was
aroused." The mob took hold of Paul and dragged him out of the temple.
As they were planning to kill him, the Roman cohort heard about it and he
took some soldiers, ran to the temple and stopped the mob from beating Paul.
He ordered the apostle to be bound in chains, thus fulfilling the prophecy
which Agabus had uttered in Caesarea, "In this way the Jews at Jerusalem
will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the
Gentiles" (Acts 21:11). As Paul was carried away by the Romans he heard
ringing in his ears the cry from his own countrymen, "Away with him!"
We remember Paul's words to the elders at Ephesus while he was making his
return to Jerusalem: "...I am on my way to Jerusalem , not knowing
what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies
to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me" (Acts
20:22,23). He was aware that he would face spiritual warfare everywhere
he went, for, as he wrote in Ephesians, "our struggle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the
world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly places" (Eph.6:12). Christians in all generations must
face the same powers.
Yesterday a young woman who was led by the Lord to lovingly confront her
parents with spiritual truth telephoned me to share with me what had been
their response. Unfortunately they completely misunderstood her motives
and they became angry and hurt. They told her that she was too young and
did not have the right to speak like that to them, and then asked her to
leave. "I need to keep my faith in the Lord," she told me. She
resolved to lift her shield of faith against this flaming dart of the evil
one lest she be devastated.
In the midst of the confusion and persecution to which he was exposed, the
apostle Paul recognized that he was experiencing spiritual warfare, for
the issue really was theological--the Law of Moses versus the gospel of
the grace of Jesus Christ; salvation by works or by grace. But Paul had
already girded his lions with truth; put on the breastplate of righteousness;
shod his feet with gospel of peace; and taken up the shield of faith with
which he would be able to extinguish all the darts of the evil one. The
enemyplanned to kill him, using an inflamed Jewish mob, but the risen Lord
and Shield protected him from the darts of death as he placed his faith
in Christ.
On this occasion Paul dramatically experienced spiritual warfare on a physical
level. Our battles may be just as dramatic on an emotional or spiritual
level, resulting in confusion and possible persecution. But the key to the
battle is to put on the full armor of God, the risen Christ, and when the
enemy attacks with his flaming darts, pick up your shield of faith and stand
in the strength of the Lord and his might.
When my grandmother shared with me that day long ago the pressures she was
facing now that she had come to faith in Christ, I told her to pray to
her new Lord who knew about the pressure she was under and he would instruct
her by the indwelling Holy Spirit. Meanwhile I told her I thought she should
stay put in her church and use the opportunity to share with her Catholic
friends about the peace and joy that had come to her heart since she had
invited Jesus to become her personal Lord and Savior.
Our heavenly Father, we know that without faith it is impossible
to please you, and we truly desire to be a people of faith. We pray that
we might be faithful to trust you, that we might put up the shield of faith
this week so that the flaming darts of the evil one might not penetrate
our hearts. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Catalog No. 4105
Acts 21: 17-36
Twentieth Message
Ron R. Ritchie
April 10, 1988
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