Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: acts, god, james, luke, moses, paul, trophimus
1. Paul’s still rolling with Luke. And they went to see James (with all the other elders). I bet it was awesome for Paul to share all the successes that he had experienced with the Gentiles.
2. Unfortunately, there was a hitch to the Jerusalem crew’s excitement over what Paul was doing. People were claiming that Paul was telling all the Jews in his “church” to “turn away from Moses” (or no longer follow the Old Testament customs). This rubbed them the wrong way. Everyone was worried what those people would think now that Paul (public enemy number one) was in town! Why do believers have to fight so much among themselves?
3. They wanted Paul to “get in on” these four young men who were going through a super-Jewish purification vow. He would pay their way, and that would help everyone to see that Paul was pro-obedience to the law. They still believed that the Jews should follow the Jewish law, but the Gentiles only should avoid “food sacrificed to idols…blood…the meat of strangled animals and…sexual immorality.” Do you think this plan will work?
4. I don’t know all the rules for purification, but Paul definitely did it along with those four guys. Why do you think it was important for Paul to participate in this symbolic gesture?
5. Uh oh…Asian Jews went crazy when they saw Paul at the temple. They wigged out and said that Paul had defiled the temple by bringing a Greek into the temple. It wasn’t Trophimus, but good luck telling them that.
6. The people of Jerusalem went nuts! They bounced Paul out of the temple and were ready to kill him over this. Good thing the commander of the Roman troops caught wind of what was going on. He didn’t die, but he was arrested. Apparently, they bound people up first, before asking them who they were and what they had done. Funny…
7. The commander took him into the barracks, which was good, because it seems like the mob would have taken Paul out…
