Why Did Paul Have To Go To Rome?

Tom:

This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we are in the Book of Acts, we are in Acts chapter 21, and we are going to pick up with verse 15.Now Dave, I think we put to rest the controversy regarding the apostle Paul, whether he was going to Jerusalem in his own will, against what the Holy Spirit said, so folks, if you are interested in that to get the previous program or two.But right now we are on Acts 21 verse 15.“And after those days we took up our carriages, and went up to Jerusalem.”

Dave:

I find that interesting.

Tom:

Now what kind of carriage would this be?

Dave:

Oh, horse drawn, I’m sure it wasn’t a horseless carriage with a motor, but it’s very interesting the different modes of transportation there are at Paul’s disposal.Now where he gets the money to rent these things, well, he earns it as a tent maker, it must have been a lucrative business.

Tom:

And certainly people contributed to his ministry.

Dave:

Right, he received gifts.But Tom, you know how my mind works, I’m always thinking apologetics.

Tom:

Which means a defense of the faith, an answer, actually.

Dave:

Right, and the Bible is filled with proofs.Now if I was writing this today I wouldn’t know whether they had carriages then or not, I wouldn’t even know what it was.I couldn’t know the route, I wouldn’t know we could take a ship from here to there, but all the details are here.And another thing that amazes me, well, we get into it the next verse, the numbers of people that Paul is in touch with.And you remember in 2 Corinthians 11, where he recites what has happened to him:Thrice was I beaten with rods, I was stoned, I have been shipwrecked, a night and a day have been in the deep, and he tells you all the things that happened to him, and imprisonment, and he mentions a number of other things.But what I’m thinking of at the moment is, he says, And besides all this, that which comes upon me daily with care of all the churches.This man—when you read of the people he is praying for and the people that he knows everywhere that he’s been and you think of, they didn’t modern transportation, they didn’t have Pony Express even in those days, how all this communication gets accomplished and so forth.Now Verse 16,“There went with us also certain of the disciples of Caesarea, and brought with them one Mnason of Cyprus, an old disciple, with whom we should lodge.”Now, people all over the known world know Paul, and they love him and they are trying to care for him, and he seems to know them.I mean, you’ve got quite a network, and how did this begin?Well, it began with what they accused a phony prophet, this ex-carpenter from Nazareth claiming to be God.He said he would rise from the dead and they finish that off by crucifying Him.Okay, that’s the end of that—Oops! The grave is empty and the soldiers guarding it, they are frightened because an angel rolled the stone away.They didn’t have to roll it away for Jesus to get out but to show them that He was out.And within a few years, not many years, Tom, after that, this may be thirty, no, twenty-five years at the most after the crucifixion, you’ve got disciples everywhere.This is spreading!

Tom:

And Dave, we begin with Paul, Saul actually, who is persecuting the church, and has to win the church over— those who were true followers of Jesus because out of fear they feared for their lives around Paul.But certainly things had changed, his life was transformed.

Dave:

It is thrilling, Tom, I say it everywhere I speak all over the world.I say to the audience, It is so wonderful to meet you and to find people who love the Lord everywhere in this world, that’s thrilling!

Tom:

Who were formerly His enemies.

Dave:

I met in Albania ex-Muslims, a lot of them, ex-atheists, a lot of them, ex-orthodox, they are almost as bad.Tom, it is thrilling!I just can’t help but say that, and look at this, disciples from everywhere are going with him.

Tom:

Verse 17, “And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.” “And the day following Paul went in—

Dave:

Can you stop there?

Tom:

Sure.

Dave:

Sorry.The brethren received us gladly.How did they get to be brethren?You know, you’ve got a club, Elks Club, or whatever, they call them brothers.

Tom:

We’ve got a Masonic Lodge.

Dave:

Right, right, the brothers.But wait a minute, these are real brothers because they’ve been adopted by the heavenly Father.They have become the children of God, Paul says in Galatians, You are all the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.Now everybody is not a child of God, they are not born a child of God, but I guess if you went to a UnityChurch, for example, they would have you repeat, I am a child of God, I am a child of God, I am a child of God.Sorry guys, you are not, you are of your father the devil, that’s what Jesus said.Well, how do we become brethren?We are born again.

Tom:

Dave, why would Jesus say that?Explain that to our listeners and our viewers.Why would He say—because He was speaking to the Jews, to the religious Jews, and they said, Hey, we are of our father Abraham.So they certainly had genealogical or, you know, genetic development so that they could make a claim that, certainly we couldn’t as Gentiles.

Dave:

Right.Well, of course because we’renot just bodies.They were physically related to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, so they were Jews physically, but we are soul and spirit living in a physical body.And Tom, I mean, the Bible is so fantastic.I don’t know if you remember, I can’t remember when did I first read this book?Thirty years ago, at least, The Difference of Man and the Difference it Makes, by J. Mortimer Adler, brilliant guy.He was an atheist at that time.Maybe he had progressed to become an agnostic at that time, but he was saying that there is a difference between man and animals that can’t be bridged by evolution.And what is the difference?Able to conceive and verbally express conceptual ideas in language, that separates us.We are non-physical beings within a physical body.That’s what Paul is talking about.We’ve been born of the Spirit, as Jesus said, born again into the family of God.So we are brethren, and we are not all brethren except through Adam physically.It is thrilling, Tom, thrilling!

Tom:

Verse 18 again, “And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.”Now this is James, the brother, the half-brother of Jesus who had a transformation himself.We don’t find the half-brothers of Jesus being favorable to Him.

Dave:

Yeah, in John 7, they said, If you are really the Messiah, go up, it’s the feast of the Passover now, go on up.And Jesus said, Well, I’m not going yet, and then He went, of course.No, they were not favorable, they didn’t believe in Him.

Tom:

Well, this was James, again the half-brother of Jesus, and all the elders were present.

Dave:

So he’s the head guy, Acts 15 we found that out.He’s kind of in control, he’s in charge.

Tom:

Not Peter, as the Catholic church would say.

Dave:

Right, and all the elders were present—wow!

Tom:

“And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.”

Dave:

Remember, they couldn’t believe this.When Peter was led by God to go to the household of Cornelius, and these people get saved, that’s the first Gentile

Converts, when he comes back to Jerusalem these elders jumped all over him, his fellow apostles.You went in among the uncircumcised, you went into the house of Gentiles, you can’t do that!Then he explains to them, but you see, it was all through the Bible.What does it say?He will be---well, you’ve got it in Isaiah, you’ve got it everywhere.Well, you have it when God speaks to Abraham, And you and in your seat shall all nations of the earth be blessed.When Jesus said, God into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, well, they didn’t understand that.No, the gospel always was for everyone.So here they are, and Paul now, why does he particularly say, What happened among the Gentiles?Because this was so shocking, such a revelation, For God so loved the world, Jesus said, He gave His only begotten Son.Otherwise, Tom, you and I, we wouldn’t have a chance.