A summary of Acts 21-26
Paul is making his farewell journey through all the churches he’s been associated with between Corinth and Jerusalem, surrounding the northeast Mediterranean. He meets with and encourages the leaders and ensures that they have the Jesus message down in the way he interprets it.
It’s clear that no one expects to see Paul again, but unclear whether that’s because our author is foreshadowing his arrest and execution or because Paul himself hopes to go from Jerusalem to Rome and then on to Spain to preach about Jesus.
Everyone he meets encourages him not to go to Jerusalem, but he insists. So when he arrives in Jerusalem, he meets with James and the leaders of the church, who welcome him and the collection from various churches he’s brought to help the poor folks in Jerusalem. Paul tells them of his great success converting people to the way of Jesus and they respond by telling of great success in converting Jews to Jesus. They warn Paul that this religious revival among Jews has led to greater adherence to the Torah and consequently the Jerusalem community of Jesus people has concern about Paul telling Gentiles they don’t have to follow the law or be circumcised. The leaders insist that they still agree Paul’s method is right, but that there might be trouble. In order to show Paul’s commitment to Judaism, they suggest that he join a small group who are making a religious vow and pay their expenses as a sign of good faith, which Paul does.
In completing this vow, Paul goes to the Temple, where some Jews from Ephesus recognize him and incite a riot against him because of his teachings. The Roman military gets involved and rescues Paul. On his way to safety in the Roman barracks, he asks for permission to address the crowd and tells the story of his conversion from a pious Jew to a follower of Jesus – but still a Jew. The crowd wants nothing of it and the captain of the guard takes him into safe-keeping.
The next day the captain takes him to the Jewish Council for examination, trying to figure out what the problem is and what crime Paul is accused of. Paul’s defense includes setting the Pharisees and Sadducees against each other, starting another riot, so that the captain takes him back into Roman custody to protect him.
The Jews in Jerusalem plan to ask for Paul to appear again before the council so that they can murder him when he’s out of Roman custody. Paul’s nephew overhears them plotting and tells Paul and then the captain of the plan. The captain sends Paul right away overnight to Caesarea to the custody of Felix, the governor of the region. Felix puts Paul under house arrest in posh quarters.
The Chief Priest sends a smooth-talking lawyer to Felix to accuse Paul of crimes of disturbing the peace and causing riots because of his association with Nazarenes – the followers of Jesus. Paul claims his innocence and Felix (who is a sympathizer of the Jesus movement) keeps him in house arrest and over the next two years Felix and his wife Drusilla often listen to Paul talk about Jesus.
After two years Festus replaces Felix as regional governor in Caesarea. When he’s making the rounds to visit major cities in his area, he goes to Rome, where the Council again stirs up trouble about Paul, asking that he be sent to trial in Jerusalem. But Paul insists on being tried by Romans and appeals to Caesar.
Soon after that King Agrippa and wife Bernice visit Festus to welcome him to his new post. Festus consults with Agrippa about what to do with Paul and Agrippa has Paul tell his story. Paul again tells of his conversion from persecutor of Jesus folks to chief spokesperson to the Gentiles on Jesus’ behalf. Agrippa is moved by Paul’s tale and sympathetic to his cause. He declares that it’s too bad Paul has appealed to Caesar because Agrippa would have set him free. But since he’s made the appeal, he’ll be sent to Rome.
Here are a few things to notice about this story
as we near the end of our journey through Acts:
The people who accused Paul and started the riot in the Temple were from Ephesus. For this and a number of other detailed reasons, some scholars believe that the author of Acts was from Ephesus. We know from Paul’s letters that there was a debate among the Jesus followers in that city about differences in teaching represented by Paul and by John. This author clearly favors Paul’s version of the message and may be writing Acts as an apology for Paul’s teachings over those of other teachers. Because of the way ancient writings have been preserved, it’s Paul’s theology that most heavily influences Christianity today. That’s not to say that Paul is always right or that what is says is wrong, but it’s good for us to notice that there isn’t one right way to be a follower of Jesus.
Paul was a Pharisee who believed in the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were two branches of Judaism in the first century. The Sadducees didn’t believe in resurrection, life after death, the appearance of angels, or any religious believes that bordered on the supernatural. When Paul appears before the council, he sets these two factions fighting as a way to take the heat off himself. As a Pharisee and believer in resurrection, Paul has to have influenced the early church to put central focus on the resurrection and eternal life. We see that in the letters he wrote and in the way his message is phrased in Acts. Not every part of early Christianity has that same emphasis. Again, this isn’t to say that one is right and another wrong, but only that it’s possible to focus on the meaning of Jesus in a variety of ways.
Finally, during one of the times Paul is imprisoned in this story he has a vision of God telling him that everything is going to be alright and that this trouble he’s having with the Jews is eventually going to get him on his way to Rome to preach about Jesus. Paul uses the fact that he’s a Roman citizen, by birth and not by bribery, to throw his case into Roman court. This offers him protection from the Jewish council and prevents him from being whipped or otherwise tortured because of his rights as a citizen. It also means that when Agrippa would have set him free, he can’t because Paul has appealed to Rome. So that tactic worked both for and against Paul, if we’re to presume that he was eventually executed in Rome. There’s a wonderful story about how the events in life can be both bad and good, depending on how we see them. We should put that on our list to consider in future sermons. For now, suffice it to say that there’s no point in second guessing decisions we make or wondering how our lives might have been different if we’d made different choices. Paul tells us that the outcome is all in God’s hands, and we too can leave it there.
— Gretchen Graf