Bible Study Lesson for Acts 21:17-26: Paul's Arrival at Jerusalem

We now move into the second section of this chapter which talks about Paul's first few days in Jerusalem and his meeting with the Jerusalem church.

Read Acts 21:17. This is a straight-forward verse, but I couldn't help contrasting this with how Paul was received the first time he came to Jerusalem and introduced himself to the Jerusalem church approximately 20 years prior! Read Acts 9:26. What an incredible turn-around, from your mere name causing fear, to being welcomed openly. Also, when we read ahead in Acts 21 we will find no mention of the offering which Paul and his companions are bringing from the churches in Macedonia to the Jerusalem church (which I admit find surprising); it might be safe to assume that one of the reasons why Paul and his companions are welcomed so warmly here in verse 17, is in part because of the offering.

Read Acts 21:18-19. The James mentioned here is the brother of the Lord Jesus and the current leader of the church at Jerusalem. He is called an apostle at times, but he was not one of the Lord's original 12 apostles. As one would expect someone in Paul's position to do, he reports to the head of the church and gives a report of his ministry to the Gentiles to the church elders.

Read Acts 21:20-21. I have to say that I found these two verses somewhat comical, and so typical of what we, as human beings have to deal with it in our day to day lives! Paul comes to the Jerusalem church not only bearing quite a bit of money as an offering but also giving a very good report of all that he had done in ministry. He has quite a bit reason to be proud (in a good way) of what the Lord has accomplished through him. In the first part of verse 20, we can see how this good news is welcomed: the elders of the Jerusalem church praise God because of this. They are pleased and happy. But, like in many aspects of life there is a "then they said..." and they have to give Paul the "bad" news, so to speak, of Paul's reputation among the Jewish believers. In other words, they have to do some "damage control" and deal with a difficult situation; this is part of the elders' role. (I call it "giving the carrot, then the stick!")

What is the situation? People have been spreading lies that Paul had been teaching Jewish converts that they should abandon the Jewish customs and that they no longer should follow the laws as given by Moses. In Jerusalem, many of the Christian believers were Jews and, as described here "zealous" for the law. They, of course, would be quite offended that a fellow believer was teaching that Jews should no longer circumcise their children, etc.

What exactly was Paul teaching on this matter? We could easily spend all night talking about this, but let's look at just two passages to get a sense of what Paul believed. Read 1 Corinthians 9:19-23. For the Jews' sake, Paul conformed to Jewish law, so as not to cause offense. However, he also made it clear that he did not believe that circumcision was a necessary requirement for God's acceptance or salvation and told the Galatian (Gentile) believers this. Read Galatians 5:1-6. He regularly taught in his writings about the freedom we have in Christ and that outward ritual was something between a man's conscience and God and not something that we can use to judge a person's relationship with Christ. He talks about this more when discussing the controversy about whether or not to eat meat sacrificed to idols. Read 1 Corinthians 10:27-31. I think this describes the delicate tight-rope we all walk as believers between our freedom as Christians and our duty to other believers.

Back to Acts 21. The elders know that Paul needs to do something publicly to set to rest this controversy surrounding him. The next few verses describe what they ask Paul to do. Read Acts 21:22-24. These four men were evidently under a temporary Nazirite vow and became unclean before the completion of the vow (perhaps from contact with a dead body). Let's review what this involved. Read Numbers 6:1-12. Notice that sacrifices were involved here, 2 doves or 2 pigeons and a lamb per person. Paul is being asked here not only to join in the purification rites, but also to pay for the expense of the sacrifices, as well as to notify the priests when their days of purification would be fulfilled so that they could prepare to do the sacrifice. (As we'll see in verse 26 of this chapter). All this would have been a very public act and Jews of the community would have seen that Paul was willing to participate in Jewish customs. My commentary pointed out that these rites were observed by choice by some Jewish Christians, but were not required by either Jew or Gentile Christians. Again, this goes back to the freedom we have in Christ.

Read Acts 21:25. This is a review of what was decided at the council of Jerusalem, way back in Acts 15, of which Paul and Barnabas were key speakers. Let's review the letter that was written at the end of this council. Read Acts 15:22-31. It was already decided, therefore, that Gentile Christians were not required to conform to Jewish customs, beyond these four basic requirements.

Read Acts 21:26. So Paul did what was asked of him and publicly demonstrated that he had no difficulty participating in Jewish rituals or in paying for them out of his own pocket. I think this is a wonderful demonstration of Christian submission. Paul was a great leader in his own right and could easily of been very offended at being asked to do these things simply to make other people happy. Yet, he submits and is obedient to the elders, even paying for the privilege! Truly a great man.

To be continued...

Sources
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version