Read the Bible in a Year (21NOV19)

DAILY REMINDER – Today, November 21’s Bible reading is Acts 21-23.

NEXT DAY REMINDER – Tomorrow, November 22’s Bible reading is Acts 24-26. May God bless you with the reading of His WORD.

ACTS MOMENT – (21NOV19) “Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go; I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, ‘Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!’ ” (Acts 22:21-22). Paul had received a prophetic Word from the Prophet Agabus, during his stay with the evangelist Philip in Caesarea, that when he went to Jerusalem, he would be bound and imprisoned. Despite knowing his future fate, Paul knew that it was his mission to go anyway and preach the Gospel. Upon his arrival, the Apostle James told him to do the Jewish purification process because word had gotten around that he had told the Gentiles that they did not have to adhere to the Jewish Law. James informed Paul that he had written to them and told the Gentiles that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols, from blood, meat of strangled animals and sexual immorality. This, however, did not prevent the Jews from coming up against Paul, for when some of them saw him at the temple, it stirred up a frenzy among them. 

They mistakenly thought that Paul had brought a Gentile into the temple, which gave rise for the Jews to try killing him, but a Roman commander heard the commotion and arrested him. This, however, was a case of mistaken identity because the Roman commander thought that Paul had been an Egyptian terrorist whom they had been after for starting a revolt against the Romans several years earlier. The Egyptian claimed to have been a prophet according to Biblical scholars and devised a plan to attack the Romans only to have their plans thwarted by Felix the governor. Several hundred of them died, but the Egyptian had gotten away. Upon knowing that Paul was able to speak Greek, the commander knew that he had the wrong person. Paul then asked to address the crowd.

Paul gave testimony of his former life as a persecutor of the saints and how Jesus changed him as he was on the road to Damascus. He told the Jews how he was even in support as the ones who stoned Stephen laid their coats at his feet and how he had taken men and women to prison resulting even in their deaths for following the Way. The crowd listened until Paul spoke of Jesus instructing him to preach to both Jews and Gentiles. This was too much for them to handle because they still thought of themselves as God’s chosen and only people who were worthy of salvation. The crowd became belligerent, so the commander gave an order for Paul to be taken to the barracks, flogged, and interrogated. The flogging and interrogation did not take place at that time, however, because Paul informed them that he was a Roman citizen by birth.

The Jews were a stiff-necked people who acted as if they were doing what was right, but they were only trying to suit their own selfish desires. They thought that they had a monopoly on God and could not handle the fact that God’s love extended to the Gentiles as well. As a result, they fought against the idea of anyone other than themselves being saved, and anyone who made such a claim was worthy of death in their eyes. Jesus had told the disciples that they would kill them and think that they were doing a service to God (John 16:2). The sad thing is that there are many in the body of Christ today who have this same mindset. They think that they are the only ones who can be used by God and if God operates in a different manner or use the least likely of people, then that person is not of God. There was a lot of hatred and jealousy amongst the Jews towards those who sought to teach about Christ, and it is the same today amongst many Christians who will crucify other believers and point out everything about their past indiscretions prior to knowing Jesus. If many of us were to be honest, we would say that if someone recorded our past, we would probably have skeletons filling our homes and into the driveway. The Apostle Paul was forthcoming with his previous life and knew that it was only Christ who delivered, saved, and forgave him. Unfortunately, the Jews who condemned him did not display the same act of humility towards him and others. The Bible says: “The next morning, some Jews formed a conspiracy to bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty men were involved in this plot” (Acts 23:12). The Jews were so focused on the Law that they forgot the acts of love within the Law and the Law Giver.

As Christians, we are never to forget God’s love, grace, and mercy in our interactions with one another. Paul was persecuted by religious people who had doctrine but no true dedication to God. They had Law but no LOVE. They had religion but no relationship. They had Moses but no Jesus. They had a temple but no God. Let’s ensure that we do not walk along the same path, but follow Jesus’ example in all that we do. Something to ponder….