Sovereign Control – Acts 21:27-40

Wednesday night two weeks ago, we looked at whether or not Paul should have made this trip to Jerusalem.

He was being told in “every city” and in every church from Corinth to Caesarea “that bonds and afflictions would abide him” once he reached Judea.

I suppose that the first thought of just about every casual reader of Acts is that God was telling Paul that it was NOT HIS WILL that he personally deliver the Gentile’s financial gifts to that church.

This is what I believed for years.

Certainly, Paul was just a sinner saved by grace, like any other child of God.

And certainly he could have sinned like any one of us.

The Apostles were not impeccable or sinlessly perfect.

But I find it really difficult to believe that an Apostle of God would deliberately rebel against the direct command of God, especially in the light of this often repeated prediction.

In the course of that message, I told you that I pulled out every book in my library which made a reference to this question.

The vast majority said that God was only INFORMING Paul and the saints that there would be trouble in Jerusalem.

They said that the Lord was preparing Paul for his upcoming trials.

Perhaps the Lord was preparing the saints around the Mediterranean world for the troubles ahead.

The Lord may have been testing the faith and the resolve Paul or the rest of the brethren.

Only one of my references clearly said that Paul was rebelling against the direct command of God.

Please listen once again to part of what B. H. Carroll said about this:

“He went against the expressed declaration of the Spirit of God speaking through the prophets; and the explanation of his going is that the man’s love for home mission work, and his intense desire to save the Jerusalem Jews, always kept him looking back toward Jerusalem.

The purpose of the going was to carry the big contribution that had been collected, and the representatives of the churches were right there with him, and were carrying the money.

It is a fact that his going at that time kept him shut up in prison four years – two years of the time at Caesarea, in which we have no history of him.

If there were any letters written, they were not preserved.

The other two years of the time he was at Rome, where he was carried.

There we have some great work done by him, but I can’t persuade myself that it was the will of God for him to go to Jerusalem at that time.

It puts the greatest worker in the world out of commission for four years, except as I think, it is quite probable that when he was at Caesarea that two years, he helped Luke write his Gospel, and later gave us his prison letters from Rome.”

Those men who minister the Word to God to saints, are prone to pontificate every once in a while.

And I’ll include myself among that number.

We preachers like to get dogmatic and dramatic: “This is the way I see it, and so this is the way it is.”

Bro. Carroll said that Paul went against the expressed declaration of the Spirit.

But other than one debated verse, the prophets, including Agabus, DIDN’T clearly tell Paul NOT to go.

Nearly all the other commentaries said that Paul was given INFORMATION not PROHIBITION.

And then Bro. Carroll said that this trip put God’s greatest servant out of commission for four years.

Then he added – except for the small item of helping Luke write his Gospel and the Book Acts,

and then the prison epistles: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon and probably Hebrews,

Paul’s life was a complete waste for at least four years.

But wait just a minute here.

How much emptier would our Bibles be if Paul had personally delivered the messages of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians rather than putting them on parchment so that we could have them too?

It’s not for me to say that the Lord wouldn’t have given those books to us from the pen of Paul

while he was preaching a revival meeting at Corinth or Ephesus five years later,

but then it’s not. B.H. Carroll’s place to say that Paul had no ministry at all while he was incarcerated.

And who is to say that during those four years while Paul was “out of commission” he didn’t lead a half dozen men to Christ who became flaming evangelists themselves.

Just because we are not told Paul did a great work while in Roman chains, doesn’t mean that he didn’t.

I believe in God’s sovereign control of this universe.

Jehovah is not a helpless observer of events as they unfold around His chosen people.

Not only is the king’s heart in the hand of the Lord, so is the queen’s heart and the rook’s heart as well.

There were things which took place in the Jerusalem riot, which I think were directly controlled by God.

They were not just a part of His permissive will, they were directly managed by the Holy Spirit.

And I must assume that the reason was to facilitate Paul’s continued ministry.

Let me show you what I mean.

Verse 27: – “And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him.”

Last week, Judy and I went to Costco.

We were in the food section when she asked me to look for a couple of items.

I was gone not more than a couple of minutes, but when I returned Judy had moved on.

It then took me another 5 minutes for me to find her again – in our little Coeur d’Alene Costco.

With tens of thousands in the Temple, and hundreds of thousands of visitors in Jerusalem, how easy would it have been for the Lord to keep those Ephesian Jews from seeing Paul?

Or on that day, why weren’t they so busy about their worship that they didn’t notice or recognize Paul even if he was walking by?

God could have easily prevented all of this turmoil, but He chose not to do so.

And then when those Asians did see Paul, why didn’t one of them realize that they should do a little investigation before they charged him with bringing Gentiles into the Temple?

The sovereign God could have put a stop to their sin, but in this case He chose not to do so.

And when those people saw Paul, assuming that he had polluted the Temple, why didn’t they call for the Jewish Temple guards and have him arrested?

That would have diverted the ruckus and quickly put an end to the immediate attack against Paul.

I believe that all of this was ordained by the Lord.

God wasn’t caught off-guard on this day or by any other event in human history either.

Verses 31-32: – “And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.”

There are things in these verses which just don’t make a lot of sense, until we incorporate the will and handiwork of God.

For example: how long would it take a crowd of 20 angry men to beat or kick another man to death?

And how long would it take a hundred, five hundred or a thousand?

But then maybe verse 31 isn’t saying that they were trying to kill him at that very moment, but only that they began to drag him out of the temple in order to kill him outside the Temple grounds.

Apparently the Roman Chief Captain did not actually see the beginning of the attack, but some of his soldiers did.

How many seconds or minutes would it take for those tiding to be sent into his office?

And how many seconds or minutes would it take for him to make the decision to send his troops in to quell whatever was going on down there?

How long would it take to descend the long stairs into the Temple?

And then how long would it take for those troops to push their way through several thousand Jews?

If the Castle of Antonia was on the northwest corner of the Temple grounds,

and the main gates of the Temple were on the east,

it means that Paul was being dragged away from the soldiers.

It also means that he was a long way from any rescue by the soldiers.

Or did the Jews drag Paul out one of the small side doors right into the arms of the Romans?

I’m just saying there was ample time for the mob to kill Paul before the Romans could have rescued him.

But it was not the will of the Lord that occur.

Verse 32 says that they had already started beating him before the soldiers arrived.

So what were they using to beat him? Prayer scarves and feathers?

And then they immediately stopped – as if someone flipped the switch and the power of was turned off.

And then there wasn’t a single Jew who took one more very hard kick to split Paul’s spleen wide open.

Jehovah was in complete control of this entire situation?

Verses 35-36: – “And when he came upon the stairs, so it was, that he was borne of the soldiers for the violence of the people. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying, Away with him.”

Claudias Lysias and his Roman soldiers saved Paul’s life.

I suppose that it was their job to do that.

Under the circumstances it seems to be that it should have been difficult, if not actually impossible.

But the will and emotions of men are not the only things to be seen here; there is the omnipotent will of God.

Just for your information, think about the words “Away with him.”

The Gospels tell us this was what the Jews cried out when Pilate considered releasing the Lord Jesus.

John 19 – “And from thenceforth Pilate sought to release him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Caesar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.

When Pilate therefore heard that saying, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgment seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.

And it was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour: and he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!

But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.”

When those Jews were screaming at Paul and Lysias, “Away with him,”

they weren’t saying, “Get this heretic out of our sight.”

They were saying that they wanted him dead.

These people were furious, but God kept their wrath in check.

In this case, like that of Job, God said to the wicked, “You can touch his body, but you can’t kill him.”

Isn’t it wonderful to worship a God who is in sovereign control?

Verses 39-40: – “But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.

And when he had given him licence, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand unto the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spake unto them in the Hebrew tongue, saying,”

Does verse 32 say that Paul’s beating had already begun,

or merely that the crowd dropped the idea of beating him?”

“And when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.”

This says to me that they had already begun their attempt to kill him.

And yet, after Lysias gave him permission to speak, he was still healthy and whole enough to address the crowd.

Don’t I see the power of God in this?

And then perhaps the most amazing things of all.

There was no logical reason for the Chief Captain to give Paul permission to speak.

“If this runt of Jew was close to setting the whole city of Jerusalem on fire, and it took a hundred well-armed Roman soldiers to quash a near riot, what are his words going to do now that I have him in my custody?”

I would think that it would be contrary to the SOP (Standard Operation Procedure) to let Paul speak.

And then comes the most incredible thing of all: the mob shut-up when Paul asked them to.

In Ephesus when Alexander “beckoned with the hand, and would have made his defense unto the people”

“When they knew that he was a Jew, all with one voice about the space of two hours cried out, Great is Diana of the Ephesians.”

I think that the Ephesians response to Alexander was to be expected under the circumstances.

That the Jewish crowd of 10, 20 or 50 thousand got quiet enough for Paul to speak was something miraculous.

I cannot but think that Jehovah had a specific purpose in these things.

But I cannot tell you what that purpose was.

And yet, as we move on into chapter 22, where Paul gives the testimony of his conversion, my heart says that there was someone in that crowd, perhaps several, whom the Lord brought under conviction.

I have to think that there were people saved by God’s grace through the sermon on steps that day.

There are no accidents with God; there are no surprises.

It’s not the work of God to somehow make lemonade out of wrecked produce trucks.

“All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,” because it IS the purpose of God.

I rejoice to worship and serve a God Who is THE God.

Nothing takes place in this world without His permission.

Every event is either God’s direct will or His permissive will, but it IS His will.

I am sharing these things with you this evening to encourage and strengthen you in your prayer lives.

The sovereignty of God is not reason NOT to pray.

It’s reason to pray in faith and confidence.

There is nothing beyond the control of God.

There is nothing that doesn’t eventually bring Him glory.

Even if it is what appears to be an uncontrollable riot.