In the sermon 'Staying in Fellowship with the Saints' by Peter Allison, the speaker discusses Paul's journey to Jerusalem with a significant gift for the church there. Paul is warmly received, but is faced with slanderous rumors claiming he teaches Jews to forsake Mosaic laws. The Jerusalem elders propose a plan for Paul to demonstrate his adherence to the law by undergoing a purification ritual with four men who have taken a vow. Despite the false accusations, Paul agrees to the plan, showcasing his humility and commitment to preserving fellowship among believers. The sermon highlights how Paul balanced adherence to the law with his mission to spread the Gospel and emphasizes the importance of humility and love in maintaining unity among believers. The sermon also touches on the historical context of the early church and the tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers. Through Paul's actions, the sermon illustrates the power of humility and love in overcoming slander and preserving the fellowship of the saints.

Acts 21, beginning at verse 17. Paul has just completed a lengthy journey from visiting all of the Asian and Macedonian churches. And he has arrived in Jerusalem with a very large gift for the church there. Verse 17. And when we had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

And on the following day, Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present. And when he had greeted them, he told them in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, You see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed, and they are all zealous for the law. But they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.

What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them, and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law.

But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, from sexual immorality. Then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified with them, entered the temple to announce the expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them. May His tender mercies come to us that we may delight in His Word. Gracious Father in Heaven, You have caused all of these scriptures to be written for our learning. Grant that we may hear them, read them, mark them, learn them, and inwardly digest and receive them such that through the patience and comfort of Your Word, we might be built up in the truth.

And I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips this morning, preserve me from error that the Gospel of Your grace might be proclaimed by the power of Your Spirit in Jesus' name. Amen. Last week, we looked at Paul's lengthy journey through all these churches, and saw all the different aspects of how Paul lived in fellowship, and these saints lived in fellowship with each other. And yes, there were some differences of opinion as to people that were urging him not to go to Jerusalem because of the chains and imprisonment that awaited him. And we saw how Paul steadfastly maintained his purpose to go.

And yet in doing so, how both sides still retain this deep affection, this deep fellowship, this unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. How they kept that and preserved that, even if they had this difference of opinion about what they should do, what Paul should do, it didn't in any way disrupt or harm or diminish the fellowship that they enjoyed with each other. Well, there's really only one point in my message this morning in this passage. And that is how Paul, even though he is mistreated, still retains and continues to walk in fellowship with these believing Jews. That Paul, despite all that happens to him here, is committed to walking in fellowship and preserves the fellowship of the saints.

And that takes humility. It takes great humility. And so I'd like to show this. I'd like to give first the setting of this encounter in Jerusalem. We're going to look at three aspects of this setting.

We're going to look at the Jerusalem church. We're going to look at what Paul has and where they are. We're going to look at Paul and where he is as he came into Jerusalem that day. And we're going to look at the Jerusalem elders and what they are dealing with and their mindset as this meeting comes together And this plan is proposed to Paul. So the setting.

What is the setting in which Paul demonstrates this commitment to preserving the fellowship of the saints? Well, we start with the Jerusalem church that He came to. To these brethren that received Him gladly, it says, when He got into Jerusalem. This Jerusalem church, remember, started with 3, 000 believers on Pentecost over 25 years ago. And by chapter 4 of Acts, there were 5, 000 believing men plus all the women and children.

And by Acts 6, the number of believers in Jerusalem had greatly multiplied, and a great many priests were obedient to the faith. Then the persecution in Acts 8 scattered many of these early believers into distant lands to bring the Gospel to the Gentile regions. And the apostles themselves were scattered around the world as Jesus had called them to testify to Him in Jerusalem and in Samaria and Judea, and then to the ends of the earth. But the Jews, of course, continued to believe in Jerusalem. And so Luke writes here that by this time, myriads of Jews had become believers.

Myriads. A myriad is 10, 000. So when Acts 20, for example, records the value of the magic books that were burned, it was 50, 000 pieces of silver. That word is actually five myriads. Same word, five myriads.

So it's 50, 000. But it can also mean of just a very large, indefinite number. But whatever large, indefinite number it's referring to, it's tens of thousands of people that were believers here that James says have now believed in Christ. And these Tens of thousands of Jewish believers are zealous for the law. That means that they keep the ceremonies of the Mosaic law.

They continue to circumcise their infant sons as they have been doing for 2, 000 years since the time of Abraham. They keep the Passover, just as they have been doing for 1, 500 years, and they keep all these other feasts as well. But these Jewish believers also recognize that Jesus was the Messiah, and they worshiped Him, And they were believers. But this point was a very contentious issue in that day. To the Jews, Jesus was their Messiah.

And if any Gentiles wanted to believe in Him and become Christians, then they needed to do it as Jews because Jesus was the Jewish Messiah. And so remember, this was the church issue that necessitated the Jerusalem Council, the very first ecumenical council that we studied in Acts 15. And the conclusion of that council was that the Gentiles did not need to first become Jews. They didn't need to keep the Old Testament ceremonial laws. But you also remember, the Council never told the Jewish believers to stop keeping the Mosaic ceremonial law.

They gave four requirements or commandments that were relevant portions of the moral law that the Gentiles needed to focus on. And we saw that those were aspects of the moral law that would have been new to them. But they never told the Jewish believers to stop keeping the ceremonial law like they'd been observing for hundreds of years. And so these Jewish believers have now been turned against Paul. And they are quite exercised about this whole thing.

And their passions have been stirred up. It would kind of be like telling a bunch of loyal Republicans that someone was instructing people not to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag or telling people to kneel during the national anthem. It was a hot button issue for them. Now of course, Paul wasn't teaching any such thing. This is slander, pure and simple.

It's a bunch of lies. But like all insidious lies, there's enough truth in it to make it believable and to confuse everyone. And they are. Paul did say some very strong things in his letter to the Galatians about those who taught the necessity of keeping the Mosaic Law. And he even went so far as to say that these people who taught this had denied the Gospel.

Because the ceremonies of the Mosaic Law pointed to Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of those ceremonies. And Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 5-7, Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. And so to insist on keeping these ceremonies as a condition of covenant membership is to deny that Christ has fulfilled them. It's to deny that baptism and the Lord's Supper have fully replaced circumcision and the Passover as the signs and the seals of the covenant of grace.

But Paul, at the same time, on the other hand, never argued that the Jews were not free to observe these ceremonies on a voluntary basis. In fact, he observed the Old Testament ceremonies at times himself. He circumcised Timothy, so as not to offend the Jews whom he was evangelizing. But at the same time, or on a different occasion, he refused to circumcise Titus as the Judaizers were demanding so as to preserve the truth of the Gospel. He could do both, depending on what the situation was, Because the situation is very important in our application of the law of God.

He told the Galatians, in Galatians 2-3, and yet not even Titus, who was with me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised, and this occurred because of false brethren so he's saying they're unbelievers, who have secretly brought in, who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty, which we have in Jesus Christ, that they might bring us into bondage. And he says to them, we didn't yield submission even for an hour. That the truth of the Gospel might continue with you. That's how strongly Paul is refusing to circumcise because he saw it as a gospel issue. And he says, we need to even submit to that for one hour.

But on the other hand, he's very willing to, in a different circumstance, in a different setting, he's very willing to circumcise Timothy so that they can more effectively minister to the Jews. Paul shaved his head at Shenkria in accordance with the ceremonial law because of a vow he had taken. So Paul thought that there was liberty in this area. And He wanted to use that liberty to reach more people for Christ. Liberty wasn't for his own benefit, but it was for the benefit of others.

He said in 1 Corinthians 9, 19, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all. That I might win the more, and to the Jews I became a Jew. That I might win Jews, and to those who are under the law, as under the law, meaning to those who are keeping the ceremonial law, he acted as if he kept that ceremonial law when he's with them that he might win those who are under the law. And to those who are without the law, to the Gentiles who don't keep the ceremonial law as without the law, not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ. He's saying to the Gentiles who didn't keep the ceremonial law, I acted as if I was without the law.

And then he clarifies it, not without the moral law of God, but without these ceremonies, in order that he might win those who are without the law. And see, Paul is able to evaluate a situation and can go either way on these ceremonial laws, depending on what love requires at that time. And so the source, and that's necessary actually, to maintaining fellowship is when we love one another, we're willing to flex and adapt to the situation to remain tamed, to stay in fellowship. But we don't compromise on the law of God or on the principles between right and wrong. So the source of these malicious rumors is undoubtedly the unbelieving Jews from Asia.

See, a little later, they are the ones in verse 21 that incite the crowd to violence against Paul by spreading even another malicious and wicked lie about him. And these are the same unbelieving Jews that were attacking Paul in every city that he preached. These are the people that had stoned him and left him for dead, that had drug him before the Philippian rulers and had him caned and so forth. But it's during these feasts that the believing and unbelieving Jews from all over the world would have traveled to Jerusalem to observe these feasts along with the Jews in Jerusalem, both the believing and the unbelieving Jews. Because many of the believing Jews would observe these festivals in Jerusalem just like the unbelieving Jews continued to do.

And you'll remember in chapter 20 that Paul had actually changed his travel plans to Jerusalem and took another vessel going to a different country in order to avoid a Jewish plot against his life by these same Jews who were on their pilgrimage to Jerusalem. And so they couldn't get him on that trip because he gave him the slip. And so they attack him now through the Jewish believers in Jerusalem who don't know Paul that well. And maybe some of these Jewish believers might even have remembered Paul as the one who persecuted Christians. Paul has visited Jerusalem, but it's never been for any great length of time.

And so this is the scene then when Paul arrives in Jerusalem. Now, this wasn't true of all believers. They weren't all receiving these lies. The brethren did receive him gladly as verse 17 states, but it was probably only a minority of people that were following or believing these rumors. But it was probably a significant minority.

But it only takes a few zealots in a crowd to make a lot of trouble and to stir up a minority. So that's the church that Paul is coming to. That's the setting in which Paul is arriving. Let's look at Paul now. Paul has focused for a long time now on getting to Jerusalem for Pentecost.

And he's made some sacrifices to do it. Remember, he sailed past Ephesus, the church where he had labored, in order to get to Jerusalem on time for Pentecost. And last week we saw how Paul was committed to going to Jerusalem despite the prophetic knowledge that chains and prisons awaited him in Jerusalem. And he's committed to going because he loves the Jews. Listen to what Paul says about the Jews in Romans 9 and 10.

Romans 9.1, I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit." That's an oath. He's taken an oath in the pages of Scripture. He's saying under oath that he's not lying.

That I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen, according to the flesh. I don't know if I could say that. To wish yourself accursed from Christ so that others might be saved? It's not possible, but He's saying under oath that that's where He was.

That's how great His love for these people was. And He says in verse 10, verse 1, "'Brethren, My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.'" He comes to Jerusalem then with this great love. But he also comes to Jerusalem having personally planted nine churches, and as many as 20 churches, counting ones that were planted under his oversight throughout Asia, Macedonia, Greece. And considering the conditions under which he labored, very difficult conditions, The persecution that he endured, the distances between the churches, the difficulty in traveling, the continual attacks and resistance of the Jews to everything he did and the trouble that they caused. It's a remarkable labor.

There might be people today that have planted more churches, but probably not under the adverse situation that Paul was laboring under. And so nobody can gainsay Paul's commitment, his sincerity, His dedication, His love for Christ in the church, and His desire to see both Jews and Gentiles brought into fellowship with each other in the Lord. He may have wanted to come to Pentecost so urgently because he may have wanted to preach the Gospel here to the Jews, just like Peter did in Acts 2. He saw this as a strategic opportunity to testify to a lot of Jews with the Gospel of the grace of God in Christ. And so it's His love for His countrymen and desire to preach the Gospel to them.

And this opportunity that Pentecost could have provided for him to do that, that brought him to Jerusalem. But he has also collected a very large love offering for the Jerusalem church from all the Asian, Macedonian, and Greek churches where he's ministered. And he's put a lot of weight on the churches to generate this offering, or to raise this offering. He spends two chapters in his second letter to Corinth admonishing them, urging them, exhorting, even pleading with the Corinthians to give liberally for their Judean brothers to these Jewish believers. I'd like to just read a few of some of his pleadings from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

He says, "...Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches in Macedonia, that in great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality." You see what he's doing? He's holding up these other churches to the Corinthians as an example for giving. He says, "...for I bear witness that according to their ability, Yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing to make these gifts." And he says later, "'So we urge Titus that as he had begun, so he would complete this grace in you as well. But as you abound in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in love for us, see that you abound in this grace also." That's a fairly strong admonition. That's a fair bit of pressure, you might say, for them to give.

He's putting his reputation here a bit on the line. He's calling in everything, every bit of influence that he has with them for this. He goes on in 2 Corinthians 8, continuing to pull out all the stops here in his move for the Corinthians to give to the Jerusalem church. He says, I speak not by commandment, but I'm testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others. He's acknowledging it's not an order.

It's the closest thing I can get to one, but it's really a test of your sincerity of love. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. Now he's holding up Christ's example to them as an example for them to give. And in this I give advice. It is to your advantage not only to do so, but you must also complete the doing of it.

Sorry, it is your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do, but now you must also complete the doing of it. So you've got to follow through in this desire. That as there is a readiness to desire it, so there may be a completion out of what you have. Now, some people today would even say that Paul is being manipulative because he's trying to shame them into giving by holding up the Macedonian example or Christ's example. Or because He's urging them to give because it's to their benefit to give.

He sends Titus and other messengers to them saying in verse 24, therefore show them, these messengers He says, and before your church is the proof of your love and of our boasting on your behalf by your giving to the Jerusalem church." And then Paul concludes the next chapter, the second chapter of this lengthy appeal to the Corinthian church, saying in 2 Corinthians 9-12 that their gift will not only help the saints in need, but will result in those same saints, the Jerusalem church, giving glory to God for their generosity. And he says it will result in them praying for you. Corinthians says, for the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but is also abounding through many thanksgivings to God, while through the proof of this ministry they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the Gospel of Christ and for your liberal sharing with them and all men and by their prayer for you who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you." See, clearly this is a very big multi-church project, fundraising project that Paul has taken on. And he wants to show his love for the brethren in Jerusalem.

Remember, there was a very big division in the church. There was this big ecumenical council. There were very strong differences of opinion. And the council essentially recognized that Paul was right. And so Paul wants to in some way demonstrate that these Jews with whom he's had such strong disagreements, that he loves them and he wants to stay in fellowship with them.

And so he wants to demonstrate this through this generous love gift of largely Gentile churches giving to this largely Jewish church in Jerusalem that these two groups of people are truly one body in Christ. Because that was the mystery that he says that was revealed in the New Testament. Yes, there were very slight hints in the Old Testament. But this mystery was that the Jews and the Gentiles together would form one people, one church of Christ. And he wanted to demonstrate that the Gentiles have indeed become full-fledged members of the church and recipients of the grace of God and fellow heirs of the covenant promises to Abraham without following the Mosaic Code." And so this gift was I think one avenue, one means of reaching out to these Jerusalem believers, these Jewish believers, and demonstrating this unity in the church, demonstrating the unity of their fellowship.

Now the third group we want to look at is the Jerusalem elders. It's the third group in this passage. They are part of the brethren in verse 17 who received Paul and his eight or nine member team. And they meet privately with Paul the day after he arrives, and they listen to his very detailed report. The sense of this told in detail is that Paul recounted the wonderful works that God had done in people one by one.

He got down to individuals or to individual events as the case might be. And he related God's wonderful works and providence in His ministry. And they listened to His report. And as the New American Standard puts it, they began glorifying God, and they say to him, you see, brethren, how many myriads there are among the Jews of those who have believed. You see, they could glorify God, and they did at what the Lord was doing.

But there was something else on their mind that had nothing to do with the success of the Gospel through Paul, or this very large love offering that has just been delivered to them. It had to do with their problem. Namely, the slanderous lies that had been circulated in their church about Paul and all the upheaval that that was creating. And so they immediately jump to what is on their mind. There's no real follow-up questions or further details about the many miracles and wonders that had been done and were happening.

Nor do we read of any expressions of gratitude for the gift, and thanks, and expressions of their love back to the Macedonian, Asian, and Greek churches for this gift. Their situation that they are facing is uppermost in their minds at the moment. And so after a quick almost perfunctory but sincere giving glory to God, they jump to this highly charged situation that they now face. And they propose this predetermined plan for Paul to follow, and there's no attempt to see if he's okay with it, or sleek his input on advice on what should be done. It's obvious they have already met, and they've already hatched this plan on how to deal with the situation.

They realize that Paul has been falsely accused, and they, in a sense, separate themselves from that charge. They recognize there at the end of chapter, that they say, concerning the Gentiles, we believe, and we have written and decided that they don't need to do these things. So they're acknowledging that. They realize that this isn't true. And they're saying, we don't really agree with this.

They could deny the charges. They could stand up and tell the people, no this isn't true, they're lying, they could defend Paul in that way, but words only go so far in that situation. Proof by action is usually a much stronger way to refute these kinds of matters than mere protestations and words. And so their plan is for Paul himself to go through the ceremonial purification process of Numbers 19 with four other men who have already taken this vow. And their thinking is that by Paul publicly keeping the ceremonial law, this will convince the Jewish believers that Paul is not teaching Jews not to follow the ceremonial law.

Double negative there. And to make this whole scheme even more convincing, They want Paul to pay his own expenses and the expenses of the other four men. They want him to purchase the sacrificial animals and to cover any other expenses that are incurred in following this Numbers 19 protocol for purification. And so Paul agrees to this without comment. No pushback.

And Many commentators malign the motives and actions of both Paul and the Jerusalem elders, particularly James in this plan. Some Reformed commentators even go so far as to say that in going along with this plan, Paul is committing the same sin as he rebuked Peter for at Antioch. The being two-faced, double standard. And others impugned James for not doing more to defend Paul against these attacks, and to quell the rumors, and to rebuke the people who have listened to this slanderous gossip. But I would, while readily acknowledging that both Paul and James are sinners, I think this is a historical account, and I would acknowledge that this is a historical account, And so that doesn't directly indicate one way or the other whether these were good or wise actions.

But I think these ideas go too far on both accounts of Paul and James. Paul had no trouble keeping the ceremonial laws we've seen earlier, and he does so on his own accord. And so there's nothing inconsistent here in Paul with what he has taught elsewhere. In fact, it's very consistent with what he has taught that he is able to be all things to all people so that he might save some. And especially to be a Jew to the Jews so that he can save the Jews.

And this is very consistent then with everything he has taught and written before. He's become all things to all men so that by all means He may save some. That's what He told the Corinthians. And on James' part, shortly after this event here that's recorded in Acts 21, James submitted himself to a very similar type of demonstration. In his church history, Eusebius writes, But after Paul had been sent by Rome to Festus, and so that's coming up in Acts, but basically that's two years down the road.

Paul is in prison for two years, then he appeals to Caesar, and Festus sends him to Rome. So two years after this happened, in Acts 21 here, after Paul had been sent to Rome by Festus, the Jews being frustrated in their hope of entrapping him by the snares which they had laid for him, turned against James, the brother of the Lord." So what he's referring to is what we're looking at right here in Acts 21 and following. These are the snares They tried to get Paul. They tried to kill him. They failed.

So now Eusebius says they turned on James, who is the James in this text. And quoting from Hegesippus in his account in the fifth book of his memoirs. Eusebius says, James, the brother of the Lord, succeeded to the government of the church in conjunction with the apostles, and he's been called just from all the time of our Savior to the present day. He was holy from his mother's womb. And he drank no wine or strong drink, nor did he eat flesh.

No razor came upon his head. He did not anoint himself with oil, and he did not use the bath. He alone was permitted to enter into the holy place, for he wore not woolen but linen garments. And he was in the habit of entering alone into the temple and was frequently found upon his knees, begging forgiveness for the people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel, in consequence of his constantly bending them in his worship of God and asking forgiveness for the people." That's James. And Eusebius goes on to say, "...Now some of the seven sects which existed among the people which have been mentioned by me in the memoirs asked him, what is the gate of Jesus?

So these are the Jews again. The very Jews that caused Paul trouble and they're now going to attack James. What is the gate of Jesus? And he replied that he was the Savior. And on account of these words, some believe that Jesus is the Christ.

But the sects mentioned above did not believe either in a resurrection or in ones coming to give to every man according to his work. So these are the Sadducees. But as many as believed did so on account of James. Therefore, when many of the rulers believed, there was a commotion among the Jews and the scribes and the Pharisees who said that there was danger that the whole people would be looking for Jesus as the Christ, coming therefore in body to James, they propose this plan to him. We entreat you, restrain the people, for they are gone astray in regard to Jesus as if He were the Christ.

We entreat you to persuade all that have come to the feast of the Passover concerning Jesus for we have all confidence in you for we bear you witness as do all the people that you are just and do not respect persons." So they're proposing a very similar type of scenario to him as what was given to Paul. Do you therefore persuade the multitude not to be led astray concerning Jesus. For the whole people and all of us also have confidence in you. Stand therefore upon the pinnacle of the temple, that from that high position you may be clearly seen, and your words may be readily heard by all the people, for all the tribes with the Gentiles are come together on account of the Passover." So there's a very similar situation there. There's lots of people in Jerusalem and they want him to stand up and make a pronouncement.

And so they placed James on the pinnacle of the temple and cried out to him, Thou just one in whom we ought all to have confidence, for as much as the people are led astray after Jesus, the crucified one declared to us, What is the gate of Jesus? And he answered with a loud voice, Why do you ask me concerning Jesus, the Son of Man? He himself sits in heaven at the right hand of the great power and is about to come on the clouds of heaven. And when many were fully convinced and glorified in the testimony of James and said, Hosanna to the son of David, then these same scribes and Pharisees said to one another, we have done badly in supplying such testimony to Jesus, but let us go up and throw Him down in order that they may be afraid to believe Him." And they cried out saying, Oh, oh no! The just man is also in error.

And they fulfilled the scripture written in Isaiah 23, let us take away the just man because he is troublesome to us. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their doings. So they went up and threw down the just man and said to one another, let us stone James the Just. And they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall. But he turned and knelt down and said, I entreat ye, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And while they were thus stoning him, one of the priests of the sons of Rechab, the sons of the Rechabites who were mentioned by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out saying, "'Cease, what do you? The just one prays for you.' And one of them who was a fuller took the club with which he beat out clothes and struck the man on the head, and thus he suffered martyrdom. And they buried him on the spot by the temple. And this monument, according to Eusebius, still remains by the temple at the time he wrote that. So, James was not to be faulted in this plan.

It was a reasonable plan to refute the slander by giving actual evidence. And it was exactly what James himself participated in when he was asked to demonstrate where he stood. So now, that's the setting. How does Paul respond in this situation? To respond in this situation.

What we see is that Paul acts in humility to maintain and preserve the fellowship of the saints. You can imagine the disappointment that Paul felt with this situation and the lack of strong defense by the Jerusalem Council by the way this gift was never really acknowledged. You know, we don't see the same type of deep affection being expressed as it happened in all the other churches. Remember, all the other churches, they were weeping, they were falling on his neck, they were kissing him. It was obvious there was a deep bond of fellowship.

We don't see that in these brethren. And despite this very large gift that He has brought to them. This was Paul's effort to show his love for the church in Jerusalem. And I think it fell short of what he had hoped it would accomplish. You see, what does stand out is Paul's humility in all this.

Paul attributes to God the things that were done through him. He says, God did this through me. Paul desires to be a blessing to others. If this would help these Jerusalem brothers in shepherding their church, then He's willing to go through with this and bear His own expenses and carry out this plan that they have put forward as a way to deal with this problem. We see that He submits to their plan without having to have a say in it, in developing it or in trying to change it.

He doesn't protest against it. And I think that's commendable. You see, there's a natural tendency when we are slandered to want to defend our name, to take offense. And some might say, yes, it's justified, but Paul doesn't take offense here at this slander. There's a natural desire when we've been slandered to correct the record about ourselves.

It's very hard to have people believe lies about us and our intentions. But you see, Paul resists all this. And that's a demonstration of humility. Paul trusts in God to vindicate His name. And the Scriptures promise to defend us.

God promises to defend us. Peter says in 1 Peter 2, 21, for you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to him who judges righteously. And He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross that we, having died to sin, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed." Peter says that Christ is our example.

And he didn't respond to the lies about him. Psalm 135, For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants. Psalm 347, the angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him and delivers them. We see the same thing in Joseph. We see in Moses' life in Numbers 12 that when he is slandered, that God Himself intervenes directly to defend Him.

And so this is what Paul is doing here. He is following Christ's example. And he's submitting himself to this plan and letting the Lord defend the honor of His name and correct these lies about Him. And He's doing this so that He can win the Jews. And He's doing this to preserve the fellowship of this church and the fellowship of this Jerusalem session and these elders.

And you see, this is where what these people, these Jews, had done and purposed for evil, God brought about for good. Because God later on appears to Paul and tells him that He will bear witness to him in Rome. And so through Paul submitting and preserving the fellowship of the saints in this situation, God works great through him and allows him to testify before kings, before Caesar, before rulers and principalities. And even though he's in prison for the next four years, at least, he is able through that to preach to many different people. And many doors are open that wouldn't have been opened otherwise for him to preach to people in authority and power.

And he even says that through his chains, the church has become more bold in their willingness to testify in the face of adversity. And so there's a lot of good that God works through Paul's willingness here to humble Himself and submit to this plan and trust in the Lord to defend his name. Let's pray. Gracious Father in heaven, we thank you that you work all things together for good to those who love you and are called according to your purpose, and that we can turn vengeance over to you and are freed and enabled to overcome evil with good. We thank you that you are the strong man who is bound at Satan so that your Gospel can go freely to all the nations of the world and the people are no longer deceived.

We ask, Lord, that You would give to us such a love and such a burden for the advancement of Your kingdom and for the testimony of the Gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.