You're listening to audio from Faith Church located on the north side of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindy.com. Now, here's the teaching. All Alright. Alright. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Hey. My name's Joey. If we've never met, I'm excited to be up here to get to open up the book of Acts with you again. It's been a while since we've moved forward, in Acts. And we took a month off during Advent to turn our gaze towards the future, towards the the home that God has prepared for us. Remember, the home where we find belonging and blessing and peace, harmony with with Jesus and with one another. Last week, if you were here, I suppose even if you weren't here, this is still what we did last week. We looked back over the 21 chapters of Acts that we have covered so far in order to pull out some lessons for Faith Church for the future. You remember, we talked about God forming us as as people who walk the way of Jesus for the sake of those who are wandering without him. Well, today, we are jumping back into Acts because it is time to keep moving, to move forward, especially because when we last left Acts, I don't know, 6 weeks ago, we left Paul on the cusp of a riot, about to be bound in chains, chains in which he'll remain for the rest of the book of Acts. So shall we jump in? Alright. Let's jump in. Pull out your Acts journals, your Bibles, and turn to Acts 21. While you're flipping there, a question. Have you ever heard I'm curious if you've ever heard of this. Have you ever heard of something called main character syndrome? K. I heard some laughs, but, like, hands, like, have you okay. Seems to be the younger you are, the more likely you are to have have heard of this. At least, that's what it seems like after after first hour. That was not supposed to be funny. It's just social media terms, so, like, it makes sense. Main character syndrome. It is not a medical diagnosis. It's not a real thing. It's a term invented on social media to kind of describe the the kind of people who go through life thinking that they are the main character in everyone else's story. Do you you know these these these kind of people? Now, I mean, at its best, it describes someone who brings, you know, a lot of energy to their life. It seems like they're always doing something, remarkable, something worth remarking on, you know, worth telling about. They seem to have some great story that they're living out, but at its at its worst, people with main character syndrome are insufferable. They go through life thinking they're the most important person in any room, any situation, drawing attention to themselves even when attention is supposed to be somewhere else. Right? They think everyone else is a secondary character. They're playing a role. Right? They're the sidekick, or the villain, or the antagonist, or they're an NPC, or or something like that. You probably have people coming to mind. I have a few relatives coming to mind. You know, the people you see at a family reunion, and you're just catching up on life, and then suddenly you realize this whole conversation's been a competition and you're losing. I mean, of course, the scary realization is that moment when we all realize, like, oh, I probably have main character syndrome as well. You know, if you believe you are the author of your own story, you probably have main character syndrome. Or if you've ever thought, like, you know what the world needs? My autobiography. You probably suffer from MCS. You know, if you believe your life is heading in a certain direction and you deserve to have it go the way you want it to go, you might suffer from main character syndrome. Or if you get thrown for a loop when things don't go the way you want them to go, or, like, if a crisis upends your whole picture of who God is and whether or not He loves you and cares for you, if He's still guiding and directing your life, you might, bad news, have main character syndrome. Or look, if you're just a human being living in the United States in 2025, you probably, almost certainly, definitely have main character syndrome. I know I do. Anyone else? You're all like, no. We get that. You're up on stage every day. You obviously have main character syndrome. Like, we saw that. That's not a surprise. Right? Well, I I know I do, not for this reason, but because I I was studying this passage for today, I kept bumping up against the same question as I'm reading it, this question about Paul, this kinda confusing aspect of the whole story, which is how does Paul how is he able to respond in the way that he does in this story? Wanna know I know I would struggle with so many questions, so many doubts. For me, I'm assuming for most of you, any of us in the room who are, you know, main characters, crises always make me question. Crises, they they just always bring up these questions like, god, what are you doing? Why are you allowing this? Why do you keep letting things happen to me? When am I gonna catch a break? Like, what what are you doing with this? What lesson am I supposed to be learning here? I mean, do you question god in when you're in a crisis? Yes? I'm not the only one. Right? Okay. Alright. Good. If I'm the only one, then it was just closing prayer, and we can be done. But if if we all need this, then we'll keep going. Because this story is one of those classic crisis moments in Paul's life and in the history of the church. I mean, if if we didn't know how this whole thing went, reading this part, we'd be like, man, this whole enterprise is about to fall apart. The story is not going the way we think it's gonna go. You know, it's not going the way it has to go. Right? It's the kind of story that pushes on main character syndrome because it forces us to to reckon with the idea that we may not be the main characters in our own stories. It may just be in our lives that, actually, Jesus is the main character of the story, and and we're just players in it. That that we're part of his story, not our own. See, crises well, crisis, it's not a question. It's gonna happen. Crisis isn't a question, but it is a new direction. Now crises crises, they they raise all sorts of questions, But the most important question isn't, god, why are you allowing this? But, god, how are you using this? Every crisis raises questions, but they also send us in a new direction. Alright. If you haven't already, turn to Acts 21, 27 through 36. I I want us to watch this play out together. And as we jump into this week's passage, as you turn there, let me reset the scene for us. Maybe you remember how apostle Paul, he's this great church planter. We've been following his story for 10 chapters, not really his story, but the the story of how Jesus is using him to spread the gospel plant churches. Well, Paul wanted to get back to Jerusalem in time for the festivals, for Passover, Pentecost. And he's bringing along with him a financial gift, aid for the church in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem has been suffering under a famine for, it's gone on, like, 6 or 8 years already at this point. Paul's been working out in areas that haven't been touched by the famine, and he's been telling them, like, we have to help. We have to help the church where this whole thing started, so he's collected funds from all over. He's got representatives from each of those areas. They're all coming back to Jerusalem, and he shows up at a particularly uniquely tough time politically. There's just a ton of unrest, a lot of mistrust between the average Jewish person, Roman authorities, even more than than normal. Like, it is really tense. And then add to that, there are thousands and thousands of Jews who have traveled back to Jerusalem for the festivals, at least doubling the size of the city, and everyone is on the edge of their seats. It's one of those proverbial powder kegs. Right? It's just waiting for a spark. And the leaders of the church in Jerusalem are afraid that Paul might be that spark. There's been rumors going around everywhere Paul goes. Like, we know he's already he's teaching Gentiles you don't have to become Jewish in order to follow the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, but there's also rumors going around that that Paul's been teaching Jews everywhere he goes that they need to become like gentiles, forsake their cultural heritage and their identity, may maybe even break the Jewish law, their ancient ancestral law. And the rumors are absolutely not true, but they've still gained enough traction in the popular consciousness of Jewish followers of Jesus in Jerusalem that the leaders of the church there are afraid that the church is gonna self destruct over it. So remember, they they have to figure out a way to convince everyone that Paul isn't who they've been told that he is. So they've they've concocted a plan. They want Paul to to go to the temple and publicly, you know, demonstrably go through the the ritual of purification for those who have traveled in Gentile territory. Yeah. They're telling themselves, they've convinced themselves, surely, if if everyone will just see that Paul is is still committed to the Jewish law, they'll realize the rumors are unfounded, nothing they've been told is true. Paul's not a heretic. You know, if only. So Paul goes through with it. He's not in charge right now. He goes through with this 7 day long purification ritual, and on the last and the final day, he goes into the outer court of the temple, along the side through the gate that leads down to the ritual baths. He goes down. He immerses himself in the holy water. He comes out clean. The ritual is complete. Comes back up, goes through the gate, back into the the outer court, and then through the past the barrier into the the inner court and past the signs that say there's signs posted all along the barricade here. Archaeologists have found a couple of these left in in in the wreckage, the signs that say in Greek and Latin and Hebrew, no foreigner may enter within the barricade. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for what follows, Death. That's where we pick up the story in verse 27. Acts 21/27, when the 7 days the 7 days of the purification ritual were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing Paul in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd, laid hands on him, seized him, crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. Now they're not in the outer courts at this point. They're somewhere a little, you know, a little further in towards the center. If if you remember, the temple precincts are built like concentric circles or layers, right, like an onion. At the center is the holy of holies. The high priest is the only one allowed there, and that only once a year. But as you go out layer upon layer, it's a little bit less restricted, each layer out, until you get all the way to the outer court. It's sometimes called the court of the Gentiles, because Gentiles are allowed, whether they're followers of God or not. So the the outer courts are always busy, kind of serving as as sort of a marketplace, a place where Jews and Gentiles mingle freely, exchanging goods and and services. In other words, there's a lot of people around for what's about to happen. Now Paul is inside one of these inner courts. He's a layer or 2 in when he's spotted by people that that Luke calls, in verse 27, Jews from Asia. We see Asia here in the New Testament. Think the the region, not the continent. It's not the continent the way we think of it, but the region that we would call Turkey today, Southern Turkey. This is where Ephesus is. It's where Paul has had his most successful 3 years of ministry. I mean, Luke tells us about the that time period that that everyone in all Asia heard the Word of God, Jews and Greeks alike. But even though it was his most successful ministry, it was not his easiest, besides kind of the usual opposition that he faced everywhere. At one point, he was kicked out of the synagogue. He was forced to rent a lecture hall next door to keep teaching. He narrowly was rescued from a riot. Riot seemed to follow him around, I guess. He was normally or narrowly rescued from a riot when some of the high ranking local public officials, not even followers of Jesus, but they'd become friends of Paul. They they stepped in, rescued him. We're not entirely sure, but most biblical scholars think Paul, at some point while he was in Ephesus, was thrown in prison from some of what he writes in his letters, probably near the end of the 3 years that he was there. It's a region in the world where Paul is is deeply loved, deeply appreciated by some. He's deeply despised and deeply hated by others, especially by the Jewish population who does not believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They they see Paul as a a compromiser, as a heretic. They see him as as the guy whose teaching is gonna bring God's judgment down on Israel and prolong their suffering at the hands of the Romans. So some of these same folks are in town for the festivals, and across the court, they see Paul, and they're just livid. I mean, how dare this heretic show his face in here? Looking around, you're like, how is everybody okay with this? Like, don't they know what this guy has done, what he said, what he teaches? Do they know he's compromising the faith of Israel? Right? Do you know what he said? Do you know the kind of people he hangs out with? It's verse 29. Luke tells us they know who his companions are. They've seen him around the city hanging out with Greeks like Trophimus from Ephesus. Greeks who say they're followers of Jesus, the Jewish messiah, which they don't think there is a Jewish messiah, and so you can't follow him if there isn't one. And besides, if they wanna become Jewish, like, we know how this works, but they're refusing to be circumcised, refusing to follow the law, and they're seeing Paul, and they know what he says and they know what he's like, and they're just like, we we know this guy. I mean, his his presence alone in this place is a defilement. He's a heretic and a compromiser, and you know what he's like. He's always pushing boundaries. I bet he's brought Trophimus and these other Greek guys. I bet he's he's brought them in. He wouldn't be here without them. He's the guy who says all the barriers between Jews and Greeks have been broken down. Well, let's see what he does with this barrier. Right. It it's a false assumption. We know that. Luke knows that. But it's truism. It's just as true back then as it is now. You know, when people don't have all the information, you interpret what information you have kind of as suspiciously as possible. It's just human nature. It's what we do. So if the rumors are true and the assumption about Paul's character holds, then it's time to take justice into our own hands. And, actually, they had the right to do that. Roman authorities gave Jewish authorities the right to police their own temple. It's kinda common across the Roman Empire. And so if if Jewish authorities found a foreigner, even a Roman citizen, they found a foreigner inside one of the inner courts past the, you know, past the sign that said, hey. If you cross this line and die, it's your fault. Right? If they find somebody inside who's not allowed to be there, they have the right to exercise capital punishment. Normally, you would go through the Sanhedrin, the whole religious authority, like, do the trial and all of that stuff. But when it's a clear cut case, as this is obviously a clear cut case, then there was something like a citizen's execution that was allowed. So that's the scene. We have these these Jews from Asia. They're convinced that Paul is teaching heresy, that he's defiling the temple by his his very presence. He's fragrantly flagrantly? Fragrantly? Wow. Those mean 2 very different things. He's flagrantly breaking the ban on bringing non Jews into the temple precincts, and they start shouting. They're riling up the crowd into seizing Paul, getting him just out. They can't just haul him out and throw him out, kick him out, because there's a there's a sense, there's this deep belief that if the one who has defiled the temple is still living, then the temple is still defiled. The temple is not purified again until he's no longer living. So they shout, verse 28, like, men of Israel, true sons of Israel, help. This is the guy you've heard about. This is him. This is the one who is teaching everyone everywhere against what it means to be us, and against what it means to follow this law that we've been given, and this is the one teaching everyone everywhere against this holy place right here, the place that god has promised to meet us. And if this place is defiled, god's not showing up. Starts just a handful of people in a crowd, but it quickly escalates into a mob, into a riot until, Luke says, all the city is stirred up. You probably picture the scene. Right? People running towards the commotion. Yeah. You're hearing the shouts. Right? What's going on over here? Like, let's find out. And at the center of all of this noise is Paul. They're dragging him out of the inner courtyard, past the barrier and the signs, and into the outer courtyard where they can spill his blood without defiling the temple. And in a historical note that is surely just fragrant with symbolism, the doors of the temple slam shut behind him. We never again read of Paul in Jerusalem, in the temple. The door is closed. Well, once they get him out of the inner courts, through the door, doors slammed into the outer courts, then the beating can commence. This isn't a friendly neighborhood brawl. Like, they're not just trying to teach him a lesson. It's a vicious beating. Luke doesn't mince words. Verse 31, he says they were seeking to kill him. Like, this is the whole point. Paul is on the ground. He's being kicked. He's being beaten. He's being punched. They're doing what they believe is right and just. As long as he's alive, the temple cannot be a place for worship. But they're making a lot of noise. Tumult and clamors come to the attention of the local tribune. The tribune, by the way, is essentially the the Roman chief of police. This isn't this isn't the Jewish authorities. This isn't the temple police. This is the Roman police. The tribune is the soldier in charge of maintaining peace. During festival seasons like this one, the tribune would always request a full complement of soldiers, the full thousand, 10 centurions and a 100 people under each one. Because the you know, when everybody's piling into the city in close quarters and all of that, like, the last thing they want is is for a fight to turn into a riot that runs out of control. So the noise reaches their ears. The tribune, a handful of or, you know, a couple of the high ranking centurions, a group of the lower ranking soldiers, they all rush down. There's at the corner of the the outer court is the tower, the fortress, and there's a couple of flights of stairs there where they're stationed. They can hear it and see it from where they're watching from the walls. They come running down, burst through the doors, run to the center of the commotion. And the crowd, I mean, they see the soldiers coming and they're like, woah. You know, back away. Everybody kind of steps back for a moment. You just see you can see Paul just laying there on the stones like bloody. Luke tells us how the soldiers rush in, and they're, like, well, he must be the criminal, the one that's getting beaten. So they they haul him to his feet and and and they chain him 2 chains, you know, strung up between 2 of the soldiers. And the tribune starts questioning the crowd, like, who is this guy? What did he do? He must have done something or you wouldn't been beating him. Who is he? What did he do? It's we kinda get the sense here from the language that, like, he's asking this question over and over again because people in the crowd are just starting to shout different things, like, oh, he's Paul. He's the guy. He's been doing this. And, you know, voices coming from everywhere, and and it just he can't make any sense of it. It just turns into a noise, an uproar. And the crowd is starting to turn hostile again. Of course, the only thing worse than a riot is the 2nd riot you start when you try to stop the 1st riot with force. So the tribune is, like, alright. Let's haul. Like, let's get out of here. You know, tactical retreat. Leave quickly. So they they start pulling Paul back towards the stairs, up up towards the barris. Another crowd is getting really angry. I think they're realizing they're losing their chance to exercise justice. As soon as the Romans make it off with Paul, there's no way they're getting him back for an execution, so they surge forward again, forcing the soldiers to actually forcibly pick Paul up and carry him to get him out of there safely. The crowd follows him all the way to the stairs, and they're they're they're pushing and grabbing and clawing, trying to pull Paul out and, you know, deliver that one last solid kick to the head. So the soldiers are are retreating back up the stairs into the fortress. They're carrying Paul up the stairs in front of them, and you can hear the crowd shouting from behind, and they're yelling, away with him. Like, away with him. That doesn't by the way, that doesn't mean, like, take him away or or get rid of him, that means do away with him, like, kill him. Almost crucify him. You can hear them shouting. Now we don't know it yet if we've not read past chapter 21, but the the charges that Paul defiled the temple, it takes another 5 chapters of the story to finally resolve the charges before somebody just says, there's no case here. Like, you can't prove any of this. But by then, it's too late. Paul will have already appealed to have his case judged by Caesar. That's gonna keep him in custody and in chains until the end of the book. From this point on, Paul's a prisoner. He risked his entire ministry, his whole church planting and evangelism endeavor in order to bring a financial gift to suffering Christians in Jerusalem, and he paid for it. He's a prisoner for the rest of the story. He never likes it. He never gets used to it, makes the best of it, but, I mean, it feels like a a huge blow to the church. For the rest of the book, there's we hardly read of any evangelism. There's no church planting, even very little encouragement of the churches and ministry workers through Paul. But do you remember back in in chapter 8 when God first showed up and called Paul? Remember what he told Paul he was called for? Said, I I've chosen you. You're my instrument to speak the words of the gospel, to testify about me to Jews and to Gentiles and before kings. Paul's mission isn't isn't over yet. Now the story as we read it, Paul's alone and abandoned just like Jesus. None of the leaders of the Jerusalem church are sticking around or speaking up for him. None of the thousands of followers of Jesus in Jerusalem are putting their necks on the line. None of his companions even show up for a while. At this moment, he he's alone, with just his God and his calling. It's a crisis, a crisis that raises questions, but also one that puts Paul off in a new direction. So so what do we do with a passage like this? Like what do we, us, what do we do with this, with this episode in the life of the early church? Well, often when when we ask ourselves that question about a passage in Acts, we we keep going back to and reminding ourselves of what Luke is trying to do with this narrative, with this whole story. Do you remember who the main character of the book is? Is it Paul? It's not Paul. It's not any of the other leaders. It's not even the church herself. The main character of the book of Acts is Jesus. Exactly. The risen and exalted Jesus. The book of Acts is about what Jesus is continuing to do in the world through the Church. That means every story, every narrative is about what Jesus is doing, even if even when the story any particular week is about Paul or a mob or authorities or anyone else. So we ask ourselves, okay. What is Jesus doing in this story? What is Jesus doing to extend the reach and the witness of the gospel, the good news of salvation and life in his name. You know, when we find ourselves in, shall we say, less than ideal circumstances. Crises. I think we tend to ask ourselves the questions like, what is god doing, and why is god allowing this to happen, and what is god thinking, allowing this difficulty in my life, or the this this trial or these circumstances or this tragedy or this crisis? And Paul could easily be asking himself, like, again? Seriously? Another beating. Again, god, what is the point? Why are you letting this happen again? Lord, what good could possibly come from this? But it's it's the wrong well, I shouldn't say it's the wrong question to ask. It's just it's the wrong question to ask last. It's the wrong question to end with. It's maybe a good first question. It's not the it's not a good last question. When we find ourselves in crisis or or difficulty, our question our questions may start with, God, why? But they need to end with, okay, god, where? Not just, god, why are you doing this? Why are you allowing this? Why are you letting this happen? But, god, where are you sending me? Where do you want me to go with this? The discipline to learn how to pray, lord, you've allowed this to happen. Everything you do, everything you allow is is for your glory through the gospel, so where are you sending me in this? Who are you sending me to? Is there someone I'm supposed to reach through all of this who I wouldn't be close to if this weren't happening? Crises raise questions, but they also send us in a new direction. Crisis doesn't mean that God has abandoned you. A crisis means that God is reassigning you, sending you to a new direction or a new mission. It may just mean that God is redirecting our mission somewhere we we didn't expect. Yeah. If we're if we're living as everyday missionaries, right, people are just in our everyday lives. We're walking the way of Jesus for the sake of of people wandering without him. Then every time God redirects our story somewhere different or somewhere new, he's opening up new directions of gospel impact for us. Because every single one of us is sent with the gospel to the people around us. And the crises we experience don't change that calling. They just change the direction of the calling, which is kind of hard to wrap your mind around if, like me, you think you're the main character in your own story. It's like, lord, I wrote a really good life story for myself. I like it, and I was really hoping you'd bless it. And then he sends or allows a crisis, and the questions come up. And I'm like, yeah. But, god, that's not the story I wrote. I wrote a story that goes this direction. Now what what crisis are you struggling with right now? Might be the loss of a job, loss of a of a future hope or an opportunity, the loss of someone you love or of a friendship or that that diagnosis that changes everything, that disaster that sets you back decades. Crises are hard. Absolutely. I do not want to minimize at all how difficult the crises are, and it is absolutely okay to question god. Scripture is full of people questioning and doubting and directing their doubts at God. Like, lord, how long? There's lots of questions we can ask in a crisis, but the question we need to learn to ask is, god, where? Where are you sending me? What doors are you opening through this crisis that wouldn't otherwise be open? Who is it that's that's far from you that is suddenly coming close to me because of this that I can help bring to you? How many of us are fairly confident we're gonna face a crisis in 2025? And I mean personal, not like, you know, the world is ending political crises. I just mean, like, in our own lives. Right? Personal crises. I can't think of a a year in my adult life in which I didn't face some sort of crisis. So if the past is any sign of the future, I've been warned, and so have you, I guess. What what if this year when we face those crises, instead of asking God, what or why? You know, why are you allowing this? Why are you why is this happening? What am I going to do? What lesson am I just show me the lesson I'm supposed to learn so that you'll end it. Right? What if instead we learn to ask, okay, God, where and who? Where are you sending me? Who do you want me to reach? Who needs to know you? Okay, God. I didn't choose this. So where are you sending me? Let's pray. Father, I I I know I'm not the only one in the room who's written a pretty good life story for themselves. In this moment, this silence right now, father, we we pause before you because first we have to confess that we've written out our stories. We know how we want them to go. It's tough to let go of the pen. Father, we confess and we lay down our own life stories in front of you that you may direct us and send us where you want us to go. Father, we acknowledge that you may use crises and difficulties to send us in new directions. Father, give us the faith and the courage to face crises asking where you are sending us and who you want us to reach, that we may trust you even in the struggle, knowing that you are using it and us for your glory. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.