Study #67: Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of the Jews, was a zealous persecutor of Christians before he met the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 21:40

Study #67: Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of the Jews, was a zealous persecutor of Christians before he met the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 21:40 - 22:10)

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The Golden Ratio outline of Acts Chapter 2.4:

Acts, Chapter 2.4: Paul the free man traveled to Jerusalem to witness to the Jews (21:1 - 23:11)

§Unique Introduction: Paul continued traveling to Jerusalem, in spite of opposition from the Holy Spirit through other believers (21:1 - 14)

¶Opposite Paul and his missionary band sailed from Asia Minor to Tyre, where they stayed with a church for a week (21:1 - 6)

¶Opposite Paul refused to listen to the urgings of other Christians not to go up to Jerusalem (21:7 - 14)

§Complement Body: Paul demonstrated his faithfulness to the Law, but was attacked by unbelieving Jews in the Temple (21:15 - 22:21)

¶Unique Paul declared to the other Apostles at Jerusalem what God had done among the Gentiles by his ministry (21:15 - 19)

¶Complement The Apostles told Paul to demonstrate his fidelity to the Law of Moses before the zealous Jews in the church (21:20 - 26)

¶Complement The Roman Centurion rescued Paul from being killed by the zealous Jews in the Temple (21:27 - 39)

¶Opposite Paul testified that he was a zealous persecutor of Christians before he was met Jesus Christ (21:40 - 22:10)

¶Opposite Paul testified that the Lord Jesus sent Paul away from Jerusalem to preach to the Gentiles (22:11 - 21)

§Complement Conclusion: Paul used his citizenship against the Romans and his heritage as a Pharisee against the Sanhedrin (22:22 - 23:11)

¶Complement Paul frightened the Romans soldiers with the news that he was a natural-born Roman citizen (22:22 - 29)

¶Complement Paul caused great division among the Sanhedrin Council by identifying as a Pharisee (22:30 - 23:11)

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Comments: This study will focus on the fourth paragraph of the Body Section. Notice how the themes oppose each other:

¶Opposite Paul testified that he was a zealous persecutor of Christians before he was met Jesus Christ (21:40 - 22:10)

¶Opposite Paul testified that the Lord Jesus sent Paul away from Jerusalem to preach to the Gentiles (22:11 - 21)

Recall from the previous study that Paul had traveled to Jerusalem against the warning of the Holy Spirit not to do it; but Paul was so zealous to do something great for God that his zeal got him into a bad situation. The unbelieving Jews in the Temple recognized Paul and tried to kill him.

But the Roman garrison in Jerusalem came to Paul’s rescue, and carried him away from the angry crowd. It was at this moment that God gave Paul an opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with thousands of Jews in Jerusalem, something that he had wanted to do for a very long time.

¶Opposite Paul testified that he was a zealous persecutor of Christians before he was met Jesus Christ (21:40 - 22:10)

Unique And when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs, and beckoned with the hand to the people. And when there was made a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hear my defense which I make now to you!” (And when they heard that he spoke in the Hebrew language to them, they kept the more silence.)

Complement And he said, “I am truly a man who is a Jew born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the Law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as you all are this day.

Complement And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women: as also the high priest bears me witness, and all the estate of the elders; from whom also I received letters to the brethren; and I went to Damascus, to bring them that were there bound to Jerusalem to be punished. --

Opposite And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and came near to Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from Heaven a great Light round about me. And I fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecute.’ And indeed they that were with me saw the Light, and were afraid; but they did not hear the voice of him that spoke to me.

Opposite And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told you of all things which are appointed for you to do.’

Comments: Paul testified to the Jews in Jerusalem about his conversion experience with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul was once a zealous persecutor of Christians, a fervent Jew of the tribe of Benjamin who was similar to many Orthodox Jews today: they believe in the Law of Moses; and they do their best to obey it.

But Orthodox Jews today have a problem that they cannot solve: the Law of Moses requires that they offer animal sacrifices to Jehovah God in a Tabernacle or a Temple, with a Holy of holies sanctuary and an Ark of the Covenant, Table of Showbread; and just as importantly, they must have a tribe of Levi and a Levite Priesthood of Aaron to offer those animal sacrifices according to the Law.

Leviticus 1:1-5: “And Jehovah called to Moses; and he spoke to him out of the Tabernacle of the congregation, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘If any man of you brings an offering to Jehovah: you shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock. If his offering is a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish. He shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation before Jehovah. And he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. And he shall kill the young bull before Jehovah. And the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall bring the blood, and sprinkle the blood round about upon the altar that is by the door of the Tabernacle of the congregation.”

For example, in this one passage from Leviticus, which is an instruction manual for the Levite priests of Israel under the Old Covenant, Jehovah required an animal sacrifice of the herd (a sheep or a bull) to be brought to the Tabernacle. A priest of Aaron was the only one allowed to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the altar.

There are many other passages from the Law that requires a priest of Aaron, and a Tabernacle or a Temple of Jehovah; and so on.

But the Jews today cannot obey the Law in this area!

1) God sent the Roman army of Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 A.D. The Temple has never been rebuilt, because Jerusalem was occupied by the Gentile powers such as the Romans, Ottomans, Crusaders, and finally, the British until 1948. So it was impossible for the Jews to rebuild the Temple for 1,900 years.

Also, the Temple Mount, the site of Herod’s Temple, has been occupied by an Islamic Mosque called Al-Aqsa from 705 A.D. to the present time, which prevents the Jews from rebuilding the Temple! This was done on purpose by God, because God replaced the system of animal sacrifice in the Temple of Jehovah with the once-for-all-time sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross on Calvary; and God did not want anyone to perform animal sacrifice in his Name any longer. The Old Covenant of Moses was complete; and the New Covenant of Jesus Christ had begun with his crucifixion and resurrection from the dead.

Hebrews 10:11-14: “And every Levite priest stands daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but this man [Jesus Christ], after he had offered one sacrifice for sins into perpetuity, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth waiting until his enemies are made his footstool: for by a single offering he has perfected into perpetuity them that are being sanctified.” God used the evil Islamic religion to prevent the Jews from rebuilding the Temple; just as God used evil rulers like Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to judge the Jews and destroy Jerusalem in 587 B.C.

If God had wanted the Jews to rebuild the Temple, He could have easily done this, just as He did 70 years after 587 B.C., when He sent the Jews back to Israel with Nehemiah and Ezra; but He did not do this for almost 2,000 years!

The reason is simple: God was saying to the Jews, as it were: The Door to my presence is closed, if you want to offer an animal sacrifice in a Temple; but if you come to me through my Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Door is open wide through the Gospel of Christ.

Mark 16:15-16: “And he said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature; he that believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned.”

Hebrews 10:19-22: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he has consecrated for us through the veil (that is to say, his flesh); and having a permanent High Priest [the Lord Jesus Christ] over the House of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith: having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

2) The Jews have a second problem, beyond the problem of not having a Temple: They have no priests of Aaron!

The genealogical records of Israel, and especially the priests of Aaron, were all destroyed by the Roman army of Titus in 70 A.D. In order to obey the Law of Moses, only a priest of Aaron, and men of the tribe of Levi are qualified to offer animal sacrifices; but since they have no genealogical records of who is a Levite or a priest of Aaron, they can only guess at who might be a Levite or a descendant of Aaron.

Some Jews claim that some of their communities have maintained meticulous records of their ancestral lineages; however, these cannot be proven, since the official records were destroyed in 70 A.D. They are only traditions that may have some legitimacy, but are not provable. Perhaps with DNA technology, they may eventually overcome this problem.

So these are two major problems that prevent the Jews from being able to obey the Law of Moses; and they will not be able to resolve it until the Great Tribulation period, when the Antichrist (who will be a ruler of the European Union) will make a covenant or a peace treaty with Israel; and it appears from Scripture that the Antichrist will make the rebuilding of the Temple possible; and then he will betray the Jews after 3 1/2 years by walking into the Holy of holies and declaring himself to be God.

2 Thessalonians 2:3-4: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that Day shall not come, unless a falling away comes first; and that man of Sin is revealed, the son of Perdition; who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that he as God sits in the Temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

Daniel 9:27: “And he [the Antichrist] shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [of years; or 7 years]; and in the middle of the week, he shall cause the sacrifice and the offering to cease. And for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation; and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

3) Paul himself is another problem that the Jews cannot explain: how could a Jew of the Pharisees, taught at the feet of the most famous teacher in Israel at that time, Gamaliel, who was so zealous of the Law that he took it upon himself to drag Christians to prison and even beat and kill them, suddenly turn around in the midst of a journey to Damascus and become a born-again Christian? This is impossible to explain!

There is only one answer that makes any sense: Saul of Tarsus truly met the Lord Jesus Christ in person, who had died and risen again from the dead; and he realized that he had been wrong about Him all the time; so he believed in Jesus Christ and was born again through faith in Him. This is what you need to do, my friend, whether you are a Jew or a Gentile.

Not only that, but this persecutor of Christians became the most learned and prolific author of inspired teaching letters among all of the Apostles of Jesus Christ. His name is known world-wide. Uncountable millions of people have become born-again Christians through the influence of his writings and his testimony for Jesus Christ.

For a Jew today, this cannot be explained, because according to them, Jesus is not the Messiah, and never rose from the dead. But if that is true, then who met with Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus and made him a born-again Christian? The only explanation is that Jesus Christ is real, that Jesus Christ really did rise from the dead according to the Scriptures, and that Jesus Christ really is the Messiah of Israel, as the Apostle Paul so eloquently testified and preached over a missionary career of several decades.

My Jewish friends, listen to what this former persecutor of Christians, who was “circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal; persecuting the Assembly; touching the righteousness which is in the Law of Moses, blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6) says of the Jews his brothers:

Romans 10:1-4: “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel, is that they might be saved: for I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge: for they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God: for Christ is the fulfillment of the Law for righteousness to every one that believes in him.”

Are you a Jew? You must realize that trying to obey the Law of Moses is futile and meaningless, because you have no Temple to offer animal sacrifices; and you have no priesthood that can be verified.

Secondly, you must realize that God has purposely stopped animal sacrifices in the Temple for almost 2,000 years, because He sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, your Messiah, to die on the cross for our sins to fulfill all of the types and shadows of the Old Covenant system of animal sacrifice in the one final Sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

When Jesus died on the cross, God ripped the veil of the Holy of holies in two pieces from top to bottom, showing that the Way to God was no longer through animal sacrifice, but through Jesus Christ and his Finished Work on the cross that paid for all of our sins.

Matthew 27:50-51: “Then Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the spirit. And, behold, the veil of the Temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks split.”

Then Jesus rose again from the dead on the third day, and showed Himself alive to hundreds of witnesses; and sent his Apostles to spread the Gospel throughout the world, as it is this day.

Will you repent of your sins and receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Messiah? May God help you to do it right now.

Here is a prayer that you can use to be saved:

“Lord Jesus, I know that I have sinned against YOU. I am no good, and you are righteous! You are my only hope for salvation! I believe that you died on the cross for my sins, you were buried, and you rose again from the dead on the third day. I want you to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior and my Messiah. Please come into my heart right now. Forgive me for all my sins, and save my soul. In the mighty Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen!”

If you have turned from your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and only Savior from sin, please message me through Facebook or by email at editor@phibible.org and let me know that you have done that, so that I can pray for you and rejoice with you in what God has done in your life. Amen.