Acts 21:17-22:21 | Staying True to Christಮಾದರಿ

When the World Pressures You

Not that any of it mattered.

Despite Paul’s attempt to show the Jerusalem Jews that he was not anti-Moses, those who had their minds made up turned on him. Acts tells us, “They stirred up the whole crowd and seized him, shouting, ‘Fellow Israelites, help us! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people and our law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and defiled this holy place’” (Acts 21:28, NIV). Again, it doesn’t matter that it wasn’t true. When people have their minds made up, truth rarely matters.

Mayhem ensues. Jerusalem is in an uproar. People come running. They want to lynch Paul and start beating him, and in another great irony, it’s the pagan Romans who come to save Jewish Paul from Jewish hands. You can almost hear echoes of Jesus’s trial in Jerusalem sounding out again. “Away with the man!” the Jews shouted before Pilate about Jesus. “Get rid of him,” they shout about Paul to the Roman commander. Except this time, the Roman soldiers carry him to safety instead of Golgotha.

You’d think there would be a sigh of relief. But no sooner does Paul find himself in the Roman barracks, they begin to interrogate him. “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the wilderness some time ago?” (Acts 21:38, NIV). Aren’t you that terrorist? Aren’t you that ringleader? Aren’t you the one on our most wanted list? And in Roman justice, interrogation and torture go hand-in-hand.

Out of the frying pan. Into the fire.

All for staying true to Christ.

How do you face it? What do you do!?

Just weeks earlier, Paul would write, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Rom 12:1-2, NIV. Based on the timeline and context clues, it’s likely that Romans was written shortly before Paul arrived in Jerusalem.)

Since the time of Jesus, culture has tried to squeeze believers into its mold. Sometimes subtly. Sometimes by force. Seduction and persecution have always been weapons of the Evil One that allure and coerce people to no longer stay true to Christ. But Christ calls us to transformation, not conformity. Staying true to him means resisting the tide and letting him renew our thinking. Not only does that let us test and approve God’s will, it’s an act of worship. Self-sacrifice for Christ always is.

Questions

When do you feel the most pressure to conform? What might God be calling you to think differently about?