“They listened to him up to this point. Then they raised their voices, shouting, ‘Wipe this man off the face of the earth! He should not be allowed to live!’”
Acts 22:22 (CSB)
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JUNE 2, 2025
As we’ve seen, Paul was warned about what would happen to him in Jerusalem. While he traveled on missionary journeys and faced protests and riots from Jews and Gentiles alike, Paul is now on “home turf” where the situation is just as rough. Paul is being accused of teaching everyone to disobey Jewish laws and of defiling the Temple by allowing Gentiles to enter.
None of these things are true, but we know too well how easy it is to get a crowd riled up with false information.
Paul was seen as such a threat that the only thing the crowds in Jerusalem could think of to do was kill him. The irony was that, if they got what they wanted and killed him, they would be killing an innocent person, therefore breaking the law. In fact, they were the ones defiling the Temple with hearts far from God, they were the ones teaching others to “obey Jewish laws” that over the years had so very little to do with the intent of Jewish law, or God’s laws. For all their rage and cries for justice, these leaders were completely missing the heart of their own faith tradition and their own God. Their traditions and opinions and desires had drowned out God’s voice.
Instead of worshipping the one true God (as they claimed they did but in fact did not), these people had taken their laws, their culture, their physical Temple and turned it into a god they could worship and fight for and kill for. And in doing so, they became spiritually blind and deaf, ineffective and void of fruit.
How often do we do the same thing, fighting against God while believing we are fighting for God?
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- What traditions, opinions, habits, comforts do we hold on to too tightly?
- What might God be asking you to let go of so that you can hear Him more clearly and follow Him where He leads?
- Why do you think the people had such a hard time receiving Paul’s new and yet old message from God? Why were they so opposed to God’s truth?
- Where have you put down your identity roots?
Church Reading Plan: Deuteronomy 5; Psalm 88