Transcript
We're going to read from Acts 21, verse 27, and following. Acts 21:27.
And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, ‘Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, and the law, and this place. And furthermore he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.’ For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the city was disturbed, and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple. And immediately the doors were shut.
Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. The commander came near and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains. And he asked who he was and what he had done. For some among the multitude cried one thing and some another. And when he could not ascertain the truth because of the tumult, he commanded him to be taken into the barracks.
And when he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, ‘Away with him!’
And as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, ‘May I speak to you?’ He replied, ‘Can you speak Greek? Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led four thousand assassins out into the wilderness?’
Then Paul said, ‘I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. And I implore you, permit me to speak to the people.’ So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, saying...’
Now skip down into verse 22 of chapter 22. What we’ve skipped is the speech to the people.
Listen to him until this word, and then they raised their voices and said, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he is not fit to live!’ Then as they cried out and tore their clothes and threw dust into the air, the commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks. And he said that he should be examined under scourging, so that he might know why they shouted so against him.
And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion who stood by, ‘Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?’ When the centurion heard that, he went and told the commander, saying, ‘Take care what you do, for this man is a Roman.’ Then the commander came and said to him, ‘Tell me, are you a Roman?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ And the commander answered, ‘With a large sum I obtained this citizenship.’ And Paul said, ‘But I was born a citizen.’ Then immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him. And the commander also was afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because he had bound him.
This past week a pastor friend of mine had a service. And he told me that their service last week was very patriotic. The spirit of patriotism was very evident. And that some of the people had requested that they put an American flag permanently in the sanctuary. And a pastor friend was asking me, as if I knew the answer, what did I think of that. He wondered, was it possible for us to get more enthusiastic about our patriotism than about our love for God and commitment to His message. And in general he seemed to be interested in the subject of patriotism, which is a subject that has been very much on everybody’s lips and very much in everybody’s minds since September the 11th.
And it occurred to me that, to the best of my recollection, we’ve never had a discussion on patriotism at the Lord’s table. And so what this afternoon I want to introduce you to some thoughts on this subject. And hopefully they will be brief enough to allow time for comments and observations by the men.
When I think of the subject of patriotism, the Scripture passage that I think of is the passage that we have read today. And as you already noticed, Paul was on a visit to Jerusalem. By a comparison of Acts with his epistles, we conclude that one of his reasons for going to Jerusalem was to take a generous monetary offering from the Gentile churches to the poor Christians in Jerusalem.
But now he is in Jerusalem. He gets in fact with some Christian men who had taken on themselves a Jewish vow. And in connection with the completion of this vow, he is in the temple with them one day. And somebody sees him there, and they raise a hullabaloo. ‘Here is the man that goes all the way around the world teaching against this law and against his people and against this holy place. And furthermore he’s brought some Gentiles into the temple.’
Now that would have been illegal, because there was a rule against Gentiles going beyond a certain point in the Jewish temple. And apparently the Romans enforced that. But in this case it didn’t happen to be true. But the result was that Paul was mobbed and dragged outside of the Jewish temple.
And then right next to the Jewish temple, or very close to it, was a place that we now refer to as the Castle Antonia. It was the barracks for a fairly sizable contingent of Roman soldiers. And they were strategically positioned in these barracks to intervene immediately in disturbances that might occur in the area of the temple, which was a very important thing for them to do.
And so when the word comes up to the commander of this force that Paul is being beaten by the mob, he sends some troops down, and they rescue Paul. They finally carry him up the steps of the Castle Antonia. And the crowd is so angry at them that they’re pushing against the soldiers. And the soldiers virtually lift him up under the influence of the crowd.
And when they get apparently to the top of the flight of stairs, Paul turns to the commander. This commander, the technical name for him is chiliarch. He probably was in charge of the force of the Roman troops. He wasn’t necessarily using them all here. And so he turns to the chiliarch. He says, ‘May I speak to you?’ And he speaks to him in fluent Greek. And the chiliarch says, ‘Can you speak Greek?’ And then he explains that he thought he was a certain Egyptian who had not in the not-too-distant past stirred up a rebellion and led some men out into the desert.
And Paul makes a comment that is significant for our discussion this afternoon. Paul of course says that he’s not this Egyptian. He says, ‘I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city.’ Now as the remainder of the story, including the next chapter, makes plain, this is an indirect reference apparently to his Roman citizenship. He is not at this point exactly prepared to claim it openly. But he does say, ‘I am a citizen of a not insignificant city.’
Now in expressing himself that way, he uses a figure of speech. We’ve mentioned this before at times at the Word table at night. It’s making a negative statement when you really mean a positive one. If I say that I met so-and-so and he’s definitely not a dull blade, I mean he’s a pretty sharp fellow, right? If I say Sammy Sosa is not a singles hitter, I mean Sammy Sosa is a long-ball hitter. If I say the Cowboys are not exactly favorites for the Super Bowl... well maybe I better not say any more than that. But you get the idea. It’s the negative statement that you make, and you have a positive statement in mind.
So when Paul says, ‘I am a citizen of no insignificant city,’ he means ‘I am a citizen of a very important city.’ And I would be very greatly mistaken here if there was not in the words of the Apostle Paul some real pride in the fact that he was a citizen of Rome. Now when I used the word pride, I’m not talking about conceit. I’m not talking about arrogance. I’m talking about the feeling of high privilege and high honor that often comes to us. ‘I’m proud to be associated with this person because they are an outstanding person.’ That sort of feeling.
And there’s no question about it. Even though you could have picked the city of Rome to pieces in terms of its tax, particularly moral faults at this point in human history, it was one of the most significant cities in the whole world. Maybe the most significant city that had ever been in the whole world. The Roman Empire stretched at that time all the way from Spain in the west to the borders of Persia in the east. The Empire stretched into Great Britain and down into North Africa. The Mediterranean Sea was surrounded by territory controlled by the Roman Empire. So you could say that the Mediterranean Sea was Roman.
The Romans have proved themselves in history. Certainly confirms this, that they were brilliant administrators. You cannot build an empire like that if you don’t know how to administer an empire. The Romans knew how to do it. They also constructed a very good road system that connected the empire, made it easier for them to rule the empire. They fought off invaders from outside the empire and kept the empire secure for many, many, many years. They were a great city. With all their faults, they were a great, great city.
And Paul says, ‘I am a citizen of a great city.’ And you know, as I was thinking about it in the light of the events of September 11, I think it would be very correct for each of us to say we are citizens of a great country. I know that usually at meetings like this we go down the list of things that are wrong with America. And it’s very long and it’s very serious. And eventually we will reap the consequences of that. But the fact remains that this is the greatest country in the world at this point in time.
As you know, Tom Brokaw just recently, within the last few years, wrote a book called The Greatest Generation, which was a history of the generation of World War II. It’s easy to... I grew up during World War II. Some of you can remember parts of it, no doubt. But there’s no question that that was one of the finest moments in history for the United States of America. The Second World War. We fought in the last century. We fought against tyrannical and ruthless powers. We were not out to increase our own territory or wealth. We fought for the freedom and justice of others. Nothing can ever take that away from this country. That was a great performance.
And out of it came many, many years of tension with the Soviet nation. You all can remember those. And you can remember how we wondered whether with all the weapons, nuclear and so on, sooner or later we faced them down for years and years and years until they collapsed. Leaving the United States of America as the only superpower in the entire world. Is that great or what? Yeah, we have faults. Yeah, we have failures. But this is a great country. And we’ve had some great leaders.
And I think that it is justifiable for us to join the Apostle Paul in our own circumstances and to say, ‘Yeah, I’m a citizen of a not insignificant country.’
Now the chiliarch is properly impressed with Paul and gets him permission to speak to the Jewish people. Who ought to have been impressed. He has a very significant sermon here. But they were not. He gets to the point where he’s telling how the Lord Jesus commissioned him to go to the Gentiles. And they won’t listen anymore. And they begin to throw dust in the air, tear their clothes, and cry, ‘Away with such a fellow from the earth. He doesn’t deserve to live.’
And the chiliarch is trying to figure out what it is that he’s done exactly. And he’s not able to find this out. So he follows his usual method on provincials. He has Paul stripped to the waist. He has him tied with his hands stretched out. He calls in a guy who knows how to use a whip. And they’re going to get information from him. And if it’s not satisfactory, they’ll whip him. They get information they feel is true and satisfactory. And appealing. The chiliarch goes off to do whatever his business was and puts this under the charge of a centurion.
And so as they are binding Paul and getting ready to whip him, Paul turns to the centurion and says, ‘Is it really illegal for you to whip a Roman citizen who has not yet had a formal hearing and been condemned at that hearing?’ And the centurion says to himself, ‘Whoops, whoops.’ And he stops the process. He goes back to the chiliarch and says to the chiliarch, ‘You better be careful what you’re doing with this man because he’s a Roman.’
And that brings the chiliarch back, and he says, ‘Okay, give it to me straight. Are you a Roman?’ And Paul says, ‘Yes.’ And then the chiliarch says something very interesting. He said, ‘I paid a lot of money for that privilege.’ Now please understand that this was a large empire. And that by no means was every person who lived in the empire a citizen of the city of Rome. And so there was a relatively small number of people who could genuinely claim citizenship in Rome. And they had the privilege of due process. You couldn’t just arrest them and punish them no matter what you might do to provincials. If you did it to a Roman, you could be in trouble.
And remember that later on the Apostle Paul appeals over the head of the Roman governor to Caesar’s judgment seat. So a Roman had considerable privileges. And the chiliarch is really saying to him, ‘You know, I realize how important this privilege is. And I laid out big money for it.’ That probably means that we know that under the rule of Claudius, Roman citizenship was up for sale. That probably meant bribing the palms of the bureaucrats and so on to make sure that your name got on the roll.
And then notice what Paul says, ‘But I was born a citizen.’ I was born one. That means that his father or his grandfather acquired it in some way. And once the parent acquired it, it passed to the children. But isn’t this interesting? The talk about how significant this is. And the Roman officer says, ‘I paid a lot of money for this.’ And Paul said, ‘I didn’t pay a cent. I was born a Roman citizen.’
Once again, unless I’m seriously mistaken, I hear the voice of patriotism in that. A voice of appreciation for the privilege of being a citizen of Rome. If you’ve read Acts, and others that presumably have read Acts, you know that on other occasions Paul used his Roman citizenship to good advantage. It was an advantage to him to have this as he preached the gospel. And he often, at least at times, escaped very unfair treatment by virtue of this. But the point I’m trying to make here is that he valued it and was, in the right sense of the word, proud that he was a Roman citizen born to citizenship.
I guess I’ve made my point. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with patriotism, particularly if we really do, as we said a moment ago, belong to a great country.
How does patriotism affect us? What should it lead us to be and think and do? One of the things that obviously we can do, I don’t know how often we’ve done this, is to thank God that we’re American. You know, I must admit that I don’t think that very much at all. For being American. I haven’t thought of what a privilege it is to live in this country at this period of time. And maybe I can learn something from this by mentioning that as an item of thanksgiving to God on my own behalf. That’s a privilege, to live in a great country, to be a citizen of a not insignificant nation.
We in this country, however, have appreciated the fact that this is a nation that stands for religious liberty. That we have perfect freedom to worship God in the way that we choose to worship and according to our conscience. And I think in our permitted meetings we have thanked God for that. We should connect that with the fact that our nation is strong enough to defend that right. You know, if the Muslims could take us over, that would end immediately. And you may know this, you probably know it from watching on TV. As they took over in Afghanistan, they oppressed the females, I think I understand their veiling, grossly reduced them. You know, they take away their rights. It’s basically what it is.
So we ought to be grateful not only that we have freedom of religion, but that we’re in a strong nation that can defend that freedom and is willing to do so.
The other thing that I think we ought to do is to begin to think a little bit more positively about our country to balance out the negative things that we’re all aware of. Don’t you think that the events of September 11th brought out some of the things that are best about America? Didn’t we have a sense of unity? And wasn’t there ribbon lines of people lining up to give blood and little cups and offerings that you could make all over the place to the catastrophe? Yeah, because there are shysters out there trying to collect too on that. But America has a way of pulling together in happy times and more.
And the other thing that struck me very emphatically was the frequent references to God in the media. And we all know that most of our fellow countrymen probably don’t understand the gospel. But I don’t think you would have had that kind of response in any other industrialized country in the whole world. You go to France or Germany or places like that. You’re going to places where Christianity is almost, shall we say, dead and gone. Where only a very, very tiny minority of the people are real believers. But we live in a country where, okay, Americans tend to forget that, but something like this brought it right back to our mind, didn’t it? Most Americans, as soon as they hear that, think, ‘God.’ You’re just exactly. They think about God. What they think about that is there’s another question. But ‘God.’ That’s a really great feature of our country.
And it’s a reminder we still have a ministry here, doesn’t it? I mean, if that is that close to the surface of people’s minds, the Holy Spirit by His power can work with the people that we deal with and witness to. And so we should appreciate the fact, I think, that we live in a country where there’s a God consciousness that can be stirred to the surface by an event such as took place in September.
That monastic where I think in this church we know this, but I’m going to emphasize it. I really think that the greatness of American values is due in no small measure to the role America has played as a supporter of Israel. And remember this, that in 1948, original Israel, when they fought their war of independence and became a nation, who was the first nation to recognize them as a nation? It was the United States of America. It was President Harry S. Truman. One of the great moments in our history. We recognized the existence of Israel. And we have been their best friend in the world ever since that.
And the events of September 11th were partly related to our support for Israel, I think. Because the Bible says to Abraham, ‘I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse.’ And the history through which we’ve already lived in our lifetime has proved that. What about Hitler? What about Soviet Russia that blocked exit from Russia to go back to Israel and mistreated them? And America is left standing.
And we have to pray, I think, that our leaders will see the tremendous importance of maintaining our full support of Israel. We need to be careful that we don’t pressure them too hard in areas where we ought not to be shoving them.
So to summarize and open it for your questions, it seems to me that we live in a great country and we should be grateful to God for that. We should be grateful for our freedom of religion and pray that it might be maintained. And thank God for the power that the nation has to maintain it. We need to be aware of the God consciousness here, not very far below the surface, and be encouraged to share the gospel with unsaved people. And we need to pray that our government will fully support Israel in the way that they should.
I don’t know who the poet was who said this, but it’s one of those poems I learned as a kid: ‘Breathes there a man with soul so dead who never to himself hath said, this is my own, my native land.’ That’s a good feeling for which we can thank God.
Okay, let’s... Bob, you’ve been wanting to say something. Go ahead.
Kind of the dark side of patriotism is the United States. And a lot of the people who are Muslims, not just Arabs but non-Arabs too. So what about that whole issue then?
The first thing I’ll tell you is that maybe I would change your terminology a little bit. I wouldn’t say that’s the dark side of patriotism. I would say that’s the dark side of human nature. That some of the worst crimes in history have been committed in the name of religion. So we should not be surprised if crimes are committed in the name of patriotism. That I feel wrong. I think that it is important for us to do everything we can to be fair to the individuals. That’s really one of the things that our nation stands for. And that includes citizens and friends who are not, in fact, in this. That many Muslims who say this is contrary to the Koran as they understand it. And we have lived to regret the treatment that was given to the Japanese during World War II. And I think, you know, we’re all saying here that God is the secret of the success of this country. And if this country tries its best to do the right thing by everybody involved, God will take care of the situation, I think.
Let’s give thanks for the cup. In fact, we do want to thank You for the great country in which we live, for the rich blessings that You have poured out upon it, for Your many gifts to the country as a whole. We thank You for victories which are part of our history as a country. And we’re grateful, Father, in a righteous sense of the word. We’re proud of the fact that we are Americans. And we are bringing our country to You, Father.
We especially pray that as a result of the events that have happened, the events that are unfolding now, that You will use these in the hearts of many, many Americans who have recovered some measure of God consciousness. And that one of the results of all of this will be the salvation of many people in our country. We want to ask for our leaders who have to make very crucial decisions that affect the lives of, particularly, men in the service and women in the service. And we pray that they may have a special sense of their need of You. And that You will help them to make very prudent and very effective decisions.
We pray for our own forces, Father, that have been mobilized for the actions that our leaders determine. And we pray that Your good hand would watch over them. That You will extend every mercy to the armed forces of this country. That You will particularly have Your eye upon our brothers and sisters who are involved in the fighting one way or another, Father.
We also pray that as a country we may continue to be strong and firm in our support of Israel. We know that Your blessing is not unrelated to the grace that You’ve given us to support Israel. We pray that we may continue to do so and that we may not be deflected from it out of self-interest.
So, Father, we pray that we be strengthened in this country as we leave this place. And that we may have a renewed determination to be witnesses for You, who brought this country into being and who has blessed it so richly. And Father, though we have so many temporal blessings in America, there is nothing to compare with or to exceed the marvelous blessing of eternal life that You provided for us through the death of Your Son.
And so as we come to the end of this meeting, as we take the cup, we thank You for this gift of gifts, the gift of Your beloved Son, who shed His blood for the remission of our sins and for the purchase of eternal life. Father, thank You for Him. Thank You for His sufferings. Thank You for the privilege of thinking about Him and being grateful to Him. And we take this cup in obedience to Him and in remembrance of what He did for us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.