“When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’ And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”
God directs His servants. In the above passage we are reading Paul’s words to an angry crowd, in Jerusalem. Paul is accounting to them how Jesus called him to preach the gospel by declaring Jesus as their savior. Although they wanted to kill him, Paul began to talk to them in the Hebrew tongue. This is significant because they were angry at him for what they perceived was Paul denying the Law. Notice that it was James and the other church leaders who put him in this situation:
Acts 21:23-24 (ESV)
Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. Thus all will know that there is nothing in what they have been told about you, but that you yourself also live in observance of the law.
They (the church leadership) wanted Paul to show the Jews in Jerusalem that he was, indeed, not opposed to the Law ... at least some parts of the Law. (If you read the book of Galatians you will read Paul’s entire thoughts about the subject). It is interesting that the church leaders are NOT standing with him or by him or even acknowledged in the rest of the story. Paul is giving his message to an angry crowd in Jerusalem that God had warned him to leave Jerusalem because the people would not accept his message. Irony. But, Paul was not going to stop telling them about Jesus. He was even warned on his trip back to Jerusalem that this was going to happen:
Acts 21:10-11 (ESV)
While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. And coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’”
Paul was destined to be rejected by the Jewish people in Jerusalem. But, that did not hinder him from coming there to proclaim Jesus. That is when you know you are in the right purpose. Despite the results you still do what God tells you to do. God had him leave Jerusalem to preach to the Gentiles. He returned to Jerusalem to give a report about the Gentiles coming to faith. The leaders of the church said that was all well and good, but they wanted to appease the Jews (who they had to deal with every day as they practiced Christianity). Paul does what he is asked and, irony, the Jews reject the message Jesus told him early in his ministry they would reject. God knows what He is doing with those He calls to preach His messages. Like Paul we ought not to shrink back or act surprised that people will reject the message. Later Paul will be brought before a council to tell even more about his message of Christ. Even though God told him at one time to leave Jerusalem to avoid this, God was not putting him right back in Jerusalem to embrace this. His job (as ours) is to be obedient in telling the message and not worry about the response of others.
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