This is a story about the power and peril of passing along information that is partly correct.

It’s the tale of a rumor that was half right and that resulted in a man’s being beaten half to death. And it’s a lesson about the place that foolishness and sin and even violence can occupy in God’s eternal plan to send his gospel to the ends of the earth and fill the world with the knowledge of his glory, as the waters cover the sea.

This was the exclamation point at end of Paul’s third missionary journey, when he came report about his trip to the mother church, the church at Jerusalem, and to worship once more at its famous Temple.

Acts 21:17-36

Let’s try to find four lessons in this story.

ONE Some people serve the truth faithfully

• Paul, James, church in Jerusalem

¹⁷ When we

• “we” = Luke personally present with Paul)

had come to Jerusalem, the brothers received us gladly. ¹⁸ On the 8following day Paul went in with us to James, and all the elders were present.

• James = the brother of Jesus, lead elder of Jerusalem church, author of book

 ¹⁹ After greeting them, he related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. ²⁰ And when they heard it, they glorified God.

• super-excited to hear how many Gentiles were becoming followers of the Jewish Christ and therefore part of the New Covenant Israel

And they said to him, “You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law, 

• sold-out followers of Jesus their Jewish Messiah and King
• still strongly committed to their identity as Torah-observant Jews
• probably still worshipping in the Temple
• no more sin offerings, but probably still peace offerings and other acts of Temple worship
• remember how Paul himself visited the Temple in chapter 18 at the end of his second missionary journey, to pay a vow in the customary way: probably by burning up the hair that he cut off in Cenchrea, along with the appropriate parts of a sacrificial animal
• not a sin offering: Jesus was the final sin offering
• vitally important to realize that this massive and growing Christian movement in Jerusalem remained thoroughly Jewish in almost every way
• Passionately committed to their Jewish identity and to the law of Moses

²¹ and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs. 

Is this true? No. Like all the best lies, it’s half true. We’ll say more about that in a minute. Back to the story. James goes on:

²² What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. ²³ Do therefore what we tell you. We have four men who are under a vow; ²⁴ take these men and purify yourself along with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads.

Remember what Paul just did himself in chapter 18? Now he’s doing it again, except this time he’s not even paying a vow that he himself has made. He is going through a seven day purification process with these 4 men who have made a vow, and paying their fees at the temple. Back to James:

²⁴…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. ²⁵ But as for the Gentiles who have believed, we have sent a letter with our judgment that they should abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality.” 

Do you recall the Jerusalem Council back in Acts 15? That’s what James is talking about here. In fact, telling the Jews and the Gentiles about the conclusions that the Council reached was a key reason for Paul’s missionary outreach.

²⁶ Then Paul took the men, and the next day he purified himself along with them and went into the temple, giving notice when the days of purification would be fulfilled and the offering presented for each one of them.

Paul and James are doing everything strictly by the book to let the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem know that Paul is still a Jew, and he’s not telling Jewish Christians to stop being Jewish. He’s just letting the Gentile Christians know that they are not obligated to keep the uniquely Jewish parts of the Law of Moses. Paul and James are serving the truth.

It’s not that they are against the Law of Moses, What they are both most concerned to preach to everyone is the commandments of the Jewish Christ Jesus. They are the law that reigns supreme in Christian hearts—no longer the Law of Moses itself. Remember what you know about the Law of God at this transitional time in the history of God’s covenants with man. In his Sermon on Mount, Jesus has confirmed that the 10 commandments remain the center of ethical living for God’s people. However, he makes it clear that love is the point of the entire code: real love for the one true God, the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and real love for whoever that God puts next to you in your life. Commandments five through ten in that code, the ones explaining how to love your neighbor. correctly understood, form the framework for Jesus understanding of how humans ought to treat each other. In other words, authentic love for people looks like the 10 commandments as Jesus explains and applies them. Any other love is bogus. Both Paul and James are busy teaching this to both Jews and Gentiles. All the Apostles have given themselves to the task of making disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, and teaching them to observe everything that Jesus commands. Paul and James are both servants of the truth.

How about you? Are you a servant of the truth?

TWO Many people misplace the truth unwittingly

Look at what’s happening with the church in Jerusalem. James says,

²¹ and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs. 

Somebody’s been feeding misinformation to the members of the church in Jerusalem. Wait aminute. Is this information true or false? Like all the best lies, it’s half true. The full truth is that Paul has been telling the Gentiles they don’t have to be circumcised or keep the rest of the Law of Moses as given to national Israel under the old covenant in order to be saved by Jesus the Jewish Christ and accepted into the people of God. We are not told what he was instructing the native-born Jews to do, but we do know that he has himself remained a devout, torah-observant Jew. We also that, in some circumstances, he adopted gentile ways or asked gentiles to adopt Jewish ways—when it served the end of spreading the gospel. Do you remember when he circumcised Timothy, right after announcing that circumcision was not strictly necessary? Paul’s mindset was, anything and everything for the gospel.

But what was he teaching native born Jews to do in their own lives and with their own children? The rumor that was spreading around the Jerusalem church was that he was telling Jews not to circumcise their boys. We have no evidence of that in the Bible. What we see is Paul saying that circumcision is a tool for the gospel.

This is really hard for us to relate to in America in the year of our Lord 2025. Perhaps a parallel might be this: are you free to pledge allegiance to the American flag? Or does that compromise your loyalty to Jesus Christ? Here’s my answer: when it’s up to me, I will pledge allegiance to the flag. I will stand up straight with my right hand over my heart and I will say the words from memory, without faltering and definitely with feeling. My eyes will probably well up with tears, because I’m a loyal faithful, patriotic, American. On the other hand, if any situation were to arise in which the needs of the gospel dictate that I not pledge to the flag, I won’t. Jesus first. Jesus is everything. That is all. As near as I can tell, that is that exactly the way in which Paul himself observed that the law of Moses, and more than likely the way he taught the other native-born Jews to observe it, too. I hope that makes sense.

The disciples of the Jewish Christ Jesus in the Jerusalem church loved their Jewishness and loved their Hebrew heroes Abraham and Moses and David and Elijah. Do you remember how Jeremiah was unsparing in his denunciations of Jerusalem and its sins, but also wept rivers of tears as he contemplated the judgment Jerusalem was going to endure? Jeremiah loved Jerusalem, even in its sin and rebellion.  Do you remember Jesus at the end of Matthew 23?

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. 

Or how about in Luke 19:

⁴¹ And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city [of Jerusalem], he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Paul and the members of the church in Jerusalem and the Lord Jesus himself were loyal, faithful Jews.

Jesus and his brother James and his apostle Paul were able to see past their natural affection for Israel and its Law and Jerusalem and its culture when they needed to. On the other hand, many of the rank and file Jewish Christians in Jerusalem weren’t. Their own deeply embedded affections and assumptions rendered them far too easy to convince of things that weren’t quite true—even untruths about true servants of God like Paul.

Do you know that plenty of church members are just like that today? I’m startled sometimes to hear what some church members believe about their pastors—or really about anything. Of course, I’m equally shocked at what I find out is true about some of those pastors, so I’m not really blaming anyone. I’m just saying that most of us are way too willing to believe almost anything we hear that seems to fall in line with what we already are inclined to believe anyway. The experts call that confirmation bias. People are often willing to believe whatever confirms what they already thought anyway. And that makes them susceptible to all kinds of lies schemes and deceptions.

Don’t be like that! Learn the Bible, believe the Bible, and believe what falls in line with the Bible—not just whatever you wanted to hear anyway. Maybe even more than that, beware of how people sometimes refer to the Bible or even quote it to deceive you. The devil himself is a past master of the art, isn’t he?

The point is that many people misplace the truth unwittingly, including sincere people who are honestly following Jesus but still are sometimes are too easy to trick. Grow out of that!

THREE Some people twist the truth disastrously

Of course there are always some people who are genuinely malicious and truly dangerous in the way the handle information. Here in Jerusalem, they’ll be a bunch from the Roman province of Asia, where the city of ephesus was the capital.

²⁷ When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him (Paul) in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, ²⁸ crying out, “Men of Israel, help! This is the man who is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” ²⁹ For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. ³⁰ Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together. They seized Paul and dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. ³¹ And… they were seeking to kill him

You saw what just happened, didn’t you? Some people who knew Paul and didn’t like Paul saw something about Paul that they thought looked like something else. And that was all they needed to whip up a frenzied mob to beat him half to death. The right kind of disinformation, strategically placed at just the right moment, was all that was needed to create a riot. That’s the way things usually work, you know.

These people were not Christian brothers and sisters who were just a little confused about the details. They were dedicated enemies of the gospel of Christ, men who hated Paul and were happy to do anything they could to cause him trouble or even take his life. Back to the story.

³¹ And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort

Stop right there. Who in blue blazes was that?

In the Roman army, a cohort was a force of about 500 soldiers, usually commanded by a tribune, with a centurion in command of each 100 men. So that’s who these people were. Back to the story…

 ³¹ And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. ³² He at once took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the tribune and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

As you can well imagine. Five hundred Roman legionaries in full battle armor would get just about anybody’s attention.

 ³³ Then the tribune came up and arrested him (Paul) and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He inquired who he was and what he had done. ³⁴ Some in the crowd were shouting one thing, some another. And as he could not learn the facts because of the uproar, he ordered him to be brought into the barracks. ³⁵ And when he came to the steps, he was actually carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, ³⁶ for the mob of the people followed, crying out, “Away with him!”

Alright. That’s as far as we’ll go with the story today. We’ll pick up the action next week. For now it’s enough to note that some people twist the truth disastrously. There is almost no end to the mischief and turmoil that could be unleashed by people who are telling lies to make trouble. Do you remember what pastor James said in his letter?

James 3 ⁵ So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! ⁶ And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. 

When James wrote those lines, do you think he was looking back at this ridiculous, nearly disastrous episode?

I hope you notice, friend, that not even these people were consciously, deliberately telling known lies. They just saw something that they thought they recognized, and said what they thought they knew about it. They saw a man they knew from their hometown of Ephesus—a man named Trophimus. They knew he had been with Paul in Ephesus, and they knew that they had seen him with Paul in Jerusalem. They naturally assumed he was here in the temple with Paul, as well. In point of fact, Paul had not brought him into the temple. But you don’t need the truth the whip of a mob. You just need something close enough to the truth to get people all riled up. After that, sin will do the rest. These rascals demonstrate the truth.

What we might learn from this is how easy it is to do massive amounts of damage with simple assumptions and good old fashioned gossip. Paul was actually quite blessed to get off with only just a beating. More than once in history, thousands of lives have been lost when idiots take assumptions and spread it abroad as slander. Of course, I know that nobody in this room would ever do such a thing. Would we? We strictly, scrupulously tell only the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Don’t we? We never just pass on something we’ve heard without checking it first, do we?

If you have any repenting to do, just repent. Our Lord is ready to forgive. If you’re truly repentant, you’ll also discipline yourself to be more careful about what you say in the future. We will, won’t we?

On the other hand, the people of the world will probably go on talking sloppy and doing damage. Our job is not to correct them or change them or shame them. Our job is to love them and lead them to Jesus. He’ll straighten out their habits.

FOUR Christ the Truth reigns over all supremely

At this point in the story, it’s hard to imagine what God might conceivably be up to. It certainly seems like everything is falling apart for Paul and his plans. However, what we’ll discover is that God has orchestrated events to precisely the spot he wants. His purpose is for Paul to witness to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ before the highest authorities in that part of the world and in fact in the whole world.

Do you remember what Jesus told Ananias about Saul of Tarsus?

Acts 9 ¹⁰ Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. ¹⁶ For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 

Here is where the whole thing begins to happen. Paul has been lied about, beaten, and bound. Yes, the man who was binding all the Christians in Judea and Samaria and even to Damascus its now standing in Jerusalem bound. He’s got the enemy right where he wants them.

You see, all Paul cares about now is telling the truth about Jesus. Nothing else matters. He’s about to start telling the truth about Jesus in nobler and more powerful ears than he has ever imagined. He’s right where he wants to be. Sore, swollen, bleeding, and chained—right where he wants to be.

Always remember: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Showing and telling the truth about him is what your life is all about. If you’re a Christian, you already know that. You probably don’t always live up to it the way you need to, but you know it’s true: the gospel of Jesus Christ as your reason for being. If you’re not a Christian, and you just don’t realize yet the reality that the gospel of Jesus Christ is your reason for being. But you’ll find out.

This passage has pointed out some very helpful things about passing along the truth. I am glad to have been able to communicate a few pointers. We all do need to know how to tell the truth and tell the difference between truth and fiction. But in the end only one truth matters: Jesus is the truth. And he is the truth that matters more than all other truths combined. He is the truth that reigns supreme.

Some people serve the truth faithfully

Many people misplace the truth unwittingly

Some people twist the truth disastrously

Christ the Truth reigns over all supremely

So…

• be sure you know Jesus is the truth
• be sure you show Jesus is the truth: life
• be sure you say that Jesus is the truth: lips