Acts: The Temple

I would like to set out the various places in Acts where the Temple figures into the narrative, and then talk about them. But before we do all that, it makes more sense to first see what Jesus said about the Temple because he tells us what will happen to it.

In Luke 19, Jesus said this as he approached Jerusalem, and wept over it:  

If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.  They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.

In Luke 21, we learn that some of Jesus’ disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said to them:

As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.

So, what does this mean for the city and the temple? They’re done.

How did the Jewish Christians respond to this finality? Not very well. They could not let it go.

They met in the temple courts (2:46, 5:21, 5:42) and in Solomon’s Colonnade (5:12) — sometimes at the hour of prayer (3:1)

And their reaction to Paul and his monetary gifts from the Gentile churches was to double down in Acts 21:

You see, brother, how many thousands of Jews have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law. They have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs. What shall we do? They will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you. There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.

and this 30 years after Jesus prophesied the Temple’s destruction. The passage of time had not diminished their attachment to the Temple in any way. We saw this looking back earlier, when they would not obey Christ’s mandate to go. They did not go. They stayed in Jerusalem, and it was not until persecution came, oddly enough through Saul/Paul, that the Church obeyed—albeit out of the compulsion persecution brought:

On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.  Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him. But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.

This is an interesting story arc from Acts 8 to Acts 21, because Paul sits in the place of agitator again—an instrument of God’s will in both places to bring the Church into obedience. They would not leave Jerusalem—unlike Abraham. He left his father’s house, and knew not whither he was going, knowing only this—that through his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Christ, the Seed, told them to bless the nations (“GO therefore into all nations . . .“) But they would not.

Jerusalem was, for them, where heaven and earth met—and Jesus’ resurrection seems to support that belief. Here is what was important to them when confronted by a risen Jesus:

Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?

Their imaginations and their understanding of Scripture allowed them to go no further than this. The resurrection of Jesus was for them, to both confirm and to acquire the land of promise, finally. He had tried to elevate their vision to a better and more complete fulfillment of the Promise:

Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

He told them to wait in Jerusalem, but for a moment, and unto another end than staying put until the kingdom of Israel was realized:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

But they are living in unbelief (we see this unbelief clearly with the salvation of Cornelius, which I have commented on—here). Their unbelief in “the kingdom of God shall be within you” (see Luke 17:21), not necessarily without, anchors them, and settles them, in Jerusalem in opposition to Jesus himself. So comes Saul the Scourge to scatter them and their blessing, Christ Jesus, among the nations, “to the ends of the earth” as God had intended.

Bear in mind the Jewish Christians had prophesies about a future Jerusalem. For example, in Zechariah 8:22, we read “Many peoples and powerful nations will come to Jerusalem to seek the Lord who rules over all and to ask his favor.” And in Isaiah Chapter 2, we read:

In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

But these promises were tempered by this: “For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this” (Isa. 37:32) (cp. Matthew 28: and this “I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isa. 49:6) (emphasis added).

Instead, they by their actions effectively rejected Jesus’ words spoken just before his ascension: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will . . . be my witnesses . . . to the ends of the earth.” 

And they did not listen to, or, if they did, they did not accept, Jesus’ framing the “times” they were now living in—it was not rooted in Jerusalem at all:

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

The age, the time, they would be living in was a dispersion into the nations with the good news, imbued with the Holy Spirit, and enjoined by Jesus Christ himself—a true diaspora, not resulting from the subjugation of Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, but from the exaltation of Jesus Christ to the throne.

Yet 30 years later, they remain in Jerusalem. That they have held onto this unbelief (remember most of them were Galileans; they were not from Jerusalem) this long is remarkable. When confronted by monetary gifts from the nations, delivered by Paul and the nations’ representatives (Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia, and of course, Luke, the physician) and the good news that God was at work among the Gentiles (something they already knew), their response to the news of what God had done for the Gentiles, through the hands of Paul, was to press the interests of the “many thousands of Jews [who] believed, and all of them zealous for the law.” This failure to trust and obey His decree was a catastrophic failure with tragic consequences. It is a story that had been repeated over and over again throughout their history.

We may have missed that Stephen’s speech may have had a broader, prophetic thrust than just the non-Christian Jews. But the parallels between Stephen in Acts 6-7 and Paul in Acts 21, as well as the connection between the two men, Stephen and Paul, forces us to consider something much more troubling. God had readily taken the Jews out of Egypt, but He could not easily get Egypt out of the Jews. Here, the Jewish Christians were in the same place as their ancestors, resistant to the heavenly calling.

In Acts 6, Stephen is being accused, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God . . . This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

To which Stephen responded in part with this declaration:

It was Solomon who built a house for him. “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says: “‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?” You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.

Saul/Paul is there, with the coats, approving of the stoning of Stephen. See Acts 8:1.

In Acts 21, Paul is being accused, “[The] Jews [who] have believed, and all of them are zealous for the law . . . have been informed that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to turn away from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or live according to our customs.” What makes this more tragic than Stephen’s end is the Jews who are opposed to Paul. They are not only the Jewish leaders, and unbelieving Jews. They include Jews who have believed—Jewish Christians.

“What shall we do?” the elders in the church in Jerusalem ask. “They [i.e., the Jews who have believed and are zealous for the law] will certainly hear that you have come, so do what we tell you.” They are going to maintain the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile—a wall that Christ had torn down:

There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved. Then everyone will know there is no truth in these reports about you, but that you yourself are living in obedience to the law. As for the Gentile believers, we have written to them our decision that they should abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality.

We recall what happened next. A riot in the Temple over Paul bringing a Gentile into the Temple (not true). The doors of the Temple slammed shut. Paul arrested by the Romans to restore order.

These events beg another examination of Agabus’ prophecy concerning Paul:

A prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’”

Who bound Paul? Was it the Jewish elders/leaders in the Church in Jerusalem when they said:

There are four men with us who have made a vow. Take these men, join in their purification rites and pay their expenses, so that they can have their heads shaved?

What did Paul do in response to their request?

The next day Paul took the men and purified himself along with them. Then he went to the temple to give notice of the date when the days of purification would end and the offering would be made for each of them.  

Should Paul have denied their request, and left Jerusalem? Perhaps he hoped for an opportunity to explain to all (unbelieving Jew and Jewish Christian) that bringing light to the Gentiles was a mantle they were to bear. We don’t know. But we do know this episode is stunning defeat for their faith in Christ Jesus—the record is deathly silent: where were the Jewish Christian leaders when Paul was arrested? Where were the Jewish Christian leaders when Paul languished in Felix’s prison for two years? Where were the Jewish Christian leaders when Paul defended himself against the Jews before Felix and again before Festus?

But Paul is an obedient, light to the Gentiles, if they are not. Paul is fulfilling God’s covenant design for Israel; he is obeying God’s decree in Isaiah and Christ’s decree in Matthew 28 to go into all nations. Paul brings representatives of his obedience to that decree with him to Jerusalem with a love offering, not as a rejection of Jerusalem or Israel, but as the fulfillment of what these people of Israel were meant to be—especially in Christ Jesus—to join all of humanity in love for and obedience toward Almighty God.

Paul understood it this way in Ephesians 2:

Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)— remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens of the saints and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

Paul is unique in this understanding of God’s purposes in Christ Jesus for the Gentiles and the Temple (“know ye not that ye are the temple of the living God?”). He is attempting to convey that truth by bringing gifts and people to Jerusalem. While the Jewish leaders in the Church in Jerusalem miss that message, they are without excuse because they heard Jesus’ words directly whereas Paul had not. And tragically for them, they have not moved very far beyond their rebellious forefathers. Here, for most of the book of Acts, they have betrayed the words of Jesus. They heard his decree to go, and his judgment on the temple and Jerusalem, but had not obeyed.

Where are we in our understanding of God’s purposes in Christ Jesus? What have we heard and not obeyed? Have we superimposed traditions, customs, and prejudices upon our belief in Jesus as justifications to not obey? Are we betraying Jesus or believing Jesus?