Acts 28:17-22<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders.\u00a0When they had assembled, Paul said to them: \u201cMy\u00a0brothers,\u00a0although\u00a0I have done nothing against our people\u00a0or against the customs of our ancestors,\u00a0I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.\u00a018\u00a0They examined me\u00a0and wanted to release me,\u00a0because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.\u00a019\u00a0The Jews objected,\u00a0so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar.\u00a0I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.\u00a020\u00a0For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is\u00a0because of the hope of Israel\u00a0that I am bound with this chain.\u201d\u00a0 21\u00a0They replied, \u201cWe have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people\u00a0who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.\u00a022\u00a0But we want to hear what your views are,\u00a0for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cFor this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is\u00a0because of the hope of Israel\u00a0that I am bound with this chain.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Paul told them that he was in chains because of the \u201chope of Israel.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0This was a term they would have understood.\u00a0\u00a0The hope of Israel was the Messiah.\u00a0\u00a0What Jews longed for, what the devout Jew hoped for, more than anything else, is for the Messiah to come and rescue them from Roman rule and for them to live in peace.\u00a0(Isaiah 11:1-5, 9:6-7, 32:1, Jeremiah 23:5-6, Zechariah 9:9, Isaiah 61<\/b>)\u00a0\u00a0So Paul was telling them that hope of Israel, the Messiah, had not only come, but that He died for the sins of the people and that He was resurrected and is living and makes intercession for all His people. (1 John 2:2, Hebrews 7:25<\/b>) Paul was telling them that he had great news for them.\u00a0\u00a0He sincerely hoped they would embrace the Truth.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He hoped that they would listen to and embrace the Good News that they Messiah had come and that He is still available for everyone to come to Him and be saved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey replied, \u201cWe have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people\u00a0who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.\u00a0\u00a022\u00a0But we want to hear what your views are,\u00a0for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0The Jewish leaders replied that they had not heard anything bad from Judea about Paul.\u00a0\u00a0Were they honest?\u00a0\u00a0It seems dubious that they would hear that people are talking everywhere about the The Way but had not heard about Paul and about his conflicts with the Jewish leaders.\u00a0\u00a0It seems, maybe too improbable that Jerusalem, who hated Paul so deeply, knowing that he was going to Rome, would not have alerted the Jewish leaders in Rome.\u00a0\u00a0Yet, it is possible.\u00a0\u00a0After all, they did not come to Rome to pursue charges against him.\u00a0\u00a0But it is presumed that they reason they didn\u2019t is because they knew that had no influence in Spain.\u00a0\u00a0They could intimidate local authorities, but not Caesar.\u00a0\u00a0Another possible reason that they may not have been alerted is that a letter from the Jerusalem leaders to the leaders in Rome could have been on the ship that was destroyed and had all the cargo thrown overboard.<\/p>\n
Another consideration is that the leaders in Rome were not anxious to cause any waves.\u00a0\u00a0About 49 A.D. Emperor Claudius expelled all Jews from the city of Rome.\u00a0\u00a0The Roman historian Suetonius recorded the reason they were expelled is because they had caused disorder (riots) in the city because of the teaching of Chrestus.\u00a0\u00a0Many think this is a reference to Christ Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0So they were causing riots over their war against Christians.\u00a0\u00a0So, if that is so, yes they already knew about Christians, but not because they heard about this \u201csect\u201d but because they had already been thrown out of Rome because of disorders surrounding their hatred for the teachings of the Apostles and disciples of the Lord.<\/p>\n
Either way, they were not violent toward Paul.\u00a0\u00a0They were willing to listen.\u00a0\u00a0Which again would suggest that what they said was true, they had only heard of Christianity and wanted to know more about it.<\/p>\n
Paul was not a perfect guy.\u00a0\u00a0He was subject to anger.\u00a0\u00a0He was not Jesus, but he is one of the best of all Apostles or disciples of Jesus that ever lived.\u00a0\u00a0He had a strong and very personal relationship with Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0The Lord spoke to him.\u00a0\u00a0And Paul was an expert in the Word.\u00a0\u00a0Paul wrote a large part of what would become the New Testament.\u00a0\u00a0He loved God.\u00a0\u00a0He loved the Word of God.\u00a0\u00a0To serve the Lord was what burned in His heart.\u00a0\u00a0It is easy to say that serving the Lord also burns in our hearts, but do our lives bear that out?\u00a0\u00a0Or would a jury say there was not enough evidence to prove that?\u00a0\u00a0Or would the jury be a \u201chung jury?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0More importantly than what we think, or other people think, is what does God say?\u00a0\u00a0What would our God who knows everything about everything say concerning our passion for Him?\u00a0\u00a0Oh Lord, help us to be all that You want us to be.<\/p>\n
P<\/b><\/span>salm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; and what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 28:17-22\u00a0–\u00a0Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders.\u00a0When they had assembled, Paul said to them: \u201cMy\u00a0brothers,\u00a0although\u00a0I have done nothing against our people\u00a0or against the customs of our ancestors,\u00a0I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.\u00a018\u00a0They examined me\u00a0and wanted to release me,\u00a0because I was not guilty of any crime deserving…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,104,103,99,100,94,1874,17,874],"class_list":["post-2248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-hebrews","tag-isaiah","tag-jeremiah","tag-john","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-psalm","tag-zechariah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2248"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2249,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2248\/revisions\/2249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}