Acts 28:17-22 (NIV)
Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans. They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death. But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar–not that I had any charge to bring against my own people. For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”
They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brothers who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you. But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”
As soon as Paul got settled in his housing, he contacted all the Jewish leaders in Rome and invited them over for a meeting to explain why he was there. He feared that propaganda about him from the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem had already gotten to Rome, and that he might already have a core of opposition from the Jewish community. (It had happened to him before!)
As Paul told his story, he went to significant lengths to let these leaders know that he had no animosity toward them, or toward the Jewish people in general. In fact, they were his own people both by blood and background. His only issue was with the specific Jews in Jerusalem who had targeted him and forced him to appeal to Caesar and come to Rome.
The Jews surprised Paul (pleasantly) when they told him that they had heard nothing about him from either the Jewish leadership or the Jews who had gone up to Jerusalem for the festivals. But they were all extremely interested in hearing Paul, because Christianity had become a hot topic among the Jews in Rome.
Most of the Jews were negative about Christianity, and the Christians in Rome were predominantly gentiles. So, to have someone of Paul’s stature who was a leader of the Christian movement, and a Jew as well, made them really interested in hearing him.
Their comment about Christianity being a “sect” was accurate. Christianity at that time was still considered by most people as a sect of Judaism, a sort of reform movement. This was natural, since the first believers were Jews, and since the Christians taught from the Jewish Scriptures, since the New Testament had not yet been written (although a couple of gospels were beginning to be circulated at this point). The final rift wouldn’t come until AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the broad dispersal of the Jews away from the holy land.
Father, Paul had such a heart for the salvation of the Jewish people (Romans 9:1-5), that I’m sure it gladdened his heart to find out that the hearts of these leaders had not yet been closed off to the gospel. To him that meant that some of the would be able to be persuaded to enter the kingdom through faith in Jesus. Paul was a man of very narrow and intense focus. He was always focused on how to spread the gospel most effectively. And, because of that intense focus, he was always a powerful and effective witness. Help me to be as intentional and intense in my focus and my witness today as Paul was. Amen.
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