12 Why Gentiles Gave to Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8-9 Background)

In this episode of Wednesday in the Word, we step behind 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 to uncover the story of the Jerusalem Collection. Krisan shows how this long term fundraising project was never just about money for a famine. It was about caring for real people in real need, healing tensions between Jewish and Gentile believers, and strengthening the bond between Paul and the original apostles in Jerusalem.

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• What the Jerusalem Collection was and why it mattered so much to Paul.
• Paul’s early, fragile relationship with the Jerusalem church and how Barnabas helped bridge the gap.
• Key moments from Acts and Galatians that shaped the relationship between Paul, the apostles, and the Gentile churches.
• Why the question of Gentile believers and the Law created so much conflict and confusion.
• Why the apostles in Jerusalem asked Paul to "remember the poor" and how that became a long term calling.
• How this background helps us read 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 with fresh understanding instead of treating them as random fundraising tips.

By the end of this episode, you will see the Jerusalem Collection as a living picture of one worldwide church family, not a dry historical footnote. You will understand how generosity can express unity, gratitude, and shared faith across distance and difference. And you will be better able to read 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 in context, with a clearer sense of what God was doing through Paul, the Jerusalem apostles, and the many believers who gave so that others could stand firm in Christ.

 Series: 2 Corinthians: When Church Hurts

Transcript

Krisan Marotta 0:01

Welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krissan Marata, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today is already the 12th talk in our series on 2 Corinthians, and we will be studying various passages as background to 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. What exactly was the Jerusalem Collection? And why did the Apostle Paul pour years of his ministry into it? Well, today we're going to delve into the story behind the Jerusalem Collection to see how it was more than just a simple act of charity. Glad to have you along. We're continuing in our series on 2 Corinthians. Paul has finished his long defense of his ministry. He started that defense back in chapter 1, and then he finished it in chapter 7 with his plea for the Corinthians to make room in their hearts for him again. Now he moves on to the next concern of the letter, which we find in chapters 8 and 9, and that is the Jerusalem collection. I have to admit, I've been studying and teaching the Bible for over 40 years, so at this point, there's not a lot in the New Testament that I haven't thought about or studied to some extent. Well, except possibly for Revelation. But chapters eight and nine of 2 Corinthians introduce a topic that I never really took much time to consider or to figure out until now. These are the chapters about what is called the Jerusalem Collection. And I knew it existed. I'd run into it before, but I never took time to figure out what was actually going on with this collection. Throughout Paul's ministry, Paul spent a great deal of time collecting money from the Gentile churches that he founded and sending that money to Jerusalem. Historically, the collection addressed relief from famine and the persecution in Judea around AD 46-57, and it culminates in Paul's delivery of the funds, which we find in Acts 24. At its most straightforward, the collection was simply a pragmatic, generous response to a material need in the region. In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, Paul addresses the Corinthians about their participation in this collection. And honestly, it's a little hard to know how to teach those chapters. What do we do with this information? After all this fundraising project ended a long time ago, it doesn't seem particularly relevant to our lives today. What are we supposed to learn from it? Well, as you might imagine, over the history of people studying these chapters, they have gone in all kinds of directions and how to apply it because it concerns fundraising. When the topic is raising money, people like to conclude all sorts of things about how we ought to handle money from it and how we conduct our fundraising and so on. What I'm going to do today is look at the Jerusalem collection itself. What was it? What motivated? What do we know about it from Scripture? And most importantly, why did Paul spend over a decade pursuing this project? It cost him a lot of time and effort. It complicated his relationship with the Gentile churches that he planted. And yet he urged those churches to make it a priority. I don't think we can understand chapters eight and nine unless we understand the background to the Jerusalem connection. So in this podcast, we are not actually going to look at 2 Corinthians today. We're going to look at other passages that talk about the Jerusalem collection to see what we can learn about it. And then in the next podcast, we'll look at Corinthians 8 and 9. On the surface, this collection was about helping the poor in Judea. But I think there's a lot more to it than that. I think it's also about the relationship between Gentile believers and Jewish believers, and it's about Paul's relationship with the other apostles. Let's start at the beginning. As you probably know, after the risen Jesus ascended to heaven, the first of his followers congregated in Jerusalem. And at this point his followers were almost entirely Jewish. Then a believer named Stephen gave a powerful sermon in Jerusalem about how their Jewish ancestors killed the prophets, and now they had killed the Messiah, Jesus. The crowd became enraged and they stoned Stephen to death. Watching this execution with approval was a man named Saul, who we will come to know later as the Apostle Paul, but at this point he's called Saul. And you can find that story in Acts in chapters six and seven. Saul then became a persecutor of the Christian church. He would drag Christians off to prison whenever he found them. And then one day as he was traveling to Damascus to find even more Christians to arrest, he had an encounter with the risen Lord. He sees a bright light, he hears a voice, and Jesus calls Saul not only to become one of his followers, but to become one of his apostles and to take the message of the gospel to the Gentiles. Jesus also renames Saul as Paul, and you'll find that story in Acts 9. For three years after his conversion, Paul stayed away from Jerusalem. He stays in Damascus. He goes to Arabia for a while. Then he goes back to Damascus and gets himself in trouble and has to leave again. Finally, after about three years, he made his first trip to Jerusalem as a believer, and Acts 9 tells what happened when he got there. This is Acts nine verses twenty six through thirty. And when he, then he is Paul, and when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles, and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned of this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. So that's Paul's first contact with the rest of the apostles, and he comments on that in Galatians. So before we talk about that, let me read you Galatians chapter one verses fifteen through nineteen. But when he who had set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days, but I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother. Now Cephas is the Aramaic name for Peter, the Apostle Peter. So let's summarize this first picture. Paul encounters Jesus on the Damascus Road, and although he's now an apostle and a believer, he doesn't visit Jerusalem for the next three years. When he does visit Jerusalem, nobody wants to talk to him. His old Jewish buddies want to kill him, and the followers of Jesus don't trust him and don't think he's really a believer. Barnabas, whose name means son of encouragement, believes Paul and he takes Paul to Peter and James. Paul stays about 15 days and then people start trying to kill him, so he has to leave. So at this point, Paul has a very tenuous relationship with the believers and the apostles in Jerusalem. In the 15 days he was there, he just barely manages to convince them that he is a genuine follower of Jesus, and that was largely through the work of Barnabas. After he leaves, Paul doesn't return to Jerusalem for over a decade. For our purposes, after Paul leaves, the next significant event is that God gives Peter a vision, telling him that God has accepted the Gentiles. God tells Peter to visit the Gentile Cornelius and his family, and Peter obeys. He sees the spirit falling on them just as it fell on the apostles at Pentecost, and then he returns to Jerusalem. And we can read about that in Acts 11, 1 through 4. Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them. But Peter began and explained it to them in order. And then Peter explains the vision he had from God and how God told him that the Gentiles were going to be part of the family. God sent him to the Gentile Cornelius and his family, and he relates the vision. And then skipping down to Acts 11, 15 through 18, he finishes his explanation. And this is Peter talking. As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, John baptized you with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way? When they heard these things they fell silent, and they glorified God, saying, Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life. From our point in history, we're really used to the idea that Gentiles can be believers without becoming Jewish. But at the time this was a huge issue. When Peter, the great apostle, the friend of Jesus, eats with Gentiles, it was earth-shattering news. This is like atrocious, terrible behavior. The Jews were seriously upset with Peter. But then Peter explains to them, God gave me a vision, and God said, When I declare something clean, let no one call it unclean, and he sent me to the Gentiles, and the Spirit fell on them, so hey, what am I going to do? And the others calmed down and said, Okay, well, God's accepting the Gentiles. But the issue of the Gentiles becoming believers is not really settled at this point. The issue has only just begun. We see another big event relating to the Gentiles in Acts eleven, nineteen through twenty six. Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen travelled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews, but there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenist also, preaching the Lord Jesus, and the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. When he came and saw the grace of God he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with a steadfast purpose, for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a great many people were added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people, and in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians. So we learn a few more things here. After Peter's vision and his encounter with Cornelius, the gospel begins to expand to the Gentiles. Prior to this, most of the Jewish believers who went out from Jerusalem only told other Jews about the gospel, but in Antioch they talked to the Greeks, and a large number of them became believers. The Jerusalem leadership heard about what was going on, so they sent our old friend Barnabas to investigate, and once again Barnabas, the son of encouragement, comes to the rescue. He embraces this Gentile group of believers and encourages them to persevere in the faith, but he realizes they're going to need help. And so he remembers Saul, whom he had met in Jerusalem a few years back, and he travels around to get Saul, whom we know as Paul, and Paul works with Barnabas in Antioch, teaching there for over a year. Now we come to Paul's second visit to Jerusalem, and we find that in Acts, it's the very next verse we're going on in Acts eleven, twenty seven through thirty. Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them named Agabas stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world. This took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea, and they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul. Several important events emerge here. God reveals to Agabas, the prophet, that a famine is coming. The believers in Antioch realize this is going to hit Judea particularly hard, and so they decide to collect money from the predominantly Gentile believers in Antioch to send to the predominantly Jewish believers in Judea. And they send that money with Paul and Barnabas. And this represents Paul's second trip to Jerusalem after his conversion. Now remember, the first time Paul visited, he was only there a short time and he just barely convinced the other believers that he was one of them. Next, I want to look at Galatians because Paul talks about this trip in Galatians, but I should acknowledge to you that scholars' debate whether what I'm about to read to you in Galatians refers to this visit that Paul takes with Barnabas to bring the famine relief or not. I believe it does refer to the famine relief visit, and that what I'm about to read is describing the same visit that we just read about in Acts. But I don't want to get into that debate. I have a discussion on that in my series on Galatians, which I will link to in the show notes. So the believers in Antioch take up a collection for Jerusalem and they send Paul, and in Galatians 2, verses 1 to 10 we read this. Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them, though privately before those who seemed influential, the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles, in order to make sure I was not running or had not run in vain. But even Titus, who was with me, was not forced to be circumcised, though he was a Greek. Yet because of false brothers secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery, to them we did not yield in submission even for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. And from those who seemed to be influential, what they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality, those I say who seemed influential added nothing to me. On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised, for he who worked through Peter for his apostolic ministry to the circumcised, worked also through me for mine to the Gentiles. And when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised, only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. Paul makes his second visit to Jerusalem around fourteen years later. He meets privately with Peter, John, and James. Again, the name Cephas is the Aramaic name for Peter. Paul told them what he had been preaching among the Gentiles, and they said, Yep, that's the gospel. We have no problem with it, we're not going to add anything to it, and we're not going to take anything away from it. But the problem of the Gentiles has not been settled. There is a faction which we call the Judaizers, who believe that Gentiles, when they become followers of Christ, must be circumcised and live like Jews. And some of the Jews want Titus, who is Greek, who is Gentile, to be circumcised. But Paul refuses, and the leadership in Jerusalem agrees. They don't compel Titus to be circumcised, which Paul points to as evidence that they agreed with him about the place of the Gentiles and the people of God. Now it's important to remember why Paul wrote this to the Galatians. Some Jewish believers came to Galatia from Jerusalem, insisting that Gentiles must become Jews. And they argued, believing in Jesus is fine, that's a great first step. But after that, you have to be circumcised and start following the Jewish law and embrace all the Jewish practices in order to be saved. And we call them the Judaizers. Some of them claim Paul is not really an apostle. They say the true apostles are in Jerusalem, and Paul is kind of a renegade because he allows these Gentiles in. They kind of claim Paul stole the gospel message from Peter and the rest of them, and then threw in this own little heretical twist about allowing the Gentiles in. Well, Paul wants to make clear that's not what happened. Jesus made him an apostle independently of the other apostles. He didn't meet the other apostles until three years after his conversion, and then it was only for 15 days. And the second time when he met them over a decade later, he explained the gospel that he preaches to them, and they said, You got it, that's right, that's the gospel. Paul didn't steal the gospel from the other apostles, he didn't change it. Paul was called and taught by Jesus himself, and the other apostles recognized that. And the important thing here is they put no restrictions on Paul. As the leadership in Jerusalem, they could have said, Okay, Paul, you need to submit to us, you need to add this point to what you're teaching, you need to take that point out. But they didn't. They didn't do any of that. They didn't change his gospel in any way. They only put one obligation on Paul, and obligation is probably too strong a word, but they asked him to remember the poor, as Paul says, the very thing I was eager to do. Now that remember the poor, I believe, refers to the Jerusalem collection. Looking at the context of Acts and Paul's letters, I think it becomes clear what they mean by remember the poor is this Jerusalem collection. This is not just take care of any poor people you happen to run across in any city you happen to visit. That may well be something they did, but that's not what the apostles in Jerusalem are saying to Paul. They're saying, we want you to collect money from your Gentile churches to help the poor here in Jerusalem. And I think one of the reasons we know that's what they asked him to do is because that's what Paul did. That's what we see him doing through the rest of his ministry. After all, why are Paul and Barnabas there in the first place? They are on this second visit because they brought money from a Gentile church in Antioch to help the poor among the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea. And the apostles in Jerusalem ask Paul to continue that effort. They want him to collect money from all the Gentiles he interacts with in his ministry and give it to the needy in Jerusalem. And that's what he does. Paul plants churches in Asia Minor and in Greece, and he tells them all he wants them to collect money for the church in Jerusalem. And we'll talk about why he did that in a few minutes. The next important event in the relationship of Paul and the Gentiles to the church in Jerusalem is what is known as the Jerusalem Council. After Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, Peter visits Antioch. Peter is eating with the Gentiles. After all, he had a vision. He knew that God had accepted the Gentiles, and so while he was there in Antioch, he ate with them freely. But then some of the Judaizers from Jerusalem arrive in Antioch. These are Jewish Christians coming from the church in Jerusalem who believe that the Gentiles must be circumcised and live like Jews in order to be saved. As I read the evidence. I think the church in Jerusalem was divided at this point. There was a faction that said Gentile converts to Christianity must also convert to Judaism. And there was a faction that said, no, they don't. Now we know what side Peter's on. We know he thinks it's okay for him to be eating with Gentiles, and he knows that they have been accepted by God without becoming Jews. But when these Jewish believers arrive in Antioch, Peter is afraid there's going to be a big blow-up. And in order to avoid a confrontation, he stops eating with the Gentiles. Well, Paul comes in and publicly rebukes Peter because Peter is sending the wrong message about what the gospel requires. And we can read that rebuke in Galatians 2. The end result is that Peter agrees with Paul and starts eating with Gentiles again, but they decide we need to have a meeting to deal with this issue with the larger church. And so they call a council and we read about that in Acts 15. At that meeting, Paul presents his case for why the Gentiles should not become Jews when they become Christians, and the Judaizers present their case about why they should, and then in the end, both Peter and James stand up and support Paul. And so it's decided to send a pronouncement from Jerusalem to all the Gentile churches saying what they decided. And here's their decision in Acts 15 twenty two through thirty one. Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders with the whole church to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Bar Sabbas and Silas, leading among the brothers, with the following letter The brothers, both the apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Sicilia greetings. Since we have heard that some persons have gone out from us and troubled you with words, unsettling your minds, although we gave them no instructions, it has seemed good to us, having come to one accord, to choose men and send them to you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have therefore sent Judas and Silas, who themselves will tell you the same things by word of mouth, for it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements, that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these you will do well. Farewell. So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter, and when they read it they rejoiced because of its encouragement. Now for our purposes, notice the important place the Jerusalem leadership has in the life of the entire church. Jerusalem functions kind of like the Supreme Court for all the religious matters. When they settle a dispute in the church, that settles it for all the churches everywhere. The leaders in Jerusalem write an official letter to the other churches. Basically, they say Gentiles do not have to become Jews and live like Jews to be believers. We're not going to require you to be circumcised or keep the law, but we ask that you respect certain issues that are very sensitive to your Jewish brothers. So Paul delivers this letter to Enioch and they rejoice. This means that twice the Jerusalem church has pronounced that they approve of Paul and they approve of Paul's teaching. They are okay with this growth of the Gentiles, and they are okay with the Gentiles not becoming Jews. They say this is what God wants, and we agree with him. At this point, then Paul resumes his ministry to the Gentiles, traveling through Asia Minor and Greece and planting churches, but notice he doesn't see himself as independent of Jerusalem. And he doesn't want the Gentile churches he plants to see themselves as independent of Jerusalem either. The Gentile churches have a connection to the Jerusalem church, and one of the ways they can foster that connection is through this collection of money from the Gentiles to send back to Jerusalem. Now we next read about the Jerusalem collection in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. This is verses one through four. Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of each week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come, and when I arrive I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me. Okay, so here is Paul giving his instructions to the Corinthians, and he says basically, I'm going to give you the same instructions I gave the churches in Galatia about how to collect money to send to Jerusalem. He says each person should set aside some money on the first day of the week, as he is able, as he has prospered, doesn't have to bankrupt himself, just as what he's able to collect. And then when Paul comes, he will arrange to have the money sent to Jerusalem. But we know that's not how it turned out in Corinth. Paul had to make an emergency visit to Corinth to deal with some kind of troubling situation. Some man was causing a lot of trouble and publicly attacked Paul in some way, we don't know the details, but there was so much turmoil that Paul had to leave abruptly and he left before dealing with this issue of the collection. So as Paul writes 2 Corinthians, he still has not been back to Corinth, and the issue of the collection for Jerusalem hasn't been resolved, and that's what we're going to see in chapters 8 and 9. Paul is writing to them in 8 and 9 about how to handle this collection, and we'll look at that next week. As you might imagine, with a group like the Corinthians, it gets complicated. Now, before we summarize all this, I want to look at one more letter where Paul mentions the collection for Jerusalem. This is the letter to the Romans. He wrote Romans after he wrote 2 Corinthians. You may remember that Paul is writing this letter, 2 Corinthians, from Macedonia, from wherever he met up with Titus. He hasn't yet been back to Corinth, but he is on his way there. He sends Titus with this letter, 2 Corinthians, to them first, and then Paul follows later. When he finally arrives in Corinth, he stays there for a while, and while he is in Corinth, he writes this letter to the Romans. And in Romans 15, we read Paul's last comments, at least the ones we have, about the Jerusalem collection. So this is Romans 15 22 through 33, which he is writing from Corinth. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you, but now since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem, bringing aid to the saints, for Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem, for they were pleased to do it, and now listen to this, and indeed they owe it to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you. I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. I appeal to your brothers by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. Alright, Paul is writing to the Romans from Corinth. He tells the Romans that Macedonia and Achaiah have contributed to the Jerusalem collection, and Achaiah is where Corinth is. Evidently, Paul has settled things with the Corinthians, they agreed to make their contribution, and Paul is about ready to take it to Jerusalem. But in 1527 he says something very interesting. For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them, for if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. Paul emphasizes the relationship between the Gentiles outside of Jerusalem and the Jewish Christians inside Jerusalem. The Gentiles are indebted to the Jewish Church in Jerusalem. That's where the apostles are. That's where the Jewish evangelists came from who went out and proclaimed the gospel to them outside of Jerusalem. The Gentiles have shared in the spiritual blessings provided by the Jewish Church in Jerusalem. Therefore, it is appropriate for the Gentiles to share material blessings with these Jewish believers. Now that strongly suggests that Paul does not see the Jerusalem collection as just a regular, normal, everyday gift to the poor. This is a gift from Gentile Christian churches, acknowledging their connection to and their debt to Jewish Christian churches, to the Jewish believers and leadership in Jerusalem. And we'll talk more about that in a minute. Another interesting thing that Paul says is this prayer request where he appeals to them to pray for how he will be received when he finally does go to Jerusalem. He says, Pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints. He's worried about how he's going to be received when he visits Jerusalem with this money. And if you've read Acts, you know he had very good reason to be worried. Acts 21 tells us what happens when Paul finally arrives in Jerusalem. Paul greets James and the other elders in the Jerusalem church. They warn Paul that some in Jerusalem have been spreading lies about him. His critics claim that Paul has been teaching that Jews should stop being Jews, that they should stop practicing the law and circumcising their children. Well, Paul does not teach that. And to clear his name, the leaders advise Paul to do something Jewish. They advise him to pay a vow along with this other group of men, so that everyone will see that he has not abandoned his own Judaism. And Paul agrees, but sadly that advice doesn't turn out very well. We're going to pick up the story in Acts 21 verses 26 through 31. Then Paul took the men, these are the men that are paying the vow, 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. When the seven days were almost completed, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, 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. For they had previously seen Trophimus, the Ephesian with him in the city, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was stirred up, and the people ran together, they seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut. And as they were seeking to kill him, word came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. So there's a big riot. Well that gives us some perspective on Paul's prayer request. He says basically, pray for my safety when I go to Jerusalem, and when he goes to Jerusalem, he is arrested and nearly beaten to death on trumped up charges, followed by a plot to kill him. Well now he's arrested, and in order to save his life, Paul appeals to Caesar, and that's how Paul ends up going to Rome. He ends up being taken to Rome as a prisoner. Then we have his other prayer request that his service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints. You can see Paul's worried about how they're going to respond when he delivers this money he's been collecting. And we can see that's a very legitimate fear, because people in Jerusalem think he is an enemy of Judaism. He's bringing all this money from the Gentile churches, but the whole issue of Gentiles is the sticking point with the church in Jerusalem to begin with. Are they going to recognize his spirit of service to them? Or will the old tensions stand? And he's generally concerned about that. And as we see, the old tensions came out. Well that's the background. So let's see if we can put all this together. What does this add up to? I think from looking at these passages, we can say there were three elements to the Jerusalem collection. It had three goals. First, it was a simple act of caring for the needy. There is a great need in Judea, and this collection was motivated in part by the desire to help in the coming famine, and it's an act of compassion for people who've been blessed with abundance helping those who are in need. And my understanding is that by and large, the Gentile churches around the region were more affluent, broadly speaking, than the Jews in Jerusalem. Second, the Jerusalem collection also had something to do with this relationship between Gentile and Jewish believers. I think there's just more than charity involved here. After all, there are great needs all over the world, and Paul did not collect money and distribute it to the poor everywhere. He didn't try to meet all those other needs. The leaders in Jerusalem asked him to collect money for the poor in Judea and have it delivered to Jerusalem, and that's what he does. The apostles are ministering to Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea, and Paul is being sent to minister primarily to Gentiles. But they ask him to keep this connection between the Jewish Mother Church and the Gentile churches. The Gentiles he's teaching are being asked to think about the needs of their Jewish brethren and see them as brethren as one church. And then finally, I think this collection is about the relationship between Paul and the other apostles. Remember, Jesus called Paul to be an apostle, quite apart from the original twelve, and Paul has a ministry to the Gentiles, which he conducts miles and miles away from the Jerusalem church. Paul had very little direct contact with the other apostles. He's off doing his thing, but he pursues this collection, and that's a way of saying we're on the same team, we're part of the same church. Let me see if I can give you an analogy. Imagine there's a big extended family that traces its roots back to one homestead in a small town in Italy. The grandparents had four children. For the four children, life revolved around life on the family farm in Italy. Even as the four children grew up and started their own lives, they all made it a point to continue to gather on the family farm for Sunday dinners, holidays, and special occasions. They'd return to help with the harvest, to bake the holiday recipes and carry on the family traditions. Eventually, one of the siblings immigrated to America, the second moved to Germany, the third moved to England, and the fourth stayed on the farm caring for their elderly parents. Well, these siblings had children, and the cousins built their lives in their new countries. They started businesses, they joined churches, they made friends who felt like family too, but they still told stories about life on the farm in Italy because that's where it all started. And as often as they could, they returned to the farm, bringing the next generation with them to learn its recipes, experience the traditions, and enjoy its beauty. Well then one day a drought hits the farm. The cousins who remained in the area of the farm are hurting. They are struggling to buy groceries. So the elders of the family ask Uncle Paul to visit all the branches of the family scattered all around the world and organize a relief fund for the Italian clan, because they're all spread out now, but they are one family. Well, that's the kind of situation we see with Paul and the Jerusalem Collection. I think the Jerusalem Collection was about a lot more than charity for the poor. Now it was about charity for the poor because there really was a need in Judea. But Paul wants the Gentile churches to be concerned for that need because they are part of the same church family. Fundamentally, I think the Jerusalem Collection is about nurturing a relationship between the branches of the church and trying to get them to think we are all one. We come from the same stock. So on the one side, we have independent Paul ministering to churches filled with Gentiles and he's far away from Jerusalem. On the other side, we have the original Jewish apostles and the mostly Jewish believers in Jerusalem. How are we going to foster a sense of unity between them? How do we foster a sense of community? Well, one way to do that is through the collection of money. As the Gentile branches give to the Jewish branches, that inspires gratitude and thanksgiving in the Jewish branches, and it fosters this relationship of we are one. And I think that Paul understands this commission he's been given as a way of establishing this connection between the Gentile Church and the Jewish church. Now, next week we'll look at what Paul says about this collection to the Corinthians, and we'll talk about how and why he urges them to participate, and we'll consider the charts that some have made that Paul uses manipulative tactics. Spoiler alert, he doesn't, but we'll talk about why next week.com slash 2 Corinthians 1, 2. You can hear all previous episodes in this series on my website, Wednesdayintheword.com. There's no charge, no spam, and no ads. Just free resources to help you grow in your understanding of scripture and learn to study it for yourself. Before you go, please follow this podcast and rate it and review it on your favorite podcast platform. It really does help others find it. But most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can hear Reggie's wonderful music at heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you for joining me today. I'm Krissan Morata, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.