Study Desk

Despite his great arguments, some of the folks there spurned his message and spoke out publicly against Paul and the cowboy he rode for. So, Paul washed his hands of the Jewish church there and left, taking the believers with him. They moved their talks to a big room at Tyrannus.

But while at Miletus, Paul sent a letter to the church leaders at Ephesus asking them to come talk to him.

After a good night's rest, we went the next day with Paul to meet with James and all the other range bosses at the church in Jerusalem.

But listen to our plan and see if you like it. There are four men here who have completed a vow they made and now need to go get purified at the main church by getting their heads shaved. But these men don't have the money for it.

The next day, Paul and the four other cowboys went to the main church to be purified. Paul gave the church all the requirements and payments for the purification.

The required seven days had nearly passed without incident until one day some Jews from the province of Asia saw Paul at the main church. They riled a bunch of folks up, and they went and ambushed Paul. As they grabbed him,

they yelled, "All men of Israel, help us! This is the cowboy who is telling the whole world to shun our ways and our code. He encourages people to turn from our ways and our customs. He even brings shame on the main church just by being here today! He has brought in mavericks to this holy place."

They said this because one time in Ephesus they saw him with a Gentile and had just assumed he had brought him to the main church.

All of Jerusalem looked like an anthill that had been stomped by a herd of Corriente cattle. Paul was walloped and drug out of the church.

The head preacher and all the church bigwigs can attest to these truths. I even had letters from them to the head honchos in Damascus authorizing me to bring the Cowboys of the Way back to Jerusalem dead or alive.

"I did all that and then returned to Jerusalem. One day I was praying in the Big Church and fell into some sort of trance.

We barely managed to catch him this time before he desecrated our most holy place, the main church.

It is no secret I arrived in Jerusalem about twelve days ago. I merely went to the main church to worship as I have done my whole life.

These people talk about facts, but none of them can produce a shred of evidence that I was inciting a riot or riling anyone up. I didn't do anything wrong in a church building or even a street corner.

They did find me in the main church as they said, but all I was doing was completing a purification ceremony. No one was around me, and there was certainly no riot.

When Paul was allowed to speak, he said, "I ain't wronged nobody, not the Jewish Code, not the main church, or the Roman Government."

When I first got here, I went to Jerusalem. One of the first things that came up was this fellow, Paul. He'd sure put a burr underneath the saddle blanket of the church leaders. They pressed charges and asked me to have him strung up.

That was my job in Jerusalem. With authority given to me by the church, I arrested every believer I could find and threw them in prison. When it came time to sentence them to death for their belief, I cast my vote to have them killed.

"I was headed to Damascus on one of these missions. I was armed with the authority and commission of the church.

All these problems we are gathered here for is a result of me telling this story to everyone. Some Jews arrested me in the main church for telling my tale. And they did all they could to kill me,