Before we leave this section of Acts where Paul is arrested in Jerusalem and spirited away to Caesarea for trial (Acts 21 – 23), it’s fun to take a quick look at the Jews’ perspective. Paul goes to trial before Felix, the Roman governor, on what charge? The spokesman Tertullus explains:

For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. (Acts 24.5, ESV)

Paul “stirs up riots.” And how does he do this? By expressing his opinion about Jesus of Nazareth, and sometimes by saying he will take that message about Jesus to…wait for it…the hated Gentiles.

A riot is a riot is a riot. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Diana worshipping people of Ephesus (Acts 19), alleged God-worshipping people in Jerusalem, protestors destroying police stations and other downtown structures, or disgruntled voters storming the U.S. Capitol. The cause of the riot is not in the stimulus, it’s in the response.

You shall not follow a crowd to do evil. (Exodus 23.2, NKJV)