God’s Approval for a Faithful Witness

Transcript

GR1631
2-26-12
God’s Approval for a Faithful Witness
Acts 22:22-23:11
Gil Rugh

We are in the book of Acts in your Bibles, moving through the early history of the church. As I remind you often, it is thrilling to consider as we study the early church of the church history that we might we well be living the closing years of the churches history and what a privilege. We look back at the privilege of those who were called of God to serve Him and represent Him in the early days of establishing the church and its ministry in the world. How great a privilege it is to be part of the church perhaps in the days that will bring to completion God’s program in ministering in the world in the church and through the church climaxing with the calling of the church into His presence at the rapture.

We area in Acts chapter 22 in your Bibles, Acts chapter 22 and we are a little more than half-way through that chapter. We come to a portion where Paul continues to be the focus as he has been basically since chapter 13 when he began his missionary journeys. But in chapter 22, Paul has been serving the Lord for about 20 years now. So time has gone by since his conversion in Acts chapter 9 and he has been used greatly of the Lord in carrying the Gospel to Jews but primarily beyond the Jews to Gentiles and he has traveled far from the Jewish center of the world, Jerusalem and carried the Gospel into the Gentile parts of the world, not only in Asia Minor but over into Greece and has seen great response to the Gospel.

We are coming to a section here in chapter 22 where Paul’s life is going to take a major change not in that he won’t continue to present the Gospel wherever God places him but no longer will he be free to travel and proclaim the Gospel as he journeys from place to place because he is arrested and for about the next five years his ministry will be in the context of being a prisoner of Rome and the book of Acts will conclude with Paul being in Rome as a prisoner there but still presenting the Word of God.

Paul has come to Jerusalem following the third missionary journey, remember. An important part of what he was doing in that ministry on the third missionary journey was collecting money from the Gentiles for the support of the church in Jerusalem which was going through times of persecution and pressure as was consistent being the church in that place. That was the center of it all. The church began in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2 so Paul is concerned that the Gentiles recognize their debt to the Jews, the blessing God has brought to them as Gentiles through the Jews, the importance of the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and so the Gentiles have opportunity to demonstrate their love for these Jews and their appreciation for the part that they have had in the plan of God.

In Acts chapter 21, just to review for you, verse 7 Paul, to deal with any misunderstanding about his view on being a Jew has been involved with some Jewish believers who have a Jewish vow and so he goes to the temple with them, fulfilling what was involved in their vow and taking part and responsibility for them. What Paul is demonstrating is as he preached the Gentiles do not have to convert to Judaism for salvation. Neither do Jews have to abandon their Jewishness in order to experience God’s salvation in Christ. Those peripheral issues are not the issues. A Jew can continue doing certain Jewish practices. He has come to recognize that salvation is by grace, through faith in Christ but as a Jew he still senses a responsibility to those things that have been committed to them as Jews. That is fine, Paul says. He did the same thing as we have seen earlier in Acts. But, there is animosity toward Paul and his ministry in Jerusalem and so in verse 7 to 27 some Jews that had experienced Paul’s ministry and were familiar with it when he was in Asia and in Ephesus, Colossae and where other churches were had been established. They stir up the crowds. In verse 28 the accusation is “Men of Israel, come to our aid. This is the man who preached to all men everywhere against our people [the Jews] and the Law and this place, the temple and he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

You see how there could be misunderstanding even among Jewish believers in Jerusalem as James had related to Paul earlier in this chapter because unbelieving Jews come from various parts of the empire and say, “Yes, Paul has been preaching out there against the Jews, against the Law, and against the temple” and they are distorting what he preached. He did preach against the Judaizers. He did preach against their teaching that you have to convert to Judaism to be saved. You have to obey the Mosaic Law for salvation. He would preach that the temple was not the center of what God is doing in the world as it once way but Jesus Christ is the center. Nor did he deny the validity of the Law and the option for Jews to practice portions of the Law as they please and so on.

So, that is the riot that begins and Paul is dragged about. They would like to kill him. The Jewish commander, the fortress of Antonio there, adjacent to the temple compound sent Romans soldiers down to find out what is going on, bring order and in effect, he rescues Paul.

Paul asks for permission of this Roman commander to address the Jewish crowd that assembled. The Roman commander doesn’t really know what the issues are and when he finds out that Paul is from a significant city, Tarsus, outside Jerusalem as we have seen to the north and a well-educated man, he speaks well, he is not a man who had been formally involved in a riot, an Egyptian. Paul asks, “Can I address the people?” The commander is fine. Maybe it’s just a misunderstanding. Maybe if this Jew addresses the crowd of the Jews they will understand, “Oh, there has been a misunderstanding.” And if they say we are sorry there is no real problem here, the commander will be fine. He is just concerned about keeping the peace. So he lets Paul address the people. Paul addresses them and he really gives his testimony of how the Lord saved him through the first part of the chapter and comes down to relate after seeing the bright light and the Lord on the road he’s struck blind, he goes into Damascus where the Lord tells him to go and a prophet, verse 12, Ananias, “A man who was devout by the standard of the Law.” And here you see Paul brings in part of his defense. I am not against the Law and here this devout Jew devoted to the Law, Ananias. He was well spoken of by all the Jews in Damascus. So Paul is really addressing one of the issues here. Is he preaching against the Jews wherever he goes? No. And here Ananias came to address him.

In verse 14 Ananias told him: “The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth the then you testify to this.” What Paul is doing is giving his testimony and what his role is to be and why was he going around talking about the Righteous One? Well, Ananias, that Jew devoted to the Law, well-spoken of by all the Jews told him that that was God’s plan for him and he also would hear it from God as well. So, “Get up, get baptized. Wash away your sins calling on His name,” in verse 16. “So then, Paul returned to Jerusalem from Damascus” and then he was in a trance and God spoke to him in that trance and told him to get out of Jerusalem. Verse 18: They will not accept your testimony about Him. You see the message now is coming down to the point of the rebellion of the Jews to the Word of God which is a basic issue here. They will not accept your testimony about me. So the Jews are still listening. Paul told the Lord, “Oh no, they will know about my past history and how I persecuted Christians and imprisoned them and approved the stoning of Stephen,” which would have been a well-known event even with the passing of time in Jerusalem.

Verse 21: “And God said to me, “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” That is the end of the message. At this point the Jews become unglued. Now they have been listening and you can tell if they are not taking in the message and allowing the Spirit to carry it to their hearts and mind things are building and it just takes this message, “God is sending me to the Gentiles.”

Now in verse 15 he has prepared them for that by telling them, “Ananias had told him that you will be a witness for Him, for Christ, the Righteous One, unto all men of what you have seen and heard.” Now Paul makes clear God said to him, “You are going far away. You are going outside Judaism. You are going to the Gentiles.”

So, that is where we pick up the account at verse 22, a striking statement. You think well boy, he has said in verse 14 that Ananias told him, “The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will, to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from his mouth.” They don’t create a riot at that point. Where is really comes down is when it becomes clear when Paul says that “God’s intention was for this message of salvation to save the Gentiles.” The unbelieving Jews cannot tolerate that. You are really saying that there is salvation apart from converting to Judaism and they are unwilling to accept that. You see for them, salvation is a matter of external things, being a physical Jew, circumcised and keeping the Law, that assured your salvation, or converting to Judaism as a Gentile and submitting yourself to the Mosaic Law. So, salvation is a matter of physical lineage and works. When Paul said he was going to the Gentiles that shattering. So they listen to him up to this statement and then “they raise their voices and say, “away with such a fellow from the earth for he should not be allowed to live.” They won’t tolerate it anymore. He is worthy of death. It’s interesting that some commentators write and say Paul made a mistake here. In fact, here’s what one overall a decent commentator on the book of Acts but he says, “Paul should have known better than to refer to his Gentile witness.” In other words, Paul should have left that out. He made trouble where he didn’t have to make trouble.

I thought of a quote attributed to Martin Luther and here is the quote: If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except for precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ; however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefields besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.” For Paul to have avoided that would be trying to avoid the offense of the Gospel at this point. To tell the Jews that salvation is not by physical lineage or by converting to Judaism but it is by grace through faith. He would be denying the Gospel. And the point attributed to Luther is important. We all know what it is like. Well, we can talk about Christ but we know that if we bring up this issue it will be unacceptable and Luther makes the point if you don’t stand for the truth where it’s being attacked you are not standing for the truth, you are fudging around so Paul brings it to a head here. “God told me, “I will send you far away to the Gentiles.” He didn’t make this up. He didn’t just look for a way to get a dig into the Jews. This is what God told him his ministry would be. So the Jews from Asia have accused me of something. The accusation is not false. I don’t preach against the Law, I don’t preach against the Jews, I don’t preach against the temple. Back to Ananias, a well-respected Jew who himself kept the Law in many ways was used to God to bring to me. But the truth is God’s message of salvation is not a message of converting to Judaism, is not a message of keeping the Jewish Law. So they are crying out “Away with such a fellow from the earth. He should not be allowed to live.”

What we are going to see here now through the rest of chapter 22 and into chapter 23 is Paul in three different relationships: first with the Jews, then with the Romans and then with the Lord; Paul and the Jews, Paul and the Romans and Paul and the Lord. When the Lord speaks to Paul he puts His stamp of approval on everything that Paul has said which makes me wonder how a commentator can write that “Paul should have known better than to refer to his Gentile witness” when God says you have witnessed faithfully to me in telling the truth.

He picks up here; the Jews crying out, throwing their cloaks and tossing dust in the air. It’s the way you know, shaking the dust off your feet, throwing the dust. We want to disassociate ourselves from you in every way. We don’t want anything to do with you. Again, shaking the dust off the sandals would represent that. Throwing the dust in the air, waving their cloaks, they are getting any dust off them. Get away from us. We don’t want anything to do with you. You don’t deserve to live. And you have the uproar starting all over again.

So verse 24: “The commander ordered him to be brought into the barracks stating that he should be examined by scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him that way.” The Roman commander probably doesn’t have any idea what is going on. He probably doesn’t even know what Paul has said because remember, back in chapter 21, verse 40 when Paul stood he was given permission by the Roman commander to stand up and address the Jews. He addressed them in the Hebrew dialect. The Roman commander probably did not speak the Hebrew dialect. You know he could communicate in Greek in those days, the common language and so verse 2 of chapter 22 said “The Jews quieted down when they heard him speaking in the Hebrew dialect.” So the Roman commander has allowed this to be a Jewish issue. One Jew addressing these other Jews and if they resolve it among themselves, fine. Everybody can go home and I can take my soldiers and everything is good. So now we have a riot all over again. So it didn’t help for Paul to address the crowd as a fellow Jew. That didn’t settle them down. It just got the riot going all over again. So, I’ve got to find out what the problem is and since Paul is the center of the controversy, I am going to get it out of him. I am going to beat it out of him. He said he was going to examine him by scourging.

Now this is a particularly brutal form of punishment. Let me read you what one writer said about scourging. “The scourge, an instrument of Roman inquisition and punishment consisted of leather thongs studded with pieces of metal and bone and fastened to a wooden handle. Its use often crippled for life and sometimes killed. Earlier in his ministry Paul had five times received 39 lashes at the hand of Jewish authorities and three times been beaten with rods by the order of Roman Magistrates.” He records that in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. “But being flogged with the scourge was a far more brutal penalty than these. Here Paul was at the brink of the same kind of unjust punishment Christ endured when Pilate in a travesty of judgment had him flogged, scourged, after declaring him innocent.” That is recorded at the end of John’s Gospel, chapter 18 – Jesus was scourged. That would have been the type of punishment that was done there. We can understand the brutality of this when you have whip made of leather thongs and embedded in it are pieces of bone and metal it would just lacerate a person. That is what we are going to find out. I am going to get to the root of this. You see, the Roman commander doesn’t have any particular issue here. What if Paul’s an innocent man? Well, assume he is guilty and I am going to find out what he did. He’s created the riot. All the Jews are in an uproar. I am going to find out what he has done. So he commands him to be scourged.

“But when they were stretching him out with the thongs, [securing him down to beat him with the scourge] Paul said to the centurion…” [remember, a centurion is one who is in charge of 100 Romans soldiers.] “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is Roman and uncondemned? So you have this centurion who is in charge of the scourging. He is having Paul secured and then Paul as he is being bound down there with the scourging he turns to the centurion in charge and Paul just says, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned?” And it wasn’t. It was such a vile punishment that Roman citizens weren’t to have to endure it. When the centurion heard this he went to the commander, the one above him and told him saying, “What are you about to do, for this man is a Roman? I mean, this is a serious issue. You discourage a Roman they would all be in serious trouble. There has been no condemnation of this man. He’s not been condemned to die or anything. They don’t even know what he’s done.”

So that brings the commander into the picture. The commander of the fortress here was the commander of 1000 and he comes to find out what it is. “The commander came and said to him, ‘tell me, are you a Roman?’” And he said, “Yes.” “The commander then answered, I… now he’s got a doubt, here I’ve got this Jew who has been at the center of a riot by the Jews. I have already heard that he was a citizen of Tarsus which is a rather prominent city. He was able to address them in their language so he is obviously an educated man and now I find out he is a Roman.

How would you get a Roman citizenship, you a Jew? Basically ask, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” The way a person could buy citizenship was periodically the emperor would be presented with a list of names who were being recommended for Roman citizenship. And he would exercise his power as the Roman emperor and declare them to be citizens with the full rights of a Roman citizen. How you got on that list was the challenge and you got on that list by bribery and the person responsible for putting the list together acquired his wealth by “if you want on the list - that will cost you.” Like some parts of the world today where a lot of it runs by bribery. If you don’t pay the price you don’t get what you need and so that’s why the Roman commander said, “I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money.” In other words, “where would you get the amount of money necessary to buy your way onto the list that would be approved to be a citizen?” Paul didn’t pay any money. You bought your way on but I was actually born a Roman citizen. That elevated him above the commander because the commander bought his way into citizenship. Paul had been a Roman citizen from the day he was born because his father was a Roman citizen. You would say he is the son, he had to be born. How did he become a Roman? Well, if you are born that way it meant your father was a Roman citizen. Now it has taken a serious step up because now you’ve got the one stretched out here about to be scourged which you can’t do to an uncondemned Roman and then you find out he is a Roman that supersedes you because he was a born Roman and you just bought your way in later in life as an adult.

“Therefore, those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him and the commander was also afraid when he found out that he was a Roman and because he had put him in chains.” Being a Roman citizen meant something and you could not publically humiliate a Roman citizen by publically chaining him. He could be arrested and given a fair trial if there was the possibility he had committed offense but you couldn’t humiliate him by chaining him in public so they have already crossed the line. Now I’ve got a person here whose citizenship supersedes my citizenship and we have already broken Roman law. Now there are things here of great concern that are even more important to this Roman commander than the problem with the Jews because the Romans, if this commander has problems with the Jews that is one thing. You mistreat a Roman citizen now you are guilty yourself before Rome. Isn’t it interesting how the sovereignty of God works?

From a moment of being stretched out to be scourged and now you have all these Roman leaders afraid of what they have done to Paul. The way God has of intervening in events. So, he still keeps him as a prisoner but now he is in a different setting. He doesn’t turn him free because he still has a responsibility here. He just can’t send him out and have the city go into riot again. So he needs to find out what is going on so he can keep peace. Because, if he can’t control the peace in Jerusalem he will be in trouble too so he is in a difficult spot.

“The next day, wishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the Chief Priest and all the council to assemble and brought Paul down and sat him before them.” So what the Roman commander does, he is in a position of power and authority here and you have the Roman Procurator or governor and in his absence the commander of the fortress of Antonio was in charge of everything and he has the responsibility here so he summons the Sanhedrin and when the Roman commander summons the Sanhedrin the Sanhedrin comes. They are probably happy to come because they see themselves in a position of advantage to perhaps, you know, have Paul executed which is what they want, to have him removed anyway. So he summons the Sanhedrin. This is the governing body of Judaism. And important, the events that have come here because again, the leadership of Israel is going to have the opportunity to be confronted with the message of Jesus Christ.

So, Paul has a right as a Roman citizen to a fair trial. He has a right to know the charges that are being brought against him, the penalties that are associated with those charges. The commander of this garrison at the Fortress of Antonia is the leading Roman authority at this time so he’s got to sort through this and find out what the issue is.

So, the Sanhedrin comes and Paul is brought in before them. Now Paul has a chance to speak. Chapter 23, verse 1: “Paul, looking intently at the council said, ‘brethren, I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day.’” That seems as a rather easy way to start but “the High Priest, Ananias, commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth.” Just note here, this Ananias is, of course, different from the one back in chapter 22, verse 12 who was sent by the Lord to speak to Paul after his being struck blind when he was taken in to Damascus. This is a Jewish name obviously used by others. Here it is the Chief Priest, the High Priest. What Paul is claiming here and it’s already recognized that he is a Jew and remember he had already addressed the crowd in the Hebrew dialect and they know he is a Jew, of course. So he claims, “I have a good conscience.” Well, he is responding to the accusations already. They have charged him with bringing a Gentile into the temple. Well, that is not even going to be an issue anymore but he hasn’t violated his conscience. He hasn’t done what the Law forbids him to do. In effect he is claiming, I have been a good Jew in all my life.

Paul claimed this on other occasions even before his conversion in Philippians chapter 3, verse 6 he tempted to keep the law to the best of his ability so he had been a good, practicing Jew and he hasn’t violated his conscience up to this day. He did not teach against Israel and Jews. He did not teach against the Mosaic Law. He taught that the Mosaic Law could not save you but the Mosaic Law never could save you so he is not teaching against the truth of the Mosaic Law and its purpose. He didn’t teach against the temple. He understood that as part of God’s plan of manifesting His presence among His people and so on. We don’t find anything in the teaching of Paul as we’ve traveled his journeys so he can say I have lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God to this day. He will make the same claim a little bit later.

Come over to chapter 24, verse 15. He will be before Felix here. “Having hope in God which these men cherish themselves, and that there shall certainly be a resurrection [that’s going to come as an issue in a moment], verse 16: “In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.” It’s good to live with a good conscience, a clear conscience to do what you believe is right and what God would have you do. So it is a claim to have been a good Jew. It’s a claim to have done nothing that violates true Judaism down to this point. He’s proclaiming a Jewish Messiah as the Savior but the High Priest commands him to be struck on the mouth. What he had said was unacceptable. It’s not exactly a fair trial here to treat a person giving his testimony this way. “Then Paul said to him [and he speaks strongly] God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. Do you sit to try me according to the Law and in the violation of the Law you order me to be struck?”

I should say something about Ananias. He had been High Priest for some time. He became High Priest in 47 A. D. and he functioned as High Priest for a dozen or so years until 59 A. D. We have record about him in Josephus, the Jewish historian and he was a man of bad temper and greed. He would take the tithes that were to be given to the Jewish priests but he would appropriate them for themselves and he became quite rich in his office doing that. He was a brutal, violent man. He used his position improperly, a godless man. He even used assassination of those that he considered his enemies for threats.

In 66 A.D. when the Romans rebelled against Rome climaxing with 70 A. D. in the destruction of the temple, in 66 A. D. when the Jews revolt they execute Ananias for his pro Roman policies. So in the revolt against the Romans the Jews see Ananias as a pro Roman and so he’s going to be executed by his own people.

Here God speaks out against him and says, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall.” The basic background for this word – come back to Ezekiel 13. You are familiar with the analogy or the picture being drawn. But in Ezekiel 13 Ezekiel uses it. The Jews would be familiar with this background, especially the Sanhedrin comprised of Sadducees and Pharisees. We will see them in a moment. Pick up with verse 10 and Ezekiel is speaking about false prophets and they are pictured as covering crumbling walls with whitewash but those crumbling walls will come down when God brings judgment so it is a superficial covering. So verse 10: “It is definitely because they have misled my people by saying “peace when there is no peace.” “When anyone builds a wall behold they plaster it over with whitewash.” That is what they are doing. They are talking to people there is peace, peace but the spiritual condition of the people will not bring peace, it is going to bring the judgment of God so they are just plastering a crumbling wall with whitewash so that people look at it and it looks good but it is still crumbing behind the superficial plaster. “So tell those who plaster it over with whitewash that it will fall. A flooding rain will come and hail stones will fall. A violent wind will break out. When the wall is fallen will you not be asked “Where is the plaster with which you plastered it?” Therefore, thus said the Lord, “I will make a violent wind break out in my wrath” and verse 14: “I will tear down the wall which you plastered over with whitewash, bring it to the ground. Its foundation is laid bare and then you will know that I am the Lord.” Then He will spend His wrath on those who plastered it over, the real spiritual condition.

In Matthew 23 Jesus called the spiritual leaders of the day, the Pharisees, “You are whitewashed tombs. The outside looks all clean and nice but on the inside you are defiled like a body would be defiling to a Jew. Inside it is full of dead men’s bones so that is the picture when back in Acts 23 when Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall,” declaring his hypocrisy. He is like prophets in Ezekiel’s day who did not function according to truth and the violation is you sit supposedly to try me according to the Law but you strike me contrary to Law. Leviticus 19:15 says “You shall do no injustice in judgment but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.” Paul hasn’t even had a hearing yet and he is being struck. How can you call that fairness in judgment? How can you claim to be representing the truth when you ordered me to be struck in violation of the truth?

In John chapter 18 Jesus does the same thing when He is struck because of His answer to the High Priest. Why did you strike Me if I told you the truth? Verse 4 – an interesting twist here. “But the bystander said, “Do you revile God’s High Priest?” I mean, the Jews standing around. “Would you pronounce a curse in effect on the High Priest, revile him, call him a whitewashed wall, one going to be judged of God?” The amazing thing is, Paul, in effect, apologized. He said, “I was not aware, brethren, that he was High Priest for it is written…” and then he quotes from Exodus 22:28: “You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.” He summarizes there Ezekiel 22:28 which says, “You shall not curse God or curse a ruler of your people” as they act as God’s representative. So Paul recognized the structure established for Judaism even when you have a man of Ananias’ character sitting in the throne of High Priest. This is a corrupt time of back and forth and the way men came to occupy the position of High Priest in Israel and so on and the character of these men. It is despicable but God honors the fact that the position has been established by God and I should respect that. So he says, “I was not aware that he was High Priest.” There is a lot of discussion. You read the commentaries. One had six possible ways of understanding why Paul didn’t know he was High Priest and it goes on. I think the simplest explanation is, remember basically for the last 20 years, Paul has not been in Jerusalem. He was there for a visit, but that’s all. He’s not been interacting with the leadership in Jerusalem. The Roman commander has summoned the Sanhedrin here in short notice. So these men come, the High Priest may not have been decked out in a way that identifies him. When the Roman commander called the Sanhedrin they came and they would want to come because they don’t want to pass up the opportunity here. They say, “Well, it will take us a day or two to be ready.” Maybe the Roman commander decides then, I am leaving him go. You had your opportunity so whatever. Maybe the High Priest here just dressed in normal garments and Paul hasn’t had dealings with him. He’s been gone from Jerusalem for the most of 20 years, whatever. I think he is telling the truth here. It will be confirmed in a moment and so he does apologize. This is just a reminder that we have certain respect because of the position given that God has established. That is why in Romans 13 we respect the governing authorities because they are appointed by God, not because the person in the position is respectable. Ananias is not a respectable person. Even the Jews don’t respect him in that sense and they are going to end up executing him but Paul respects the position. He holds the position of High Priest and that is a position that God had established in the Law so Paul apologizes in effect. That was said without understanding that he was High Priest, otherwise I wouldn’t have said it because the Law says I shouldn’t. And you see that Paul comes back to the Law showing his respect for the Law. He doesn’t say, “Well I don’t live under the law anymore so I am just dealing with what he really is - a despicable person who is not functioning right. No. He doesn’t even fall back on his Roman citizenship, that I am a Roman citizen and you cannot treat me that way, not at all. Paul maintains what is important here. He hasn’t lost focus. He’s been accused of preaching against the Law. He shows his support of the Law. He requires an apology here to a man who in one sense in not worthy of apology but he is because he holds a position established by God. You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. He leaves it there.

Verse 6: “Paul, perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the council, ‘Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead.’” Paul realizes this trial is a mockery. It’s not going to go anywhere because he can’t even present his case because all he said was, “I function with a good conscience before God up to this day.” And they hit him in the mouth. Well, there is no chance that he is going to get a hearing here. So he draws it. He’s shown his support of the Law and I apologize, I didn’t know he was a High Priest. The Law says you shouldn’t speak evil of the ruler of God’s people so in effect, that’s an apology. He wouldn’t have said if I had known the position he held. But, the Sanhedrin was comprised of Pharisees and Sadducees. Paul recognizes the groups that are assembled here. The Pharisees have come along with the Sadducees. So Paul cries out, I mean, no sense in trying to present my case but let’s get to the real heart of the issue. The real issue is, I am on trial for the resurrection of the dead because I am preaching that a man has been raised from the dead. This is the real bottom line issue. It’s not about do I preach against the Jews. Do I preach against the Law? Do I preach against the temple? Those are just superficial things. The real issue here is that he is preaching the message of the resurrected Christ. So Paul is just not trying to cause a riot here. The issue is the resurrection of the dead. So he brings that right up. Well, that divides the group we are told. And he said this, “there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees and the assembly was divided.” So he splits the unity. Everybody opposed to him because he was supposedly preaching against the things we have mentioned. But the reality is Paul says is “I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead.” Well the division occurs because verse 8 says, “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, not an angel, nor a spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.” The Sadducees are the anti-super naturalists. They call them the liberals. They don’t believe in miracles. They don’t believe in the resurrection of the dead. Isn’t it interesting? They hold the power. They are the strongest party even though the Pharisees are larger in number. The High Priests came from the Sadducees. They held the position of greatest influence and greatest power. They denied the resurrection. Remember, they came and approached Jesus and said there was a woman who married a man and the man died. She married another man and he died. Married another man and he died and so on it goes and they said, “Who’s going to be married to her in the resurrection.” They thought they had trapped Him. There couldn’t be a resurrection because what are you going to do? She’s going to get up and there is going to be seven men or whatever who are going to say, “Oh, this is my wife, this is my wife…” Well, wait a minute. So you see, there can’t be a resurrection of the dead. What did Jesus say? “You don’t know anything at all. You don’t know the basics.” Remember God says that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is not the God of the dead. He is the God of the living. In the resurrection they neither marry or are given in marriage. That is the answer. There won’t be any marriage in heaven. There is resurrection. You are proof against it is based on a false assumption that there will be marriage in heaven. There won’t be so she won’t be anybody’s husband, or anybody’s wife because there is no marriage in resurrected bodies. So, that is the Sadducees. They don’t believe. They don’t believe in angels. They don’t believe in spirits. They deny basically the super natural.

You see what has happened to Judaism? The High Priest, head of the governing body in Israel and those associated with him comprising part of the make-up of the Sanhedrin don’t even believer in the super natural like the resurrection and the existence of angels. What a sad state the nation is in. But the Pharisees believe in all these things. Now they are not saved but there is an openness to this truth of the resurrection. Wait a minute, wait a minute. We don’t want to condemn this man because he believes in the resurrection of the dead because there is a resurrection of the dead. Besides, there are angels. Maybe an angel or a spirit talked to him. They don’t accept the fact that the resurrected Christ was the One who talked to him when he was in a trance that it was God who spoke to him. But they are open to a super natural event because the tension between the Pharisees and Sadducees is significant.

“There occurred a great uproar. Some of the Scribes of the Pharisaic party stood up and began to argue heatedly saying, ‘we find nothing wrong with this man. Suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?’” That is a possibility. You see the animosity that existed between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. We are not going to yield to the Sadducees on this point. And Paul has spoken truthfully. The issue is the resurrection of the dead. He uses that even the Pharisees are not necessarily supportive of him. Paul was a Pharisee. His father had been a Pharisee. We are never told how that father who was a Pharisee attended Roman citizenship so that his son could be born a Roman citizen. Perhaps he had done something as a particularly appreciated favor to Romans or something like that but we find out something of Paul’s background. Pharisee, the son of Pharisees and the Pharisee party now supports him. He is one of ours. They will support him on the fact they know there is nothing else to it. Nobody even is brought up anymore that he brought a Gentile into the temple and there is no proof he preaches against the Law or against the Jews or against the temple and what he has said here, you know, now they can accept, well Ananias was a Jew well-spoken of who followed the Law who supported him and Paul apologized when he was confronted about doing something in violation of the Law because he said you should keep the Law on this point and respect God’s leader. The Sadducees have probably fabricated this because they don’t like he preaches about the resurrection of the dead. So it is not just a minor disagreement here. There is a heated battle going on.

“Great dissention was developing. The commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them so he ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.” So, further troops are called in because he can see another riot breaking out and now he is not only concerned about the riot, he is under obligation to rescue and defend an uncondemned Roman but he still has no idea what the problem is but he knows I’ve got a Roman citizenship here and whatever else happens, I am responsible for the safety, protection and well-being of this Roman citizen until he is truly convicted of having committed a crime worthy of punishment as a Roman citizen. So he is carried to the barracks.

So you can see what has happened in chapter 21 and 22. Paul will not be a free man again in the book of Acts. Little did he know that five years will go by and he will still be a prisoner and he will be sitting in house arrest when we end the book of Acts in Rome. He didn’t know what God had for him. God had told him that trouble awaited him in Jerusalem but he didn’t know what.

What comes in verse 11, we see Paul in his context of the Romans and Jews but here God speaks to him and the graciousness and the encouragement of God. “On the night immediately following…” What is Paul’s thinking? This has been rough days. I mean you know, he has been pummeled by the Jews and had to be rescued by the Romans. He’s tried to speak to the assembled Jews. You know you can think well this is the opportunity the Lord brought me here. Now I get a chance to speak to them. This is why God brought me to Jerusalem and the Jews go into a riot and he is almost scourged and then declares his Roman citizenship so now he is going to have a trial before the Sanhedrin. Maybe now God gives me opportunity and maybe this is why this is happening and Paul doesn’t know the timeline. Who knows what will happen. I am going to address the Sanhedrin. Paul has a powerful Gospel. He’s seen the changed lives of pagan, corrupted Gentiles as well as rebellious Jews. Wouldn’t it be something if there was people saved as I preached to the Sanhedrin? What an impact. But this is not going to be the way God works.

So now, he is back in the barracks. Where do we go from here? He could be sore from the things he’s been through. Probably exhausted.

Verse 11: “On the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, ‘Take courage;” Don’t get be discouraged. Don’t get down. Why? “For as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem.” I take it that is God’s stamp of approval on everything Paul has said in these events in Jerusalem. “As you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem.” That is God’s stamp of approval on his witness, what he said down to the point when he told the Jews that God told him I will send you far away to the Gentiles. That wasn’t a mistake. God says, “As you have solemnly witnessed to My cause.” And His cause is what? To bring salvation to the Gentiles as well as Jews. You have witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem. “So you must witness at Rome also.” The same thing. You’re responsibility doesn’t change Paul. You have been faithful. Paul doesn’t have to lay on his bunk in the barracks there and think you know, maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Did I handle it right? And we go through that when you have shared the Gospel. You think you shared it clearly and people respond so negatively you go home and you sit down or you are laying down and you think, “Maybe I should have said this. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Maybe I…” Paul, take courage, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be down. He gives His stamp of approval. “Just like you’ve witnessed for Me and My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.” This is a reinforcement. The message doesn’t change. You are going to Rome. He had written to the Romans telling them he hoped to come. He’s going but he is not going the way he expected. He is going at Roman expense, Roman protection. You say, well a prisoner, he’s down. Don’t be discouraged. God has been gracious here.

We are moving through the book of Acts. We are seeing the transitions that occurred in Paul’s ministry for the focus of God’s work of salvation in the world has moved from the Jews to the Gentiles. Remember in the first part of the book of Acts is almost totally Jewish. It is not until Acts chapter 10 that Peter carried the Gospel specifically to the Gentiles. Then it’s not until Paul’s ministry in Acts 13 where there is that concentrated focus ministry to reaching out to distant places to the Gentiles. But in all of this, God gives repeated opportunity to the Jews and their leadership.

This is the fifth time as has been noted, that the Sanhedrin heard the message of Christ. The first time was from Christ, Himself at His trial at the end of the Gospels. The second time was by Peter and John in Acts chapter 4. The third time was when the Apostles, themselves, the 12 Apostles had to give account before the Sanhedrin in Acts chapter 5. The fourth time was when Stephen was on trial for his life in Acts chapter 6 and following and now the fifth time is Paul.

There has been a consistent pattern of the leaders of Israel are adamant in their refusal to listen to the message of Christ. Isn’t God gracious? He gives them a chance to hear, to hear, to hear, and to hear but they are unwilling. They will not hear. They are under condemnation and judgment. 2000 years later they live under that condemnation and judgment and the worst is yet to come as we have looked at in the coming days of tribulation. But God in His grace will use all of that ultimately to bring them to Himself.

This is a good reminder to us in ministry. How do you measure the success of Paul’s ministry? At Jerusalem it seems to have been a total failure. As soon as he gets there with this gift from the Gentiles for the Jewish believers we don’t really hear any more about it. What he is really saying here, you know there is some misunderstanding even among Jewish believers and you know you could help resolve that by this and it just goes from bad to worse and Paul has multiple opportunities to share the Gospel but there is no record of conversion. You say it just seems like God is done with Paul. You know, he has been a failure and then God comes in and says, “Don’t be discouraged. Take courage. Just the way you have witnessed for Me here you are going to do it in Rome.” Just like this? That wasn’t much of a witness. Sure, not if you measure it by results but God is pleased and puts His stamp of approval on it. He doesn’t say, “Well, you have learned some things and I am going to teach you some more things and by the time you get to Rome you will be doing better.” No. “As you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also.”

I keep thinking of that passage in 2 Corinthians 2 that when we are giving off the message of Christ we are a fragrant aroma of Christ to God among those who are perishing among those who are being saved. God is pleased. Paul has faithfully presented the message. As far as we can tell, none of the Jews on this occasion have responded. Paul has witnessed faithfully. God is pleased and going to send him on to give the same message when he gets to Rome.

So down to today, here we are. Wherever God places us, whatever situation we are put in we are lights in the midst of darkness. We are here to tell about Christ, the Savior who died and was raised from the dead and the one who brings cleansing and forgiveness to all who believe in Him.

Let’s pray together. Thank you Lord for the faithfulness of Your servant, Paul. Lord, more so thank You for Your faithfulness to Paul in the way that You used him. Lord, the reminder, the importance placed upon us as Your people in these days to be faithful. Lord we are easily caught up in making evaluations on the basis of response, to evaluating success on the basis of response. Lord in deed, the passion of our heart is that people would hear and believe. Lord, the greater passion of our heart is that we would be faithful and You would be pleased and use us to that end as we serve You in the days of the week before us we pray in Christ’s name, amen.