Acts 23 - Part A

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That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching from Pastor Skip Heitzig. Hey, when you look back on your life, can you see events that at the time you thought were very normal, very natural, very uneventful? But now you look back on those events and you see a supernatural thread running through those natural events.

Can you see some of those things? You go, wow. Now, I'm sure you still have unanswered questions. Yeah, but what about that one time, that thing?

What was that about? That aside, I'm certain that you all have stories, as do I, of what looked like a normal happening. Behind the scenes, God was making something else happen. Now, that is called providence.

That's a word you need to know if you don't already. And you need to know that providence is different than the miraculous. We've talked about this on a number of occasions, but I think it's important in light of the chapter we're reading.

And here's why. Chapter 23 really advances no great doctrinal truth. If you were to try to read through this book and say, what is the great truth that lies behind this chapter?

What is the doctrine? You could maybe point to speaking about the resurrection, this or that, but there really is none. It's a historical narrative. But just because one isn't advanced by name, it is still present in this chapter, and that is the providence of God. Now, in the Old Testament, there's a book completely devoted to this idea of God's providence. It's the book of Esther. And in the book of Esther, there's no doctrine really that is spoken about in that book.

In fact, the name of God isn't even mentioned once in the entire book. But in the book of Esther, you are watching normal things take place in a kingdom, and yet behind the scenes, God is the mastermind. So when God works miraculously, God intercepts the natural world. He intervenes or he contravenes into natural law. That's a miracle.

He superimposes natural law with his own law. Walking on the water is a miracle because water can't support the weight of a human being unless a miracle takes place. But when God moves in providence, it's different. Things happen naturally.

People do things normally. But behind the scenes, God happens to weave the natural events into a supernatural drama pageant. His will is being enacted through the natural world. So often we go, God, I want to experience the miracles you have. Give me more miracles. I'm praying for a miracle.

Good. Pray for them. But be on the lookout for providence. And sometimes you don't see it. It's not apparent. But wait for it. Wait for it.

Wait for it. And then one day you might just go, wow. What seemed like it was just a normal happening, it wasn't. Years ago, I just happened to go to a potluck at my ex-girlfriend's house.

I was nervous about going, not sure if I even should. But that night, it just so happened that I met a beautiful young girl named Lenya. Then just so happened that I had a good friend who said, hey, my boss just offered me a job in Albuquerque. And I thought, hmm. And that started me thinking and praying.

Years later, while we are here, before we got into this building, we were at a different location. It just so happened that the owner of the building we were leasing wanted to raise the rent to double the price we were paying. I thought it was a ripoff. I didn't think we could afford it. I wasn't about to do it. I was getting nervous about it. And it just so happened at the same time this building was becoming available.

And how many times can we trace the providence of God in the natural events, and yet behind the scenes, the supernatural is taking place? Chapter 23 is really all about that. I remember a few years ago, I got a gift for Christmas, I think it was. And it was an odd gift, you would think, for an adult to get, but it was one of those little remote control cars. And you put batteries in it and have the little controller, and it was like a four-wheel drive vehicle.

This is super cool. And it just went so fast. Well, I brought it here to the campus, and I was hiding behind some of the buildings when people would come on campus, and I'd bring out the little car, and I'd start chasing them around, and it'd freak them out. Now, I was there, and I was trying to freak them out a little bit. I was behind the shadows, pulling the levers. And think of the providence of God, not like He's chasing you with a little car, but He's in the shadows, at the controls, moving things where He wants them to be moved. That's the providence of God.

Job, you know his story, you know what he suffered. And there was a very dark episode in his life where he tried to find God and make sense of it all, and he said, I go forward, and I can't find God. I go backward, and I can't perceive God. But then he said, but He knows the way that I take.

And when I am tested, I will come forth as gold. I can't find God, but God knows where I'm at. I don't know what He's up to, but He sure knows what I am up to.

He knows the way I'm walking. And He rested in the fact, not that He knew what God was up to. He didn't, and He couldn't.

But He rested in the fact that God knew enough about Him. Now, the author of this chapter, who is the author of the entire book of Acts, is none other than Luke. And Luke is advancing a narrative. He's advancing a story. And I've told you the theme of this book over and over and over again.

So now is a test. And if you know it, shout it out. What's the theme of the book of Acts? That's it, Jerusalem, Jerome.

Who said that? All right. Thamer, straight A's. Okay, it's how the gospel got from the city of Jerusalem to the center of the world at the time, Rome. Thus, the Roman Empire.

Thus, it expanded all over the globe. So he's advancing that theme, and he's going to show you how Paul makes it to Rome. And that is in his thought processes.

It has been, and it is in this chapter. Now, do you remember how Paul got to Jerusalem? He got there because he wanted to go. But everywhere he went on the way, he got these crazy messages saying, don't go.

And he even said, everywhere I go, the Holy Spirit's warning me saying, chains and tribulation await you. So you're wondering, so why are you going? You're going to get hurt and you want to go there? And then he said, but none of these things move me.

None of these things move me. Yeah, the Holy Spirit tells me it's going to be hard. It's going to be rough. I'm going to get beat up. I'm going to be in chains.

I don't care. Now, you might wonder at the sanity of a man like that. Because once he gets to Jerusalem, it seems like everything is against him. A riot breaks out in the temple. After the riot breaks out, he gets arrested by a commander at the Antonia fortress named Claudius Licius.

You'll see his name mentioned in this chapter tonight. Claudius Licius wants to find out what's happening. So he asked the crowd, why are you against Paul? But he gets one answer, then another answer, and the answers contradict. So he doesn't know what Paul had done. So he brings Paul in and says, scourge him, whip him, beat him up, extract a confession, find out what he's done. That's when Paul pulled out his Roman citizenship.

He said, you can't beat a man who's a Roman citizen. So the commander finally wanting to know what Paul had done, he really has no charge against him, sends him now to the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the Jews that we're going to see in the early part of this chapter. They're presented.

Jesus stood before this ruling body, before his trial with Pontius Pilate. And now Paul is going to stand before the very Sanhedrin. But before he stands before them, and before that episode of his almost scourging, after the riot, Paul said to the commander, hey, can I address this crowd? Let me just give a speech to them. I think I can get their hearts.

I think I can win them over. So he stands on the little balcony on the Antonia fortress overlooking the temple grounds, and he starts giving them a speech and gives his testimony how Jesus appeared to him. But then he says, and then the Lord Jesus, your Messiah whom you rejected, told me to leave here and go preach to the Gentiles. When they heard that word, they threw a fit, threw dust in the air, and gnashed at him with their teeth. And another riot broke out. So he's got two riots on the same day against him.

But the commander still does not know what the problem is. So go back to the last verse of chapter 22, the next day, which is where I would have put chapter 23, verse 1, but I'll let Langton work his magic. The next day, because he wanted to know for certain why he was accused by the Jews, he released him from his bonds and commanded the chief priests and all their counsel, that's the Sanhedrin, to appear.

To appear and brought Paul down and set him before them. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, we want to help you understand what real peace looks like so you can experience it in your own life. That's why we want to send you a copy of Unleashing Peace, Experiencing God's Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness by Jeremiah J. Johnston. This resource is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share solid biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer, or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip.

Now this is a little bit different. Jesus' trial and the other trials in the book of Acts whenever the council or the Sanhedrin, I'll tell you who they were in a moment, whenever they convened, they had their own special meeting hall, not far from the Antonia Fortress on the Temple Mount, but on the other side. That's where they would meet.

But because two riots have broken out, the commander, the Roman Tribune, the Kelly Arc, he is called, wants to sort of maintain order by having the Sanhedrin convene at the Antonia Fortress. So he makes them come to him. And Paul brought down into that courtroom to stand trial. So he stands before them. And then Paul, just picture the scene. They're gathered around. They don't like him.

They want him dead. Then Paul looking earnestly at the council. I'm just picturing Paul looking around, staring. And they're probably getting a little spooked and nervous. What's he going to say?

He just looked at them intently. And he said, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. Until this day. And the high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

It's not getting off to a good start. This day isn't really much better than the previous days for Paul. Now the high priest is called Ananias. Don't confuse him with Annas, A-N-N-A-S, that you saw in the gospels.

And also in the earlier part of the book of Acts. That guy, Annas, was the father-in-law of Caiaphas. Annas was the high priest de facto. Caiaphas was the high priest in residence. And so both were serving as high priest. Annas had the clout. Caiaphas did the work.

Those guys are gone. This is a new high priest named Ananias. So don't confuse Ananias with Annas. And it gets worse, don't confuse this Ananias with another Ananias. In Acts chapter five, married to Sapphira, who were part of the early church, Jewish believers in the early church.

Just figure this is a more common name than you thought. And this guy is named Ananias. He is the high priest in Jerusalem. Now he served as the high priest from AD 47 until the first Jewish revolt.

Now why is that important? Because the first Jewish revolt was started in AD 66 and ended in 70 AD. Anybody know what happened in 70 AD? The Romans came in and destroyed the city and burned the temple, raised it. What's interesting is that the Romans didn't kill Ananias, this high priest, the Jews did. Because the Jews, whom he represented, hated his guts.

You want to know why? Because he was so corrupt, Josephus, Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historians, his historian said, this guy was so corrupt that he used to take the tithes that the ordinary priest were to be given, divvied up, and took that tithe for himself, absconded with their money. And if anybody tried to resist him, he had him beat up or killed. He also used that money to bribe Romans and bribe wealthy Jews. He was also arrested and stood trial in Rome itself before Claudius the Emperor. On charges when the Judeans and the Samaritans had a bloody feud together, that he was complicit in that because many were killed, but he was acquitted of those charges, returned back to Jerusalem.

So anyway, that's this guy, this Ananias. So Paul said in the council meeting, while that high priest is looking, that I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. Now, what did Paul mean by that? Did Paul mean, I am sinlessly perfect?

I've never blown it. No, what he means is, in my conscience internally, as I look within myself, I can't consciously say that I have willfully gone against the externals of the law. Doesn't mean he was perfect, because in Romans 7, he talks about his struggle, the things I want to do, I don't do, the things I don't want to do, I end up doing, a wretched man that I am who will deliver me from the body of this death.

You know the text. When Paul says, I've lived in all good conscience, he's saying, when it comes to externals, I, of all the people I know, have rigidly kept the Jewish laws. It's similar to what he said in his testimony in Philippians chapter three.

Remember that? He says, I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee, concerning righteousness, which comes from the law, I was blameless. And it's interesting, because Paul speaks about his conscience some 23 times in his letters, or in his speeches. That was important to him, how the internal moral compass that governed right and wrong, how that was important right and wrong, how that was being tuned up, and how he lived in a good conscience before God.

But it's quite a statement to be able to say that in public. I've lived in all good conscience before God until this day the high priest, Ananias the creep, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. And then Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall.

Now, a couple other details before we get into this fun retort. Notice how Paul addresses the Jewish council, the Sanhedrin, along with the high priest. He says, men and brethren. That was not the typical way to begin a convened meeting with the Sanhedrin. Usually, there was an address that you had to give. In fact, Peter, who stands before the Sanhedrin in chapter four, and Stephen in chapter seven, referred to the Sanhedrin as elders and fathers, leaders, elders, fathers.

That's the address. That's what they call them. It's interesting that Paul doesn't say elders, fathers. He says men and brethren.

Why? Because what was Paul? A Pharisee. He is addressing mostly Pharisees. There's some sad, you see, the high priest happened to be one of them. But he was one among peers, and it is believed from chapter 26 of Acts that Paul himself may at one time have been on the Sanhedrin. He was looking around a room of Jewish leaders that knew him and that he knew, even though it had been years since he stood with them.

It could be that some were his classmates when he was taught, when he was mentored, tutored by Gamaliel. So he says, men, brothers, he approaches them with respect but as peers. Okay, so he gets hit. Then he says, verse three, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall. I have to admit to you, I like this. That's the first thing that Paul said. That's the flesh in me. That's the perverse nature in me.

I'm going, yes. I would have said that. For you sit to judge me according to the law and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law? And those who stood by said, do you revile God's high priest?

Now watch this. Then Paul said, I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest. For it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. Why was Paul so rude? Why did Paul say this? You know, Jesus said, you know, if somebody slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek to him. Jesus was reviled and he didn't revile.

True. But this is Paul, not Jesus. Paul has an old nature. Paul has the flesh, just like you have.

I get it. You get slapped upside the face, you tend to react to that pretty immediately and pretty dramatic. This shows the human side of Paul. In fact, I think he's lashing out in the flesh. He admits that.

But it's interesting and I just want to bring it up. I'm just sort of accentuating this. Paul had written 1 Corinthians, or Paul had written 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and we labor working with our hands, being reviled, we bless. Being persecuted, we endure. Being defamed, we entreat. Really?

Do you really? Because he lashes out and says to them similar words to what Jesus said. Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are like whitewashed sepulchers or tombs. And so maybe he's recalling the words of Jesus. However, I don't know that Paul was around at the time of Jesus, though he certainly knew gospel stories and he knew the story. But I think what Paul said is more similar to what the prophet Ezekiel in the Old Testament said. Ezekiel spoke of the false prophets as being walls that were whitewashed, or whitewashed with plaster. And so he says God's going to beat you up and hit you, you whitewashed wall.

But it raises some questions. Because he said, I didn't know this is the high priest. Once, you know, he said this is the high priest.

You know, if it was me, I would have lashed out like this, first of all. And if it was me and somebody said, Skip, didn't you know that's God's high priest? I don't care, he's not God's high priest.

He's a creep. Let me tell you what he did, what Josephus said about him. But Paul didn't do that. But what's interesting is Paul didn't recognize him. I didn't know.

Why? Well, there's a few reasons why he may not have known. And number one, this was an informal, not a formal meeting. There's just a group of men, 71 of them. The Sanhedrin was a group of 70 elders plus a high priest.

So 71 of them. They used to try to trace their heritage back to the time of Moses, the 70 elders that he had in the wilderness. But really, the Jewish Sanhedrin came after the captivity. After the 70 years of captivity, once they came back, a Sanhedrin developed in post-exilic Judaism.

And they remained to that day. So in this convening, in this courtroom, it's at the Antonia Fortress, the high priest would not have worn his robes like he would in the Great Hall of the Sanhedrin under normal circumstances, where he would call the meeting to order. So there's just a group of people gathered around him. And so he wouldn't have known that was a high priest by his robe. He said what he said. He goes, well, I didn't recognize him.

That's possibility number one. Number two, he did recognize him, but he was speaking sarcastically. It's like, oh, really? That's a high priest? I didn't know somebody like you could be the high priest. I don't think it's sarcasm.

A third possibility that I lean to is that Paul had eye problems. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resource that will help you experience God's shalom in life's busiest seasons.

Unleashing Peace by Jeremiah Johnston is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $50 or more. Call 800-922-1888.

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