Well, Paul's reception in Jerusalem has not been without violence. No, and it's getting worse. There's a powerful assassination plot that's been put into play. And even though he's in protective custody of the Romans, it's dangerous. But God is going to defuse it in the most amazing way.
And not using the Romans. No. See how today. On More Than Ink. Hey, you're back with us?
Yes, this is Bore Than Inc. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad that you've joined us once again. We are into some very exciting actions in the book of Acts as we come near the end of Acts.
And Paul's getting into more trouble than usual. And we'll see that today as he's bringing the gospel around the world and here, actually, in Jerusalem.
Well, and if you remember, back in chapter 9, the Lord Jesus had said to him, you're going to testify for me before nations, before Gentiles, before kings, and before your own people. That's right. And so this is definitely a part of that fulfillment of that promise. Yeah.
So he got in some hot water at the temple area and had to be pulled out of danger by the Roman troops. It was a mob. It was a lunch mob. They were out to kill him. And so the Roman troops that are there to preserve the order pulled him out of that danger zone.
And they let him speak. That didn't work out too well either.
So finally, the guy in charge, the tribune, the Roman tribune in charge, decided, we're going to take it to his peers, his ruling peers, the Jews, and have them figure out just what this Paul guy is all about and why he is causing so much of a ruckus here in Jerusalem.
So they've taken him to that council. And today, we're going to hear exactly what Paul. Paul says to those guys and defends what he's doing. But before they took him to the council, they were going to investigate by torture, right? They were going to flog him or ask him.
And in that process, they discovered that he was a Roman citizen.
So now this tribunal has a real mess on his hands because he has arrested a Roman citizen and was about to beat him. And he just can't figure this puzzle out.
So he decides to let Paul speak to the Jewish council.
So it's the Roman authority officer who calls together the Jewish high council.
Okay, let's get to the bottom of this.
So as the picture opens, you can kind of see him and his soldiers up in the back with their arms crossed watching. They're there. They're still in charge and they still have to figure out what to do with Paul. They are just clearly, from the end of chapter two, the tribune is clearly confused about what all the ruckus is about. He does not know why.
They were going to flog him. They can't do that. He's a citizen.
So now he's hoping, he's hoping that the Sanhedrin, that's the name of the council. Will kind of untangle this for him.
So he's brought them, brought Paul in front of them. And let's see if it gets untangled with the religious leaders who supposedly, like Paul, know what this is all about.
Okay, and they're thinking there's not going to be trouble because here's the tribune and his men right here present in the meeting, watching over it. And it's their job to keep the peace in Jerusalem.
So here we go. Paul's going to speak to his brethren. Paul in front of the San Peter. You want me to read it? Here we go.
Chapter 23, verse 1. Paul speaking. And looking intently at the council, Paul said, Brothers, I've lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day. and the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall.
Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet, contrary to the law, you order me to be struck? Can we stop? Yeah.
Because, first of all, that sounds to me like the trial of Jesus. Oh, it sure does. The high priest ordered that Jesus be struck on the mouth. Yeah, it sure does. And, you know, even at the outset, it really impacted me that when Paul addressed them, the formal addressing he should have said, and I looked this up, the formal addressing he should have said in front of the Sanhedrin is rulers of the people and elders of Israel.
That's how he's supposed to start it. But instead, he says, brothers.
So, which I, you know, which from Paul's perspective is true.
Well, he probably had a right to use that address. He was a Pharisee. He had been part of them a generation ago.
So he's not being presumptive. This is actually, he feels like he's amongst brothers, although it's been almost two decades since he was an active Pharisee. But for them to hear that brothers thing, they hear disrespect. Yeah.
Because he's clearly causing trouble. But what about what he said that would have caused Ananias to strike him on the mouth? Oh, well, that's a simple one, actually. At the end of verse one, he says, I've lived my life before God in all good conscience.
So he's saying, I've not done anything wrong. Right. I am not guilty. And he says, before God. God himself.
If you went and asked God himself, God would say, Nope, Paul hasn't done anything wrong. That seems very blasphemous because surely, I mean, whatever Paul was doing caused a riot, right?
So that's why Ananias strikes him. Ananias is the high priest. And by the way, this is a very ungodly thing for Ananias to do. Right. Yeah.
Well, and Paul makes reference to the law saying, you know, you've broken the law by doing this. Leviticus 19:15 says, Do no injustice in court. Right. Right. So it is unjust to strike a defendant before he's even made his case.
Exactly. You have to be found guilty. And I looked up another passage in Deuteronomy 25 when you can actually strike a man after you find. Him when you condemn him of being guilty, so you gotta have a trial. You can't just smack him on the side.
They've already condemned him in their heads.
So Paul, when he strike, when Paul strikes back, you know, with his words, he says, God's going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. He's actually quite right because here's the high priest, the guy who's supposed to be standing up for all righteousness of the Jews in Israel, violating the law in front of the rest of the religious leaders, in front of Paul himself. And so he calls him a whitewashed wall, which is a way of saying, you look clean on the outside, but on the inside, you're not. But we probably need to pay attention here to the fact that Ananias gave the order, but somebody closer to Paul actually delivered the blow. Sure.
Because then they said, you know, would you revile God's high priest? And picking up in verse 5, Paul says, I didn't know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it's written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.
So, you know, why would Paul not have known that Ananias was the high priest? There's a couple of different thoughts about that. One is that. We think that Paul had very poor eyesight, and so he perhaps just couldn't see who had given the command. Maybe.
The other thing, we just don't know what it was like in the room. Maybe the guy was out of view. I don't know. Yeah, I don't think Paul's making this up. I think he's honest.
He doesn't really know this. He's seen Ananias before. But to be truthful, it was 20 years ago.
Well, and he maybe didn't actually hear the command given, or he just was busy making his own defense and wasn't aware of where the blow came from. But he does know, again, righteously so. He knows it's wrong to lash out against God's anointed like that. It comes from Exodus 22, I think.
So Paul's being, Paul, actually, it's fascinating. Paul's being right in terms of his judgment about what the guy did wrong. Right. As well as his judgment on himself for having impugned someone who's been put in place of humbles himself. He says, The word says, You shall not speak evil of a ruler over your people.
Yeah.
Okay, so. I'm ready to go on. Are you? Yeah, verse version. That was quite an opening salvo, actually.
Well, it was a lot, it was a lot happening right at the beginning, and you kind of wonder what the tribune is thinking about. Yeah, yeah. In fact, like you say, he's in the back of the room watching this, going, This is not going to be. Yeah.
Okay, so in verse 6, now, when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of a Pharisee. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial. And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Yeah.
Thank you, Dr. Luke, for explaining this to us because this is exactly. Yeah.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees really didn't get along well. I mean, they co-inhabited the ruling structure, the Sadducees, I mean, yeah, the Sanhedrin, but they didn't believe the same thing religiously, although they were both Jews. And the principal difference out of many was the afterlife.
So when Paul says, you know, I'm being persecuted in a way because of the hope and the resurrection of the dead, that's why I'm on trial.
Well, that's clearly a divisive issue between the two groups of people sitting there judging him, between the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
So he makes this appeal deliberately. Deliberately. To the half of the audience that's Pharisees, knowing it's going to evoke discussion. It's going to distract the heat from him. Yeah, right.
And he may find some allies. Which actually turns out he sort of does. He does.
So this is an interesting ploy.
Well, let's just see how it kind of unwinds. But he knows that he's brought up. He's brought up a divisive issue.
However, it's not off-topic for what Paul was preaching in the gospel. That's right. It's very much the core of the gospel, you know, that there's a hope and a resurrection from the dead.
So it's core. He just happened to pick this, and he knows they're going to react in a divisive way.
So verse 9.
So verse 9.
Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply: We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him? And when the dissension became violent, the Tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him back into the barracks.
So this is not working out well. That did not go well. Because they are so intent on Paul's destruction, they're literally going to tear him apart.
Well, yeah, and I find it quite ironic. What the Tribune wanted to have happen is to have these insightful leaders of Jews, both flavors of Jews, to insightfully be able to bring to light for the Tribune what exactly was wrong with what Paul was doing. And yet Paul speaks the truth about talking about the hope of the resurrection. And he finds, and there is clarity. That is actually, but there's no hope in this particular Sanhedrin that they're going to find any kind of peace because of that issue.
It's causing the same problem as it did out in the temple area. Yeah.
They're divided and they're fighting and they want to kill somebody. They're mad enough to murder. Yeah, that's boy, that's a familiar situation. And I might mention, too, you know, we talked about this being deliberately divisive, and I think it was. And although I'm speculating a little bit into Paul's thinking, but much, much later at the end of Acts, Paul talks about having some misgivings about some things that he'd done in ministry.
I think it's in chapter 24. We'll have to revisit it when we get there, but I've always wondered whether this was his misgiving. Like, I was being a little too clever in my discussion right here by bringing this divisiveness, which is kind of. Working in my advantage in a certain way. I don't know.
We'll have to see when we get there. We'll have to see when we get there. It's in chapter 24, but he has misgivings and. And I wondered whether he had misgivings about this being deliberately divisive, as this being kind of a ploy in order to get out from under the heat. But it doesn't really matter.
I mean, in the end, there's divisiveness in the Sanhedrin. They want to become violent. They want to take them. The Tribune says, well, back to my protective duties. And he snatches them back out of the hands of the people who want to take him by force and be violent.
That didn't work out as well as he'd hoped.
Well, he still doesn't have any better understanding. No, he doesn't. He doesn't. But he still has a citizen, Paul, on his hands, and he's got to figure out what to do with that. A Roman citizen.
Yeah.
Yeah, so verse 11 is lovely. The following night. The Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you've testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. How encouraging is that? Yeah.
Yeah.
Right. And it's one thing you say, I heard the Lord say, but he says, no, the Lord stood by him. And, you know, it's interesting. I looked at those two words. They're both translated, testify, but the first one is a little different.
It's a more intensive form. It means emphatically, repeatedly, as you have been testifying to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you will go and speak the same message in Rome. Yeah.
Yeah.
That really connects back to God's call to Paul in the very beginning when he said, you will preach my name before the Gentiles and before kings and before and before your own people. You know, it makes me wonder whether after he got taken out of the Sanhedrin, whether he felt like he was a failure there, because, you know, when you read the book of Romans, he talks so much about how much he loves his people, the Jews. And that particular Sanhedrin thing, he would have been able to actually tell the gospel in great detail and his compassion for the Jews, you know. It would have been great. And I wondered if he felt like he had a missed opportunity.
And so Jesus comes to him and says, No, you've testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem.
So. There you go. And because he had been, right, for years testifying in Jerusalem every time he passed through. Yeah.
Yeah, you know, I don't know. But, you know, I thought this phrase, the Lord stood by me, sounded familiar to me.
So I looked it up in my concordance. And Paul uses the same phrase in 2 Timothy when he's writing to Timothy in this last letter for 16 to 18 when he says, he talks about my first defense, no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the lion's mouth.
Right. So where's that again?
Well, that's in 2 Timothy 4. 16 to 18. He is probably referring to a different incident because he had just been talking about being in Ephesus right prior to that in the letter. But it sounds so much the same, right? The Lord had just reiterated to him, no, I have a plan for you.
You will go to Rome. I think that probably figures in strongly later on when Paul says, I'm cheerfully making my defense before you, right? He knows he's not going to die here.
Well, yeah, and that's going to become very useful to reassure him in the next verses coming out. Yes.
So, and another thing I want to take note of, you zeroed in on the standing, and I think that's great stuff. I zeroed in on the take courage. And you know what I found out when I looked up that? That's actually one Greek word. But that's not what's interesting.
What's interesting is that it's used five times, and every time it's used, it's spoken by Jesus himself.
So one of the prime things he does in those situations is he says, take courage. You know, you're okay. Things are fine.
So don't be bummed by what's been happening. Oh, that just makes me think that in all of the couple of hundred, 350 I've heard, fear not in the Bible, the corollary phrase is always, because I am with you. Yeah, I am with you. And that's the issue. Yeah.
And that's the issue here, too, as well. I mean, and clearly, Jesus is satisfied with Paul's obedience in these circumstances. And remember, he was kept from coming to Jerusalem earlier because God said, basically, they're not ready to hear the gospel. They didn't seem ready here either. But this is the shot that God said, this is the shot I want you to take, right?
This is kind of like the timing in the life of Jesus, you know, when he entered Jerusalem for that last time. He said, okay, this is the last shot. After this, it's over. And this is determined. And so now God, through Jesus, says you're heading off to Rome.
That promise, that promise is going to be a bedrock from this point on. Paul's story in Acts. I mean, it's just going to be a big deal. And Paul's going to set his sights that direction.
Well, and he's never again going to be a free man. Yeah, that's right. He's in Roman custody now and will remain in Roman custody. Yeah.
Through the end of Acts. But he's also not just giving him hope about the future. He's actually satisfying his desire. Because if you remember back in Acts 19, Paul expressed his desire to go to Rome. I mean, this is what I really want to do.
And when you read the opening words in the book of Romans, chapter one, he says the same thing.
So this is God saying, Well done here.
Now we're going to a place that you yourself have just wanted and moved toward. And we're going to, I'm going to take you there. And we're going there.
So great, really encouraging. Really encouraging.
So I said that assurance about going to Rome would be a big deal. Let's go into verse 12 and we'll see why that assurance, why that promise is a big deal now. You want me to read it? Yeah, go ahead.
Okay, we're in verse 12.
So when it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. They were more than 40 who made this conspiracy.
So they went to the chief priests and the elders and they said, We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food. Till we have killed Paul.
Now, therefore, you, along with the council, give notice to the Tribune to bring him down to you as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.
So, is there significance to the number 40? I don't know. I don't know. But it's a lot of people. It's a big group.
It's a lot of guys who sworn that they're not going to eat food until Paul's dead. This is a really big deal. But it wasn't the chief leadership. Because they had to go to the leaders and say, now we are prepared to act. You mean the actual assassins?
It wasn't, yeah. No, no, no. But what they were saying is they need access to Paul. And presently, where's Paul? Right.
He's in Roman custody.
So they can't get at him.
So they said, you guys have enough powers of Sanhedrin. You tell the tell the Romans that you're going to gain some insight on the conflict and bring him here and you're going to look at his case more exactly and use that as the pretense to get him out of the Roman guards. And then, boom, we'll take him before he even comes close to you. Yeah, so they're planning to set up some kind of an ambush between ambush, right? What are they thinking?
Because Paul's going to be under guard anyway. But maybe 40 is enough to overpower two or three Roman guards. Yeah, and they're not really sure how. How protected he's going to be, I suppose. I mean, this is our only chance to think it.
And if you think about how preposterous this is, here they are proposing cold-blooded murder to the Sanhedrin who's in charge of the religious righteous standards of Israel. And not only that, but saying you need to lie in order to give us the opportunity to kill him.
So they're proposing murder and lying in order to achieve this. It takes us right back to Jesus, doesn't it? It does, yeah. Because they decided, in order for their righteous purposes to go forward, they had to kill him. Right?
What sense does that make? They had to sin in order to do this righteous thing. Yeah, it's just crazy.
Well, this sounds like it's going to be pretty successful, but we move on to verse 16.
Well, this glorious thing happens, which just gives you, it's like the camera zooms out. That's right. And you see this just quiet little kid lurking around in the shadows, and nobody's paying attention to him, right? And he's clearly young. Verse 16.
Now, the son of Paul's sister, what? Heard of their ambush.
So, okay, so Paul had a sister. I guess so. And she had a young son who was hanging around paying attention to what was happening to his uncle. I mean, that just raises all kinds of questions, none of which get answered. But.
But So he heard their ambush heard of their ambush.
So he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. And Paul called one of the centurions and said, Take this young man to the Tribune, for he has something to tell him.
So he took him and brought him to the Tribune and said, Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you as he has something to say to you. The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside, asked him privately, What is it that you have to tell me?
Okay, wait a minute. This is clearly a young child. It looks so good. Because why else would he take him by the hand and try to pull him aside so he's not intimidated by all the soldiers standing? That's what it sounds like.
I just find that amazing. Yeah.
Which is kind of why nobody was paying any attention to him, right? He was just there. Nobody saw children. What kind of threat does a kid have, anyway?
So, verse 20, and he, the young man, says, The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him. But do not be persuaded by them, for more than 40 of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they've killed him, and now they're ready, waiting for your consent.
So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, tell no one that you have informed me of these things. Wow. Boy, those assassins nor the Sanhedrin could ever anticipate that this youth was going to completely thwart their plans. But that's how God does it. He uses weak and weak things to kind of confound the strong.
Well, and the invisible things, right? Nobody was paying attention to being overheard. That set me thinking, I'm sure there are other instances of this, but the one that immediately comes to mind is when, back in the book of Esther, when Esther's uncle Mordecai simply overhears the plot to do away with arouse opposition to the Jews. You know, it's like that's. That's fascinating to me.
God has his people everywhere. Yeah, and you know, since Paul is God's assigned spokesman for the gospel, it doesn't matter how clever the assassins are, or you know, how clever the murder plot is, or the lie that's going to be doing, or how complicit the leadership is. Or all the powerful people. Yeah, God just completely sidesteps all the powerful people and thwarts the entire plan, which looks pretty ironclad. It looks like it should work pretty good.
I mean, 40 assassins ready to ambush Paul when he comes near the Sanhedrin. And these guys are determined they're not going to eat until he's dead.
So they're committed.
So everything looks right for the plan until. This youth until the nephew gets involved.
Well, and you know, it's interesting because it was Paul himself who wrote that God uses the weak things and the insignificant things and the things that seem like they're nothing. Here he is the direct beneficiary of that. Right, right. And the tribune responds in a way he's supposed to. He is supposed to protect Roman citizens.
And so when he hears of a murder plot, You know, he's got to do something about it.
So, well, and he doesn't dismiss this child either. It's fascinating to me that this little kid has such traction, yeah, yeah.
Well, he clearly overheard something. And that's, again, that's a good reason for why it was a young person is because if you get under a certain age, then you can't really, you can't second guess that their motivations are not pure. I mean, they're basically just saying, I heard this, and this is what I heard. And, you know, even though he's a family member, it's not like he's getting some kind of pleading from his sister or something. He's just a kid who heard something.
So there you go. And the Tribune is just doing his job. And his investigating. Maybe I'll get some insight here.
So anyway, we're going to stop right there for today. We're going to hang you in the lurch there. You can actually read ahead if you want to, but we're going to leave it there. And as we leave it there, we ask this question again. This poor Tribune.
Is put back on the hook again. You know, what is he going to do about this citizen who, everywhere he goes, whether it's out in public at the temple area during big, big, you know, celebrations for the holidays, or if it's in front of the leadership who supposedly know the ins and outs of the religious law that Paul had offended, and yet they end up sinking up to violence. I mean, this poor tribune has got to figure out something to do legally to protect Paul as a citizen. And he's not gaining any clarity, and he certainly didn't as he came to the Sanhedrin. And that erupted in a murder plot.
And so it's just not getting better.
So as we leave the Tribune today, our sympathies are with him as we say, so what are you going to do?
Meanwhile, Paul is just sitting there in his cell. Apparently, he can't have visitors. He's just relishing the words of the Lord to him. And confident in the promise to him made by Jesus that we're. Gonna Rome.
You're gonna go to Rome.
So Paul can sit back with his hands folded and say, This will be interesting to see how this unfolds. Yeah.
So, so that's where our next time.
So, again, like I say, I hope that intrigued you enough that you want to read it because the story does pull on you right here to see exactly how the Tribune is going to work this out. But Paul is telling the truth. Paul's not manipulating people. He's representing what he's been doing and telling the gospel, the hope we have, and the resurrection, because Jesus says, the first fruit from the dead is the resurrection.
So we indeed follow him as well. Paul talks about that a lot in his letters. He's telling the truth, and now he's not only going to be able to say that clearly in front of the religious leadership in Jerusalem, but indeed in Rome itself. And so that's the path we're laying from here until next time.
So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And come back, and together, together, we can discover what this port tribune does here on More Than Inc. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note.
Wow, who expected that? This little kid unexpectedly defuses the whole plot. Yeah, sometimes nephews can be really handy. We'll see you next time. Bye.
Bye. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
