Hey, last time we were listening to Paul make his presentation to the Jews in Jerusalem. And they were listening. He was speaking their language. They were with him. They were very attentive, but then something changes today.
He says something that changes it all. He says one word and it explodes. What was that? Let's see it today. More than ink.
Well, hey, good morning. This is More Than Inc., and I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim. And we are right in the middle of Paul's presentation to the angry mob at the temple. He's standing on the stairs, surrounded by Roman soldiers, and he had motioned for everyone to hold still and listen.
And they listened because he was addressing them in their own language. And he begins to tell his own conversion story.
So, where we left off last week is they were listening quietly to him while he tells them, I was just like you. I was born a Jew. I was trained in a Gamaliel. I grew up in this city. I was zealous for the ways of God.
And I persecuted this way even to the death. But then something happened to me on the road to Damascus where I was going to drag more of them away to imprisonment.
So that's the story he started to tell. And we left off where he said, just at the end of verse 11 in Acts 22, and since I Could not see because of the brightness of that light. I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus.
So that's where we left off. Paul blind and being led by the hand into the city that he had been going very persecuted Christians. Very humiliating for a man who was like, he's the tip of the sword, literally, from the Jewish Sanhedrin, going out and stopping this stupid Jesus movement. And, you know, I like the fact that when he started this, he identifies with him in a real simple way. He's saying, you know, the way that you're attacking me now, I used to attack people too, but.
Big thing happened on Damascus Road. Yeah, I saw Jesus in a light from heaven. Right. Right. And there was no dispute about it.
He just. Bows. He just tells what happens in his own words.
So that's where we're left today, and he's going to pick up the story because we left you in a terrible suspense last week. We just pulled it up. We were only halfway into the presentation. We left Paul frozen standing on the steps there, looking over the temple area, and we wouldn't let him speak until today.
So let's let him finish his talk. Just at the end, there, Jesus had told him, Now go into Damascus, and there it will be told to you all that is appointed for you to do.
So he's blind and being led, but he knows that the Lord Jesus has said, You're going to get an assignment. Which is actually good news. Instead of being condemned by Jesus, vaporized on the spot. He's saying, okay, it's an embarrassing moment for you. But by the way, I've got plans for you.
I've got plans for you.
Something of good news. What in the world would God want to do with me? He's probably thinking.
So that brings us to verse 12 in chapter 24. Let's start reading. And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews, lived there. He came to me and standing by me, said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him.
Okay, wait, wait, wait. He says here, Paul says here, that Ananias was a devout man according to the law, right? He's emphasizing his Jewishness. Jewish, Jewish, Jewish. Earlier in the book, Luke had told us this Ananias was a disciple.
Yeah. Right. So he was all Ananias was identified as a Christian, but Paul doesn't say that here. Right, right. But he does emphasize for the crowd, for the crowd who's listening, this guy is an Uber Jewish guy.
So, you know, well spoken of by all the Jews who recognized him as a brother. Right. Brother Saul. Receive your sight. Yeah.
And. that very moment. I received my sight and saw him. And he said, no, this is Ananias still speaking, the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you've seen and heard.
Now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. Wow. Oh, wow. Wow.
Well, and you know, we get more detail about Ananias's hesitation to talk to Paul back in back in chapter, what was it, nine? Right. Yeah. So, I mean, so we understand.
So go back and read that. Yeah, that is really interesting. Ananias has a little conversation with the Lord himself. Like, well, wait, this is the guy who's dragging people off. You want me to go to him?
Right. Yeah. And in fact, in his hesitation in Acts 9:15, the Lord says to Ananias in response, go. Go, for he's a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
Well, that's going to happen by the end of the chapter.
So God gets Ananias straight and says, Go and do this. And so here, Paul's story about Ananias doing that very thing. It is interesting. He calls him brother, which is wonderful. Brother Saul.
Yeah. Well, and this is more information than we got in the words of Ananias earlier in the book, right? When he says, The God of our fathers appointed you, right? Oh, so who's in control here? The God of our fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Right. He's appointed you. And I see three things here: to know his will, assuming that Paul didn't know his will, to see the righteous one.
Well, that's a clear reference to Messiah. And to hear a voice from his mouth. We're not just having a vision here. We're having a conversation. God speaking to him, which up until this point, only Moses was the person in that position.
Yeah. So these are big claims, Paul's. Making right here, but he's just telling what happened.
Well, he's just quoting Ananias: for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you've seen and heard, right? Because Paul had been blind, and now all of a sudden he sees Ananias because he had seen the Lord.
Now he's seen Ananias, and Ananias affirms for him, this is an appointment from God for you. Yep, God's got plans for you.
So now, why do you wait? Let's go be baptized and wash away your sins and call on his name. Let's push forward. And I like the fact, rise, be baptized, and wash away your sins.
Now, wash away your sins. I'm sure Paul's sitting there thinking, man, am I a mess-up or what? I mean, I've got it all wrong. How can God ever forgive me for actually killing the people? That are God's chosen ones.
It's just a lot of things. It's probably worth commenting on here, though, that Ananias invites him to be baptized, which is a public washing, right? A public identification with Jesus. But the cleansing of sin happens at the moment of belief. Exactly.
Yeah, those are two different things. Two different things. But it's an issue that Paul is dealing with. How can I be useful to God when I have been so aggressively wrong? Right.
Yeah. So, so, but that's what's great about the whole thing. It says, well, you know, that can be put behind us because of what has God done on your part.
So rise, be baptized, wash away your sins. Here we go.
So Paul has described that Jesus encountered him, right? Light from heaven, right? We talked about that last week. And now here he's got this very pointed statement from Ananias. You've been appointed to know his will, to see the righteous one, and to hear a voice from his mouth.
So. Paul is making that claim, but it's in the words of Ananias, right? He's just describing what happened to him. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a man a man who's well thought of, a devout Jew is saying these things.
Yeah. Let's pick up a story.
So he says in verse 17, so you know, after the Ananias thing, so 17, when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, there's a little Jewish comment for you. Right. I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. That's a surprising thing.
Okay, so now when did that happen? Yeah, right. Probably when he came back to Jerusalem with Barnabas after his conversion, right? And Barnabas introduced him to the Jewish church leaders, Christian church leaders. And then he was there in Jerusalem trying to convince the Jews, arguing powerfully with them, and the church was all stirred up.
Yeah, right, right.
So we know that history.
So it's fascinating that he, you know, he leaves Damascus, comes back to Jerusalem, praying at the temple like God marching orders. I'm still a Jew. And the marching order gets very specific. You need to leave Jerusalem, not stand here and evangelize Jerusalem. You need to leave Jerusalem because they're not ready to hear it.
Right. Yeah. So verse 19, so I said, well, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another, I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen, your witness, was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. It's like his counter-argument to God.
Right, right. And 21, and he said to me, Well, go, go, for I'll send you far away to the Gentiles.
Okay, this is Paul, the Uber Jew, Mr. Jew, saying, God told me. Go to the Gentiles. Go to the Gentiles. Deliberately sidestep the Jews for now.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. And your ministry is not in Jerusalem and it's not among the Jews. I mean, He's already been dealing with so much right here, seeing Jesus on the road, and now he's being told this guy who is so well equipped academically to use his apologetics to prove that Jesus is the Messiah, wouldn't you do that in Jerusalem?
And in fact, he could.
However, what God is saying is, what you don't know, Paul, you do know you're equipping, but what you don't know is the receptivity of their hearts. Right, right. You don't know that, and they're not ready to hear that stuff.
Well, and no one was ever intellectually argued into belief in Jesus. Yeah. But you would think a guy who went from being a persecutor of the Christian to now being a believer in Jesus, who knows so much, he knows the culture in Jerusalem, he knows the law. You think he'd be perfectly equipped to be. But again, it's not a matter of being ill-equipped, it's a matter of their hearts not being ready.
That's the deal.
So, I'm going to send you far away to the Gentiles, not just down the road to the Gentiles, which they could think is Samaria, but no, far away. You're going far away. Yeah. But it is really interesting in the story here, because remember, Paul is standing on the stairs, surrounded by Roman soldiers, and the crowd has been quiet listening to him up to this point. Until he mentions being sent to the Gentiles.
The G-word. Look what happens in verse 22. I might mention it's that Gentile word that really inflames them. Inflames them again. That's the big one.
Well, because remember, he was in this condition, right, being protected by the Roman police because the mob had accused him of bringing Gentiles into the temple. Gentiles into the temple. Right. So, and he has just said, Hey, this is my assignment from God to go to the Gentiles. And so, it's like he's validating their accusation.
And, like I read last time, the sign says this is a capital punishment. This will cost you your life. You can die.
So, when he actually says, Well, guess what? God has opened the promise of his grace to the Gentile world, it's like they just blows their minds. Yeah, you know, it's interesting, though. God had always had his eye on the Gentiles. Oh, yeah.
From the very early days of Israel, he had said to them, You are my people in order to make my name known to the world. Right, right. To the Gentiles. Yeah. Okay.
So let's pick it up in verse 22. Up to this word, they listened to him. Up to here. Then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. Yeah.
And they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air. Boy, they are ready for a lynching. Yeah. And I'm sure the Roman guy in charge, who has thought this would bring some peace to the mob, thought they were doing pretty good up till verse 22. This is going okay.
This is going okay. But he used the Gentile word and now it's gotten really worried. He's probably at this point that he's probably thinking, this tribune is thinking, maybe this was all a mistake. Yeah. Yeah.
Because it gets really crazy here.
So verse 22, or 24, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging to find out why they were shouting against him like this. Yeah. Well, examined by flogging. That's kind of a terrifying prospect. It can be lethal.
Yeah. It can be lethal. So, but what he's saying, clearly the Tribune is thinking, I'm not getting to the bottom of this. It looked like things are going well, and then something happened that I don't understand.
Well, it was the Gentile word. And now it's even worse than ever. I don't see what's going on. We'll take him inside. We'll bring him in private.
And we'll force him through the torture of the flogging. We will force him through a scourging to tell us exactly what's going on because clearly I'm missing it. As if he didn't already just tell him exactly what's going on.
Well, yeah, but he doesn't understand as a Roman citizen. He doesn't get why the Gentile word would be such a big deal.
So here's Paul again, just the voice of reason in the middle of a chaotic situation. Verse 25, but when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned? Yeah, excuse me. Yeah, can I say something to you here? When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, What are you about to do?
For this man is a Roman citizen. Yeah. So the tribune came and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? And he said, yes. The Tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum.
Paul said, But I am a citizen by birth.
So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, you think? And the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. Which is also illegal. That's right.
So there's lots of laws being broken here in everyone's zeal.
Well, and to Paul's credit, you know, he was warning them before they actually violated the law.
However, they already did by birth. They already did when he put the two chains on. But clearly, the retribution from Rome on a tribune or a centurion who does this against a Roman citizen, it could be death. I mean, this is really, this is a big, big deal. Everybody's necks are on the line.
Everyone's necks are on the lines. Yeah, yeah. So Paul springs on him. By the way, I like it again, how soft he does it. You know, is it lawful for you to flog a man who's a Roman citizen and uncondemned, like has not gone through a trial, no due process?
What do you think? Isn't that kind of what Roman law is? It's really interesting to me that there is no indication. Yeah. Anger or even surprise in Paul's responses here because he had been thoroughly warned by the Holy Spirit, by prophets, by friends, all the way along as he was approaching Jerusalem.
They're going to bind you, it's going to be awful. Yeah, yeah. You're destined for trouble. Yeah, and it's interesting, Paul seems so level-headed through all this, maybe because of all that pressure. Because he knows, but you know, this is this is uh this is news to the Tribune, and it says that the Tribune was afraid.
Yeah, he was afraid when he realized he was getting ready to violate Roman law and he could be taken out.
So, um, I find it interesting. Paul is a stalwart, you know, informed citizen who knows what's going down, warns the Tribune, don't get yourself in deeper hot water because after all, I'm a citizen. In fact, he tells the centurion first, the centurion is gobsmacked by the news.
So he goes and tells the tribune and says, you won't believe this. This guy says he's a citizen. And the tribune says, we'll find that out. This would make a good movie. And the tribune goes back and says, so are you a citizen?
So, you know, this is a really big deal. You do not mistreat Roman citizens. You can mistreat, you know, the people in the occupied areas all you want, but you cannot mistreat a Roman citizen. And it's an interesting distinction, too, because the Tribune says, I bought my citizenship. When he says bought, he really means bribed.
Because technically, you can't actually buy a citizenship, but you can bribe someone to give it to you. But since Paul inherited it, that means his father or his grandfather, being again not natives of Rome, did something, something of great, some valuable service is what they used to say. If you do something really great for Rome, Rome, they will award you citizenship.
So, his father, his grandfather probably did something really valuable to the Roman Empire. They were given, like, you know, you do a knight and you put a sword on their shoulders. They were given Roman citizenship, which is a big deal. And so, by birth, Paul just has it.
So, he has actually a huge notch above the tribune himself, who was an outsider who had to kind of bribe his way into it. Paul's saying, Look, I'm unnaturalized. I'm a Roman citizen naturally because of my family.
So, that really puts the fear, that really puts the fear in the future. But now, what do they do with him? Yeah, now what are they doing? Because now they're stuck. Yeah, yeah.
So, they're not going to flog him to get information. That's illegal. They're probably going to have to release him because you can't bind a Roman citizen and they don't want to release him into the crowd because it'll cause more disorder and chaos. That might kill him. And that might kill him, yeah.
So, so they're really stuck. You know, what do we do with this guy? We can't hold on to him. We can't bind him. We can't flog him to find out what's really going on.
What do we do?
So on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he, the tribune, unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them. Oh, that's interesting.
Now, that's as far as we're going to go today, right? And doesn't this strike a familiar tone with what happened to Jesus as well? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, because, and it says right here, because he, he, he, he wanted to find out what the real reason was.
He still is clueless about this. Right. So I'll take him back to the local religious leaders. They'll be able to figure out what the real reason is why Paul is causing so much disorder. Again, the tribune's only interest is order, and he's figuring his best shot at this now is not letting Paul make another presentation, but we'll take it to the religious leaders.
They can unwind this. Surely they can figure this out.
Well, and he'll command them to meet in their own way, but be there to observe. Right. Right. And in the next chapter, we're going to see exactly how that unfolded because they let it go farther than I probably would have. Yeah.
Yeah. But he's determined. This tribune is determined to understand why they are so desperately angry and want to kill Paul. And he doesn't get it. And I'll point out too here from this point in which Paul was brought into the barracks background, what is it, verse 24 right here, from this point on in the rest of the entire book of Acts.
Yeah. Paul is in custody from here to the rest of the end of the book. He's literally not free. And you would say to yourself, well, gosh, that's too bad because he had such great ministry tours through Asia Minor and stuff like that.
Now he's going to be bound up. That's really going to restrict the gospel, right?
Well, it's funny because the people he's going to be talking before are Romans, people in authority. Yes. And didn't we just hear Ananias told him at the very beginning that Jesus said to Ananias, He's going to be my appointed servant to speak before Gentiles, Gentiles and kings, and the sons of Israel. And the sons of Israel. Yeah.
So, yeah. And this is his ticket to that. This being bound up. That's his ticket to it. And it's also his protection in a funny kind of way because the Romans, like they protected him on the steps of the temple, he was allowed to speak very frankly, very boldly about who Jesus is.
Now, even as he goes in the Sanhedrin, the council, there's some danger, but not a whole lot. But still, Still, he's kind of in a kind of protective custody from here until the end of the book of Acts. And you'll see that protective custody actually click in big gears near the end of the book, in fact. It's really astonishing the degrees to which the Roman Empire went to protect Paul from the antagonistic attacks from the Jews. It's fascinating.
So read ahead. Yeah. So God uses the Romans to preserve the propagation of the gospel in Paul. And now his audience isn't just people attending Jerusalem for Pentecost.
Now his audience is people of great power, great influence, and great ability in order to protect him in his further stuff. Yeah. I might also point out, too, it says, you know, he brought them to the Sanhedrin.
Now, the Sanhedrin, we've talked about before, that's the word for the, it's kind of like the Jewish Congress or the Jewish parliament. The Sanhedrin was the ruling body of Jerusalem. But their credentials were religious to do this. And so they literally did rule the area kind of under the Romans. And the Romans basically said you can do anything you want to as long as you keep the peace.
According to religious law. They were in control of religious law. But if you fail to keep order here with this authority we've given to you, we will step in.
Now, that threat of stepping in on top of the religious Sanhedrin comes, it's already come into gear a couple of times already and will continue to. But the only thing Rome asks is, you govern yourselves, but you keep the peace. You keep order right here.
So they're going to be watching over what goes on. And I might mention the Sanhedrin are the guys who also vote on what you do next. And if later on, when Paul tells this story again in chapter 26, he'll say, That at the time the persecutions were going on, when I was going off to Damascus and trying to drag people back and kill them, you know, when we would have votes, he said, he says in chapter 26 about voting on the deaths of people, he says, I was one of the people voting on that.
So that tells us that he was actually part of the Sanhedrin back in that day.
So now he's being brought in front of the same people that he used to rub shoulders with in the same capacity he was when he was persecuting the church. And now he's the one being dragged in front of the Sanhedrin, not people like Stephen and other folks like that.
So this is some years later, so it's hard to say whether any of the same people were in power. But he would have been known to them. Yes, very much so. As an insider, and now a whole lot of people. As essentially a traitor.
Yeah, yeah. So he's going back to familiar faces in some cases, maybe some younger faces, but he's being brought to them because the tribune says. I can't figure this out. I don't know what to do. Yeah.
I have to keep order, and this is my best shot now: to let these guys take care of it and untangle it. Yeah. Wow. So that's as far as we're going today. And so we're going to get another speech by Paul.
And some real action among the Sanhedrin in the next week.
So I would encourage you to read ahead if you want to know exactly what he says here and how it turns out. Yeah. And this is going to be Paul's mode of operation from here to the end. Since he's in custody, he's going to be dragged in front of more and more different people of higher status, higher and higher and higher status, until in the end of the book of Acts, plot spoiler, he gets hauled to the highest authority possible. He's off to Caesar.
Yeah, he appeals to Caesar. He appeals to Caesar.
So yeah, this is the way it goes from here on out where now he has an audience, a deliberate, forced audience by the hand of God in front of the rulers of not only the Jews, but also the Romans, and with an attempt to actually do it in front of the ruler of the entire world, Caesar.
So Paul is going down the path God told him, get up and go and do this, and you will be before Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel. And here he is. He's going on.
So the next time you go into what looks like a downturn in your life, Life equivalent to Paul being arrested and put in custody, right? You know, and threatened with flogging and stuff like that. The next time a downturn happens, don't say, Well, this is, you know, this is really a downturn in God's plans for what He's trying to do. You have to realize that God's more clever than that. And so, all the downturns in life God uses in remarkably positive ways.
You just can't see far enough down the road to figure it out. But it's not like he went to sleep and he's not watching my circumstances and he doesn't care what I'm going through. No, even in the worst of circumstances, God ends up creating tremendous good. And you know, when I tell that to people who are in the midst of the horrible downturn, like Paul being arrested, in the midst of the horrible downturn, I said, like, for instance, let me give you one gigantic example. It was a train wreck, you would think, when they arrested Jesus and crucified and died.
Was that a good thing in the end? Yeah, the biggest, most tremendous good for all mankind. If God can do it in that circumstance, then that's what he's planning to do in your circumstance.
So just remind yourself of that. Yeah. Thanks. Any closing comments? I just have enjoyed thinking about how Paul was responding to all the violence and threats that were around him.
And I do believe that it was because he had been warned. God had been gracious to him and warned him and prepared him and people he loved had sent him off and prayed.
So he was not ambushed by any of it. And he saw it all as an opportunity to speak the gospel. And so I guess I'm thinking about that more deeply than I had been before, just this time through Acts. Yeah, God's gracious. He does not have to explain to you what's coming up in your future.
And He doesn't tell it in much detail, but enough that as every page turns from here through the end of the book. Paul's probably thinking, well. This is what God said to me. This is what I came here for. And this is what it looks like.
So here we are.
So get up and go and just be faithful in the circumstance that God deliberately orchestrates for you to be in. And that's what He does. And we are the beneficiaries because we get to read what exactly He said to these big guys. And we read all that He wrote as He endured it and after He endured it. And so it has tremendous weight for us.
Yeah, so it's great stuff.
So I think we'll wrap this up. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And come back next time and let's see how things go in the Sanhedrin as he makes his case there here on Mornink. No.
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, so Paul has finally revealed his Roman citizenship. Yeah, what an effect that had, huh? Yeah, let's find out what happens next before the Sanhedrin.
Okay, we'll do it. That's good enough.
Okay.
This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
