When the Apostle Paul was called to stand before the Sanhedrin, the religious court of his day, it wasn't exactly a shining moment in his ministry, and today on Truth for Life we'll consider Paul's behavior, we'll learn why Christ's followers can be encouraged even on bad days as well as good days, even in the daily routines of life. Alistair Begg is teaching from Acts chapter 23. And the onlookers, verse 4, those who were standing near, immediately took the sight of the high priest.
Well, they had an agenda, didn't they? You dare to insult God's high priest? Wouldn't one of them say, Hey, what are you doing belting Paul on the mouth?
He hasn't done anything yet. All he said was, I have been fulfilling my duty to God with a clear conscience. And then verse 5, it gets even more troublesome, Paul replied, Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest. Which raises the question, why didn't he know he was the high priest?
Now, once again, the commentaries are pretty useless. A number say that his statement here is ironic, that he's making an ironic response to what has taken place. In other words, what he's saying is, I didn't think that a man who could give such an order could be the high priest. I wondered if maybe the high priest was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, which was my great contribution to the discussion. So, you know, maybe he had his street clothes on, or sometimes his day off, and you expect that… But that couldn't be either, because of this whitewashed wall, because I think probably the whitewashed wall is a reference to the white robes of the high priest as well, and that he's tying things together. John Stott, for whom we're all grateful in what we do, says, when we take what we know of the dimness of his sight and the problems that he had with his sight—referenced in Galatians 6, see with what big letters I write to you—and his reference to, These people cared about me so much they would have taken their very eyes out and given them to me. Stott, he says, it is a most likely explanation that his response is to be found in his poor eyesight.
In this case, you whitewashed wall may not have been such a reference to hypocrisy as an uncouth allusion to a white-robed figure across the court whom Paul could only dimly perceive. So he stands before the signhedron, he makes his opening statement, somebody says, strike him on the mouth. He looks across, and he sees the source of the statement. Someone says, strike him on the mouth. And as he looks across—and those of you who have very poor eyesight will understand this—I have people walk past me all the time, and they tell me that it's their eyesight, which I hope is true, not just to, you know, bolster up my miserable ego, but I have had people literally walk past me, and because their contact lenses are out, because I'm in a different situation, they just walk right past me.
I said, hey, hey! And they turn around and say, oh, I didn't realize it was you. Now, I find that hard to believe, given my eyesight.
But for those of you who are whatever that sight is, you know that can take place. Is that you, honey? Oh!
I didn't realize it was the high priest. That's the best I can do with it. I don't know.
I don't know. The hostility, secondly and quickly. There is not only the hostility that he encounters, but there is the disunity that he engenders. In what follows, it isn't simply that he exposes the division that is there between the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
That would be one thing. But it is clear that by his introduction of the theme of the resurrection, which really was not on the table for discussion, the accusation against him was that he was opposing the law of God, he was opposing the people of God, he was opposing the temple of God. That was the context of accusation. Now, having failed in his initial attempt to give a credible defense of his position—that's been vetoed by a smack on the mouth—it seems obvious that he changes his tactics.
And he introduces a subject which he recognizes will create further division in the group. Because the Sadducees had no concept of the resurrection, did not believe in it, had very little to say about it at all. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection at the last day. And once again, seeking to underscore his Jewish roots and his background, he takes the side of the Pharisee. Now, that is entirely legitimate.
It was absolutely true. He says, I'm a Pharisee, I was a Pharisee, I am the son of a Pharisee. And in so doing, he puts the cat among the pigeons. He sets them all at odds with one another.
And the impact of his words is immediate. Now, we don't need to tease this out, but look at verse 7. When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Luke, very kindly, in his parenthetical statement in verse 8, explains for those of us who don't know why this would be the case. The Sadducees were Sadducee because they did not believe in the resurrection. That's the way we learned it from Sunday school. Verse 9, there was a great uproar.
Some of the Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. And the dispute, verse 10, became so violent that, once again, our poor old friend, the commander, he says, you know, boys, go get him again. We're going to have to bring him in.
I think they're going to tear him apart if we leave him out there. What does he think he's doing? Well, what did he think he was doing?
Well, let's just go to our last point. The hostility that he encounters is clear. The disunity that I'm suggesting the text suggests he engenders does not merely expose but is responsible for in large measure is then more than matched by the security he enjoys. The uproar, the violence, the vigorous arguing over these details, which were important details, resulted in his being once again brought back into the barracks.
So the first dimension of his security was the security that was provided for him physically by the intervention of these troops. So that, once again, Paul could sit down in his cell or in his place of captivity and thank God that he was once again a prisoner. Thank you, God, for the Roman authorities putting me in prison again.
And I know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him. I know I'm in jail again, but you know what? At least I'm intact.
If they'd left me out there, I might have been ripped to bits. I thank you for the security of this place tonight, Lord. I thank you that I can at least rest secure in the captivity that is being provided for me. But that security, of course, only covered his physical well-being. And as we know, our physical well-being in the security of that is not that much, really. Because where do most of our insecurities lie? For a time it may be related to our physical being, but many times our insecurities and our deep uncertainties lie within the realm of our minds, within the realm of our emotions, within the realm of our spirits. So that is why we can be in the most physically wonderful environment in the security that a world would say, My, look at that lovely place!
It must be nice to have that lovely room to drive in that superconveyance. But of course, you and I both know that that kind of physical external security is unable to take care of the deep-seated and rooted anxieties and fearfulness and disappointments and despairs that are all part and parcel of our lives. And I would wager this morning that most people who are listening to me now are saying to themselves, Oh, yes, I get this part. I understand this part entirely. I have never been in the context of having a beating.
I actually haven't been struck on the mouth. I am not very much aware of that. But now this notion of security begins to ring a bell for me. Now, again, I don't want to do a disservice to Paul, but this is the way my mind has gone, and I might as well share it with you.
I don't argue for its rightness. Do you agree with me in any measure at all that when Paul, taken back into the security of the barracks, would have laid his head down on his bed for the night, that he would have inevitably reflected upon the day? Unless he was dog-tired and fell immediately asleep. Well, let's say he did, and he wakened up, and it was part of the 3 a.m. group.
Let's allow that he went to sleep and slept the sleep of the just, and at three o'clock with the rest of us, he was awake. And in that tossing, turning hour or so, he said to himself, rubbing his hand across his swollen lip, You know, this is nothing compared to the sting that I feel in my conscience. Why did I have to speak so quickly?
I mean, I know better than that. Why did I shout out like that? Why did I just go immediately? Why the knee-jerk reaction, he says to himself?
Why immediately? God'll strike you, you whitewashed wah! Was it right, he says to himself, for me to react in that way, to accuse him in that way of hypocrisy? And then as he reflects upon the animosity that broke out between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, now his mind starts to go, and he says to himself, You know, I was taking the easy way out when I introduced the resurrection, because I knew that that would set them at odds with one another, and in many ways, it'd get the monkey off my back. Suddenly I was able, skillfully, strategically, and at the same time, honestly—because ultimately you would have to argue that his conviction about the resurrection was what established the uniqueness of his new position in Jesus, which he wasn't deviating from at all—but nevertheless, it was a very skillful use of the material, wasn't it? And as he tossed and turned on his bed, he said to himself, You know, I did that.
I set them at odds with one another. And then he said to himself, And what about, my friend, the commander? What is the commander making of all of this? Is this helping the commander to know the truth of Jesus?
Is this helping these troops to understand what it means to know that Jesus is alive and transforms a life? Then he said, You know, I think I'm going to write a few things down in my journal right now while I'm awake, because after all, I'm not getting to sleep in any case. And so he wrote, Oh, what a wretched man I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? The good I want to do, I don't do it.
And the bad I don't want to do, I do it. And then in his mind he hears his voice, saying, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day. And then the accusing voice, Yes, that got you to this day, but what about today? He takes his pen again, and he says, I want to know Christ. I want to know the power of his resurrection. I want to share the fellowship of his suffering. Don't let me, Lord, be the man who thinks he stands and falls down on his face. Lord Jesus Christ, knowing what you know about me, will you help me to fight the fight, to run the race, to finish the course?
Today, Lord Jesus, has not been a very good day. During the week, in reading—just quite arbitrarily, because I saw it and I started to read it, and then I read it through—reading Thomas Watson's Body of Divinity on the Believer's Privilege at Death, he was talking about all the wonderful things that will be no more when we die. And one of them, he references, is relief from sin. And then he makes these couple of statements regarding sin, which were a tremendous help to me and I hope may be to you as well as we draw this to a close. He writes, "'Sin adheres to us. We cannot get rid of it.
It may be compared to a wild fig tree growing on a wall, the roots of which are pulled up, but some fibers of it are left in the joints of the stonework which cannot be got out. Sin mingles our duties and graces. It makes a child of God weary of his life, makes him water his couch with his tears, to think that sin is so strong a party. And he often offends the God he loves. This made Paul cry out, Miser, ego, homo, O wretched man that I am!
He did not cry out for his affliction or his prison chain. He cried out for the body of sin.'" How wonderful, then, that the record closes with the arrival of Jesus. Verse 11, The following night the LORD stood near Paul. How gracious is Jesus! Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus! Vast, unmeasurless, boundless, free, like a mighty ocean, coming to cover our sins, coming to meet us where we are, coming on our good days, coming on our bad days, coming with our fat mouths, coming with our closed mouths, coming when we've made a royal hash of it. And the LORD came and stood by him and said, Take courage, we're not finished yet.
Jerusalem's one thing, but Rome's still in the future. I haven't done with you, Paul. Violence, hostility, outbursts, regrets, disappointments—in all things God works. In all things God works. Because be honest, dear ones, to the extent that there is any accuracy in the observation of the very ordinariness of Paul the apostle. Let's allow for a moment that my observation is irrelevant.
Well, forget him for now. Think about the ordinariness of your own life. Think about the way you've dealt with things this last week. Think of how easy it has been for us to speak out or to remain silent or to react in some way that just makes clear the fact that like the fig tree sinews in the masonry, sin still seeps into our psyche and still spills from our actions and our words. What do we need? We need Jesus. We need Jesus to come and speak into our lives. And does he come? Yes, he comes. There's not a friend like the lowly Jesus.
No, not one. Jesus knows all about our troubles. All of our troubles. He knows us exactly as we are and loves us just the same. It is his amazing grace. I found myself finishing my studies this week saying, But do you know, some of these people are going to say, Oh, well, that was okay for Paul.
Jesus came and met with him in his cell, and he doesn't come and meet with us in that way today, and it would be so much easier for us if he would show up and meet with us. Well, just at that, I'd come across a little book—rediscovered a little book lying on my floor in one of my rooms. I'd noted it when it appeared because it bore the name of one of my best friend's wives—her maiden name. And it is a book on communion that was given to her when she took communion for the first time in her local Anglican church, 1943, the fourteenth of March, as it turns out. And somehow or another, I liked this wee book, and I just happened to pick it up. And as I picked it up, I began to browse it.
And as I began to browse it, I said, Oh, here's the close to the study. And although we do not share communion now, let me give you this. The thought is that Jesus came personally to him, right? And we say, Well, he comes to us in his Word and by his Spirit, but is there any tangible way in which he expresses himself to us?
And this is the bishop of Durham of an earlier year, Henley Mow, writing this little book. And this is what he says, When you take the bread and the wine, what shall you think? What shall you believe? The bread is in itself just bread still, the wine is just wine. But because the Lord has told you to take them in remembrance of him, and because you who take them humbly believe in him, therefore that simple bread, that small draught of wine, speaks straight from him to you. They are like the very sound of his voice, saying, All is true, all is yours. It is no dream that I died for you and that you are saved by me.
Any more than your eating and drinking is a dream. They are like the very grasp of his hand, taking hold of your hand and meaning. We are one, says Jesus, poor believing sinner. I have joined you, I have clasped you to myself, as surely as you touch and taste that bread and wine.
So surely you who believe in me are one with me. Father, help us to become students of the Bible beyond thirty-plus minutes on a Sunday. Help us to be like the church at Berea, examining the Scriptures, to see if what we're told is true.
Help us as sensible people to think the issues out. Thank you for this morning's study. Thank you for the extraordinary way in which you choose to use very ordinary people. Thank you that when we've done our best and it hasn't been very good, or when we've done our worst and feel that we're absolutely finished, that you, the risen Christ, come, and as surely as you met with Paul there in that room, so you meet with us in the Scriptures, in the breaking of bread. And so, when our souls are weary and troubled, when it's hard for us to see light in the pathway, help us to rest again on the depth of your love for us, that we might turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth may grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. For we ask it in his name, commending one another into your loving care.
Amen. God is always working out his purposes in and through his people. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Our current study of Paul's final mission trip gives us a glimpse into his missionary work. And if you'd like to know more about Paul from his birth to his death, the book we're recommending today will take you on an in-depth journey through Paul's life story. It's called An Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul, His Life, Ministry, and Missionary Journeys. And in addition to learning about Paul from scripture, this is a book that explores the religious, cultural, political, and social climate in the first century Roman world in which Paul lived. You'll be able to visualize the places Paul visited by looking at colorful maps and beautiful photographs that trace Paul's travels.
You'll consider the timeline of his ministry and the letters that he wrote. The Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul will help you learn more about this key figure in our faith and will help you gain a deeper understanding of how God used him in such a remarkable way to spread the gospel and establish the early church. You'll find this book to be a useful companion, something to have on hand anytime you're studying one of Paul's letters.
The maps and the historical information give you context to each passage and make Paul's story and the gospel come to life. Ask for a copy of An Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul when you donate today to support the ministry of Truth for Life. You can go to truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. And if you'd rather mail your donation along with your request for the book, write to Truth for Life at P.O.
Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio 44139. Thanks for studying the Bible with us today. Tomorrow we'll learn to view the drama of world history through the lens of God's perfect plan and purpose. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
