Acts 22:30–23:10

Wonderful. Well, good afternoon. Good afternoon. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have some coffee, we get into the Lord's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2022, we'll go from Acts to Philemon. We are wrapping up Acts chapter 22, and we'll get into the first 10 chapters of 23. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into the Lord's Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for the blessing it is to be your people, to sit at your feet, to hear your word. We pray that we would follow after you.
We pray that we might know the power of the resurrection. and our risen Savior might reign in our lives. In Jesus' name, Amen. Here we are at Acts chapter 22, beginning at verse 30. One of those weird places, you know, the chapters and verses weren't added to the Bible until a lot later. And so this is one of those examples where it probably would have been better to break it off a verse earlier. Here we go, beginning at verse 30.
So the commander of the army has found out that Paul is a Roman citizen. He's afraid because he's already bound him. about to beat him and so he leaves him in prison for the night that's acceptable by Roman law but he needs to find out what is the charge actually against him so the commander calls together the Sanhedrin calls together the high priests and they need to talk about it well then Paul looking earnestly at the council said men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day." Paul opens it up, defending himself. He opens it up, trying to give his apology, trying to give his defense for himself. He has a clean conscience. He doesn't get much said, though. What happens right after this?
Verse 2, and the high priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall, for you sit to judge 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? 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.
But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other part Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. Concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged. And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For Sadducees, there is no resurrection, and no angel, and no spirit. But the Pharisees confessed both. Then there arose a loud cry, and the scribes of the Pharisees' party arose and protested, saying, We find no evil in this man, but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God. Now when there arose a great dissension, the commander, fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring them back into the barracks.
Well, what is going on in this story? We need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So, A, what is this about? Well, Paul is being examined by them.
He hasn't gotten more than a sentence out of his mouth. And a man who's standing there, it seems like he's never met him before, orders him to be struck in the mouth. So he's slapped in the face or slapped in the mouth. There's a specific sign saying, you're a liar. And in an outburst of anger, Paul rebukes him. You whitewashed wall.
And what does he say, for you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law? He's saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, remember the law. You are to be those who uphold righteousness. This is what Leviticus 19.18 says. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor.
And he hasn't had the testimony of one or two witnesses. There's nothing being said yet and already the high priest has struck him in the mouth. But Paul doesn't realize who he's talking to. And so someone next to him says, whoa, hey dude, you know who you're talking to?
And Paul rebukes himself. I love this part. Paul is, is being treated unjustly and yet he rebukes himself with God's word. He goes to Exodus chapter 22 verse 28 and he says, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. Paul knows now that he's seen this man before. Remember, Paul hasn't been in Jerusalem for a long time. And so Ananias is a new high priest, and here we find out that he doesn't know who he was. If he had, he wouldn't have said such a thing. kind of a model for the keeping of the fifth commandment, isn't it? Even when he's unjustly harmed, he rebukes himself because he has spoken this outburst of anger. Now, it might have been true. but it was an honoring to the authority over him.
And so Paul looks at the crowd and it seems like there might be a different way in which the people are dressed, something that marks them off because he's able to see that there's Pharisees in the group and that there's Sadducees in the group. And he says, I'm being judged for the resurrection of the dead. And then Paul gives us a little bit of theological information here. See the Sadducees were the priestly class. They were those who were put in place by the Romans.
They only held to the five books of Moses. They didn't accept the rest of the canon. And so because they couldn't find the resurrection in the canon, in the five books of Moses, they didn't believe it. But beyond that, Luke says they didn't even believe in spirits or angels.
And it's possible what he's talking about is this myth that the Jewish people around that time held. If you look at someplace like First Enoch, we get horrible things like this even in our culture today where people have this idea that if you die, your soul leaves your body and you become an angel. Have you seen cartoons like that? Well, that's an old myth. It comes even from places like First Enoch where people would think that if your spirit would leave your body and you might become an angel or some type of phantom or ghost or something like this. Again, myth, not right, but these are the types of things why the Sadducees would go and say, well, hold on, we're only going to hold to the five books of Moses. Both of these traditions have their faults, don't they?
But Paul is getting at the heart of the issue here. Yes, he's he's dividing the crowd. He's making it clear that the point at which they are debating is a point of of Jewish faith, which means he won't be condemned by a Roman law because it's the Jewish faith, not necessarily, you know, it's not talking about his breaking of a Roman law. But he is using this to divide the council. He's using this to split the two sides. And just in case we think he's disingenuous with this, remember passages like Acts chapter 15.
The resurrection is at the heart of the gospel. Because if Jesus Christ has not been raised from the dead, we above all men are most to be pitied. If Easter isn't true, if the grave still has his bones, then you and I are without hope and we've been duped. But it is because of the resurrection that he's on trial. If he had not seen the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ himself on the road to Damascus, he wouldn't be in this situation.
He'd still be a Pharisee. It was even his father. He says his father was a Pharisee. He's a son of a Pharisee. And so here's Paul. And he splits the council, and they're fighting, I mean they're viciously fighting. And eventually one of the scribes of the Pharisees gets up and what do they say?
We find no evil in this man, but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God. This idea that maybe Jesus is one of these spirits, maybe Jesus is one of these angels, right? They have this bad theology on the resurrection of Jesus.
But it gets Paul, God uses this and gets Paul out of Dodge for a time. The Roman commander comes in and he takes Paul out because, I mean, it's gotten to the point he's worried that Paul is going to get ripped apart, ripped to shreds. Well, so that's what's going on in this passage. We'll find out more. Paul's not just going to be released, but there's more that's going to happen from here on out. Why don't we ask ourselves, what's the best verse to summarize this? Well, in my Bible, I would underline His statement in verse 1, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.
Also, when he says, men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am being judged. That's where Paul wants to really narrow it down to, the hope of the resurrection. a mark of evangelicalism. Bebbington pointed this out in one of his seminal books. He talked about one of the marks of evangelicalism being crucio-centrism, right? We like to talk about the cross a lot, but we must not forget that three days later he rose again from the dead.
And that is my hope. And that is your hope. This is why he writes to the Thessalonians. Paul would later write to the Thessalonians and tell them, or he had already written it by this point, wrote, he wrote to the Thessalonians and he would told them, And what about those who die before Jesus comes back again?
We don't grieve like the rest of the world because we grieve with hope in the resurrection. Jesus is the firstborn of the resurrection. Jesus is our guarantee of the resurrection. Jesus is the one we look to and know that if he has been raised from the dead, we have We have assurance that we too will be raised from the dead.
This is what believers wait for. What benefit do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? While their bodies still being used, still being united to Christ will raise again. Is this your hope? Do you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead? Is that your hope? That he will also raise you from the dead and you will live with Christ forever?
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day and we thank you for the blessing it is to follow after you. We pray, Lord, that you would let us believe in the resurrection of the dead. And we look forward to that last great day when the firstborn from the dead will come back, when the trumpet will blow, when we'll see his glorious face return. Lord, we look forward to when you will make all things right again. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. May the Lord bless you today, and I'll see you later. Bye.
And thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.