Participants: Jim & Mark Howard
Series Code: ABOTB
Program Code: ABOTB00023A
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00:22 Welcome to Books of the Book. I'm glad you have joined us here
00:24 for our study of the book of Acts. My name is Pastor Mark 00:28 Howard and I'm here with my co-host Pastor Jim Howard who is 00:31 also my brother, by the way. We have been plowing through the 00:36 book of Acts and learning some exciting things here. But before 00:39 we dive in today we want to start with a word of prayer, so 00:42 I want to invite our viewers to join us as we ask God to bless 00:46 our time in his word. Father in heaven, we thank you 00:49 for the guidance of your spirit and we ask for his guidance now 00:54 in our study today. We ask these things in Jesus' name, Amen. 00:58 Now our last time together and Jim you may recall as we were 01:02 studying through Acts, we were in chapter 21 and you were 01:07 sharing about some advice that James and the leading brethren 01:11 had given the Apostle Paul to make a concession with the 01:15 people, with some of the Jews because of some of the 01:19 complaints that had been leveled against him that he was 01:23 forbidding them to be able to circumcise their children, that 01:26 he was teaching against the law of Moses and rather than these 01:30 leaders standing in defense of the apostle, it's not like they 01:34 took sides with, at least openly with the complaints, but they 01:39 seemed to have some kind of sympathy with the complainers. 01:42 And they counseled Paul to go along with a ritual cleansing to 01:47 prove some of the allegations false. It almost seems that 01:51 they wanted to see if he would go through to see how on board 01:54 he was. You remember Paul had been a persecutor of the church 01:57 and I think that stuck with him all through his ministry to a 02:01 degree. We don't want to imply that the leaders in Jerusalem 02:04 were always making wrong decisions, but we do see here 02:07 that the council they gave him, or we will see in a moment, that 02:10 the counsel wasn't the greatest counsel. The purpose was to 02:16 smooth things over with the Jews to try to accommodate them 02:22 to make things better. But as we read on in verse 26 and onward 02:26 here it says that Paul took the men that they had counseled him 02:30 to take. The next day, having been purified with them, and 02:33 he entered the temple to announce the expiration of the 02:38 days of purification. And it goes on to say that when some 02:42 of the Jews from Asia saw him, they recognized him. They cried 02:47 out, in verse 28, Men of Israel, help. They go on to say this man 02:51 brought Greeks into the temple and defiled the temple, which he 02:55 had not done. But they make this accusation and immediately... 02:59 This is an example now again of the crowd being stirred up. 03:03 In this case, a false accusation this is the man who caused this 03:07 trouble. And immediately Paul is grabbed, he is dragged out. 03:12 In verse 31 it says, They were seeking to kill him. This was a 03:16 big tumult that was raised very quickly and the news traveled to 03:20 the commander of the Roman army, Claudius Lysius, who comes 03:25 running with his soldiers. Verse 32 says, He immediately took 03:29 soldiers and centurions, ran down to them and when they saw 03:32 the commander and the soldiers, that's the Jews, they stopped 03:35 beating Paul. So already they had taken him out, they didn't 03:38 just ask him to leave, they'd taken him out and began to beat 03:41 him and they were intending to beat him to death. So the 03:45 commander rescues Paul and it goes on to say that, in verse 03:49 35, that when they reached the stairs Paul had to be carried 03:53 by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. For the 03:56 multitude of people followed after crying, Away with him. 03:58 In other words, if they hadn't taken him physically, the 04:01 soldiers, and carried him out, he would have been torn to 04:04 pieces by the mob. So you look at the situation and 04:07 the leading brethren had thought that by Paul going through this 04:11 ritual cleansing, that the Jews would look at that and say, oh 04:15 look. But as soon as they saw him, before they even took note 04:19 of what he was doing they already were there to accuse him 04:23 and they had no openness really to what the Apostle Paul had to 04:28 say. That's right. And there's a 04:30 lesson in this for us. To make accommodations with the enemies 04:36 of the truth will never lead to a peaceful situation or for the 04:42 furtherance of the gospel of Christ. Let me put it this way, 04:47 it won't ever lead to a peaceful situation until the person who 04:51 is accommodating completely lays down their faith. So their 04:55 counsel did not help out in the situation. You know, the real 04:59 reason, Jim, was that these accusations about him saying 05:02 these things against the law or whatever were not the real 05:05 issue. The real issue were that people were convicted and they 05:08 were trying to silence the conviction by silencing the 05:10 messenger, not realizing that the true messenger was the Holy 05:15 Spirit and the God of heaven. So we come into verse 37 and 05:20 they're going to lead Paul into the barracks for his protection 05:24 and he has a little conversation with the commander here and asks 05:28 for an opportunity to speak to the Jews, which is granted here 05:32 in this situation. We see in verse 40, so when he had given 05:35 him permission, Paul stood on the stairs, so he's protected, 05:39 by the soldiers and in chapter 22 verse 1, it says, Brethren 05:42 and fathers, hear my defense before you now. And when they 05:46 heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept 05:49 all the more silent and he went on and began to tell them his 05:54 story. I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought 05:58 up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to 06:02 the strictness of our fathers' law and was zealous toward God 06:06 as you are this Way and I even persecuted this Way. So he 06:10 begins to tell them of his experience in binding up 06:14 believers and carting them off to prison and even consenting 06:17 to their death. He was saying I know where you guys are coming 06:20 from but I want to tell you something about the way in 06:23 which I followed. That's right. So he made it 06:26 clear that he comes from the same heritage and he spoke about 06:30 how he had been trained in the strictness of the law. 06:33 But something happened in verse 6. It says, Now it happened as 06:36 I journeyed and came near Damascus about noon suddenly a 06:40 great light from heaven shown around me. Then he begins to 06:44 recount this story; we've read it previously in Acts chapter 9 06:48 where the Lord speaks and says Saul, Saul, why are you 06:50 persecuting me. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. 06:54 And he continues telling the story of how then he was blinded 06:59 and he realized the he had been guilty ultimately. That it 07:04 wasn't these Christians who were in the wrong but it was he 07:08 and then Ananias, someone appointed by the Lord himself, 07:13 to go and talk to Paul and give him his sight back, hooked up 07:17 with him, gave him his sight back. He describes this whole 07:21 story. When he gets down to verse 17, he says, Now it 07:26 happened when I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the 07:30 temple that I was in a trance and saw him saying to me, Make 07:33 haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly for they will not 07:35 receive your testimony concerning me. So after the 07:38 conversion of Paul he explains how the Lord told him, You're 07:42 going to need to get out of Jerusalem because the Jews in 07:46 Jerusalem are not going to accept your testimony and he 07:50 goes on to say in verse 20, I'm sorry I'll start back in verse 07:54 19, So I said Lord, they know that in every synagogue I 07:58 imprisoned and beat those who believe on you and when the 08:02 blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by 08:06 consenting to his death and guarding the clothes of those 08:08 who were killing him. It's interesting that the Greek word 08:12 for martyr here is the same one translated witness in other 08:15 places. Your witness Stephen, your martyr. It says something 08:19 about what it means to witness. It's courage and fearlessness. 08:23 In verse 21, it says, Then he said to me depart, for I will 08:26 send you far from here to the Gentiles. The Apostle Paul 08:31 became the great apostle to the Gentiles. But when this particular portion of 08:37 his discourse came out of his lips, the response, the openness 08:41 that seemed to be there ended. And you'll pick that up in verse 08:45 22 where those who were listening were not very happy 08:47 about this part about going to the Gentiles. 08:50 That's right, but it's an important thing to note here 08:52 that Paul when he was converted was sent from Jerusalem and 08:56 this explains a little bit of his burden. He had never had 09:00 the opportunity to go and preach the gospel in Jerusalem and even 09:04 though he knew it was going to hard and it may cost him his 09:08 life, he wanted them to have that opportunity. The Lord Jesus 09:11 wanted him to have that opportunity in Jerusalem, but 09:14 when he mentioned the Gentiles, verse 22 says they listened to 09:17 him until this word and then they raised their voices and 09:20 said away with such a fella from the earth for he is not fit to 09:25 live. Then as they cried out and tore off their clothes and threw 09:29 dust into the air, the commander ordered him back into the 09:31 barracks, etc. I tried to picture this, Jim. I mean 09:34 they're tearing off their clothes and we saw the same 09:36 thing at the stoning of Stephen. They're laying aside their outer 09:39 garments to be a little more free to move and they began 09:42 throwing dust. I can't imagine more of a picture of just a 09:47 total uncontrolled madness, a demonic madness, that has taken 09:50 over these people, this mob mentality, and they are ready 09:54 once again to tear Paul in pieces and the soldiers have to 09:58 take him away. The commandeer now is curious because he's 10:02 wondering what kind of teaching or what did he do that called 10:06 forth all of this violence. It must have been something, 10:08 right? Paul is sitting here saying I've done nothing. 10:11 It must have been something and it says that they, the soldiers, 10:15 verse 24, The commander ordered him to be brought into the 10:19 barracks and said that he should be examined under scourging 10:23 so that they might know why they shouted so against him. He won't 10:27 tell us now, we'll beat him and then he'll tell us. 10:30 That was the mentality. So they bind Paul ready to scourge him 10:33 and Paul asks the question of the commander about whether 10:38 it's lawful to scourge a Roman citizen. And the commander is 10:42 surprised at this because he had to buy, which some people did, 10:46 Roman citizens had special privileges and rights, he had to 10:49 buy his citizenship. He says are you a Roman citizen? 10:52 Paul says that he is which he thinks he must be pulling his 10:55 leg. Well I obtained this citizenship with a large sum, he 10:59 says. What about you? And Paul says I was free born. Suddenly 11:03 things change. The Bible says in verse 29, Immediately those who 11:07 were about to examine him withdrew from him and the 11:09 commander was afraid after he found out he was a Roman because 11:14 he had bound him. It was unlawful to treat a Roman in 11:17 such a way without any kind of trial to determine his guilt. 11:21 So now the commander is nervous and Paul escapes the beating 11:25 this time as we move on in the story. 11:27 Well let's pick up on verse 30. It says that the next day 11:31 because he wanted to know for certain why he was accused by 11:35 the Jews, he released him from his bonds, commanded the chief 11:38 priests and all their counsel to appear and brought Paul down 11:42 and set him before them. Then in verse 1, 11:44 Then Paul looking earnestly at the 11:46 council said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good 11:50 conscience before God until this day. So the Apostle Paul 11:53 believes in all his heart that he has been doing exactly 11:57 what God called him to do. He has been actually living a more 12:00 pure experience based on what the law and the prophets said 12:04 than those who claimed that he was rejecting the law and the 12:07 prophets. In verse 2 it says, And the high priest Ananias 12:11 commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 12:15 Then Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed 12:19 wall, for you sit to judge me according to the law and do you 12:23 command me to be struck contrary to the law. That's some pretty 12:27 bold words. Well he's figuring he's probably 12:30 going to die anyway. That's exactly right. 12:33 It's interesting here: Ananias commands him to strike him and 12:37 Paul uses this term whitewashed wall. It reminds me of Jesus 12:41 when he spoke to the Pharisees and said they were like 12:44 whitewashed tombs. Outwardly they looked beautiful but inside 12:48 they were full of dead men's' bones. So here we see the 12:51 Apostle Paul using similar language. He's speaking about 12:54 the hypocrisy of Ananias. Here Ananias is bringing him before 13:00 him to arraign him for breaking the law and yet having him 13:04 struck contrary to law. Because remember here, the Apostle Paul 13:09 is here standing before the Sanhedrin. He was part of the 13:13 Sanhedrin. The Apostle Paul probably as he was looking out 13:17 at the Sanhedrin saw some faces that he still recognized from 13:21 when he himself served there. So he understood the law and Jewish 13:25 law was very clear that he was not allowed to be beaten until 13:29 getting a fair trial and a fair hearing. So he knew that Ananias 13:32 was actually acting contrary to the law under hypocrisy where 13:36 while here Paul was living in all good conscience. But then in 13:40 verse 4 it says, that those who stood by said, Do you revile 13:43 God's high priest. And Paul gives an interesting response 13:46 here in verse 5. Then Paul said, I did not know, brethren, that 13:50 he was the high priest. For it is written, you shall not speak 13:54 evil of a ruler of your people. So apparently we understand 14:00 whether it was tied to his blinding on the road to Damascus 14:05 or whatever it may have been, the Apostle Paul... 14:08 Or had the confusion of the trial and all the voices. 14:11 Right, but he had vision problems we understand and so it 14:14 could have been that he didn't recognize that it was Ananias 14:17 the high priest. It could have been, as you stated, that the 14:20 voice was coming from here or there and he didn't know exactly 14:23 who it was. We don't really know exactly why, but the Apostle 14:26 Paul apparently was not fully aware that this was the high 14:30 priest and then he actually quotes scripture to say I would 14:33 not have taken that road and I would not have spoken in that 14:37 way had I known that because it says, You shall not speak evil 14:41 of a ruler of your people. So this is a fascinating story but 14:45 before we continue, we're going to have to go to break. So stay 14:48 tuned and we'll be back in just a moment with Books of the Book. |
Revised 2014-12-17