Acts 23

¹ And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” ² And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. ³ 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?” ⁴ Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” ⁵ And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’” ⁶ Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” ⁷ And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. ⁹ Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” ¹⁰ 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 into the barracks. ¹¹ The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” ¹² 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. ¹³ There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. ¹⁴ They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ 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.” ¹⁶ Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” ¹⁸ 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.” ¹⁹ The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” ²⁰ And he said, “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. ²¹ But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.” ²² So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.” ²³ Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. ²⁴ Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” ²⁵ And he wrote a letter to this effect: ²⁶ “Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings. ²⁷ This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. ²⁸ And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. ²⁹ I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. ³⁰ And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.” ³¹ So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. ³² And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. ³³ When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. ³⁴ On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵ he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod’s praetorium.

Francis Chan is a well known Christian pastor, and understandably so. He has a true passion for the gospel as well as for the body of Christ and frequently communicates gospel truths in quite unique ways. For instance, in his book Crazy Love, Chan used a bag of potato chips to illustrate the tragedy of the lack of integrity in many Christians’ lives.

Recently I saw a bag of potato chips with a bold declaration splashed across the front: “Zero grams of trans fat.” I was glad to know that I wouldn’t be consuming trans fat, which research has shown is detrimental to my health. But then I flipped the bag over and read the ingredients list, which included things like “yellow #6” and other artificial colors, and partially hydrogenated oil (which is trans fat, just a small enough amount that they can legally call it “0 grams”). I thought it was incredibly ironic that these chips were being advertised in a way that makes me think they are not harmful yet were really full of empty calories, weird chemicals, and, ironically, trans fat.

It struck me that many Christians flash around their “no trans fat” label, trying to convince everyone they are healthy and good. Yet they have no substantive or healthful elements to their faith…Obviously, it’s not what you advertise that counts; it’s what you are really made of.[1]

Wow! That raises an interesting question: what are we really made of? You can usually tell what somebody is truly made of in times of great trial or testing. In those moments, we get to see if the label matches the reality. That was the case with Paul, anyway, as he stood before the Jewish high council to launch a defense of himself: his label matched his reality. His example in this episode (which really is just an explanation of his life) provides us with a model for how we too should live as followers of Jesus.

Live with such a fierce consistency that the charge of hypocrisy cannot stick.

Paul has already offered his apologia, his defense, before a larger crowd of the Jews. Now he is speaking to the religious authorities, indeed before the Jewish high priest himself, before whom he had been hauled.

¹ And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”

Notice, first, the intensity of Paul’s focus and defense. He looked at them, not away from them. He did not mumble. He was not afraid. He was prepared to say what he needed to say. However, what he said first is most troubling! “I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.”

Well.

What on earth can this mean? After all, Paul was keenly aware of his own sinfulness, even going so far as to call himself “the chief of sinners.” How, then, can he say with a straight face that he had lived his life…before God…in good conscience…up to this day?

This is one of those instances in which a consideration of the original language will help us tremendously.

A.T. Robertson notes that the Greek for the phrase “lived my life before God” is pepoliteumai toi theoi and that the verb pepoliteumai is an “old verb” that means “to manage [the] affairs of [a] city (polis) or state, to be a citizen, [to] behave as a citizen.” He then quotes a paraphrase of the verse from Rackham as, “He had lived as God’s citizen, as a member of God’s commonwealth.” Furthermore, the word “conscience” is suneidesis which literally means “joint-knowledge” and probably carries the meaning here of Paul having lived consistently with what he felt was true at each stage of his life, whether wrongly as a persecutor of the Church or rightly now as a follower of Jesus. Regardles, Robertson tells us, “the golden thread of consistency runs through, as a good citizen of God’s commonwealth.”[2]

What Paul is saying, then, is that when he was a Jew and persecuted the Church, he was in error, yes, but he was nonetheless living consistently with what he thought was true and with what he thought would most bring glory to God. Then, when he became a believer, he saw the error of his ways and became a follower and champion of Jesus. In the former instance, he was in error. In the latter instance, he was correct. But in neither instance did Paul act as a hypocrite.

He was not arguing for moral perfection. That indeed would have been an audacious and false thing for Paul to do. On the contrary, he was trying to say that he was the type of person that lived in fierce consistency with his principles, even if his principles were mistaken. Thus, he seemed to be saying, “You can look at me and tell me you think I’m in error, but I defy you to look at me and tell me that I’m a hypocrite, or that I lack integrity, or that I’m an opportunist, or that I ride whatever wave happens to be fashionable at the time.”

Paul was radically committed to what he felt was true. This meant that when he was in error, he was all in with his error! But when he was right, he was all in with the truth! What he did not lack was integrity, and, in that sense, Paul could say he had operated in good conscience before God throughout his life. That is, he was a man who believed what he believed and said what he thought was true and would continue to do so until such time as he was shown to be in error.

Our age, like Paul’s age, is sorely lacking in this type of stubborn consistency. In Umberto Eco’s novel, Focault’s Pendulum, Signor Salon makes the following comment to Casaubon:

Today, even among ideologies, there’s no consistency. There are times when I think of switching to narcotics. There, at least you can rely on a heroin pusher to push heroin.[3]

Ha! Well, he is right. You can count on drug pushers to push drugs. You can say (rightly) that they are in error, but the average drug pusher knows what he is about. Tragically, this cannot be said of large swathes of the Christian Church today. Os Guinness put it like this:

Anyone who wants to observe religion in the modern world and find the sort of belief that behaves would be advised to look at the cults rather than at Christians. What cult members believe may be bizarre, and the way they behave even worse, but to their credit there is a consistency between their belief and their behavior which is rare in the modern world.[4]

Church, live with such a fierce consistency that the charge of hypocrisy cannot stick. Paul did! He was right in what he asserted, even though, as we will see, his assertion was not well received.

² And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. ³ 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?” ⁴ Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” ⁵ And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’” ⁶ Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” ⁷ And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. ⁹ Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” ¹⁰ 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 into the barracks.

Paul deftly sized up the situation and played on the inter-party politics and theological conflicts between the Pharisees (who believed in a final resurrection of the dead) and Sadducees (who did not) to get the two sides to turn on each other. This conflict turned ugly and then violent, so Paul, once more, was saved by the soldiers who hauled him away from the riot.

Live with undaunted courage, knowing that the Lord Jesus stands beside you.

In addition to living with fierce consistency, this episode shows us that we should live with undaunted courage, knowing that the Lord Jesus stands beside us. After this tumultuous escape, something amazing happened to Paul in the night.

¹¹ The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

The wording here (“the Lord stood by him”) means that Jesus himself appeared to Paul. He not only appeared to him, he spoke words of profound comfort and courage to him: “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” Meaning, “Paul, I am with you, and I am not done with you. You have more to do in my service…but you will not do it alone.”

R.C. Sproul has pointed out something intriguing about the actual wording at this point in our text.

The English translation of Jesus’ words here doesn’t really grasp the force of what happened. First, it says that Jesus “stood by” him. That is weak. The Greek words indicate that Jesus came and in a sense overshadowed Paul. His presence was enormous. There was Paul cringing in his cell, and suddenly the risen Christ came and hovered over him and said, “Be of good cheer.” The Latin translation uses a word that is the foundation for the English word constancy. This was no glib “Cheer up!” Jesus was saying, “Paul, be constant. Be consistent. Stay with the ministry you have had through all these years, day in and day out.” That is a message we all need to hear. This is how Jesus encouraged His Apostle. If anybody had ever been constant in ministry from the day he was called, it was Paul; yet Jesus had come to him personally and shore him up.[5]

Yes, we all need to hear this challenge to constancy! Many, many years before Sproul’s observation, John Chrysostom asked a question about this text and then answered it.

Why didn’t [Jesus] appear to him before he fell into danger. Because, as always, it is in afflictions that God consoles. For then he appears more desirable, as he trains us even in the midst of dangers.[6]

Oh, Church! “As always, it is in afflictions that God consoles!” It is ok to need encouragement. Paul did! So do we! Live with undaunted courage, knowing that the Lord Jesus stands beside you.

Live unwaveringly as an agent of holy unrest in the midst of an age that is blind to the truth.

And Church, create trouble in this troubled world! Oh, I do not mean mere mischief or trouble for trouble’s sake. I mean, be an agent of sanctified agitation. Live unwaveringly as an agent of holy unrest in the midst of an age that is blind to the truth! See the agitation that seemed to follow Paul:

¹² 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. ¹³ There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. ¹⁴ They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ 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.” ¹⁶ Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” ¹⁸ 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.” ¹⁹ The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” ²⁰ And he said, “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. ²¹ But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.” ²² So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.” ²³ Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. ²⁴ Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” ²⁵ And he wrote a letter to this effect: ²⁶ “Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings. ²⁷ This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. ²⁸ And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. ²⁹ I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. ³⁰ And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.” ³¹ So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. ³² And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. ³³ When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. ³⁴ On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, ³⁵ he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod’s praetorium.

Say what you will about Paul, but he lived with such unbelievable fidelity to Christ and His gospel that the world could not be complacent around him. You have to be a particular kind of person to have more than forty folk vow not to eat or drink until they succeeded in murdering you! Paul was a sanctified trouble maker! French theologian Jacques Ellul once said, “Christians should be troublemakers, creators of uncertainty, agents of a dimension incompatible with society.”[7] Yes, and that dimension that is incompatible with society as it is currently ordered is the Kingdom of God!

Do you see? To be a faithful ambassador and representative of the Kingdom of God is to live in such conflict with the current world order that your mere presence is an agitation. Shane Clairborne has passed on some amazing and inspiring words about this critical dynamic.

[Kaj] Munk was an outspoken priest and playwright who uttered these prophetic words before he was killed, with his Bible next to him, by the Gestapo in January 1944…

What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer: “Faith, hope, and love”? That sounds beautiful. But I would say – courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature…we lack a holy rage – the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth…To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish…but never the chameleon.[8]

Ah, amen and amen, Church! Live unwaveringly as an agent of holy unrest in the midst of an age that is blind to the truth!

 

[1] Francis Chan, Crazy Love (Colorado Springs, CO: David Cook, 2008), p.93.

[2] A.T. Robertson, Acts. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Vol.III (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1930), p.398.

[3] Umberto Eco. Focault’s Pendulum. (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1989), p.315.

[4] Os Guinness. The Devil’s Gauntlet. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), p.13.

[5] Sproul, R.C. Acts (St. Andrews Expositional Commentary) (Location 5911-5920). Crossway Books. Kindle Edition.

[6] Francis Martin, ed. Acts. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament, vol.V. Thomas C. Oden, gen. ed. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), p.279.

[7] Quoted in Shane Clairborne, The Irresistible Revolution (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006), p.231.

[8] Shane Clairborne, p.294-295.