Acts 23

Paul’s time before the ruling Jewish religious council did not start out all that well. He simply stated that He had lived his life “in all good conscience up to this day.” In other words, He was not a person who had a callous disregard for the Law of God, and He claimed that His behavior, even since becoming a part of the Christian Jews, was in accord with a true understanding of the Law. Apparently the high priest Ananias took exception to this remark, and instructed that Paul be hit on the mouth. Paul then called the high priest a “whitewashed wall.” He backed away from this remark when he found out who it was that had commanded this unjust beating. In any case, this was not a meeting of Paul’s supporters, or even a gathering of those who wanted to give a fair hearing to this arrested leader of the Christian Jews, this group that had grown so remarkably in Jerusalem since the time of Christ’s resurrection.

Yet it was not as if there was universal and monolithic agreement within the circles of the anti-Jesus Jewish leadership at this time. Paul was aware of this, and he used this understanding to change the dynamic here from a meeting where he seemed to stand alone, to a conflict between Pharisees and Sadducees, the familiar fault line that we have heard about from the gospels. In that division, Paul the Pharisee was in the company of others who believed in the resurrection of the dead. Paul changed the direction of the discussion through this assertion: “It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” This not only yielded the apostle a few more sympathetic ears, but it also brought the topic of the resurrection before the entire assembly. At some future date, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Sadducees would diminish in importance, and the major controversy in first century Judaism would be between the remaining Pharisaic Judaism that rejected Jesus as the Messiah and Christian Judaism. Paul had come from the former, but now he had been claimed by God for the latter.

The God who called Paul to be an apostle was the same Lord who spoke to Paul soon after this meeting. The word that came from Jesus was greatly encouraging. This man who had given a true witness about Jesus among the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem would also one day testify about Him in Rome, the capital of the empire. Yet it would take years of imprisonment and many other experiences before that word would be fulfilled.

God’s promise was that Paul would go to Rome, but men were hard at work to ensure that he would die a swift death before he had a chance to do or say anything more. More than forty men felt so strongly about this that they were willing to take a vow, fasting until they had killed Paul. At least some of the leaders of the Jewish council were aware of this plot and even had a part to play in the planned deception. Yet they would not achieve their goal. With overwhelming force, Paul was taken to Caesarea in the middle of the night, and handed over to Felix, a high civil official in the Roman province where these events were taking place. In this way the plot of some angry murderers was thwarted. Presumably they lived to eat another day.

A letter from the tribune, whose name was Lysias, gives us his assessment on the events that have transpired. From the days of Pilate forward, the spiritual controversies surrounding the Name of Jesus of Nazareth have been greatly perplexing to civil rulers. They have felt their own inability to judge these matters brought before them by those who had so much heat and so little light, men who only seemed determined to murder their religious enemies, straining any evidence they could discover or invent that might help to present their targets for murder as a great threat to society.

This Lysias had heard the interchange between Paul and the council, and had come to the conclusion that the argument between them was about “questions of their law,” meaning Jewish law, and that Paul had not done anything that would justify the death penalty or imprisonment according to Roman law. Nonetheless, because of the plot against Paul, the tribune had decided to send him to a higher official, Felix, a governor in Caesarea, where any true complaints could presumably be adjudicated. Paul would get to Rome eventually, but not first and foremost by the will or power of men.

This all has such a familiar sound to it. We have heard about it in the story of Old Testament Israel, and we know about it from every era of church history. It especially reminds us of what Jesus Himself faced, yet with one very important difference. Jesus was killed in Jerusalem. Pilate did not come to the rescue, sending him off to a better legal venue. What is the similarity then between what happened to our Savior and what happened to Paul? In both the case of our Lord and that of his apostle the will of the Almighty would be accomplished, whether through lawless men or in spite of them. The story of Paul has inspiring echoes throughout the centuries that follow. The One who gave His Son for us, continues to exercise His special providence over the affairs of the church, so that the Word of salvation through a Redeemer will be heard throughout the entire earth. As the atonement could not be stopped by the powers of men, neither shall the proclamation of that one sacrifice be kept from the ears of God’s elect.