 Good morning everyone. Welcome to today's class. Let's pray and get started. Could one of us go ahead and lead in prayer that we will pick up from where we had stopped in the last class? That's great. Lord Jesus, we want to thank you for this time. Lord, we come before your presence this morning. We ask the Lord that you would speak to us. Help us to know your word. We submit this entire session into your hands and ask for God that you would minister. Help all of us to pay attention and to understand from your word, God. Help us man see to share your word, God. We praise your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, John. Let's get back to where we were earlier. We were talking about the third missionary journey and how Paul was coming to the end of that missionary journey. How he returned to Jerusalem despite the many warnings that he received that chains await him once he reaches Jerusalem. He comes up to Jerusalem and over there the elders of the church tell him that he now has an image among the Jews and he is an upholder of the traditions of Judaism. Though he is a Christian, he did not do anything which let down the Jews. He wanted to make this right and so the elders gave him an idea to go to the temple and pay his respects to give some offerings or purification. There was a particular custom of purification to engage in that and there were some men whom they sent along with Paul. So we talked about how he went to the temple in order to complete this obligation and while he was at the temple he was misunderstood because some of the Jews they noticed that he had an acquaintance who was from Ephesus and so they assumed that he was bringing an Asian into the temple or a non-Jew into the temple which caused them to be offended about Paul and we saw how the whole uproar began and in the context of the Roman Empire it was not good for any state or region to be out of order because then the main authorities would come and they would kind of take over and so to avoid that situation you have a commander who steps in who comes to seize Paul and take him into the barracks but in the meantime you know Paul wants to explain himself and because he is able to speak in the Hebrew language he was accepted by the onlookers and the listeners he goes ahead and narrates he starts to talk about himself and at one point where he makes a comment about the Gentiles the whole crowd is upset because they had that rivalry between themselves and the Gentiles and so at that point Paul has to be taken away by the commander and we saw how once he was taken by the commander he explains that he is a Roman citizen that's where we were and it was pretty hard those days to get the citizenship of Rome and the commander was amazed that this individual could be a Roman citizen because in the times that Paul lived in either you could be born as a Roman citizen or you would have to pay a hefty amount in order to purchase your citizenship and so when you know Paul said that how can you treat me like this and a Roman citizen we stopped somewhere around verse 25 of chapter 22 where Paul said to the centurion who stood by is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned so for a Roman they had to follow the procedures which they were not actually doing at that time so the commander asks him he says okay he doesn't ask him but he kind of tells the others around him because he is the centurion and the soldiers under him are the ones who are keeping Paul he says take care what you do for this man as Roman again this particular situation could become worse because they had they are beginning to understand that they are probably mistreating a Roman citizen so the commander himself seems like he was not from Rome and he had purchased his own citizenship so in verse 28 he says with a large sum I obtained the citizenship but Paul clarifies he says I was born a citizen so this is the point where we had kind of stopped and the next day we see that Paul is brought before the Sanhedrin and there is a lot of confusion among the people of the Sanhedrin in order to kind of take a call on Paul and let's see how this whole interrogation proceeds and from the Sanhedrin and the authorities where do they actually take Paul so now we have to understand or review how the Sanhedrin is going to deal with this man Paul so that's where we are at the beginning of chapter 23 from here we see that Paul will go under the hands of several gentile commanders or people in authority we would see that after this council he will be transported to another place where they would say that let him undergo the trial over there and there will be the gentile authorities who will question Paul so we will initially see one particular person handle Paul's case he delays the case in expectation of a bride and after which another person comes in and Paul has to redo his explanation all over again but even that person does not really give him a fair hearing and at that time we would see the visit of Herod Herod would come by as well so when Paul is under trial he will be under rulers and under kings and eventually you don't really see any conclusion to Paul's matter and this point that he is a Roman citizen he makes use of that particular status of his for his own advantage and what he does is he asks to himself go to Rome so towards the end of the book of Acts we will find that Paul will actually travel to Rome and he would want to make a defence for himself so that is how things are going to proceed from here so I am just giving you just what you can expect in the upcoming chapters so we will read on some portions are worth stopping at and explaining further but then the narration of what is going to take place that we can go over very quickly and I have given you a summary already so you know where this is headed so right now Paul is before the council and seems like there is no one to speak for Paul he has to speak for himself but it's really nice again to look at the life of Paul and see the kind of integrity that he lived in that he very boldly could defend himself he very boldly could speak for himself there was no lawyer on his behalf or no leader on his behalf and yet Paul strongly could argue even with the authorities so the beginning of chapter 23 where we notice that he is standing before the council and he speaks to them and he says man and brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day so we can just stop right there and think about Paul's life and his position before God what does it take for someone to say that I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day so that's really great one of us could stand up and say that towards the end of our lives that would mean that we've been able to fulfill God's purpose in God's way and we've been able to glorify God in all that we have done so that is Paul's testimony he's standing before the authorities and he's saying I've lived in all good conscience before God until this day and that's such a bold statement while he's going under trial so as this comment comes from Paul we may expect the authorities to appreciate it but there is someone by the name of Ananias now don't get confused there is more than one Ananias more than one James right so you would notice similar names more than one Simon so we need to be careful about who we are talking about so this Ananias is the high priest and the high priest was so offended now we can see that though he's the high priest he's really not displaying any sense of humility the moment he hears this from Paul he asks or rather he commands somebody who's standing next to Paul to strike him on the mouth so such a rude gesture or such a gesture to display the kind of authority that the high priest had so that itself shows how he took Paul's comment he despised it he rejected it and he looked down on Paul for making a comment like that maybe the high priest thought how dare you you are soon to be convicted and how could you stand before the authorities the council and say that you are innocent while we are still here interrogating you so the high priest never liked it he asked the person who's standing next to him to strike Paul on the mouth so Paul is going through a lot of persecution he's succeeded he was taken to the paracts he is now brought before the council and can you imagine when he's still non-condemned that's exactly what he said in the previous chapter I'm a Roman citizen, I'm uncondemned how can you treat me like this they are slapping him or striking him on the face I don't know if he thought of the times that Jesus went through such humiliation and persecution so that's where Paul is standing and you know Paul also got angry because of his gesture and he kind of gets back at the council member here he says God will strike you whitewashed wall for you sit to judge me according to the law and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law so he just gets upset that those who are supposed to uphold the law are doing their own thing and justice is nowhere to be seen so when he makes this statement the people around him remind him that he's actually talking to the high priest and Paul's response you know this is the same Paul who said pray for those who are in authority or those who are in authority so he immediately repents in verse 5 he says I did not know that he was the high priest for it is written you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people so Paul immediately repents of what he had done and after which God gives him the wisdom actually sort of deal with this very scary circumstances before the council anything can happen to him right now but he realizes that there were some Sadducees and other Pharisees in the audience and so what he does is he cries out to the council and he says brother I am a Pharisee the son of a Pharisee concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged so when he makes this statement what do you expect when there are Sadducees and Pharisees anyone what can we expect it's a very smart move that much I'll tell you read through his statement carefully in verse 6 of chapter 23 what are the Sadducees in verse 6 Paul just says it's the Pharisees and the Sadducees who were against him so to make a prediction he just says I am a son of a Pharisee so that's what I feel like it's happening over here Paul says how is it going to help him what did the Sadducees believe anyone they don't believe in resurrection exactly they don't believe in resurrection and Paul is here noticing that the audience has both of these people with both of these beliefs one such that doesn't believe in resurrection the Pharisees will believe in resurrection now he is standing before them and he is he is projecting or he is sort of making this identity of his as a Pharisee very real so then it becomes there's a question there for the Pharisees will you protect this man who believes what you believe and there is a question for the Sadducees which is he doesn't he believes in resurrection and therefore he has to be condemned what stops us from condemning him so the Sadducees would like to condemn him Pharisees would now feel like defending him so within the council there are dissentions disagreements because of this matter of resurrection which works as an advantage for Paul so as soon as he says this think about resurrection come on what did I do I was only preaching concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead and you know I am being judged for that and immediately within the council they started arguing and you know they were like now it becomes a question of who is right who is wrong and the Pharisees began to protest and say we find no evil in this man but if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him he does not fight against God so he kind of gets the sympathy of the Pharisees while at the same time the Sadducees are now opposing the Pharisees so when the council is in such a state where you have the authorities fighting how would you ever reach a conclusion so then they decide it is best now for us to get this prisoner out of sight because any harm could take place let's put him back in the prison and let's deal with the situation later so he escaped that particular session by bringing up this matter about resurrection now what else once he escaped you will find that there are many dangers against his life and you know it really got grace that protects him each time so he is in the prison but there is another set of people who are waiting to kill Paul and they are so very passionate about this they are fasting in order to kill Paul and that's how strongly they want him dead okay so let's just read about this group of people we have a description about them from verse 11 to verse 22 and it's self explanatory so if someone can read that we would see what exactly is going on outside of the council verse 11 but the following night the Lord stood by him and said be a good cheer Paul for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem so you must also bear witness at Rome should I continue and when it was day some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul now there were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy they came to the chief priests and elders and said we have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul now you therefore go with the council suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him but we are ready to kill him before he comes near so when Paul sister son sister son heard of the ambush he went and entered the barracks and told Paul then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said take this young man to the commander for he has something to tell him so he took him and brought him to the commander and said Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you he has something to say to you then the commander took him by the hand went aside and asked privately what is it that you have to tell me and he said the Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire more fully about him but do not yield to them for more than 40 of them lie in wait for him men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him and now they are ready waiting for the promise from you so the commander let the young man depart and commanded him tell no one that you have revealed these things to me verse 23 and he called for two centurions saying prepare 200 soldiers 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night and provide mounts to set Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor he wrote a letter in the following manner Claudius Lesaias to the most excellent governor Felix Gretius this man was seized by the Jews and was bought and was about to be killed by them coming with the troops I rescued him having learned that he was a Roman and when I wanted to know the reason they accused him I brought him before the council I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law but had nothing charged against him deserving to death deserving of death or chains and when it was told to me that the Jews lain wait for the man I sent him immediately to you and also commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against him farewell then the soldiers as they were commanded took Paul and brought him by night to and depart Patrisse the next day they left the horsemen to go on with him and returned to the barracks when they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to the governor they also presented Paul to him and when the governor had read it he asked what province he was from and when he understood that he was from Sili Siam he said I will hear you when you have come and he commanded him to be kept in his own petroleum thank you Rosalind you read a very long passage actually and we could see how things were unfolding in Paul's life it's quite self-explanatory as we have seen so there was this a set of people who were willing to last until Paul was killed and this plot was identified by Paul's sister's son and he brought this news to Paul and Paul sent him to the commander and you know once the commander took notice of this he also realized this is a threat to Paul's life and we must recall that the reason why they are so scared about being you know like if anything happens to Paul he is a Roman citizen and they would get into trouble and so that is why they had to do everything in their capacity to protect this man till he is actually condemned so the commander realizes that he has to protect Paul and in these circumstances we saw the plot the plot was something like Paul when he would go to the council they would kill him so that was the plan so the commander very wisely decides that it is best for Paul to go to a higher authority a governor by the name of Felix who is in Caesarea so he tries to transport Paul to this particular place we see how he does it he does it very safely so late in the night with many foot soldiers he kind of picks a particular route so that Paul is safe and he sends him to Felix and we saw the letter also that he has written so Claudius realizes he says I am writing to you most excellent Felix greetings and then he goes about explaining Paul so how does he define Paul he just says we found him we seized him from the Jews because they were going to kill him please note that he is also a Roman citizen and so far there have been some matters regarding the law for which he is accused but you know there is nothing that we found which says that he deserves now it is best that you interrogate this matter and so he hands over Paul to Felix and we notice here that when Paul comes to this place Felix says okay I will look into this issue but let your accusers also your accusers also come so that is where we are going to stop let's move on to chapter 24 so now the accusers have to come and make their claims Felix will listen to the accusers and if Paul has something to say he would also listen to Paul and come to the conclusion of what it is that this man has done that there is such an uproar against him so we are at chapter 24 here where Felix has to give a fair hearing now who is the person who would you know want to speak against Paul we find that Ananayas the High Priest the person who got offended in the Sanhedrin in the council he comes to Caesarea to accuse Paul so he comes down with his elders and also looks like those days they had a speaker with them in today's context it's something like a lawyer someone who will speak, who will argue the case so there was a speaker in the text it says an orator by the name of Turtleist so they all came in order to present the case against Paul that he was not for the Jews that he was for the Gentiles all kinds of other accusations that they wanted to bring against him so they come and this particular person Turtleist the speaker begins to speak so he does his oratory you know how they usually do it they start with a lot of flattery of the person in authority so that's how the orator speaks here at verse 2 of chapter 24 he says seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity is being brought to this nation by your foresight so you notice there's a lot of flowery language and flattery before they can actually get into the matter so verse 3 we accept it always and in all places most noble feelings all thankfulness ok now he slowly comes down to the actual matter over here right so let's see what what he states about Paul so verse 4 nevertheless not to be tedious to you any further I beg you to hear by your courtesy a few words from us for we have found this man a plague creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world and the leader of the sect of the Nazarens he even tried to profane the temple and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law but the commander Lysius came by and with great violence took him out of our hands commanding his accusers to come to you by examining him yourself you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him and the Jews also assented maintaining that these things were so so as you can notice the orator in his complicated language he kind of puts across a phrase followed by a list of accusations what are these accusations he says this man is a troublemaker he is a creator of dissension or a lot of confusion among the Jews throughout the world so you see how there is exaggeration as part of what is being spoken because what is the reason that they accused him with in Jerusalem when he was caught that he brought a gentile isn't it he brought a gentile into the temple and he defiled the temple that was the single accusation based on which people started quarrelling and everything happened but now somehow accusations have piled up so it's more than him bringing a gentile into the temple they are stating all kinds of things that he is a troublemaker he has created a lot of quarrels among the Jews then he profaned the temple and we were ready we were ready to actually judge him but it's because of this commander Lysius he violently brought him to you now you please listen to whatever we have to say and pass a judgment on this man Paul so what would be fair on Felix's part at this point Felix he is a gentile authority he needs to listen to both sides so he is heard you know Ananias the high priest his side of the story because it's as if the Jews are so offended now and Paul is that primary reason Felix has to give a conclusion to this matter Felix has to listen to Paul so he gives him a chance then Paul from verse 10 after the governor had nodded to him to speak outside so now Felix is looking at Paul saying ok what is your defence these are the matters that they are accusing you with so then now Paul starts to speak notice nobody to speak for him but one good thing is he is a scholarly man I'm sure he would understand the context and give a good defence for himself regarding the points of accusation so Paul speaks he says in as much as I know that you have been for many years a judge of this nation I do the more sharefully answer for myself because you may ascertain that it is no more than 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship and they neither found me in the temple disputing with anyone nor inciting the crowd either in the synagogues or in the city nor can they prove the things of which they now accuse me but this I confess to you so basically discarded their claims of them calling him a troublemaker but he's saying but one thing I do confess of what is that one thing from verse 14 I confess to you that according to the way remember that talk the way is Christians according to the way which they call a sect so I worship the God of my fathers believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets I have hope in God which they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and the unjust this being so I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men so he is talking about his faith in God he's talking about you know somewhere he's saying that there are it's not like I've gone away from them creating trouble it's not like that this we believe in this in the same God like the God of the Jews is the God that I believe it and then he goes on to explain you know regarding a resurrection and all of that but he definitely states the way which means that he has moved on from Judaism to believing in Jesus Christ and he's now apart or he is a believer in Jesus Christ and apart from the faith of his he also states regarding his way of life where he justifies and says that he lives a life of integrity a life which is right for God so actually three things he says that he has nothing to do with their accusations about him being a trouble maker secondly he confesses that yes I believe in Jesus Christ I believe in resurrection of the dead and he also says that my life I'm living according to this newfound faith which I have so that is his defense to what was stated and raised him yeah and then he goes on to describe how he came up to the temple and you know he was just paying his honors while he created this whole confusion and the uproar happened and you know all those matters so he explains what transpired right now because the ball is in Felix's court he needs to make a decision whether the Jews who have come along with Ananias are correct or Paul is correct okay what decision is Felix going to make now let's observe what kind of personality this man Felix has now he might have understood that the matters that the Jews are worried about are matters regarding basically there's a dispute regarding keeping of the law but it's not like Paul is some criminal who has hurt people or caused harm it's not like that if it was like that it's clear cut but this particular issue is regarding keeping of the law right so Felix can take a call and he can say look I don't find anything wrong in this let's let him go he could have said that or he could have said alright you know Paul you may choose with the Jews and explain yourself to them apologize okay matter closed but you will find that Felix doesn't take a call okay now is that part of his personality or what is it it's kind of strange but he sits on the matter so which becomes very very you know like frustrating for everyone involved especially Paul so from us ready to we notice that you know Felix doesn't do anything but when Felix hurt these things having more accurate knowledge of the way he adjoined the proceedings and said when Lysias the commander comes down I will make a decision on your case okay so what is he doing it's very unfortunate you know sometimes these things happen even in our circles today where no decision is the decision and you know time is just passing by and now another excuse Felix just says okay to make a decision how about we wait for the commander to come whenever the commander comes let's take a call on this matter so with that he stopped it and so he commanded the century to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and told him not to forbid any of his friends to provide for or visit him so there's a little bit of freedom that Paul is enjoying but at the same time no conclusion then again after some days Felix comes this time he brings his wife Drusila who was Jewish so maybe there was a little bit of interest from Felix's side where he wants to know what is Paul all about what is this whole Jewish tradition all about so there is a curiosity also so does he simply want to learn more about Paul's beliefs while Paul is in his custody maybe that was his intention but overall he is not providing clarity to this matter so he brings his wife Drusila who's Jewish and he calls Paul and you know what would Paul do every given opportunity knowing Paul he will preach the gospel so when Drusila comes you know he has this opportunity to go ahead and preach Christ so Paul preached Christ to Felix and Drusila as well and he spoke to both of them regarding righteousness, self-control and judgment right and he clarifies what this whole gospel is all about now again when you look at the response of Felix it's kind of funny but Paul's case he didn't provide any conclusion now after hearing what do you call after hearing the gospel at least for that we would hope that you know he would give his life to Christ or he would deny it or something some clear decision he would make same indecision he doesn't really make a decision now there's a little bit of the background of Felix and his wife Drusila it is said that this woman was the sister of Herod Agrippa II and Bernice mentioned in chapter 25 this person Bernice will also be mentioned you know they she once again she was the sister of King Agrippa II and Bernice who will be talked about later in chapter 25 but what we have to notice is this man Felix what he had done is he had actually seduced this particular lady Drusila away from her husband and made her his wife so there is a moral you know like a moral issue as far as his relationship with Drusila is concerned so we can also understand here that when Paul preached the gospel and when Luke writes it he's actually saying that Paul preached the gospel but he talked regarding the matter of righteousness self control judgment to come now come on you tell me you know would these things have created fear in Felix of course because he was at the wrong this woman Drusila is actually not married in the right way to him she somebody else's wife but he has taken her and when Paul was talking about God and about Jesus Christ and all that he would have been in a place of guilt like he would have recognized his mistakes now it's always wonderful when our sense of guilt and shame actually leads us to God and we give our lives to God but unfortunately this man Felix he seems to be I mean he's like sitting on the fence for everything here he doesn't make a decision what he does is look at this verse 25 how sad he says to Paul go away now when I have a convenient time I will call for you so this is not at all a nice response as far as the gospel is concerned see Christ died for us our sins are forgiven so whenever we read about salvation we read like even in the book of Hebrews today is the day of salvation ok so salvation and the gospel is for right now but when people treat it lightly casually and say I mean how could he say ok you come back later at a convenient time when is this convenient time you know who knows about like you know human life whether people will be around or not not be around the next moment we don't know but when people take the gospel casually it's very unfortunate and Felix is doing that about the gospel he tells Paul you go now at a convenient time I will call for you we will again listen to what you have to say and he just dismisses him but Luke clarifies later on maybe there was one other intention that Felix had to brag the case what was that he was expecting Paul to give him money to settle the case because actually there was nothing wrong from Paul's side and if Paul were to give him money Felix would have thought when Paul gives me money let's close the case so he's not saying it but it's like an unsaid expectation like come on Paul passed like give me the money we'll settle the case right that's what he had in his heart he was hoping for that it will never happen can you believe it you know Paul was sitting there in the prison for 2 years and what happened is what happens in some of the government scenarios the governor changed so till Felix left Paul was sitting there so the next person who comes in is Festus so let's take a break now and we'll go on to chapter 25 after the break thank you