 Paul looking earnestly at the council said men in brethren I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day The high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth Paul said to him God will strike you you whitewashed wall. I Like I like Paul For you sit to judge me 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? 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 Paul is undergoing as we enter into chapter 23 Paul is undergoing incredible persecution and rejection Paul has been viewed as a traitor and He is also seen as one who is undermining the religion of Israel He is especially being rejected and hated because he claims to have been sent by God to the Gentiles Now that was his calling He is what is called the Apostle to the Gentiles or the Apostle to the Gentile nations remember that Jesus had told Ananias when when Ananias was being told to pray for Paul in Acts 9 15 The Lord had said to him go for he speaking of Paul is a chosen vessel of mine To bear my name before Gentiles kings and the children of Israel So he was a man who was called to bear the name of Christ before the Gentile nations from the beginning Later when when Paul would would be writing letters. He would speak of this calling In letters that he wrote to churches Romans 11 13. He said For I speak to you Gentiles in as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles in first Timothy chapter 2 verse 7 And he says I was appointed a preacher and an apostle I'm speaking the truth in Christ and not lying a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth And so he was called to minister specifically to the Gentiles Now incidentally it is always good to have a sense of a calling you need to know Where you're supposed to be If you're going to be used of the Lord The Lord has a way of leading you to where he would have you I can still remember This particular fellowship this church was actually begun in a bible study in Pomona Transferred into the city of Ontario and ultimately ended up here And what you do is you seek the Lord step by step What do you want us to do and where would you have us to go and it's a very important thing For us to know where God wants us to be and Paul knew where God wanted him to be And so when he was when he stated that that he had been called to minister to Gentiles The immediate reaction of the Jews who were listening to him was outrage Remember in chapter 22, I'll show you this if you'd like to turn there for just a moment in chapter 22 Of the book of Acts remember how In verse 21 through 23 That Paul was speaking and he says concerning Jesus He said to me depart for I will send you far from here to the Gentiles So he made that statement but verse 22 they listened to him until this word Then they raised their voices and said away was such a fellow from the earth where he's not fit to live They cried out tore out their clothes through dust into the air. They were excited about that. Weren't they they really were supportive of that He was called to minister to the Gentiles So as we've been going through the passages prior to chapter 23 There was a commander who saw what had happened and when he saw what was happening in all He he actually ordered Paul to be tortured in order to be able to gain some insight into why these people were reacting this way But as a roman we saw that Paul could not legally undergo that kind of treatment and was granted the opportunity to defend himself And so as we enter this chapter Paul is continuing his defense that he began in chapter 22 verse 30. He is now before the jewish high court that is called the sanhedrin And so he says in verse 1 again Paul looking earnestly at the council So this they're there before him. He's presenting himself to them And I want you to notice and it's just a brief note But it says he looked earnestly Now the word earnestly could describe his sincerity It could it could describe his readiness to speak to them, but it could also Mean that he's looking earnestly for someone he might recognize and we're going to see in just a moment That that takes place And so as this is taking place and he's looking at them earnestly he says verse 1 again men and brethren I have lived in all good conscience before god until this day Now When he says that I have lived in good conscience Until this day that could include prior to coming to faith in christ that he could live in good conscience Even though he was not yet saved And the reason he would be able to do that is because he had the motivation to please the lord Before he was saved Even before he was saved he was pursuing the knowledge of god He says in galatians 114 I advanced in judiism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation Being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers So he was one who was pressing forward. He was very zealous for the faith that he had received The jewish faith and when he was writing in philippines in chapter 3 verses 4 through 7 He said though. I also might have confidence in the flesh if anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh I'm more so Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of israel the tribe of benjamin A hebra of the hebrus concerning the law of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the church Concerning the righteousness, which is in the law Blameless, but what things were gained to me these I have counted loss for christ So he could say I I had a clean conscience. I was doing the things that I thought I should do He believed what he was doing was right and that means that his conscience could be clean Before his conversion He persecuted the church and he believed that god approved of that So that shows us something very practically that shows us that a conscience can be clean But a person can still be in sin Just because your conscience doesn't accuse you And it might even excuse you it doesn't mean that you're right He wasn't right in persecuting the church But he had nothing to say about it. He didn't have any way of accusing himself again. That shows that a conscience can be clean There are people who will who will argue that their conscience is clean. They'll say, yeah, I stole but I needed something Right They'll say, yeah, I was involved in a riot, but we did so for justice's sake Um, yeah, I told a lie But that was because I was afraid Somebody might say, yeah, I haven't been faithful to my wife or my husband But I just need love and the conscience doesn't accuse them at all They don't have one It doesn't bother them at all There are people who have gone out and done horrible things They've killed kids for a jacket or tennis shoes and and um when the police finally arrive and do arrest them They're asleep in their bed. They're there. There's they haven't got a worry at all They're not concerned about what they did their conscience doesn't bother them because they've already argued themselves into a clean conscience A conscience makes judgment based on the highest standards of moral conduct perceived by the individual But if a person is not biblically informed or rejects what the scriptures say they can have a clean conscience But still be in sin Because they're rejecting conviction and they live by their own moral code Again since his conversion he had served god with the clean conscience and now he's able to minister properly In the grace of god Now even when your conscience has been cleansed It's still possible to feel condemned Perhaps that is something some of us in this room need to know today Even when your conscience has been cleansed you can still accuse yourself of things There's a scripture I want to give you that you might want to mark down first john 3 verse 20 If our heart condemns us god is greater than our heart. He knows all things Because there are times your heart will condemn you You may wake up in the morning and remember some sinful thing that you've done in the past And you forget that you've been washed by the blood of christ And your conscience accuses you There are times that you may have been walking with the lord for a year two years three years or so long But Somebody will say well, you're still the same person used to be you haven't changed at all and you can begin to ask yourself Is that true? And your heart can condemn you but god is greater than your heart In jeremiah 17 9 and 10 Jeremiah writes the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it I the lord searched the heart I test the mind Even to give every man according to his ways According to the fruit of his doing The heart is deceitful. It's desperately wicked So in claiming he had been motivated in this way The court is now being put on the defensive You see if he's been led by god to preach jesus christ, then they're opposing the lord So as he says this Again in verse one I've lived in all good conscience before god until this day The high priest ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him On the mouth Paul said to him god will strike you you whitewash wall For you sit to judge me according to the law and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law? Well They struck him, but that was contrary to the jewish law. That's what paul's speaking about now The way they're treating him Places him in good company Because they did the same kind of thing to our messiah. They did it to jesus remember in John 18 verses 19 through 23 How the high priest asked jesus about his disciples and his doctrine And jesus answered him said i spoke openly to the world I always taught in synagogues and in the temple where the jews always meet and in secret i have said nothing Well, why do you ask me ask those who heard me what i said to them? Indeed they know what i said and when he had said these things one of the officers who stood by Struck jesus with a palm of his hand saying do you answer the high priest like that? Jesus answered him if i've spoken evil bear witness of the evil, but if well, why do you strike me? So paul is getting treated similarly to the way that lord jesus christ was treated So they struck him that was contrary to the jewish law notice verse three his response god will strike you You whitewashed wall the the term whitewashed wall is another way of referring to him at them as a hypocrite Jesus used that term concerning whitewashed tombs You you are beautiful on the outside, but inside you are corrupt and so he's he's saying you're just whitewashed But in reality you're a hypocrite Now why would paul react in such a way because jewish regulations Regulated that kind of action in deuteronomy 25 the old testament verses one and two It says if there's a dispute between men and they come to court the judges may judge them And they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked Then it shall be if the wicked man deserves to be beaten That the judge will cause him to lie down be beaten in his presence according to his guilt Certain number of blows he was not guilty It was a charge, but there was nothing that proved that he was guilty So what paul is is he's angry? Yes, he's righteously indignant at their hypocrisy Now When it says verse four do you revile god's high priest verse five paul said i didn't know Rather than that he was a high priest. That's an interesting thing because There really wasn't a high priest at that time any longer on face of the earth Because jesus christ is the high priest You see in the book of hebrus chapter four verse 14 It says seeing then that we have a great high priest Who has passed through the heavens jesus the son of god let us hope pass our confession And so there was no longer a legitimate high priest And thus this man is not a legitimate high priest because jesus christ himself is But they're asking do you revile him and he says i didn't know that now There are other nuances to this One is as mentioned jesus is the rightful high priest ananias is not Um some say that paul was saying well, how would i know who he was because his behavior is deplorable But then again The office is no longer held by a man and thus paul was correct in saying i didn't know he's the high priest Indeed he isn't because jesus is Now as this is taking place verse six when paul perceived that one part was sagacious season the other 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 said this a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the sagacies The assembly was divided For sagacies say that there is no resurrection no angel or spirit the Pharisees confessed both There arose a loud outcry and the scribes of the Pharisees party arose and protested saying We find no evil in this man if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him Let us not fight against god and so that's part of that earnestly looking He actually saw some and perceived that some of them were like he a Pharisee and then you had the sagacies You see that was this resurrection the question of the resurrection Was a dispute that was between two religious parties during the day of christ You had several religious parties when you read the bible you'll see them There are some that are are well known and others that are not The the Pharisees and the sagacies were the major religious parties You had parties like the herodians and you had the zealots and all but those are minor What you had are two majors and the two majors Were the scribe rather the Pharisees and the sagacies Now when you look into history and it's kind of muddled in some ways and it depends on What source you're using to try and determine these things You'll see that the sagacies Were actually a group of jews who had been influenced by greek thinking And as they had been influenced by the greek thinking they began to deny certain things That the Pharisees who were the separated ones more conservative held fast to and and some of the things that the The sagacies did not believe in was not only the resurrection, but they didn't believe in an angel or spirit either now They would say that We only hold fast to the writings of moses And the first five books of the bible the writings of moses Are what we use as authoritative scripture And they would say That there is no mention of an afterlife found in the writings of moses. That was the common argument At that time now some of you might remember when we were in matthew Matthew 22 There was something that took place When the sagacies came to argue with jesus himself about resurrection And they had given him a story about A woman who had been married to several brothers and in the resurrection whose wife Will she be seeing that she had married all these brothers you remember that story And that's where jesus corrected them in matthew 22 31 and 32 Concerning the resurrection of the dead Have you not read what was spoken to you by god? Saying I am the god of abraham the god of isek and the god of jacob God is not the god of the dead but of the living In other words when jesus answered that he is quoting out of genesis and he was saying to them and he says that in various other places He was saying to them Um, he didn't say I was the god Because they're now dead and thus He said I am the god Of these men and thus they're still alive. That's the whole point. He's making There is such a thing as the resurrection of the dead And their problem is is they're denying that and yes you find that in the writings of moses We need to remember and i'll say this briefly that the resurrection of jesus christ is a cardinal doctrine of christian truth If you don't believe in the resurrection of jesus christ the bodily resurrection of jesus christ you're not a christian It's a cardinal cardinal doctrine In first Corinthians 15 3 and 4 i delivered to you first of all that which i also received That christ died for our sins according to the scriptures And that he was buried and that he arose again the third day According to the scriptures and so the resurrection is central to our belief So he points that out the Pharisees believed in the resurrection the Sadducees did not And perceiving that that was a divided group He called out the fact that he's a Pharisee and the question related to the resurrection and the result was a loud cry verse 9 A loud outcry the scribes and the Pharisees party Scribes other Pharisees party arose and protested saying we find no evil in this man Notice if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against god Now that's an interesting thing that you might not know you might not notice Notice how they said it if a spirit or angel spoke to him Now that would be a reference to jesus speaking to him on the road to damascus They didn't acknowledge that jesus was speaking, but they said an angel may have spoken to him Well, that causes a great dissension verse 10 There arose a great dissension the commander fearing less paul might be pulled to pieces by them Commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him Into the barracks and so once again he has to be rescued from his own people But the following night the lord stood by him and said Be of good cheer paul For as you have testified for me in jesuslam So you must also bear witness at rom Here's a little Tidbit for us if you hear something I can't imagine what paul must have been feeling at this time. He got his opportunity to share He wanted to declare the goodness of the lord before the sanhedrin so that these leaders might know That jesus christ is alive and that he's been anointed to preach a gospel message that they needed to receive And then when they got so upset and began to become violent and all it could be extremely Discouraging and so one of the things that I picked up in this that I want to share for just a moment is this god Graciously comforts his discouraged servants. He has a way of doing that He comforts us and that's what he's doing here be of good cheer paul For as you have testified for me in jesuslam. So you must also bear witness at rom I know that you want to go there and I know that you want to minister there that will take place In psalm 40 verse 1 the psalmist said it like this. He said I waited patiently for the lord And he inclined to me and heard my cry Don't grow discouraged Don't ever grow discouraged. Don't don't think that the lord doesn't hear you when you cried. Yeah, he does He does now some of you some of you right now Perhaps you you that that may not minister to you because maybe you're not in a place Yet or haven't been in a very severe place yet where you begin to wonder whether god's listening, but for others I'm certain that you've been there. There are some in this room that you have been there where you cry out And it seems that your prayers just hit the ceiling and fall back down to the floor useless Now god hears your god hears your prayer god hears your voice and god has a perfect timing god knows exactly How to answer those prayers and he knows exactly the best way to do it in the right time to do it So when you're in the in the will of the lord One of the things that gives you great comfort is the knowledge that my god hears my voice His ears open into my cry. He hears the voice of the cry of the righteous I'm made righteous through christ and thus when I pray to him according to his will I can trust in him that he will hear me and and so the lord is there speaking to this discouraged saint and he's saying Don't don't be concerned. Be a good share You as you have testified for me in Jerusalem. You must also bear witness at Rome Verse 12 and when it was days 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 That's a very kind group of people now There 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 and so This oath that they bound themselves under is what is called a sacred promise And because they bound themselves by this oath they were obligated to fulfill it In numbers 30 verse 2 It says if a man vows a vow to the lord or swears an oath to bind himself by some agreement He shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth And so they made this binding oath paul had not committed a crime worthy of death But they decided they're going to assassinate him And there was a a group of 40 of them that had made a choice to do that Now verse 15 Now you therefore together with the council Suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow As though you're going to make further inquiries concerning him But we are ready to kill him before he comes near So when paul's sister's son paul's nephew Heard of their ambush He went and entered the barracks and told paul paul called one of the centurions to him and said take this young man to the commander Or 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 Commander took him by the hand went aside and asked privately. What is it that you have to tell me? 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 Do not yield to them for more than 40 of them lie and 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 And so this is the only mention of a relative of the apostle paul specifically and it's a nephew He somehow comes into a Knowledge of this particular plot And he goes and Shares it, you know secrets are not easily kept amongst so many people and he got wind of it and brought the news to paul now One aside it may be that he has come to faith in christ through the ministry of paul But it isn't specifically stated but he did come to his aid and as you see he he reveals the plot to the commander Verse 23 and he called for two centurions a centurion is a commander over 100 men saying prepare 200 soldiers 70 horsemen 200 spearmen go to caesarea at the third hour at nine nine p.m And provide mounts to set paul on on and bring him safely to felix who's the governor as well as a cat Oh wait, i'm sorry I just have to do that And so what does he do? He writes a letter verse 25 having He wrote a letter in the following manner claudius lisius To the most excellent governor felix meow I'm sorry i'm tired Greetings This man was seized by the jews 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 their council i found out That he was accused concerning questions of their law But had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains and When it was told me that the jews lay in wait for the man I sent him immediately to you and also commanded his accusers To stay before you that charges against him Farewell, and so in a nutshell as you read that that's that's a good synopsis of what took place We've been reading through and we've seen what took place But i want you to know one little thing about this in verse 27 it says Coming with the troops i rescued him having learned that he was a roman and that's not exactly how it took place remember How it had actually taken place He didn't learn that uh that paul was a roman until after he had been taken into custody And that only came after he had he had ordered that paul be scourged In order to get information from him and that's when paul said is it lawful for you To to scourge us a roman citizen who has not yet been charged That's how he found out that he was a roman and the only reason i'm bringing this out to you Is because we have a tendency of making ourselves look good And that's what he's doing here. He's covering up what he actually had done He was going to unlawfully scourge a roman citizen. That is not included in the letter He just makes it kind of appear that he was being fair and all because he didn't want to get into any trouble himself So verse 31 then the soldiers As they were commanded took paul and brought him by night to ant patris That would have been if you're in the city jerusalem, you're going north to the west about 40 miles or so It's not on the coast but moving towards the coast there The next day they left the horsemen to go to go on with him and return to the barracks When they came to cesarean had delivered the letter to the governor. They also present 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 salicia He said i will hear you when your accusers also have come and he commanded him to be kept in hered's Cretorium and so they put him in a cell He was taken up to a place called ant patris Then he moved him up another 24 miles or so up to the coast up into cesarean And that's where he was and that's where he's staying and so He's placed now in a temporary cell and he's awaiting Trial before felix. He's going to be meeting with him and sharing with them And we'll be seeing that when we get into chapter 24