Chapter 23
In verses 1-11 we have Paul before the Sanhedrin, an assassination plot in verses 12-15, and the deliverance of Paul from this assassination plot. Paul was not
only Satan’s number one target at the beginning of the Church Age (along with Peter and others) but at the same time the target of all religious organizations. And since religion is sponsored by Satan this is not surprising.
Verse 1 – Paul facing the Sanhedrin. “And Paul, earnestly beholding the council.” The word translated “beholding” is a)tinizw and it means to look someone right in the eye, to have a very clear conscience and a definite argument in your favour. When Paul stood up before the Sanhedrin he intended to defend himself on the basis of Jewish law. Now he cannot defend himself on the basis of Jewish law because he immediately discovers that the court is prejudiced. He is in the very same court that tried Stephen. On the basis of Jewish law Paul was innocent. The word “council” is simply the Greek word “Sanhedrin,” meaning the assembled council. This is now the aristocratic body with the high priest at the head, and they also double as a supreme court in the land. It came into existence at the time of Antiochus the Great, about 223 BC.
“Men and brethren” – the word “men” means men of nobility, and the word “brethren” indicates that he himself by his birth is a Jew, even though he is a Roman by nationality.
“I have lived” – the Greek word is politeuw and it means to be a citizen: “I have been a citizen of good conscience.” He says nothing at this point about his relationship to the Lord, about God’s call. These are going to come out later in Caesarea but these are courts conducted by the Romans, so he is changing his entire approach. As he stands there he intends to defend himself on the basis of citizenship. This is a perfect tense, which indicates that he has been a citizen in Jerusalem for many years and that as a Jew living in Jerusalem he has always conducted himself in accordance with the principles of the law as laid down by Moses. So he uses the words “good conscience.” The word “good” means good of intrinsic value; the word “conscience” indicates that he has understood. He understood divine institution #4 and as far as it is concerned he has never at any time in all of his life ever been lawless. In other words, he has not violated the laws of the land in any way. This actually becomes an idiom, then, for not guilty. This is what caused the high priest to become annoyed.
Verse 2 – the high priest presides over the Sanhedrin. He is Ananias and he will be assassinated in 67 AD because of what happens right here, and for no other reason. As soon as Paul says he is innocent, that there is no charge that could ever be brought against him the high priest “commanded them that stood by to smite him” – present active infinitive, to keep on hitting him. The Greek word tuptw means one of two things: to slap, also to slug. Apart from the fact that it was painful to Paul it was illegal. This told Paul something. He knew immediately that he was not going to have a fair trial because Jewish law specifies no violence in the court room—that a person must be tried without injury to himself during the trial. In other words, Jewish law assumed that a person was innocent until proven guilty. However, remember that religion has now infiltrated into Jewish law, and therefore religion assumes that a man is guilty until proven innocent. Religion is a maligner, a judger, and it always takes the opposite tack.
Verse 3 – “Then said Paul face to face with him.” Paul had apparently moved away from where he had been punched and stood face to face—proj plus the accusative—with the high priest who gave the order. Apparently the high priest was not dressed in his high priestly garments, was wearing robes like the rest, and could not be distinguished from the rest, therefore the apostle Paul had no way of knowing. There was another reason why he wasn’t wearing his high priestly garments. At this time Herod was given actual responsibility for the high priestly garments and only on special occasions would he be allowed to wear them, and he would always have to go to the palace of Herod and ask for them. So consequently he does not have that badge of authority which is so easily recognised. So the apostle Paul is not aware of the fact that he is speaking to the high priest, he only knows that here is a person who has violated the very principle of the law.
“God shall smite thee” – he uses two verbs here and says “God is about to smite you” – the verb mellw, which means about to do something, and then he used tuptw. The point is that Paul now takes the attitude that since the administration of Jewish law came down from God Himself and was originally given to the Mosaic law that any violation of this God Himself will handle. This is a present active indicative plus a present active infinitive. The two present tenses together are dramatic presents. In other words, I am innocent and I am willing to take my case to a higher court than you; to God Himself. And I say that on the basis of your attitude that I am guilty, even though you have not proved me so, I appeal to a higher court.
“thou whited wall” – the word “whited” is actually a perfect passive participle of koinaw which means to whitewash something. Jesus used the same word when He mentioned “whitewashed tombstones.” The perfect tense means that religion has a coat of hypocrisy. The passive voice: when you get into the religious system you receive this hypocrisy, it changes you. The participle indicates that people who become involved in religion fall into a law that has never changed: they are coated with hypocrisy. When religion is allowed to infiltrate this becomes a very strong thing. He is calling the high priest a hypocrite and immediately this is going to present a problem for Paul.
“for thou sittest to judge me after [kata: according to the standard of] the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law?” Under Jewish law a man is innocent until he is proven guilty, and the high priest has done just the opposite.
Verse 4 – apparently the judges were speechless! “And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God’s high priest?” The word “revilest” is an expletive and it is called loidorew in the Greek, and it means to use a strong expletive. So we know that “whites wall” is really an expletive, though this can’t be seen in the English. The custom of the day, the idiomatic principle, must be understood. It is a strong expletive that is not profanity. (If profanity had been used the word would have been blasfhmew) The thing that shook Paul was not the fact of loidorew [revile], it was the fact that they called him the high priest.
Where these bystanders were wrong is their calling him “God’s high priest.” He is a high priest all right, but appointed politically; but he is not God’s high priest. However, Paul is not going to make an issue out of it. But Paul resented a miscarriage of justice; Paul resented the fact that here was an excellent system of jurisprudence being abused. That is why he resented this judge. But as soon as Paul understood that this was the high priest this brings in another issue—the issue of divine institution #4. Here is Paul’s tremendous flexibility that came through doctrine.
Verse 5 – “Then said Paul, I wist not.” Old English which means, I did not know: past tense of o)ida, plus the negative. The whole concept of this verse is authority. He now quotes Exodus 22:28, for as it is written, “Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.” Even though the man may be evil himself, as he obviously is, he also is authority and you do not speak evil of those in authority. So we are now under the principle of divine institution #4.
1. Paul is now applying doctrine from divine institution #4.
2. Paul has been given to understand that the one who gave the command was the high priest. When his ignorance was corrected his attitude was corrected.
3. Therefore Paul accepts the responsibility of civil obedience. (Religion take the opposite tack)
4. Paul recognises civil authority under divine institution #4, even though the authority is corrupt.
5. Paul recognises that two wrongs do not make a right.
6. God has ordained under divine institutions certain systems of authority so that the human race can continue under the angelic conflict. For us as believers there is the authority of God’s Word, the authority of the pastor, the recognition of the doctrinal categories of the divine institutions.
7. Paul is opposed to civil disobedience, as is God’s Word.
8. Two wrongs do not make a right.
9. Paul cites his authority: “It is written.” He functions on the basis of the Word of God.
Verse 6 – “But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees.” We now see using a very neat little trick to establish
dissention in the court in order to finally get his acquittal because he realises he is not going to get a fair trial. Paul’s ability to perceive is because he himself is a Pharisees and apparently there is some way of recognising by speech and by dress. Obviously by speech because the Sadducees were the aristocrats of the Jewish country at this time. In Judea the Sadducees were generally the very wealthy people, they were rationalistic in their approach, and they did not accept the Old Testament Scriptures, except those parts that dealt with jurisprudence—the law. They did accept any section of the Mosaic law where justice was involved. But at this time in history the Sadducees had definitely become rationalists and they were only interested in maintaining their political power. There were also the Pharisees who were the theologians of the day. Most of the scribes came from the Pharisees; most of the chief priests were Sadducees.
There is a principle that comes out of this verse. A believers who learns Bible doctrine and applies Bible doctrine is going to operate at the maximum capacity of his IQ.
Paul makes an application right here. He immediately seized his opportunity to step in and to divide and conquer. So when it says Paul perceived it means he was thinking under pressure. Most people cannot think under pressure because they cannot think when there is no pressure. The reason Paul could think under pressure was not because of his genius, it was because he had Bible doctrine. He had the same thing that is available to us, but whether we use it or not is another thing.
He cried out in the council” – the Greek word is krazw and it means he shouted something. The imperfect tense indicates he did it repeatedly. The word “council” is Sanhedrin. “Men and brethren, I am [keep on being] a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee.” Paul’s father was a Pharisee.
“of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question” – “of” is peri, concerning; “called into question” is simply one verb, present passive indicative of krinw which means to judge. “Concerning the hope of the resurrection am I being called into a judgment [or, being judged].”
Verse 7 – And when he had so said/spoken” – communicated, literally. The word lalew means to communicate his point. He shouted it repeatedly until it was thoroughly understood, and now he has made his point.
“there arose [came to pass] a dissention “ – the word is stasij from which we get our English word “static.” It means discord, dissention, and dispute.
“and the multitude [the court] was divided” – aorist passive indicative of the verb sxizw, the word to divide from which we get the word schizophrenic.
Verse 8 – “For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit.” The deny the angelic conflict. One of the things today that is denied, even as then, by any form of rationalism is an unseen spiritual conflict about which the Scripture has a great deal to say.
“but the Pharisees confess both” – but they are very legalistic and reject Christ as saviour. However they do accept the Old testament as the basis for their operation. The word for “confess” is o)mologew. It doesn’t means to confess, it means to acknowledge or to cite. The Pharisees acknowledged the resurrection, the existence of angels, the existence of spirits. They cited it upon occasion. This is exactly what we have in the use of the word in 1 John 1:9.
Verse 9 – “And there arose a great cry” – there came to pass a great cry; “and the scribes that were of the Pharisees arose [stood up], and strove [fought]” – the word diamatomai means to fight, but dia means to fight something through. It means to fight or contend through vehemently. It means to go at it with all the conviction of one’s soul. So the Pharisees took the initiative. They are going to defend one of their own. They are going to defend their doctrine, and immediately this was no longer a court, it is a situation where the Pharisees are on fire and they are going to defend their position. No longer is Paul on trial, it is the whole system of the Pharisees. The judges are now divided.
“saying, we find no evil in this man” – the word e(uriskw here means discovered. It is used in courtrooms to indicate a conclusion, a finding. In other words, they have acquitted Paul, and they are the majority of the judges. So technically, during the fight Paul was acquitted.
Their conclusion: “but if a spirit or an angel hath spoken to him, let us not fight against God” – in other words, the Pharisees are saying that when you say something against the doctrine of the Pharisees you are fighting against God. They tied the Sadducees up in knots.
Verse 10 – the presence of Rome. The great thing about Rome is that it kept order in the ancient world. Crime rates went down as Rome went up. Rome does not represent Christianity; Rome represents law and order.
“And when there arose a great dissention, the chief captain, fearing [Paul is a Roman citizen] lest Paul should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force.” Law must be backed up. What do you do with law? You enforce it. Paul was protected by force, and Roman law said, We must protect the property and the rights of our innocent citizens. Paul is innocent of any crime, and an innocent man is about to be destroyed in the highest court of the Jews. But Roman law intervenes by force and Paul, a Roman citizen, is spared.
Verse 11 – “And the night following the Lord stood by him.” Paul is now discouraged. He is now suffering from a common occupational hazard of pastors: discouragement. Paul is now under maximum pressure. He must realise that his own legalistic failure brought him to this point. 1. He has failed the Lord; he has sinned; he succumbed to legalism. 2. He is also frustrated. He came to Jerusalem to minister to the saints because he was emotionally involved. His emotionalism caused him to get out of the geographical will of God. 3. He has possibly entered into some form of self-recrimination. This leads to a guilt complex. There must have been something of guilt at this time in his mind. This leads to his discouragement. Principle: We cannot sit around after we have failed. The first thing we should do is confess, then forget it; we can’t sit around and blame ourselves for the irrevocable past. It is a luxury no believer can afford. This is exactly what Paul is doing: crying over spilt milk, self-recrimination, he has a guilt complex. There is no place for this in the Christian life—Philippians 3:13. The believer must ever be overwhelmed by his sense of failure. We all fail; we have failed; we will fail, but God’s grace has provided for this—rebound, isolate it, forget about it.
“the Lord stood by him” – remember that the Lord indwells him, but here we have the Lord also standing by him. The word is e)fisthmi, and the aorist tense means “suddenly,” and sometimes to appear. It means to stand by, to appear suddenly to help. The believer’s failure does not remove God’s love or God’s grace. Paul has not been deserted in any way, and this is true of every believer.
“and said, “Be of good cheer” – in correct. The word is qarsew in the imperative. It doesn’t mean to be of good cheer, it means to be confident. This is a present active imperative. Present tense: linear aktionsart—keep on being confident. That requires orientation to grace. Active voice: Paul, you must do it. Imperative mood: this is a command. “Keep on having confidence.” The characteristic of the Christian life is confidence, and confidence is based on the application of the Word of God.
“for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome” – how did he testify in Jerusalem? Not in the usual way. He testified, diamarturomai which is not the ordinary word for witnessing. The ordinary word is marturew, but marturomai means a protest type ministry. Paul has done nothing in Jerusalem by way of communicating doctrine. Paul had wanted to share in his own home town all of the wonderful things he had learned from the Lord, but he didn’t marturew at all. He didn’t share anything. His total time in Jerusalem was a protest—against legalism. God did not permit Paul to cast his pearls before the w\swine of legalism in Jerusalem. When he gets to Rome Paul is going to communicate doctrine. Why? Because at Rome they are positive toward doctrine. But here in Jerusalem there was a protest message because the believers there are on negative volition and are legalists: “as you have protested [legalism] in Jerusalem, so you will bear witness [communicate doctrine] at Rome.” Marturew means the epistles to the Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. The prison epistles are the very heart and centre of grace teaching. This is an aorist active infinitive. The infinitive indicates purpose: it is God’s purpose for Paul to write those four letters in Rome, not in Jerusalem; not in the cradle of legalism but in the area of God’s matchless and wonderful grace.
The assassination plot, verses 12-13.
Verse 12 – “And when it was day” is literally, “And when it became day.” Apparently the Lord’s ministry to Paul last all night; “certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse” – they are all taking vows in Jerusalem, both believers and unbelievers.
Certain Jews
1. They were religious unbelievers. Like all religious unbelievers they were eager to prove themselves.
2. Paul is isolated and lonely, but now encouraged.
3. The night was passed without any word from the Jerusalem church to whom Paul had brought the great offering. They weren’t praying for him; they weren’t contacting him; they were not encouraging him.
4. His status quo with regard to other believers: no word of encouragement, no comfort of any kind.
5. There is nothing but hostility and pressure, but Bible doctrine will carry the believer through any disaster period.
6. The greatest opposition came from religious types.
7. The church in Jerusalem is legalistic and no help. All this is what happens when you get out of the will of God.
“banded together” means that they came together for a conspiracy; “and bound themselves under a curse” – a)naqematizw [qematizw = to curse; a)na =
again], means they put themselves under this oath again and again and again. They are religious types and they have to work themselves up.
“saying that they would neither eat nor drink unto they had killed Paul” – they were going to assassinate him. Paul lived for about another twelve years!
Verse 14 – “And they came to the chief priests and the elders.” This is the new religious crowd going to the old religious crowd to declare what they had done.
“We have bound ourselves under a great curse” – this is not a curse but an oath; “that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.”
Verse 15 – “Now therefore ye with the council [Sanhedrin] signify [indicate] to the garrison commander that he bring him down unto you to morrow, as though ye would enquire something more perfectly [accurately] concerning him: and we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.” So the old crowd and a new crowd actually get together on a plot.
What is wrong with the Jerusalem church? It is obviously in the throws of legalism, it has no concept of grace Bible teaching, and consequently it has rejected Paul, rejected the doctrine which he teaches, rejected the concepts which have come through God the Holy Spirit and will eventually be written when Paul gets to Rome and have already been written in part to the Corinthians, the Thessalonians, and others. Therefore they have totally rejected God’s plan through grace: operation phase two.
Verse 16 – this is basically a conspiracy against the grace of God. This is the devil’s world and there will always be conspiracies against grace. The human viewpoint has a way of setting aside grace and justifying itself. Many times the attack upon grace is subtle; sometimes it is obvious. This is probably one of the more obvious attacks upon the grace of God. Grace is constantly under fire, and this is not only true of the day in which Paul lived. You can always tell, there are certain thermometers which begins to operate when grace is under attack in a subtle way. Everything seems to go suddenly from low key to high key; there is suddenly a frenzy and pressure, and immediately you begin to notice that people start to play politics. But grace does have a way of relaxing people and putting things on a low key, so that people are not being pushy and power combinations are not being developed; politics are not being pushed along. These 40 young men in this conspiracy are manifesting that intensity that comes when people become disoriented to the grace of God. There is an intensity, a crusade, a self-justification, the attitude that they are doing something that is right, and yet they are all wrong. Their arguments from the human viewpoint seem to be quite the thing, but from the divine viewpoint it is entirely erroneous.
You can’t attack grace unless grace exists. Grace existed within the apostle Paul; his was the message of grace. Therefore the apostle Paul was under attack, and in this case assassination because he represented the great bastion of grace. His grace principles had been attacked rather successfully as far as church leadership was concerned, for the pastors of Jerusalem had persuaded him to get into an act of legalism. No sooner was that over and Paul had recovered but now his grace principles are going to be attacked by these forty men. But what these men are going to do, because all things work together for good, is force Paul out of Jerusalem. And from Jerusalem he will go to Caesarea, and from Caesarea he is going be attacked again. As a Roman citizen he is going to appeal to Caesar and when he does he will move on to Rome. So this is a series of attacks upon grace which will give grace its greatest manifestation in the prison epistles. In other words, God’s plan and God’s grace is going to continue in spite of every attack against it.
The real concept in this chapter is that even though grace is attacked, grace is always triumphant.
1. As long as God has a plan for Paul’s life nothing or no one can remove him from phase two.
2. When the plan is completed nothing can keep him here.
3. But God cannot use the Jerusalem church in Paul’s deliverance. It could be used in the case of Peter but a great deal of time has elapsed between Acts 12 and Acts 23. Consequently, the Jerusalem church is not having any all-night prayer meetings for Paul. They are very antagonistic toward Paul, and even tough he has brought them a large sum of relief money they have no appreciation for what it took to get that offering together, and so the church in Jerusalem is not going to be used by God.
4. God is going to use two people to help Paul. The first is a relative called Matthew; the second is a garrison commander, a Gentile unbeliever. The believer involved represents God’s grace; the garrison commander represents all that is good in Rome—it’s system of justice and fair play.
5. Though Paul is deserted by the Jerusalem church and though he is in one of the most discouraging situations of his entire life he has been encouraged by the Word of God [v. 11]. Principle: Doctrine carries us when everyone else deserts. And this was true of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
6. Paul will be sustained, therefore, through Bible doctrine.
7. God will frustrate every device of man against His servant. Cf. Isaiah 54:17.
Verse 16 – “And when Paul’s sister’s son heard of their lying in wait [ambush], he went and entered into the castle [fort], and told Paul.”
Verse 17 – this is a matter that calls for the attention of the garrison commander.
Verse 19 – notice that all the way through the garrison commander respected the privacy of the apostle Paul. Even the centurion did not interfere.
Verse 23 – “at the third hour of the night.” This was going to be a night operation which would give it more secrecy.
Verse 27 – “This man was taken from among the Jews, and should [Greek: would] have been killed.” In this case the Jews represented mob violence. Rome delivers from mob violence. Then fact that Paul was a Roman citizen meant that he was entitled to a fair trial and protection.
Verse 29 – “Whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.” Notice that this Roman listened, and to understand he had to know more than his own Latin language. He had to understand Greek and Aramaic. The servants of Rome who were effective were at least bi- or tri-lingual. He listened very carefully, and notice the key words here: “I perceived.” In other words, he saw a man who had done nothing worthy of imprisonment or death, he saw a theological controversy. Because we have here the separation of religion and state he will not interfere in a theological controversy. He will not take sides in it but he will protect both parties in it from violence against the other. Justice, to be administered, must never become involved in theological controversies.
Felix is power-mad and not interested in Roman justice; he has no background in Roman justice. He is not a good servant of Rome, he is a political servant who has come out for his own self-gratification. Claudius Lysias represents everything that is good about Rome; Felix represents everything that is bad about Rome.
Verse 34 – what was the very first question that the governor, Felix, asked Paul? What is this all about? No. It was, “What is your province?” He wanted to see how much he could get out of Paul, what kind of a bribe he could get to let him go. If he was from a good province he would expect a large bribe, but if from a poor province he would take a little less. In other words, Felix is not interested in justice; Felix is interested in bribery.
Verse 34 – “And when he understood that he was of Cilicia; Verse 35 – “I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are come.” In other words, he is going to use Paul’s Jewish accusers as pressure to try to get more money out of him.
“And he commanded him to be kept in Herod’s judgement hall” – a building for VIPs. Felix regarded Paul as a VIP because he was (he thought) going to make a lot of money out of him.