Pastor Matt and Pastor Chris revisit Sunday's message and touch on some of the things leftover, including a discussion on what it means that ERC is "A House for the Broken...a Home for the Healed"

***SHOW NOTES***

https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/acts-24/

Pastor Chris continues Paul's travels in the book of Acts, with his trial before Felix, and how Paul's example mirrors that of Jesus' actions, and informs actions for Christians today.

Pastor Matt and Pastor Chris are back with some further thoughts on Paul's interactions before the Sanhedrin in Acts 23. AMA Episodes coming up on Sept 1st & 8th. Drop your questions on ANYTHING at connect@emmausroadonline.org or text them to 563-659-9444 and we might answer them on the shows!

***SHOW NOTES***

Leftovers - Acts 23:1-11

A. Paul’s defense before the Sanhedrin.

1. (1-2) Paul begins his speech before the council.

a. Paul, looking earnestly at the council: The previous day Paul saw a great opportunity go unfulfilled when the crowd at the temple mount did not allow him to finish his message to them, but started rioting again. Now Paul had another opportunity to win Israel to Jesus, and perhaps a better opportunity. Here he spoke to the council, with the opportunity to preach Jesus to these influential men.

b. Men and brethren: According to William Barclay, this address meant that Paul was bold in speaking to the council, setting himself on an equal footing with them. The normal style of address was to say, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel.”

c. I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day: Paul probably thought this was an innocent enough way to begin his preaching. He didn’t mean that he was sinlessly perfect and that his conscience had never told him he was wrong. Rather, he meant that he had responded to conscience when he had done wrong and had set things right.

2. (3-5) Paul’s response to the punch in the face.

a. God will strike you, you whitewashed wall!

b. For you sit to judge me according to the law, and do you command me to be struck contrary to the law? Paul exposed the hypocrisy of the man who made the command.

i. The men of the council were supposed to be examples of the Law of Moses. The command to have Paul struck was in fact contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the law. Deuteronomy 25:1-2 says only a man found guilty can be beaten, and Paul had not yet been found guilty of anything.

ii. God will strike you: “Paul’s words, however, were more prophetic than he realized. Ananias’ final days – despite all his scheming and bribes - because of his pro-Roman politics, Ananias was brutally killed by Jewish nationalists.

3. (6) Paul’s clever ploy.

b. One part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees: Paul’s course was to divide the Sanhedrin among their party lines – to make one

side (the Pharisees) sympathetic to him, instead of having them united against him.

c. I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: Knowing his audience, Paul referred to his heritage as a Pharisee, and declared, “concerning

the hope and resurrection of the dead I am being judged.” He knew this was a matter of great controversy between the two parties.

4. (7-9) The council is divided.

i. Sadducees were the theological liberals of their day, and denied the reality of life after death and the concept of resurrection. Luke rightly wrote of them, Sadducees say that there is no resurrection; and no angel or spirit.

ii. The Pharisees were more likely to find some ground of agreement with Paul, being the more the Bible believers in the Jewish world of that time. They took the Bible seriously, even if they did err greatly by adding the traditions of men to what they received in the Bible.

5. (10) Paul is rescued by the Roman commander.

b. The commander, fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them: The commander removed Paul for his own safety, and left him in custody in the barracks.

i. Paul’s clever ploy rescued him from the council, but he could not have been happy with the result. He had the opportunity to preach to a huge crowd of attentive Jews on the temple mount and it ended in failure. Then he had the opportunity to preach to the influential Jewish council, and it also ended in a fistfight.

Pastor Matt continues the account of Paul's time in Jerusalem, before the Pharisees and Sadducees, and his visit of encouragement from Jesus.

Pastor Matt and Pastor Chris discuss Paul's re-encounter with the Jewish people in Jerusalem, and debate whether an encounter with a Bear or a Shark would be more survivable.

***SHOW NOTES***

Paul initially gets the crowd by showing his pedigree and claiming to be just like them

(v 1, 3-5)

Often times if we hope to be able to make any headway in talking to people about the Gospel, we have to show them we were (or are) like them. We have to be able to bring down some of the dividing walls in order to have the space to share Jesus.

In verse 12 he mentions that Ananias is “devout according to the law”.

From chapter 9 we are well aware at this point that Ananias is in fact a Jewish Christian, and so apparently it was possible to both believe in Christ and been seen as someone who maintained respect in the first century Jewish community. Perhaps he was hiding his faith in Christ?

But, even if he was Paul clearly points to him as someone who understands God’s plan through the person of Jesus Christ whom Ananias is quoted as calling “the Righteous One” (v14).

At one point in life, God tells Paul to flee, but later He tells him to come back (V18)

God’s prompting and plans for us are not a necessarily a straight, predictable path. Sometimes he’s going to tell us to speak, other times to stay silent. Sometimes to go. Sometimes to stay. And based on His perfect timing, what you’ve been prompted to do by the Holy Spirit now, could be different down the road as circumstances change.

V 19-20

Paul was zealous for Jewish Law and customs. Although he is using his previous life as a way to defend himself to the mob, it must have still hurt to think back about his previous way of life and remember the faces of the people that he unjustly persecuted. Were it not for the Gospel, those would have been terribly haunting memories that would have created a tremendous amount of guilt. Yet, Paul lived as one free and forgiven! That’s the power of the Gospel! A man who was so powerful and dangerous, made meek, free and gentle.

Where it all went wrong! V 21

“Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.”

Why did this reinvigorate the crowd to mob violence and the call for Paul’s life?

Among other issues, the great offense of Paul was that it was supposed that he had brought Gentiles into the temple, thus desecrating the holy space of God. But is that how God feels or people feel? Does God tell certain people that they can’t have access to Him?

Absolutely not!

The radical message of Jesus Christ is that through belief, all people have access to God. In fact, we have such intimate access to God that we get to call Him “Abba,” Father.

V 22-23 A violent and visceral reaction

If you can imagine a child being told “no” and throwing a complete fit, you might be able to imagine the reaction of the people Paul is speaking to. Simply because Paul dare bring non-Jewish people into the worship of the God of the universe.

Sometimes in churches and congregations, we can get comfortable in our own little sub-culture, and we don’t want any “outsiders” to be brought in and potentially change the good thing that we have going. This creates an “us vs. them” mentality, encourages discrimination, and ultimately closes the door to meeting Jesus.

Important rights based on citizenship V 25-29

Paul is spot on. Because he was born into his Roman citizenship, the guards would be committing a heinous crime if they harm him before a formal trial. The fact that he spent a lot of his life as a Jewish Pharisee, does not change the fact that he, by all rights, is also a Roman citizen.

What then are our rights and responsibilities and Christians?

Which rights are we not taking advantage of?

What responsibilities are we not fulfilling?

Pastor Chris examines the humility, courage and assurance of the Gospel of Jesus, laid out by Paul in Acts 22.

Pastor Matt and Pastor Chris recap Sunday's message and touch on a few things that were left untouched from the text in Sunday's message. Also: best concert band lineups!

***SHOW NOTES***

Is there a contradiction?

21:4 “…And through the Spirit they were telling Paul not to go on to Jerusalem”

The Gospel and the work of supporting and spreading it, is a “family affair”

21:5 “When our days there were ended, we departed and went on our journey, and they all, with wives and children, accompanied us until we were outside the city. And kneeling down on the beach, we prayed…”

Philip “the Evangelist” (21:8)

Philip the evangelist was one of the seven men whom the Jerusalem church chose to administer its welfare program (Acts 6:1-6). After the killing of Stephen and the expulsion of Christians from Jerusalem, Philip went to Samaria, where many responded to his preaching (Acts 8:4-13). He then travelled south towards Gaza and led a God-fearing Ethiopian official to faith in Jesus Christ (Acts 8:26-39). From there he moved north along the Mediterranean coast, preaching in all the towns as far as Caesarea (Acts 8:40). The next mention of Philip is about twenty-five years later, when Paul’s party stayed with him in Caesarea for a few days. He had four daughters who had the gift of prophecy (Acts 21:8-9). -bibleportal.com

Agabus the Prophet

In Acts 11, Agabus predicted (by the Holy Spirit) that a great famine “would spread over the entire Roman world” (verse 28). The text further reports that Agabus was accurate (as we would expect) and that this famine happened during the reign of Emperor Claudius.

As a result of Agabus’s prophecy, the believers in Antioch began to gather money to send to the Christians living in Judea, and they sent the money by the hands of Barnabas and Saul (Paul). This monetary gift was a fitting response because in the ancient Roman Empire there was usually still food available for purchase during a famine, but at dramatically elevated prices. With adequate funds, the Christians in Judea would still have been able to purchase food. Furthermore, the Christians in Judea may well have been cut off from their families and from their normal means of support. The love gift from Antioch was all the more important as a sign of the unity of Jewish (in Judea) and Gentile (in Antioch) believers—a unity for which Paul was continually laboring.

In Acts 21:10–12 we see Agabus once again, this time in Caesarea. Although Luke does not explicitly state that this is the same Agabus as in Acts 11, there is no reason to assume he is a different person. -gotquestions.org

Paul’s Passionate Response to their requests…(21:13)

“What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Verse 14 “Let the will of the Lord be done”

21:19 “Paul related one by one the things that God had done among the Gentiles…”

We very much get the sense that they took their time to fully hear about how God had been working through much of the known world. Additionally, Paul would have had a collection for them to give as well, which they were no doubt grateful for (see 24:17 for proof of the gift, although it’s not mentioned here).

21:20-21 Thousands of believers! But, what did they miss?

“You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed. They are all zealous for the law, 21 and they have been told about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or walk according to our customs.

If they are in fact “believers” why are they so angry and desiring to have Paul locked up or killed?

ἔθος “Customs”-a usual or customary manner of behavior, habit, usage

-These are not biblical mandates! But clearly, the people are extremely angry that Paul is not teaching new Christians to follow the “customs”.

Pastor Chris examines the cost of discipleship and the cost of sharing the gospel in the life of a Christ-follower after Paul's example.