“Of Guilt and Innocence”
Acts 23:12-24:27
August 3, 2008
When we finished up last week, we found Paul being visited in prison by Christ Himself, encouraging Paul and promising that Paul would testify in Rome as well. Little did Paul know that he’d be imprisoned, in some form or fashion, for the next four years of his life. As Paul remained in prison in Jerusalem, the events that would take him to Rome in time were set in motion, not by Paul himself, by his friends, or by the leaders of the Jerusalem church, but instead by Paul’s bitterest rivals! Of course, as we talked about last week, behind the scenes, the invisible hand of God was working to accomplish His perfect, sovereign will.
There are a number of characters involved in our passage today:
• Plotting conspirators
• A “harmless kid”
• A corrupt Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court
• Roman soldiers
• The ruthless Roman governor, Felix
• Ananias, the also ruthless high priest
• A skilled orator, Tertullus
• And, of course, Paul the apostle of God
And the plot line is one filled with intrigue and deceit, cunning and deliverance, flattery, pomp, & vindication. We begin w/ attempted
I. Ambush – 23:12-15
12 When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. 14 They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. 15 Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.”
More than 40 fanatical Asian Jews took an oath to ambush Paul and murder him in the narrow streets of Jerusalem, a fish-in-a-barrel situation. Not only a wanted man, but a hunted man!
We notice several things here:
o The fanatical devotion of some Jews to killing Paul
Jesus had promised His followers that they would suffer persecution and be hated by men, and this is exactly what is happening here. Fanaticism blinds us to reason; in the name of serving God’s law and God’s truth, these men were willing to throw God’s law and God’s truth to the wind. Christians are persecuted, even killed, today; what prompts such animosity? It is this: the claims of Jesus Christ and his gospel run counter to any competing way, any other faith scheme, and supersede all other allegiances.
Notice as well
o The complicity of the “religious leaders”
What the conspirators needed were accomplices, and they found ready ones in the religion boys. Their supposed zeal for the law of Moses did not preclude them from being willing accomplices to attempted murder. And for us, here’s another reminder to trust God and His Word, and to hold our attachments to any/every “religious leader” with an appropriate tentativeness. Let God be true, and every man a liar.
II. Deliverance – 23:16-35
A. God uses a kid
16 Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. 17 Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” 18 So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.” 19 The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” 20 And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him. 21 But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.” 22 So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.”
We don’t know a whole lot of the details of Paul’s family life. Some have assumed with some merit that Paul’s family disowned him when he had his Damascus Road experience. But apparently somewhere deep in her heart, Paul’s sister had some sympathy for her brother. We don’t know either just how this young man came about his knowledge of the plot; was he a “mole” on the “inside” in some way, privy to such details as were made known to him by unsuspecting conspirators? It’s difficult to speak with any level of certainty. Regardless, God used a relatively young man to accomplish His purpose in sparing Paul. Paul, aware that God uses whom He chooses, wrote to young Timothy, “don’t let anyone despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in your speech, faith, conduct, love, and purity.” And because of this young man, Paul’s life was spared.
I’ve always wondered if those 40 guys starved to death…
B. God uses the Romans
23 Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. 24 Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” 25 And he wrote a letter to this effect:
26 “Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings. 27 This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. 28 And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. 29 I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. 30 And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.”
31 So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. 32 And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. 33 When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. 34 On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, 35 he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod’s praetorium.
Claudius Lysias, the tribune, couldn’t afford to have a Roman citizen such as Paul murdered on his watch, and sensing that Paul would never be safe as long as he was in Jerusalem, the tribune arranged for the apostle to be transported under heavy guard for the sixty miles or so that lay between Jerusalem and Caesarea.
Lysias had composed a letter to Felix, the governor, bringing him up to speed on all that had been going on in the case of this unusual man Paul whom the Jews are so desperate to see put to death. We see Felix receiving the letter and making plans to hear Paul’s accusers once they arrive in Caesarea, and to hear Paul’s defense of himself as well, to conduct a trial to get to the bottom.
And we’re reminded again to ask the question: Did Paul’s nephew save Paul’s life? Did a scrupulous pagan Roman tribune save Paul’s life? Or did God save Paul’s life? Yes. There is no contradiction between saying all three of those things are true, because we are reminded again that God chooses to use folks like us to accomplish His purposes.
III. Accusation – 24:1-9
24:1 And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul. 2 And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying:
“Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, 3 in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. 4 But, to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. 5 For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. 6 He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. 8 By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.”
9 The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so.
Paul had nothing to fear, he believed, because though he was caught between the military might of imperial Rome, and the religious power of Jerusalem, and though he was accused by the Jews in Jerusalem of blasphemy, and by the Jews to Rome of being a treasonous threat to the state, Paul knew of his innocence on both counts. Paul would write Romans 13 about the importance of submitting to the authorities raised up by God, the government, and he would write as well of how the Law was upheld by the gospel (Romans 3:31). Certainly, Rome could abuse its political power, as have nations from the beginning of time, and the Jews could misuse the Law, trying to make it into a means of salvation. But the gospel of Jesus Christ supports the legitimacy of governments and fulfills the ultimate hope of the Jews. Paul is guilty of neither sedition nor sacrilege.
The high priest Ananias, still smarting from Paul’s injudicious verbal attack, was so serious in his intent to see Paul silenced that he made the sixty-five mile trip some five days later accompanied by some of his peeps as well as a skilled rhetorician, one Tertullus, who made the argument for the religion boys against Paul. Tertullus begins by sucking up to Felix (:2-3). The Jews might have enjoyed a form of the “peace” Felix and Rome offered, but it was “peace” under which they chafed, peace on the Romans’ terms and not those of the Jews; not a single Jewish soul in Jerusalem would have agreed with Tertullus’ over-the-top flattery. Felix was not one known for his kindness or generosity toward the Jews, but rather his severity, so Tertullus is doing little more than trying to butter him up so that he might prosecute his case against Paul. Tertullus’ case consists basically of three things: Paul’s a
A. “Pest”
B. “Pioneer”
C. “Profaner”
To be accused of fomenting riots was a serious charge to bring in regions governed by Rome, for Rome showed little sympathy or good will toward disturbers of the peace; serious, that is, if there were anything to it, which there wasn’t. There were many rebel movements in those days; no doubt Tertullus was attempting to attribute this kind of seditious motive to Christian faith in general and to Paul in particular, but the charge would not stick.
The second charge was an attempt to play upon what Tertullus hoped was some lingering animosity in Felix’s mind toward Christians. Apparently, this one fell very flat!
The third charge was more concrete than the other two: Paul, it is said, attempted to profane the temple in Jerusalem. Of course, this was the trumped-up charge waged against Paul by those who sought his death in Jerusalem, but by this time, Tertullus had gussied up the story such that it had an air of believability. What really happened, we know, was that a mob mentality took over in Jerusalem after an untrue allegation had been hurled at Paul, but by the time it gets out of Tertullus’ mouth and into Felix’s ears, Paul was prevented from committing such sacrilege by an orderly arrest by some concerned citizens. Tertullus effectively reverses the actual facts of the story, painting the Roman tribune Lycias as being the violent party, from which the Jews rescued Paul so that true justice could be brought to him. Some of our contemporary attorneys would be proud of Tertullus’ telling of the story!
Basically, Tertullus attempted to play to Felix’s instability and willingness to deal swiftly and mercilessly with any whom he considered a threat. Perhaps, Felix wouldn’t be patient enough to concern himself with actual facts, but would rather just drop the hammer on this troublesome Paul & be done with it. Note Paul’s
IV. Defense – 24:10-21
10 And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied:
“Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. 11 You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, 12 and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. 13 Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. 14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, 15 having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. 16 So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. 17 Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. 18 While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia— 19 they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, should they have anything against me. 20 Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, 21 other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them: ‘It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.’”
A. Contradiction
Paul begins by disputing the things that are being falsely said about him, a substantive, specific reply, in contrast to their generalities.
• Paul’s purpose in coming to Jerusalem: worship!
• Paul’s length of stay before apprehended: less than a week (hardly time to foment much of a rebellion)
• Paul’s status when accosted: alone (hardly leading a mob!)
• Paul’s response to the charge of desecration of the temple: no evidence!
Paul had neither the time nor the inclination to foment a revolution! Thus Paul’s words contradiction this specious assertion. But in :14 he follows with a
B. Confession
He didn’t back away at all from declaring that he worshiped the God of Israel, that he shared with Israel a belief in the entire Law of God and the Prophets (what we would call the Old Testament), and that he shared with the Pharisees as well a belief in the resurrection of both the just and the unjust. Of course, Ananias the high priest, as a Sadducee, didn’t believe in the resurrection of the dead, but there were undoubtedly some Pharisees in the contingent there as well, and they did believe. Paul considered a belief in the resurrection of the dead central to true Jewish faith, that those Sadducee liberals who denied the resurrection were, as are theological liberals today, liars about spiritual matters and not legitimate heirs of Jewish faith. Further, he not only shared the basic belief system of Israel—with the difference that he accepted Christ as Israel’s Messiah—but he was also a man who tried his best to live at peace with both God and man, far from being some rabble-rouser whose desire it was to foment rebellion and set men against each other. Notice his claims:
Paul
• Served the same God
• Believed the same truths
• Shared the same hope
• Held the same ambition for holiness
His contention is that “the Way”, Christian faith, stood in continuity with the Old Testament’s teaching, that the OT pointed to the coming of the Messiah, and that Jesus was that Man. His faith in Christ lined up with what he had always believed: the witness of the Law and the Prophets.
Paul then gives his reason for coming to Jerusalem in the first place, to present the offering of the Gentiles for the poor in Jerusalem to the leaders of the church. He notes that it was during this time that some Jews from Asia had stirred up the crowd against him, but that oddly enough, those accusers couldn’t be troubled to come and confront him face-to-face before the governor. Why didn’t they come? Likely because the Jewish accusers who stood before Felix’s court thought it not wise to have Paul’s actual accusers appear there, lest their paper-thin charges be exposed for what they were! And so Paul challenged his accusers there to really provide proof of his misdeeds—something they really couldn’t do.
But he continues his confession by saying that the only thing of which he was “guilty” was that he believed in the resurrection of the dead.! This charge was not under the jurisdiction of Felix anyway; he didn’t concern himself with questions of faith. So that wraps it up, right? I mean, surely this would be enough to clear him, right? You’d think, wouldn’t you? You’d, of course, be wrong, though even his continued incarceration provided him
V. Access – 24:22-27
22 But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.” 23 Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.
24 After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 25 And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” 26 At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. 27 When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.
Felix knew something of Christianity, though we can only speculate as to how. But he knew that the charges against Paul were religious in nature, trumped up with the pretense of sedition against the state. Felix was on the horns of a dilemma; he couldn’t convict Paul due to the paucity of evidence, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to acquit him either, because he wanted to curry favor with the Jews (plus, as we see here, he wouldn’t have minded Paul greasing his palm with a bribe either!).
He determined to call Lysias, the tribune, down to Caesarea to get his testimony about who was telling the truth, Tertullus or Paul. Paul was to be retained in custody, but as a Roman citizen not judged guilty, he’d have a good measure of freedom. We never actually hear if Lysias made it to Caesarea to testify; it’s likely that Felix could tell that there was no substantive case against Paul, but rather than agitate the Jews, he had decided not to acquit Paul either.
Rather, we are introduced to an episode where Felix and his wife Drusilla, apparently at Drusilla’s urging, call Paul in to help them gain a greater understanding of this thing called Christian faith. They likely assumed that this would be a great intellectual exercise, adding to their understanding of the world, helping them gain valuable cultural knowledge much like we might study the Civil War or the works of some contemporary painter. Little did they know what they were in for! See, Drusilla was well-known for her youthful beauty, and this had caused Felix to steal her away from her lawful husband and take her for himself; she was his third wife as well, and these facts provided Paul an opportunity to preach the gospel. For her part, she’d been in favor of the theft, as she fancied Felix more powerful than her previous husband. Paul seized the chance at such access to the governor and his wife, not to give them some dispassionate discourse on the finer points of theology, but to cut straight to the heart of the matter, putting his finger on what it meant to live a righteous life, how the lack of self-control—which cut them to the heart—worked against that right living, and how God would one day be their judge too, that if Felix feared the wrath of Rome, how much more ought he fear the wrath of God if he didn’t live rightly!
Note the effect on Felix: he was “alarmed”. The KJV says, “terrified”! Kent Hughes points out two tragedies in the life of an individual. One, never trembling at the thought of God’s judgment; two, trembling but, like Felix, avoiding faith in Christ. And sometimes, as in the case of Felix, to tremble and turn away leads to not trembling the next time the message is heard!
Felix sent for Paul often to chat, hoping that Paul, whom he obviously believed to be somewhat well off, would grease his palm to gain release. He was sadly mistaken, though. But what were Felix’s motives? Money only? Hard to say, but is it possible that he knew that Paul had something, while imprisoned, that eluded Felix, who sat in majesty as the leading official of the region? Sadly, though, we have no knowledge that Felix ever trusted the Christ of whom he heard frequently. He coveted money and the favor of the Jews more than he wanted salvation in Christ.
Felix was recalled eventually by Rome, but in order to keep in the good graces of the Jews, he left Paul in prison, and the new governor, Festus, would have to deal with him. The apostle Paul went through the mill in this passage, but he boldly stood for Christ even when his life was on the line, counting his life as of less value that the proclamation of the gospel, backing up that gospel good news with a life lived in integrity before God and men.
Table Talk
Paul both out-thought and out-lived his opponents; his arguments were undeniable, and his life was above reproach. In representing Christ to others, why are both of those things important?
