WEBVTT 00:00:06.400 --> 00:00:15.679 Welcome to Sermons from the Way Church KC, a community of listening saints in Kansas City, following the way of Jesus and pushing back darkness together. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:23.359 Good morning, church. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:30.320 All right, if you are able to stand for the reading of the word, we are in Acts today. 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:35.119 Acts 22, starting at verse 22. 00:00:38.240 --> 00:00:40.880 Up to this word they listened to them to him. 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:47.439 Then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. 00:00:47.679 --> 00:01:03.520 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barricades or barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this. 00:01:04.799 --> 00:01:15.920 But when they had him stretched out for the whips, Paul said to the to the centurion who was standing by, Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned? 00:01:16.799 --> 00:01:22.480 When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, What are you about to do? 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:24.480 For this man is a Roman citizen. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:29.920 So the tribune came and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? 00:01:30.079 --> 00:01:31.359 And he said, Yes. 00:01:32.239 --> 00:01:36.159 The tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum. 00:01:36.719 --> 00:01:39.599 Paul said, But I am a citizen by birth. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:44.239 So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:51.040 And the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:02:06.239 But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and condemned and commanded the chief priest and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them. 00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:14.960 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day. 00:02:15.199 --> 00:02:21.360 And the high priest Aeneas commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:26.240 Then Paul said, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. 00:02:26.479 --> 00:02:28.879 Are you sitting to judge me according to the law? 00:02:29.039 --> 00:02:32.319 And yet, contrary to the law, you order me to be struck? 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:36.479 Those who stood by said, Would you revile God's high priest? 00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:44.400 And Paul said, I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. 00:02:45.039 --> 00:02:54.639 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, son of Pharisees. 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:59.599 It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial. 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:07.280 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they assembled, and the assembly was divided. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:14.960 For the Sadducees said that there is no resurrection, nor angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledged them all. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:21.520 Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.719 What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him? 00:03:27.439 --> 00:03:39.280 And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks. 00:03:39.759 --> 00:03:49.599 The following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome. 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:50.960 This is the word of God. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:03:58.000 Amen. 00:03:59.120 --> 00:04:02.080 Alright, so let's jump right into the text. 00:04:02.639 --> 00:04:04.560 Like I said, we got a lot of ground to cover. 00:04:04.719 --> 00:04:09.520 We are going to be sending someone out on a mission trip at the end of service, and we also have a baptism to celebrate. 00:04:09.599 --> 00:04:11.360 So we're gonna get right to the text today. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:12.159 Sound good? 00:04:13.120 --> 00:04:14.080 Alright. 00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:18.240 So, who here has ever walked through something difficult? 00:04:19.680 --> 00:04:22.480 Most of us here, all of us here. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:34.240 Um I think for all of us here today who have walked through something difficult, which I would venture to say is all of us, we we've heard something similar to these phrases. 00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:36.000 Stay strong. 00:04:36.720 --> 00:04:38.079 You've got this. 00:04:38.720 --> 00:04:40.000 Just keep going. 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:43.839 Just pick yourself up by the bootstraps and just keep going. 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:57.279 You know that those those words that are meant to be encouraging, but it's like in the moment you're full of fear and anxiety and not knowing what comes. 00:04:57.519 --> 00:05:02.399 And the thing is, usually it comes from people who love you, right? 00:05:02.720 --> 00:05:12.160 Um and maybe they say it in the doorway, on their way out of your house, or at the end of a phone call that they're, you know, trying to encourage you. 00:05:12.319 --> 00:05:20.319 Um maybe it's in the group chat, like, hey Jeremy, just keep going, it's all gonna work out, and then they throw a little hard emoji on it, you know? 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:29.680 Um or maybe it's somebody grabs your shoulder on their way past, right here in the sanctuary, and they say, Hey, just be strong. 00:05:30.000 --> 00:05:33.360 And they they mean every word of it, right? 00:05:34.560 --> 00:05:36.240 But here's the thing. 00:05:36.480 --> 00:05:44.639 Oftentimes, these words, these platitudes, if you will, they simply don't work. 00:05:48.879 --> 00:06:01.040 And I think we we could say, and it wouldn't be a stretch, we could say that not one time in the history of the world has a frightened person heard be strong and thought, you know what, like that's a good idea. 00:06:01.120 --> 00:06:02.639 I'm gonna I'm gonna be strong now. 00:06:02.800 --> 00:06:06.160 No, like that's not usually how it works. 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:11.519 Because courage, I do not believe, is a thing that you can just hand yourself. 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:18.319 I don't believe that it's a decision that you like consciously make. 00:06:20.079 --> 00:06:25.120 If it were, in all likelihood, you would have made it already. 00:06:26.319 --> 00:06:34.079 You've had made it the first time that you sat down and someone told yourself and you told yourself to get it together. 00:06:35.439 --> 00:06:38.000 And that's what we see in today's text. 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:54.959 So this morning, we're gonna watch a man get told to take courage in the worst 24 hours of his life while in custody, after two separate crowds had tried to hill to kill him, and it works. 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:56.800 It actually works. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:01.439 He's told to take courage and it works, and today what we're gonna see is why it worked. 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:08.959 Why that was different than that family member or a loved one or friend's words that don't seemingly work. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:13.600 So the question that this sermon today is asking is why? 00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:16.879 Why did he get that be strong? 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:21.439 Why did he get that be strong and it worked? 00:07:22.399 --> 00:07:27.439 So as we dig into the text, last week I told you how this story ends. 00:07:28.160 --> 00:07:36.000 Remember, at the end of the sermon last week, I said that the crowd cuts Paul off at the word Gentiles. 00:07:36.160 --> 00:07:39.839 That was the last word of the text that we looked at yesterday. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:46.879 And then it's Roman soldiers, it's a flogging, and he only escapes by pulling out his citizenship. 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:49.839 And he enters another trial the next day. 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:55.600 And so what I gave you as we close was the overarching plot of today's text. 00:07:55.920 --> 00:07:59.360 And what we're gonna do this morning is we're gonna take a trip inside of it. 00:07:59.600 --> 00:08:05.040 Because the things that happen in the gaps of the story are the whole point. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:06.959 Here's where we are. 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:20.560 Paul, he has come back to Jerusalem, he has been recognized in the temple, he's been dragged out, he's been beaten, and he's been rescued by Roman soldiers who chained him, mostly to get the mob off of him. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:32.799 And then on the steps of the Antonia fortress, the barracks tower, built right onto the corner of the temple complex with stairways designed exactly for this kind of riot that's going on. 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:37.279 He asked for the floor, he asked to have his say, and he got it. 00:08:38.000 --> 00:08:42.559 And what he did last week, remember, is he gave them his testimony. 00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:56.080 He's talking about what the risen Christ has done in his life, how the risen Christ had taken him from Paul, the killer of Saul, the killer of the Christians, to Paul, the missionary to the Gentiles. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.720 That is what he shared with them. 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:04.000 And it's remarkable because they listened. 00:09:04.399 --> 00:09:05.360 They actually listened. 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:06.639 That's the remarkable part. 00:09:06.799 --> 00:09:16.720 They listened to all of it until the one word that we ended last week's sermon with in Acts 22, verse 21, the word Gentiles. 00:09:17.360 --> 00:09:24.320 And then we get to today's text in Acts 22, verse 22, and everything this morning starts there. 00:09:24.559 --> 00:09:37.759 And what follows is Paul in front of two different courts in two days, one a mob, one the Supreme Court of his own people, and then we see a third scene at night with nobody else in the room. 00:09:38.799 --> 00:09:52.240 And Luke, he's gonna spend four chapters on these trials, which tells you that Luke thinks something is happening in the courtrooms that matters more than whether or not Paul wins. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:54.720 So here's our big idea this morning. 00:09:54.879 --> 00:10:06.799 Our big idea is this that courage is something the risen Christ hands you when he stands in the room and tells you he isn't finished with you yet. 00:10:07.039 --> 00:10:15.440 Courage is something that the risen Christ hands you when he stands in the room and tells you he isn't finished with you yet. 00:10:16.240 --> 00:10:19.120 So, with that, there's three movements that we're gonna look at today. 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:23.519 We're gonna first see two passports and one loyalty. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:28.720 Secondly, we're gonna name, we're just gonna see Paul name the real thing on trial. 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:33.840 And third, we're gonna meet and see the one who stands in the room. 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:36.799 And that will make sense by the end of this morning. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:39.039 I'll pray and then let's dig into the text. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:40.000 Lord, we love you. 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:42.720 We praise you, we thank you for bringing us here today. 00:10:42.879 --> 00:10:48.240 We thank you for all that you're doing in this place, in this house. 00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.480 And so I ask that you continue to move, Lord. 00:10:50.639 --> 00:11:03.120 I ask that we would feel encouraged from the baptism today, that we would be uh spurred deeper on into relationship with you and to go out and live since as a result of sending out one of our own. 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:11.039 And Lord, I ask that your word would wash over us, that you would uh cut deep into our hearts as we dig deep into your word. 00:11:11.519 --> 00:11:12.480 We love you, Lord. 00:11:12.559 --> 00:11:13.039 We praise you. 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:14.799 It's in the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:17.360 And all God's people said, Amen. 00:11:18.080 --> 00:11:18.720 Amen. 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:23.120 So point one this morning is two passports, one loyalty. 00:11:23.440 --> 00:11:25.840 Two passports, one loyalty. 00:11:26.080 --> 00:11:33.279 Acts chapter twenty-two, verse twenty-two, the word of God says, Up to this word they listened to to him. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:40.240 Then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:52.960 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging, to find out why they were shouting against him like this. 00:11:53.200 --> 00:12:04.480 But when they had stretched him out for the whips, Paul said to the centurion, who was standing by, Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned? 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:11.360 When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, What are you about to do? 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:14.240 For this man is a Roman citizen. 00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:22.000 So the tribune came and said to him, Tell me, are you a Roman citizen? 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:23.440 And he said, Yes. 00:12:23.679 --> 00:12:27.600 The tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum. 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:30.240 Paul said, But I am a citizen by birth. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:33.759 So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. 00:12:33.919 --> 00:12:40.799 And the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:48.240 So first what we see off the rip is how the crowd reacts to Paul saying the word Gentiles. 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:50.159 And they're mad, mad, right? 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:53.200 They're not just like, hey, a little frustrated, and all like they're mad. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.519 They are angry, they're fuming. 00:12:56.720 --> 00:13:01.919 I said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should be not allowed to live. 00:13:02.080 --> 00:13:04.720 That's a pretty wild thing to say, right? 00:13:05.360 --> 00:13:10.320 Then we look at verse 23 and we see just how angry they are. 00:13:10.480 --> 00:13:17.600 Luke gives us the crowd in three details here, and every one of them is seemingly a body that's out of control. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:25.039 He says that they are shouting, that they are throwing off their cloaks, and that they are flinging dirt into the air. 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:31.600 And that is a room that is so enraged that it stopped being able to hear. 00:13:31.840 --> 00:13:37.919 You know, you know that point when you are so angry that you can't even hear any sense that's being talked to you? 00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:39.679 Like that's what's going on. 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.879 And the commander over all this, he looks at all of it and he comes to a conclusion. 00:13:45.120 --> 00:13:46.720 And it's the wrong one. 00:13:47.519 --> 00:13:55.759 He can't understand a word of what Paul preached last, what we looked at last week previously in the text, when he shared his testimony. 00:13:55.840 --> 00:13:57.679 The speech was in Aramaic. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:03.200 And so all that the commander sees is a riot with a man at the center of it. 00:14:03.840 --> 00:14:05.679 So he does what the system does. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:10.399 He takes him inside and he gets ready to beat a confession out of him. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:16.639 And I want you to see verse 25 exactly as it happened, and exactly as it's written. 00:14:17.039 --> 00:14:19.279 They've already stretched Paul out. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:24.799 The straps are on, and so this isn't a hypothetical about to get flocked. 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.200 No, like he is about to get beaten. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:33.919 And Paul, tied to a post, he turns his head to the officer, standing next to him, and he asks a question. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:38.080 Not, please, not, hey, stop, you can't do this to me. 00:14:38.399 --> 00:14:39.360 A question. 00:14:40.000 --> 00:14:41.919 Is it lawful? 00:14:42.159 --> 00:14:43.600 Is it lawful? 00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:55.440 A chain of Roman laws going back centuries, reaffirmed under Augustus, made it illegal to scourge or torture a Roman citizen who hadn't been convicted of anything. 00:14:55.679 --> 00:14:58.799 Paul had not yet been convicted of anything. 00:14:59.039 --> 00:15:01.840 And you know what tells us that Paul is right? 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:03.679 Well, it's verse 29. 00:15:03.919 --> 00:15:06.080 The commander was afraid. 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:09.840 That's our evidence that Paul was correct. 00:15:10.000 --> 00:15:16.320 The man in charge of 600 soldiers is suddenly scared of the prisoner that's tied to the post. 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:22.639 Because the prisoner has a status that the commander had just violated. 00:15:23.519 --> 00:15:29.679 Now watch verse 28, what happens here, because this is the detail that the author Luke wants you to sit with. 00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:37.120 The tribune says essentially, do you have any idea what this cost me, what this Roman citizenship cost me? 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:40.559 So he says, I bought this citizenship for a large sum. 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:44.720 So this commander, he purchased his way in. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:50.480 And Paul, he says four words that reorder the entire room. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:53.840 I'm a citizen by birth. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:56.080 He's a citizen by birth. 00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:59.120 He was born a citizen of Rome. 00:15:59.360 --> 00:16:08.799 So the commander, he he outranks Paul in that room, but Paul outranks the commander in legal documentation. 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:15.039 And so the difference between them is not effort or money, it's birth. 00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:18.000 And so here's what I don't want us to miss. 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:23.440 Two chapters ago, Paul was in the temple paying for other men's sacrifices. 00:16:23.679 --> 00:16:30.960 He was laying down his freedom, absorbing the cost that he didn't owe to keep peace with people who suspected him. 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:38.399 And now he's standing on his rights, on the fact that he's a Roman citizen, and he's refusing to be touched. 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:42.799 So we might ask, is that inconsistent of Paul? 00:16:43.120 --> 00:16:46.399 And I would just say no, it's not. 00:16:46.639 --> 00:16:49.519 Because the question was not what am I owed? 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:54.480 The question was always, what serves the gospel and protects the church right now? 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.440 That's the heart posture that Paul had. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.799 So so let's look at this plainly. 00:17:14.880 --> 00:17:21.279 I want you to hear this because I think some of us may have have been taught otherwise at some point in time. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:27.440 It's not unspiritual to use the protections that you actually have. 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.920 Faith is not synonymous with passivity. 00:17:33.279 --> 00:17:38.880 Paul, he surrenders the outcome to God and he still makes every single argument. 00:17:39.039 --> 00:17:43.759 He files every single appeal, and he produces every single document. 00:17:44.799 --> 00:17:50.240 So trusting God has never once meant refusing to speak up when something is wrong. 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:54.559 Paul is always willing and down to speak up when something is wrong. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:55.839 Paul is a Jew. 00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:57.599 Paul is a Roman. 00:17:58.000 --> 00:18:02.480 But the key part of this is that's not Paul's primary citizenship. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:04.960 Paul belongs to Jesus. 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:15.279 That's what he believes in his heart of heart, and that's why he can say, Hey, I'm giving up my freedom in one sentence and I'm utilizing it in the next. 00:18:15.519 --> 00:18:27.920 Because Paul knows who he belongs to, and that's Jesus Christ, and it's because he knows he belongs to Jesus Christ that his mission, his heart, is to spread the gospel, and the Lord's gonna take him to Rome, and that's pretty wild. 00:18:28.880 --> 00:18:35.039 So we see Paul, he has three identities Jew, Roman, Christ follower. 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:39.440 Only one of those three is ultimate. 00:18:40.079 --> 00:18:42.960 Only one of those three will last forever. 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.640 Um, Charles Spurgeon, he puts it this way. 00:18:47.119 --> 00:18:50.319 Spurgeon puts it this way in a little devotional that he wrote. 00:18:50.480 --> 00:19:00.319 He said, When tempted to sin, reply, I cannot do this great wickedness, for I am Christ's. 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:22.160 What he's saying is your identity as a Christ follower, saying, I am Christ's, is what our holiness flows out of. 00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:23.680 That is our argument for holiness. 00:19:23.839 --> 00:19:25.359 Simply, we are Christ's. 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:26.880 We belong to him. 00:19:27.359 --> 00:19:31.680 So Spurgeon, he reached for Paul's exact sentence to make this point. 00:19:31.920 --> 00:19:38.880 I am a Roman, protected Paul's back on one afternoon, thousands of years ago. 00:19:39.200 --> 00:19:43.359 But Rome, as it was in the time of the Bible, is gone. 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:48.559 There's only one identity that outlived the Roman Empire. 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:52.799 The identity of I am Christ's. 00:19:53.279 --> 00:19:57.839 That is the identity that we still live into today. 00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:00.160 And we didn't buy it either. 00:20:02.160 --> 00:20:03.920 No, we were purchased. 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:05.359 Christ purchased us. 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:07.200 You were born into it. 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:09.440 Not the first time you were born, right? 00:20:09.599 --> 00:20:13.599 But the second time when you were reborn into Christ. 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:21.920 What we next see as we continue on in the text is point number two name the real thing on trial. 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:24.640 Name the real thing on trial. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:39.440 Acts twenty two, verse thirty through twenty-three ten reads, But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him, and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet him. 00:20:39.599 --> 00:20:42.640 And he brought Paul down and set him before them. 00:20:42.880 --> 00:20:50.480 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day. 00:20:50.720 --> 00:20:55.440 And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 00:20:55.599 --> 00:21:00.000 Then Paul said to him, God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:05.839 Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck? 00:21:06.079 --> 00:21:10.000 Those who stood by said, Would you revile God's high priest? 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:14.319 And Paul said, I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest. 00:21:14.559 --> 00:21:18.720 For it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:33.119 Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees, it is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial. 00:21:33.440 --> 00:21:39.759 And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.559 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel nor spirit. 00:21:44.799 --> 00:21:46.880 But the Pharisees acknowledged them all. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:53.200 Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply. 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:55.279 We find nothing wrong in this man. 00:21:55.440 --> 00:21:58.240 What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him? 00:21:58.480 --> 00:22:11.039 And when the dissension became Violence, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks. 00:22:12.160 --> 00:22:15.519 So, one quick note so that none of us get lost here. 00:22:15.680 --> 00:22:18.079 This is a different Ananias that we're talking about. 00:22:18.240 --> 00:22:32.079 This isn't the Ananias that we've met previously in Acts, the devout, respected believer who walked into a room with Saul and said, Brother Saul, this is a different Ananias, so that's important to note. 00:22:33.119 --> 00:22:34.720 That Ananias was a good man. 00:22:34.799 --> 00:22:36.160 It was a beautiful moment. 00:22:36.400 --> 00:22:37.359 This is not him. 00:22:37.519 --> 00:22:40.720 This Ananias is the high priest of Jerusalem. 00:22:40.960 --> 00:22:44.720 And the first thing he does is order Paul punched in the mouth. 00:22:45.200 --> 00:22:47.599 So opposite men, if you will. 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:53.920 One welcomes an enemy as Christ compelled him to, the other assaults a brother. 00:22:55.039 --> 00:22:58.160 So Paul, though, he opens with one sentence here. 00:22:58.319 --> 00:23:03.759 I've lived my life before God, in all good conscience, up to this day. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:06.400 And then whap, they hit him for it. 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:10.720 Now, a clear conscience, it's not the same thing as being innocent. 00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:14.000 Paul is not saying, hey, I've never done anything wrong. 00:23:14.480 --> 00:23:19.519 Paul knew better than anybody in the building that he had some stuff in his past. 00:23:21.200 --> 00:23:26.559 He had spent years hunting Christians with a conscience that never once bothered him. 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:29.839 And so what he's claiming here is not sinlessness. 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:40.720 He's claiming that he hasn't been playing a double game, he's not living a double life, and that's exactly what he then accuses the high priest of. 00:23:41.359 --> 00:23:43.839 He says, You whitewashed wall. 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:52.400 And so that's a picture straight out of Ezekiel, a flimsy, badly built wall that somebody painted over so it looks solid. 00:23:53.279 --> 00:24:06.079 Back in 2020, when we were, Chelsea and I were uh moving up here buying a house, um, our our realtor he referred to a house we looked at as putting lipstick on a pig. 00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:09.359 So that's maybe a modern example of what Paul's saying. 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:17.119 It's like, hey, this is gonna fall down, or this isn't actually looking good, but there's some paint on the outside to make it a little better. 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.559 So that's what he's saying. 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:20.400 It won't hold up. 00:24:20.720 --> 00:24:24.319 Paul, he then names the hypocrisy with surgical precision. 00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:30.720 He says, You're sitting there to judge me by the law, and you just broke the law in order to do it. 00:24:33.599 --> 00:24:36.400 And so maybe you're sitting here thinking, like, hey, wait, wait, wait. 00:24:36.559 --> 00:24:38.799 Is Paul allowed to do that? 00:24:39.200 --> 00:24:42.079 Jesus was silent at his trial, right? 00:24:42.720 --> 00:24:45.279 Jesus said to turn the other cheek. 00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:50.079 But taught Paul, he turns around and boom, fires back with some words. 00:24:50.400 --> 00:24:51.839 So two things for us here. 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.160 First, Jesus is the only perfect one. 00:24:54.319 --> 00:24:54.960 Amen. 00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:57.200 Paul is not the standard. 00:24:57.440 --> 00:24:59.519 Paul's not the standard, Jesus is. 00:25:00.160 --> 00:25:05.119 But secondly, Luke gives us no hints in the text at all that Paul sinned here. 00:25:05.359 --> 00:25:11.440 Notice what Paul does not do, he doesn't hit back, he hands the judgment to God. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:14.160 And he quotes the very law that these men are breaking. 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:16.400 And that's the same posture that we should have. 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:18.079 The judgment is up to God. 00:25:18.240 --> 00:25:19.279 God is the judge. 00:25:19.519 --> 00:25:20.400 We are not. 00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:22.000 We leave that to God. 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:28.240 And in fact, Jesus, he actually called all religious leaders whitewashed tombs. 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:36.480 So there is such a thing as a righteous, sharp word in the face of corruption, dressed up as holiness. 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:40.720 So not every rebuke is a loss of temper. 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:48.079 Then we get to verse 6, and this is a move that turns the whole book. 00:25:48.319 --> 00:25:56.480 Paul, he identifies that the room in front of him is made up of two parties, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. 00:25:56.640 --> 00:26:05.279 The Sadducees are the wealthy, temple connected ones, and they don't believe in the resurrection in angels or in spirits. 00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:10.480 And then the Pharisees, they are popular and they believe all three. 00:26:11.119 --> 00:26:18.240 And Paul says that this trial, the trial that he is undergoing, is about the resurrection of the dead. 00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:23.759 Now we we could read that as a clever tactic to split the jury, if you will. 00:26:24.319 --> 00:26:26.240 Split the jury and survive the day. 00:26:26.559 --> 00:26:29.519 But listen, he never stopped saying it. 00:26:29.680 --> 00:26:36.160 That's like Paul's whole message throughout the book of Acts, throughout the letters that he writes to the churches. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:26:39.920 Standing in front of Governor Felix, he says it twice in the same speech. 00:26:42.240 --> 00:26:43.920 And that is what I'm on trial for. 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:46.000 Before King Agrippa. 00:26:46.240 --> 00:26:50.160 Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? 00:26:50.400 --> 00:27:01.039 And at the very end of the book of Acts, in chains in Rome, little spoiler alert, Paul says, It is because of the hope of Israel that I am wearing this chain. 00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:08.480 So here's my favorite proof of this being Paul's message that he's proclaiming. 00:27:08.720 --> 00:27:15.359 Two chapters from now, the Roman governor Festus has to brief King Agrippa on the case. 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:19.119 And he has no idea what any of it means, right? 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:23.519 He sums up the entire thing in one kind of offhand sentence. 00:27:23.759 --> 00:27:30.799 He says that it's a dispute about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserts to be alive. 00:27:31.519 --> 00:27:39.519 So even the pagan Roman bureaucrat, even his one-line version of Christianity, is the resurrection. 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:44.640 Paul, he made it impossible to describe the case any other way. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.400 And the same is true for us today, family. 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:50.640 There's nothing new under the sun. 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:55.920 The entirety of our Christian faith rises and falls on the resurrection. 00:27:56.079 --> 00:28:10.480 I've shared about this before, but I have a dear friend, a guy that I've walked through in some life that's been completely lost in addiction, who's now no longer walking in that, but he still does not yet believe in Jesus. 00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:17.279 And what he's told me, the reason that this brother does not yet follow Jesus is because he just cannot believe in the resurrection. 00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:24.640 Everything within the Christian faith hinges on the resurrection of Christ Jesus. 00:28:25.359 --> 00:28:33.599 The objection that people give you or give us is not usually the actual objection that they have. 00:28:34.000 --> 00:28:39.039 You know, maybe as you're talking about your Christian faith to somebody, it comes out as politics. 00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:44.720 Or maybe it's, oh, well, I'm just not following Jesus because of the hypocrisy in the church. 00:28:45.119 --> 00:28:50.400 Or maybe it's something that somebody's uncle, their crazy uncle, said back in 1997. 00:28:51.599 --> 00:28:53.279 I was five years old at the time. 00:28:54.240 --> 00:28:56.000 I guess I'm crazy uncles. 00:28:56.240 --> 00:29:00.319 All of that may be worth a real conversation, right? 00:29:01.519 --> 00:29:06.799 But underneath it is the one claim that nobody knows where to file. 00:29:07.279 --> 00:29:12.160 A man was dead, and he got up and he walked out of the grave. 00:29:12.400 --> 00:29:15.599 That is the single most important claim of Christianity. 00:29:15.839 --> 00:29:20.960 You see, everything within the Christian faith hinges upon this detail. 00:29:21.279 --> 00:29:25.680 If Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, then we can just go ahead and pack up. 00:29:25.759 --> 00:29:27.599 We ain't got to do a baptism today. 00:29:27.759 --> 00:29:29.440 We can just pack up and head home. 00:29:30.880 --> 00:29:38.400 But if Christ did rise from the grave, and I believe that he did, then that changes everything. 00:29:38.720 --> 00:29:44.160 Because, hear this: what it means is that he died for you. 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:50.000 If Jesus rose from the grave, and he did, that means he died for you. 00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:57.920 He died so that your sins could be forgiven. 00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:01.759 And I believe that with every fiber of my being. 00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:10.960 And that I think is is what the Apostle Paul is telling us. 00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:14.160 That's the thing that splits rooms in half. 00:30:15.839 --> 00:30:20.400 Not because it's offensive, it is, though, but because it is decisive. 00:30:20.559 --> 00:30:25.279 It is a statement, it is a something that you must make a decision about. 00:30:25.519 --> 00:30:27.359 Either Christ is everything or he's nothing. 00:30:27.440 --> 00:30:30.079 And if he's everything, we better start acting like it. 00:30:34.079 --> 00:30:36.319 So Paul, he understood that. 00:30:36.799 --> 00:30:40.559 My question for you this morning, brothers and sisters, is do you? 00:30:42.640 --> 00:30:46.480 Last point, just one verse that we're looking at is point three. 00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:48.640 The one who stands in the room. 00:30:48.880 --> 00:30:55.680 The one who stands in the room, Acts 23, verse 11, the last verse we'll look at today. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:31:08.720 The following night the Lord stood by him and said, Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. 00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:11.200 One verse. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:13.599 Everything has been leading here. 00:31:15.039 --> 00:31:16.559 Let's set the scene. 00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:20.880 Paul, he is in custody. 00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:29.519 In the past two days, two separate crowds have tried to kill him, and the second one was the highest court of his own people. 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:34.880 The institution that was supposed to be the guardian of everything that he'd given his life to. 00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:38.559 So he came to Jerusalem to serve these very people. 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:44.000 He's been beaten, he's been tied up, he's been punched in the mouth and nearly torn apart. 00:31:44.720 --> 00:31:47.920 And now the building is quiet. 00:31:48.400 --> 00:31:50.880 And he is by himself with all of it. 00:31:51.680 --> 00:31:53.440 Some of you know what that's like. 00:31:53.680 --> 00:32:04.240 Like you're, it's the time, it's been a crazy day, and now you're alone with your own thoughts and your own prayers, and it's just you and the spirit. 00:32:04.559 --> 00:32:05.200 Right? 00:32:06.880 --> 00:32:08.799 It's eerie silent. 00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:13.440 And maybe it's unbearable for you, maybe it's not. 00:32:13.680 --> 00:32:17.920 I think Paul was probably very in tune with the spirit, so it wasn't unbearable for him. 00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:23.599 He was, my guess is he was probably in a great amount of peace in this moment. 00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:29.200 But there's a little detail here that I think assures us of that. 00:32:29.519 --> 00:32:32.160 And I think if we're not careful, we'll skip right over it. 00:32:32.240 --> 00:32:36.160 Like maybe if you were reading Acts 23 in your quiet time, you just gloss right over this. 00:32:36.319 --> 00:32:40.880 And it's this little phrase The Lord stood by him. 00:32:41.519 --> 00:32:43.519 The Lord stood by him. 00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:49.839 Now, let's notice very carefully what the Lord Jesus does not do here. 00:32:51.519 --> 00:32:53.119 He doesn't open the door. 00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:56.079 He does not clear Paul's name. 00:32:56.240 --> 00:32:59.680 He doesn't send an earthquake so that Paul can get out of this prison. 00:32:59.759 --> 00:33:00.880 He's done that before, right? 00:33:01.039 --> 00:33:03.039 But that's not what he does in this moment. 00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:07.440 He doesn't strike the high priest down or fix the court or scatter the mob. 00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:09.279 He does none of that. 00:33:10.079 --> 00:33:13.119 He doesn't say, he doesn't even say, no one will harm you. 00:33:13.680 --> 00:33:17.680 He said that once before, and his promise was true in that moment. 00:33:17.920 --> 00:33:21.839 Years earlier in Corinth, he said that to Paul on a hard night. 00:33:22.160 --> 00:33:24.079 But he does not say it here. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:27.759 He does not promise safety to Paul. 00:33:29.519 --> 00:33:32.160 Because the reality is safety isn't coming. 00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:36.319 From this night, it's the last verse of Acts. 00:33:36.480 --> 00:33:38.960 Paul, he'll never walk free again. 00:33:39.839 --> 00:33:41.440 Jesus doesn't get him out. 00:33:41.680 --> 00:33:46.319 But what Jesus does is Jesus stands in the room. 00:33:46.640 --> 00:33:48.240 Jesus stands in the room. 00:33:48.720 --> 00:33:54.160 You've been there when somebody you love is in a hospital bed. 00:33:54.799 --> 00:33:58.880 There's a moment where everyone runs out of things to say. 00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:02.079 The doctors have told you what they know. 00:34:02.480 --> 00:34:04.799 The family has said those encouraging things. 00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:05.519 Be strong. 00:34:05.599 --> 00:34:06.960 It's gonna be okay. 00:34:08.000 --> 00:34:13.840 And what's left in that room is you and your prayers. 00:34:16.320 --> 00:34:20.480 Nobody often remembers what gets said when you're sitting in that chair. 00:34:21.519 --> 00:34:26.000 But everyone who rememb remembers who was there in that moment, right? 00:34:30.079 --> 00:34:36.320 Because presence is the one thing that doesn't require the situation to improve first. 00:34:36.400 --> 00:34:37.440 Is that fair? 00:34:37.840 --> 00:34:41.119 It's a ministry of presence that we're talking about. 00:34:41.360 --> 00:34:50.159 And if you are in Christ as the Apostle Paul was, then you can rest in knowing that you have the presence of the risen Christ with you. 00:34:50.559 --> 00:34:54.480 He stands in the room with you, if you will. 00:34:55.199 --> 00:34:57.840 And then to the Apostle Paul, he speaks. 00:34:58.400 --> 00:34:59.760 It's one word in Greek. 00:34:59.920 --> 00:35:01.039