Bible Guys Classics: Acts 22 & 23

So, Jeff, remember yesterday how I said the Gladiator quote about Roman citizenship. Yes, I might have gett a little ahead of myself. Well, this is a very exciting story and it's all running together. Yeah, I thought we were going to actually include that. Well today the only thing that the really crowd knows is that he's a Jewish person, right, that's right, And now today he's going to actually launch into the Roman citizenship part of. His Yeah, but as soon as he brings that up, he turns into a hot potato. Nobody wants to touch you after that point. So that's what we're talking about. He's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bible guys. So, mister Jeff, we have given to us. They're calling it this or. That, this or that. What would you rather pick? Okay, so here's the first question, fun and then we just needed to talk about it, you know, whether we have commonality or. I haven't read any of these I have not ever seen them, so either. The first one said, when visiting a new place, would you rather have a tour guide or be your own tour guide and then find things slash places yourself. I'd rather be my own tour guide. Yeah, I think. It depends on where you are. I think in Israel, like we're going to Israel in a couple of months, I think that it's absolutely necessary to have your own tour guide. I saw the value of it last time when. I went in nine. Yeah, but I would say other than that, I would probably want to be my own tour guide. Yeah. It depends on how much time you have. Like I love to when I travel, I like always everywhere we go by a lonely planet guide. So there's a guide there, and it's time to eat at these restaurants, check these places out, here's how much it costs for that museum, whatever. But I would rather not have somebody because the other side of it is those guides always want to take you to their cousin's shop to go buy souvenirs. Right, there's kind of this thing so frustrates me. But I was just in Luxor, Egypt, about a month and a half ago, and you know, there's the Valley of the Kings where King Tut's tomb is, and there's Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple all that kind of stuff. But we only had one day, Right, we only had one day. Well, at that point, there's so much to cover that we decided let's hire a professional guide. And he just gave us the height We said, hey, we want to do these five things, just give us the highlights. And it was perfect because he had a very precise knowledge of how far away things were and how much time we could spend in each place. And he did a great job. That was fantastic. So on that day when we were really tight, using a guide was good. That's cool. Yeah, but normally I'd rather do it myself. Okay. Number two, if you had a free cruise, would you rather go to Alaska or the Caribbean? Alaska? Me too? Yeah, well only because I've been to the Caribbean several times. Oh I haven't, and and it's a bucket list for me to see the northern lights. Oh yeah I have. I haven't. I haven't been to Alaska. Yeah, and I would. I mean I haven't been to Caribbean either. Yeah. Yeah. So number three, well, hey, hey I've been somewhere you haven't. Yeah, yeah, I haven't. No. I love that. Number three. Would you rather live on the East coast or live on the West coast? Two? Right, right? So all of our listeners in California and in Jersey are like, oh, thanks, man, man, I would rather. It's like asking all that, would you rather live in Michigan or Indiana? Right, it's true, you're right, okay, but you got to choose. Would you question East Coast? I think so too, But it's only because I feel like everybody who lives in the West Coast. It's in another way if I feel like they're on a different planet. I really do. I feel like it's like it's like I love it. I've been to California several times, but it seems so far removed from the reality in which I love and live, right, it just seems like, you know, I know it's only a plane ride away, but still all right, how about. This one number four? If you could time track? Oh this is a good Would you rather be able to experience the past or to experience and see the future the past? Why you can get a sports almanac. That you give it yourself? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh No, I think, uh the future is an adventure to me, But I've read so much about the past I'd like to go see it. So I like the mystery of what's happening tomorrow. Okay, all right, I think I think my answer is also the past, but not because I'm fascinated with all of my reading and information of the past. I think it's because I I would want to affect the future. But that's really not the question. Was It's not the question. Oh yeah, okay, would you rather just experience experiencing them? Okay, then I'm. Sorry, I'm changing my answer. Yeah, I'm going to go to the future. Go to the future, yeah, okay, okay. Yeah, just just to know it's and then I can come back to the president and be like invest in. Crypto. Right, So there it is, So here we go. So I think I think we can put that one to Ben. I like that. I like the would you rather? Yeah? Those are fun? Those are fun? So those are those are the four questions? That's it. So, I mean, I could invent my own if you want. You ready for this? I was when I was a youth pastor. We actually had a book put out by Doug Fields called. Would you Rather? And I only remember a few of them, but I would ask my youth group, which is high school students in middle school all the time these questions. You know, there's also like you know, would you rather freeze to death or burned to death? Those kind of. Questions we have to die, right right? But my, but my, one that I always asked was would you rather have your hand nibbled on by a cannibal? Or would you rather eat a Hamberger in front of a starving child? That's terrible. This is a terrible question. Terrible. That's probably why I remember them. Yeah, man, well both of those are bad choices. Yes, I think if nobody is watching I eat a hamburger. Terrible, Jeff, terrible. I know. No matter no matter what you choose, you lose, right Yeah. Yeah, So I mean if if you have to choose between hurting somebody or hurting yourself, well then you choose to let the cannibal nibble. Actually I messed that question up, not that anybody cares, but I'm going to tell you anyway. Okay, I mixed two of them up. Oh no, no, it was supposed to be would you rather eat a hamburger in front of a starving child? Or kick a puppy? Oh yeah, you asked me that one before. Yeah, yeah, And then the hand on the cannibal? Uh? One was would you rather get your hand nibble by a cannibal or get poked in the eye with a hot poker. Oh yeah, nibbled, yes, an easy one. Yeah yeah, Okay, it's so weird. I can't help what I read. I'm glad the desert is the one who picks these normal questions. I agree. I agree. So we're nine chapter twenty two. Okay, yeah, and Paul has you know again, he's been carried away from the mob by the Romans. He pleads to the crowd, he gives them his story, slips in the gospel, yeah, and identifies and builds common ground. And then he's continuing. So you know, we've spent some time in some of the letters Paul wrote, and they're pretty theological, right, So we've had a lot of these daily devotions where it's just theology. And then you know, we pivot. Now we're in this narrative. There's this storyline going, and the stories are for our example. So then what we're looking for when you read a story in the Bible is not what is the theology of that story. What you're looking for is what is the example to me in this story? And so we'll just pick up in verse twenty four and read on through chapter twenty three, verse eleven, He says the commander brought Paul inside and ordered him lash with whips to make him confess his crime. He wanted to find out why the crowd had become so furious when they tied Paul down to lash, and Paul said to the officer, standing, there is for you to whip a Roman citizen who hasn't even been tried. When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and asked, what are you doing? This man is a Roman citizen. So the commander went over and asked, Paul, tell me, are you a Roman citizen. Yes, I certainly am, Paul replied, I am too. The commander muttered, and it cost me plenty. Paul answered, but I am a citizen by birth. The soldiers who were about to interrogate Paul quickly withdrew when they heard he was a Roman citizen, and the commander was frightened because he'd ordered him bound and whipped. The Next day, the commander ordered the leading priests into session with the Jewish High Council. He wanted to find out what the trouble was all about, so he released Paul to have him stand before them, gazing intently at the High Council, Paul began, brothers, I've always lived before God with a clear conscience. Instantly, ANNONI as the high priests, commanded them those close to Paul to slap him in the mouth. But Paul said to him, God will slap you, you corrupt hypocrite. What kind of judge are you to break the law yourself by ordering me struck like that? Tho was standing. Paul said to him, do you dare to insult God's High Priest? I'm sorry, brothers, I didn't realize he was the high priest. Paul replied, for the scriptures say you must not speak evil of any of your rulers. Paul realized that some members of the High Council were Sadducees and some were Pharisees, so he shouted, brothers, I'm a Pharisee, as were my ancestors, and I am on trial because my hope is in the resurrection of the dead. This divided the council, the Pharisees against the Sadducees, for the Sadducees say there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, but the Pharisees believe in all these things. So there was a great uproar. Some of the teachers of religious law, who were pharisees, jumped up and began to argue forcefully, we see nothing wrong with him, and they shouted, perhaps the spirit and Angel spoke to him. As the conflict grew more violent, the commander was afraid they would tear Paul apart, so he ordered his soldiers to go and rescue him by force and take you back to the fortress. That night, the Lord appeared to Paul and said, be encouraged, Paul. Just as you have been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the good news in Rome as well. Right as if as if there wasn't enough ruckus going on. Here that you know that he just rolls a grenade in the middle of the room. Oh, by the way, I'm a pharisee. Yeah, and uh, you know it's so great because if you think about what Paul is doing here, Paul is first of all, he let himself start to get whipped, right, so Paul could have easily said I'm a Roman citizen before they threw the first lash. So what is he doing. He's putting them in the spot on purpose. Yes, he's like, oh, by the way, I'm a Roman citizen. So now it says the commander's fearing. The commander is fearful. And then and then then he's when he notices that some are Pharisees and Sadducees. What does he do? He says the perfect sentence to cause uproar and so that they're divided. And he knew their theology and he knew by saying what he said, it was going to cause them to be divided. So Paul is throwing. Grenades everywhere, which is great, and he calls Anonius a hypocrite until he finds out that he he's Antonius. And then I think there's a big lesson there for us when he finds out the Anonius is the high priest. At that point he backpedaled just a little bit, you know. So he thought this was just some common guy that was being a jerk to him, right, and so he was kind of infuriated by the bad treatment. But then he realized this is the high priest who has authority, and then he backpedaled, Oh wait, I should have been more respectful. And you know, sometimes we can we don't respect the person, but we should always respect the office, right, And that's that's what you guys talked about it in Romans. You know, God is the one who ordains our leaders, and so hey, if that's the leader that's in charge, then we should at least respect that office. And he does that. But he's perpetually just stirring the pot. And it was I think he did that with the with the Pharisees and the Sadducees because he knew this wasn't going to go anywhere. This is not the goal anyways, right, He's trying to get to Rome. And so there's not a sense that hey if this, if I go through a full trial with these With the Sanhedrin, he was a member probably of the Sanhedron, or at least he was probably at least a clerk for the Sanhedrin, and so he knew the ins and outs. This is like trying to take a defense attorney to trial. It's going to be a month, two months. This is gonna be a long thing, and it's going to be useless. It's probably gonna be a hung jury anyways. Because he knows the intricacies of this court and he knows it's not going to get him what he needs. And so that's why he appeals and goes, hey, by the way, I'm a Roman citizen. Roman citizens could not be punished without a trial, and not not only without a trial, without being convicted in the trial, and the whole process for a Roman citizen was much more complicated than it would have been for a subject of Rome. And so then this soldier says is Commanders goes, oh, yeah, I'm a citizen too. I bought my citizenship. Paul goes, yeah, I was born a citizen. And the difference in the quality of citizenship between a guy who buys it versus a guy who was born it was this really intimidated this guy. And so the whole thing's just the mess for everybody involved, right, which really kind of lets you know, none of this should have ever happened anyways, right, right, This is just the This is just evil that's happening, and Paul's trying to navigate through as best you can. Yeah, well, Paul, I mean, what's Paul's crime. Preaching the Gospel and inviting gentiles and Jews to receive the good news? That's his crime. That's right, that's right. And so. I want to point out also that I'm going to ask you a question, Jeff, put you on the spot. Verse number eleven, it says that night the Lord capital l appeared to Paul and said, be encouraged, Paul, just as you've been a witness to me and jerusalemus preaching good news in Rome as well. What it says the Lord appeared to him. It's the same question I have and acts chapter number whatever it is, you know, eighteen or so or whatever, during the plagues of Egypt, where it says, you know, people always say the Angel of Death came down and went through and killed the firstborns and the land of the post, but the scripture doesn't say that. The scripture actually says the God said. I will come down. I will come down and come through. And so it says when it says the Lord appeared, I'm thinking, Okay, is this God the Father? Is this the Lord as in Jesus has appeared before him again, or or is it him sending an angel And he's just saying the Lord appeared, But it's as if the Lord appeared because he's sending an angel. Yeah, I think uh luke is pretty because remember this isn't Paul telling the story. This is Luke telling the story. Luke is pretty tight on when it's an angel, right, an angel came and sat Peter free while he was in the in the jail. He's really tight on that. And then when it's not, then I think he would have said it was an angel if it was an angel. So here I think he's talking about Jesus, is what I think I think Paul is said. I think Luke is saying that Paul spent time with Jesus there and that Jesus came and told Paul You're going to go to Rome. So if you think about that, that's pretty awesome, Yeah, because it doesn't normally we would just hear that and be like, oh cool, he heard a word from the Lord. But he didn't say that. It says he appeared to him. And so just the idea that Paul would go through all of that and then spend time face to face with Jesus is pretty incredible. You know, it changes the whole visual, doesn't it. Yeah? Yeah? And uh, and by the way, Luke was a doctor by profession, right, right, so he was very he was precision oriented. Uh. You know when you say he was pretty tight. It's because his whole life was that way. Right, right, he was very detailed. Yeah, and one of the just as an aside, archaeologists and historians would say Luke is one of the most precise ancient historians that exist. Even even we're talking about historians that aren't Christians, would say, there aren't very many, if any Oh, this is two days in a row. Yeah, very exciting. Wow, I think it's Dusty in here? Is this a new segment? Now, I'm just kidding, it's not Dustin there. I don't know why. It's easy. Yeah. So anyways, he's a very precise historian, and that kind of I think is one of the reasons why it Also it refers to be encouraged Paul. Just as you've been a witness to me here in Jerusalem, you must preach the good news in Rome as well. But he says, you've been a witness to me, right, So he's saying, this is I think Jesus talking, because Paul never was, you know, testified of an angel. He always was testifying of what Jesus did in his life. So yeah, and this is a unique moment. We don't see this happening in Paul's life all the time, right, right, Paul had the engagement with Jesus on the road to Damascus. He spent three years in the Arabian Peninsula being taught by Jesus according to the Book of the Galatians, and then this encounter here they seem to be the three with Jesus. So it wasn't all the time, but this was. And this is a pretty big deal because Jesus is basically saying, you are going to Rome, right, and you know, all those prophecies are going to come true. Right. And by the way, it's also the timing is hilarious because after all of that, after having gone through this, you know, big ordeal, Jesus like. Hey, good job, do it again, right, which is great? Yeah, you know, now it's interesting. You know how we always talked about how much we love the Life Affication Bible. Sure, sometimes Life Affication Study Bible has, you know, just a great insight into Hey, it connects this passage to that passage when you read the study notes at the bottom. But sometimes they'll give you some really great historical pieces and verses two through five and chapter twenty three it says Josephus. We already referenced Josephus before, Right, he was the one who wrote about the Egyptian guy that led four thousand assassins. Right. So Josephus, a respective first century historian, described to Anonius this high priest as profane, greedy, and hot tempered. Right, So that's what it tells us about Anonius that this is a pretty bad guy. He wasn't a good religious leader. And so in that context, now this is a secular historian. This isn't some Christian guy who goes, we don't like Anonis because he's vain and hot tempered and greedy. This is a secular Roman historian saying, this is a pretty bad guy. And you know, this happens within all organized organizations in the world, whether you're talking about school teachers or firefighters, or you know, working at your in your office, or post office workers or church workers or whatever. There's a bad seed almost everywhere. Right. And yet Paul, as soon as he found out that Anonius was the high priest, back to this other point, he stepped back and said, I'm going to honor the position even though this was a bad guy. Right. Well, the guy ordered those who were standing next to paula slapman his face. Yeah, so, so in other words, what he's saying is is he's saying, I don't want to officially order the Roman commander to continue to whip you because that would be illegal. Right, you know? Is not illegal? Hey, you that are standing there, what's your name? Fred? Punch him? Right? And so what does Paul say? He calls him a hypocrite and says God will judge you and slap you in the face for slapping me in the face. And he mentioned it was illegal. So yeah, So Anonius's character is shown just by that one command that he gave by doing something like that. And then this moment where he realizes, oh, wait a minute, I've got a room full of Sadducees and Pharisees. I'm going to get them fighting and take their focus off of me. This was, I believe, a supernatural insight that Jesus gave, or that God the Holy Spirit gave to Paul in that moment to take the focus off of Paul. This trial is not going to go anywhere, and ultimately the Romans are going to have to step back in and rescue him because God's goal was not for it all to be finished in Jerusalem. God's goal was to get have Paul take the Gospel all the way to the Roman emperor. Yeah, and keep in. Mind as well for our listeners actually as who I'm speaking to, keep in mind that Paul was a Pharisee himself, so he knew everything there was to know here and he thought, oh, I have the knowledge to get these guys going. And it just as a reminder to us, just like you mentioned before, So this is a narrative that we need to look as an. Example to us. It's an example that tells us that God has perfectly placed Paul for this job. He's perfectly qualified, he's perfectly gifted. Paul. God is using his you know, his knowledge, he's leveraging his gifts, his background. In this case, you know, he told his history, his story, which gained favor with the crowd. So anyway, all that to say, it's amazing how God can place you perfectly where you are. To make the biggest difference. I believe there are people who are you know, at their workplace and their cubicle or at a desk or in an office somewhere, or you know, just a part of a group of people and they don't think that they have the right kind of influence to make a difference spiritually. But I would argue you and say, just don't ever doubt the fact that God has placed you where you are. Leverage your influence to make a difference. Did I ever tell you when we went to Cuba? Because you and I went to Cuba together. I brought Eddie Nappenberger is a good friend of mine and he used to actually, uh, one of the only people that I even know in my whole life that dabbled in this. Uh. I guess, I guess it's it's not it's not a religion, but it's a Santa Ria and it's it's really just a combination of voodoo and Catholicism. That was It just happened to the island of Cuba, right, It just developed over the centuries because the Spaniards were there and they and they brought the Catholicism and. Then there was a voodoo and everything else. Anyway, So the point is is that I invite Eddie to Cuba, not even knowing he had this background. Well, the people on the island, a lot of them have. Santa Ria, and by the way it's a kind of weird, weird kind of thing to get statues with, you know, crying with blood and all these weird things. And so anyway, we're visiting a house together and I'm trying to get through this guy and this guy is just looking at me like, you know, whatever, dude, whatever your whatever you And then all of a sudden, Eddie leans forward and says, so I noticed. And all of a sudden he starts talking. He's like, so, what you're referring to is the is the ocean coming up to thea And he starts mentioning all these different people and all these different steps everything else, and all of a sudden, this guy leans forward and he goes yes. He says, well, let me tell you why Jesus, you know, saved my life and all this kind of things. That guy leaned into that, And I thought to myself, now, who knew that that God wanted me to ask Eddie the perfect guy for this moment. Right right, because of the commonality with both of them understanding century on a level you can't even comprehend, like you stumbled through even what it is. Well, I was I was trying to be respectful to you, but. They have all these figurines and statues with different names. The city of it is unbelievable, and the demonic work within it is pretty substantial. Yes. And so for Eddie to be able to communicate directly with that guy, yes, on a level, not on an academic level, but on a practical I lived your life. Yes, and it was. It was. It was brilliant to watch, but it was literally in that moment, I kid you not. I just I recognized the bigness of God here and I thought, man, way back three months ago, when God just said, hey, ask him, he'd be good for him. I had no idea that he was going to be the most qualified person in this room at this moment, which was great. And there's some mom listening who goes, oh, I don't have some extravment. Yes, but you're a uniquely positioned to reach moms. There's there's some tool and Die guy who I'm not a ministry. Yeah, but you can reach tool and Die guys right right. God has positioned you specifically to reach the people that you're around. He's not waiting for Chris and Jeff to show up to lead them to Jesus. He sent you to go lead them to. Jeth right or an invitation to a Christmas service. That's right, Yep, that's right. So it's pretty great. God's in control. That's what this whole thing's about. Well, that's probably a great place to end, and so we will see you next time, hopefully on the Bible. Guys,