The passage in front of us today describes some of the events surrounding the apostle Paul’s journey towards Rome with the testimony of the gospel ready and waiting on his lips at every turn. Paul was a man who was called to testify.
He was a man who was called by God to leave his life of terrorizing Christians behind, to trust in the saving work of Jesus at the cross of Calvary, and to testify about the power of the gospel to save and to transform rebellious sinners into beloved children of God. God’s calling on Paul’s life was no walk in the park. In Acts 9:15 – 16, God says that Paul “is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”
Think about this, Gentiles, kings, and all of Israel would hear the message of the gospel of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior from the lips of the apostle Paul and the net result would be that God’s name would be made famous and the messenger would suffer greatly – just as his Savior had suffered greatly as well. This was the apostle Paul’s calling; he was called to trust and to follow his suffering Savior as he too suffered while testifying or proclaiming the gospel. Look at today’s passage with me…
30But 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, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
1And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” 2And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 3Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” 4Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” 5And 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.’”
6Now 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.” 7and when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. 9Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” 10And 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.
11The 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.”
12When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. 14They 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. 15Now 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.”
16Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. 17Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” 18So 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.” 19The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” 20And 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. 21But 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.” 22So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.”
23Then 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. 24Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” 25And he wrote a letter to this effect:
26Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings. 27This 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. 28And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. 29I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. 30And 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.”
31So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. 32And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. 33When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor; they presented Paul also before him. 34On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, 35he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod’s praetorium.
Think about the calling of God on your life right now. I always say that God’s calling on our lives is twofold: we are called to trust and to follow Jesus and we are also called to serve Jesus in the proclamation of the gospel (Acts 2:37 – 41, Matt. 28:18 – 20).
Sadly, I think we often get it wrong when it comes to God’s calling on our lives. We either create a culture of consumerism where paid staff do all the work of entertaining spectators, or we create a culture of little worker bees who are not appropriately trained in the work of discipleship.
What is God’s calling on your life right now? Who are you testifying the gospel to right now? Have you trusted God for salvation (the first aspect of God’s calling)? Are you trusting God in the suffering that a call to ministry inevitably requires? Take a look at some of the highlights of our passage today as we think about God’s calling on our lives.
#1: PAUL TESTIFIES IN FRONT OF THE JEWISH COUNCIL (22:30 – 23:10)
In these verses, the Roman tribune assembles the Jewish council and brings the apostle Paul before them so that he can find out why this council wants to murder him (v. 22:30). As Paul begins his defense, by proclaiming his good conscience before God, the high priest orders someone to strike Paul on the face which promptly causes Paul to get into a verbal yelling match with his accusers – he even goes so far as to threaten the high priest when he says, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall” which he promptly apologizes for (vv. 1 – 5). I love Paul’s tenacity balanced with his humility!
But Paul does not back down either, because he ends up using the resurrection of Jesus as the center of his testimony and in doing so, he successfully divides the entire room against each other and is quickly removed by the Roman tribune for his own safety (vv. 6 – 10).
This reminds me of when the apostle Paul told the Corinthians to remember “the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive” (1 Cor. 15:1 – 6). Paul never wavered from his call to testify about our crucified, risen, and returning Savior.
The moral of the story here is that Paul, the Pharisee has been saved and transformed by the Gospel of the resurrection; the gospel is more on trial here than the apostle Paul is. We must remember that enemies of God will be our enemies if we rightly pursue God’s calling on our lives to testify to the power of the gospel. What you and I need when our enemies rear their ugly heads, is for God to show up and to speak.
#2: GOD VISITS AND SPEAKS TO PAUL (23:11)
In this verse, God literally shows up in the apostle Paul’s jail cell. Luke tells us that “the Lord stood by him” in possibly one of the loneliest and scariest moments of Paul’s life. God not only stood right next to Paul in that jail cell, but he also spoke to him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome” (v. 11). God did not merely stand by silently, he spoke to Paul powerfully.
It is almost as though God knew that Paul would need to feel God’s presence and hear God’s reassurance to continue moving forward in testifying to the power of the gospel. The courage that Paul needed to continue with his ministry did not flow out of some kind of human ability; every human would be curled up in a ball in the corner under these circumstances.
The courage that Paul needed could only come from being in the very presence of the living God and hearing from the very mouth of the living God; there is no dead idol and there is no dead religious leader that can produce this kind of courage – the kind that faces death full of power and humility. A man or woman who knows that they are called by the living God who dwells inside them, who walks beside them, and who constantly speaks to them is absolutely unstoppable! If you are an unstoppable force who spends time in God’s presence, listening to God speak, then you will always attract some deadly enemies who will plan your death.
#3: THE JEWS ASSEMBLE A HIT SQUAD (23:12 – 15)
In verses 12 – 15, forty men get together and bind themselves with an oath to “neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul” and they get the council to not only approve their murderous plan but they get them to help them with their plan by calling a second hearing so that the Paul can be murdered on the way to the courtroom.
None of this should surprise us. The enemy will stop at nothing to knock us off our game or to take us out of the game altogether. Satan is a schemer who loves to steal, kill, and destroy anyone who is called to testify to the power of the bloody cross, the victory of the empty tomb, and the promise of eternity. One of Satan’s best weapons to use is law-loving enemies of God.
People who love the law without the infusion of the gospel, are difficult to defend against because these people will typically know their Bibles pretty well, at least in their ability to proof text their legalistic messages not to mention proof texting their hatred for those who testify to the power of the gospel.
One way to spot a legalistic heretic is to notice their bent towards hit jobs; they will always have a unique bent towards never confessing their own sin and need of a Savior, while criticizing those who testify to the power of the gospel. This is the modern-day version of law-lovers who love to take out hits on those who are called to testify to the power of the gospel. Rest assured though, God is the keeper of the called and he loves raising up rats who sniff out our enemies’ plans!
#4: THE HIT SQUAD GETS RATTED OUT (23:16 – 22)
In verses 16 – 22, Paul’s nephew gets wind of the hit squad’s plans, and he relays those plans to the apostle Paul who then asks the centurion to take his nephew to the Roman tribune who then hears the young man’s news in private and then instructs him to keep everything hush hush.
Seems to me that God provided a loveable rat to rat out the hit squad. The beauty of the way that Luke tells the story is that we are not even aware that Paul has a nephew much less a nephew that somehow has access to the Jewish Council. This is just like God to provide our needs out of thin air.
When you and I trust God with his calling on our lives to testify to the power of the gospel, our only job is to be faithful to the call and to trust that God will show up and provide in our darkest moments. God loves to provide for his people, and he also loves to deliver his people, which is exactly what we see in our final verses.
#5: PAUL GETS DELIVERED TO THE ROMAN GOVERNOR (23:23 – 35)
In these final verses, verses 23 – 35, the Roman tribune assembles a crew of 470 soldiers (nearly two – thirds of his available army)2 to escort Paul safely to Governor Felix in Caesarea (vv. 23 – 24). On top of the massive military escort, the Roman tribune writes a letter that generally tells the truth about Paul’s predicament while painting a heroic picture of the tribune’s actions (vv. 25 – 30).
Finally, the 470 soldiers escort Paul as far as a city called Antipatris where 270 of them returned to the barracks as 200 of them continued forward with Paul, delivering him safely to Governor Felix who then places Paul in protective custody until his accusers arrive for the next hearing (vv. 31 – 35).
The moral of the story here is that God will use any means necessary to deliver those whom he has called to the next leg of their journey safely – whether that be to testify once again in the face of suffering and death or to their final destination in heaven where there will be no more suffering and their calling will be completed once and for all. Even the most dangerous, deadliest, and painful places we are called to here on this earth are merely potential doorways into eternity with God.
APPLICATION…
When I think about the principles we have uncovered in our study of this passage, I am strengthened and encouraged to stay the course and to complete the job that the Lord Jesus gave to me to testify to the power of the gospel in word and in deed. Think about these principles with me once again and think about how Jesus pursued his calling.
- Pursuing God’s calling on our lives will always attract enemies. You and I do not get to tap out of our calling just because we have some enemies. Did not Jesus pursue his calling to the cross on our behalf even though we lived as his enemies? Jesus stayed the course and pursued his calling to the death.
- Spending time with God, and listening obediently to his words, makes you unstoppable. You and I will never pursue God’s calling on our lives if we do not spend time God and listen obediently to his words. Jesus consistently pulled away in isolation, not to get away from people until he found a friendlier crowd but to spend time with his heavenly Father, hearing from him and regaining the strength to continue ministering his way to a bloody cross. We need to spend time with God and listen obediently to what he says to us if we are to be unstoppable in pursuing our calling.
- Beware of the temptation to turn the gospel into law or to make the law your gospel. Legalism does not produce life, it produces death. The law is meant to paint the picture of what perfection looks like, to convict us of sin, and to show us our need for a perfect Savior. Trusting in Jesus means that we trust his work at the cross and empty tomb so we can be free to walk in continued open repentance from sin. Jesus was full of grace and truth – an appropriate blend of gospel and law – if we cling to him, we will become more and more full of that same grace and truth.
- Be faithful to God’s calling and trust that he will always provide in your darkest moments. We cannot walk in unfaithfulness and disobedience while expecting him to show up in our darkest moments and then blaming him because of our own unfaithfulness. Jesus walked in complete dependence upon his heavenly Father – even to the point of a brutal death – and the Father always showed up in those dark moments with the provision of his Spirit to help Jesus do what he was called to do. Trust and obey and see that God will always show up for you even in your darkest times.
- God will always deliver you to the next leg of your calling here on earth or finally in heaven. All of the pain and suffering we face in this life of pursuing God’s call on our lives will vanish the moment we step into eternity and hear the words, “Well done my good and faithful servant… welcome home my child!” What more could we have to look forward to? This is the promise of full deliverance that we have in Christ Jesus; that we too will have the full victory of the resurrection in heaven!
CONCLUSION…
In conclusion, when I think of all the pain and suffering Paul faced with his back to the cross as he contended for the gospel unto death… I see the parallel with Jesus whose back was beaten and then laid upon that cross and then nailed in place unto death until he walked out of the grave three days later in full completion of his calling… and all I can think is that the suffering I endure in this calling is a drop in the bucket compared to my Savior.
This is what you and I are called to testify to unto death along with the apostle Paul. Will you surrender to your suffering Savior? Will you follow your suffering Savior to the death? Will you lay hold of the calling of God on your life to testify the gospel regardless of the cost? Those of us who truly know a crucified, risen, and returning Savior will gladly and wholeheartedly say, “Yes!” – Amen!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Derek W. H. Thomas, Acts, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2011), 655.