Acts 22:23-23:11
Peter Milne was a Scottish missionary to an island country east of Australia, known today as Vanatu. His mission was to reach a tribe of cannibalistic headhunters with the gospel. Other missionaries had gone before him and been martyred. He was able to live their for 54 years, bringing light to a dark world. The way the story is told is that he packed all of his belongings in a coffin. He knew there was a great possibility that he was going to die in this effort. He was willing to accept this. Paul was a man like this. He had accepted his mission and anything that would go along with it. Paul was free of fear. That enabled him to speak the gospel boldly. That’s where our story begins today. The crowd was yelling that they would “rid the earth of him” because he was “not fit to live.”
As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this. As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “This man is a Roman citizen.” The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”
“Yes, I am,” he answered. Then the commander said, “I had to pay a big price for my citizenship.” “But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied. Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains. – Acts 22:23-29
They were getting ready to stone him. They took off their jackets. This is just like Acts 8 when Stephen was stoned to death. They laid their jackets at the feet of Paul before he came to Christ. They would take off their jackets in order to really be able to sling some stones. His stoning was only interrupted by a flogging. The commander wanted to get information out of him, as to what all the commotion was about. Paul’s Roman citizenship would save him from more torture. When you decide to follow Jesus you will find trouble. But God has ways of rescuing us which sometimes come out of surprising places. For Paul, it was through his Roman citizenship. When you follow Christ you will be accused of things that you never did and your message will sometimes be misunderstood. Jesus promised that these things will happen to us as we follow him. I’ve had college administrators falsely accuse me of things I said. One of them began questioning people I knew in order to find out where I was. I was able to slip through her grasp. She never found me. Luke continues on in Paul’s story.
The next day, since the commander wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them. Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” Those who were standing near Paul said, “You dare to insult God’s high priest?” Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’” Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.” When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.) – Acts 22:30-23:8
Paul said that he was “on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.” Why would this be such an issue to the Jewish culture, especially the Pharisees and Sadducees? Where in the Old Testament does it talk about the resurrection of the dead? The following are verses in the Old Testament. Keep in mind that the Sadducees believed that the Pentateuch was the only divinely inspired text in the Old Testament. One verse is in Daniel,
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. – Dan. 12:2
The Jews, minus the Sadducees, believed that dead people would be resurrected either to an eternal place of blessing or to an eternal place of cursing. Looking back at Abraham’s test to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, the book of Hebrews says,
Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death. – Heb. 11:19
There were various stories that gave hints of resurrection. In Genesis, Joseph seemed to have been dead, at least to his Father’s knowledge. But he symbolically came back to life. Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights. The picture of death is in mind as to Jonah’s experience as he says,
“Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, weeds were wrapped around my head.” – Jonah 2:5 [NASB]
He was swallowed by the fish, and then, by the word of the Lord, he was given a new life as the fish spewed him onto the land. Speaking to this image of death and resurrection Jesus said,
“A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” – Matt. 12:39-40
Jesus used a well-known illustration of death and resurrection that the Jews would know in order to prophecy his own resurrection. There’s a prophecy in the Old Testament about the resurrection of the Messiah when David said,
Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, 10 because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. – Ps. 16:9-10
In Acts 2, we see Peter preaching about Jesus rising from the dead. He stated that Jesus was the fulfillment of that prophecy. It was a centerpiece of his preaching of the gospel. Paul said that the resurrection of Jesus is the cornerstone on which Christianity is built:
“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. - 1 Cor. 15:12–19
The defeat of death and sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus. This “resurrection” that the Messiah went through for us had already happened. Paul said,
We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.” – Rom. 6:4-9
This is not a resurrection that we have to hope for. Paul had obtained it, and we can have it today as well. In Ephesians 1:13-14 Paul says that we enter into Christ when we believe the gospel. In other words, we were saved from death and sin as we entered into Christ. This is the spiritual baptism that Paul talked about in Romans 6. The sinful woman is talked about in Luke 7:50. Because she looked forward, in faith, to the future resurrection of Jesus he could tell her that she had experienced salvation,
Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” – Luke 7:50
She had been saved from death and sin. While she would have to go through physical death, she no longer was dead spiritually and she wouldn’t have to face eternal death. But there was a salvation that she would need to hope for. There is another resurrection that she and we eagerly wait for.
There was a resurrection that hadn’t happened yet as of Acts 22. It hasn’t happened for us either. We hope for this type of resurrection because we haven’t received it yet. It’s the physical resurrection of our bodies. We will be glorified. Jesus is coming to save us. He has saved us and he will save us. This is like the kingdom of God. Jesus said that “the kingdom of God is among you” and yet, his kingdom has not fully come because he has not returned. This is what Paul talked about,
Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.” - 1 Thess. 4:13-18
It’s important to understand why the resurrection of Jesus is so important in people coming to repentance. Norman Geisler, a Christian apologist, wrote a book called, “Twelve Points that Prove that Christianity is True.” I found it helpful in helping people take one more step closer to salvation. The first nine points are as follows:
- Truth about reality is knowable.
- The opposite of true is false.
- It is true the theistic God exists.
- If God exists, then miracles are possible.
- Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God.
- The New Testament is historically reliable.
- The New Testament writers, and Jesus, claimed that he was God.
- Jesus proved he was God.
- Therefore, Jesus is God, and anything he teaches is true.
Even if a person doesn’t come to believe the gospel you can use this to help them understand that it’s reasonable to believe in the message of the Bible. The Pharisees and Sadducees both believed that there was only one true God. Even though the Pharisees believed in a resurrection from the dead, it was still a big pill to swallow to say that Jesus’ resurrection confirmed his message. The miracles he performed, and his own resurrection, demonstrated that he was telling the truth. The miracles backed up his claims that he was God and that no one can come to the Father except through him. If the Jews accepted that Jesus rose from the dead, then that meant the next logical step was to say that all that he said was true. For one brief moment in time Paul and the Pharisees were on the same team, but only to an extent. The text only says that the Pharisees acknowledged the resurrection from the dead. It doesn’t say that they acknowledged the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection was the hot topic. It was the button that launched the first nuclear missile. Next, we will see the tremendous explosions as a result.
There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks. The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” – Acts 23:9-11
The Pharisees knew exactly what to say to the Sadducees. They said, “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” They knew that the Sadducees didn’t believe in spirits or angels. It’s just like a sibling argument. They knew the weaknesses in their arguments and what would get them all riled up. At this point it kind-of ended up as a “Is not! Is so! Is not! Is so!” intelligent argument between siblings.
We end this by Jesus reminding Paul what he promised him from the very beginning. He told him that he would be a witness to testify to his resurrection. He was appointed to speak to Jews, Gentiles and kings. Before Acts 22, God told Paul that he was going to Jerusalem. Now, he was telling him that he was headed to Rome.
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