Using, Not Abusing, Gospel Privilege

Acts 22:24–23:11 ESV

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. 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?” When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, “What are you about to do? For this man is a Roman citizen.” So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.” So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately, and the tribune also was afraid, for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. 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, and he brought Paul down and set him before them. And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then 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?” Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” 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.’ ” 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.” And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. Then 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?” 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. 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.”

Towards the end of his third missionary journey, Paul was warned and encouraged to stay away from Jerusalem. In chapter 21 verse 11, the prophet Agabus warned him with a belt that he’d be bound by the Jews and handed over to the Gentiles. He went, though, and things happened quick. We’re still right around just 9 to 11 days after he arrived back in Jerusalem. In our passage today, Paul was in the Roman barracks, in jail, then before the Sanhedrin, and back to the barracks.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, there are different contexts and different ways that we might hear the phrase, “Use but don’t abuse.” I’ve heard that in relation to the Earth and how we are to treat it and the resources God has created in it. As humans, especially as Christians, we are called to be stewards. That goes back to Genesis 1 verses 26 and 28, God said human beings are to “rule over” all things and are to “subdue” the earth. God’s created us with minds, though, so ruling and subduing should be with wisdom, not indiscriminate abuse, or ruining things.

We could also apply “use but don’t abuse” to possessions. A funny video on social media this week captured the plight of a man loaning out his tools to his neighbors and friends, and often those tools don’t come back. A friend he had loaned a Sawzall to is shown using the saw to cut summer sausage and using the battery end to try and hammer in a nail. We might be fine with others using our things, but our hope and expectation is that they’ll use them for their actual created purpose. Accidents happen, things can break, we can be gracious—but abusing tools and getting them back in worse condition or not at all isn’t really an accident.

Whether we’re talking about something as great as our stewardship of God’s creation or more individual things like tools, this principle of “use but don’t abuse” always goes back to privilege. Back in high school, I remember hearing in Driver’s Ed and in our student handbook and our principal, driving is a privilege. How we drove at school or around school hours would be held accountable. While we had our driver’s licenses, we were not free to drive however we pleased. If we abused our privilege, we could be made to forfeit it.

What I hope we see from these examples is that privilege can be used either positively or negatively. What does privilege mean? According to Oxford Dictionary it’s “a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.” Perhaps we have in mind, “Well, doesn’t the Bible speak against that in places like 1 Timothy 5:21, ‘…Keep these instructions without partiality, and…do nothing out of favoritism’? Aren’t privilege, partiality, and favoritism all the same thing?” If we look at the Greek word translated partiality there, Paul’s warning was against prejudice, pre-judging. Likewise, the Greek word translated favoritism means to be pre-inclined, to have our minds made up ahead of time.

All privileges afford certain entitlements to certain people. Some of them can be given with prejudice; some do show unjust favoritism. But not all privileges fit that understanding. The term itself is not inherently wrong or sinful. There is a place for some privileges in the lives of God’s people, and to be used by God is one of those privileges. It’s not something to be taken for granted. It’s not random. It’s not routine. God uses his people purposefully and intentionally, and it is a great honor that he willfully uses sinners for his kingdom and his glory.

There’s no doubt that Paul experienced many privileges. We’re going to look at a couple of his privileges and possibly the abuse of a privilege in our passage. First, Paul was privileged to be a Roman citizen, which helped him take the gospel to Rome. When Paul was taken into custody by these soldiers, they were of the mindset to beat or torture the truth out of him. You want to find out who this really was and what he had done to so upset the Jewish people, then put him in a mechanism that held him down, unable to curl up, unable avoid, and whip him with a whip that had pieces of bone or metal sunk into it. That sounds terribly painful. That’s what he was in for, and it seems that’s what Jesus went through before his crucifixion. Jesus endured that for us.

Paul got to avoid that, though. Somehow through his family lineage, he was a Roman, and so he had certain rights. Our American system is similar in the sense that citizens possess many more legal rights than those who are termed “enemy combatants.” Paul’s citizenship will be a reoccurring theme in the coming chapters, but we jump to that final verse we read, and we see this was all in God’s plan. Paul had been locked up, he couldn’t know exactly what was going to happen, and the Lord spoke, “‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.’” God desired, he willed that his gospel would spread beyond where Paul had already gone. God had plans for how it would continue towards the ends of the earth.

When we look at the world throughout history, we recognize that not everyone lives in the same system, with the same rights, with the same opportunities or abilities. There are differences in wealth, differences in how people are treated whether they’re a different color or tribe or have a different last name. There are differences in access to clean water, to vaccines, to healthcare, to good legal representation, to internet—not that those are at the same level but it’s real. Ideally, it would be nice if everyone had the exact same in all those things wherever they are at the level that many of us enjoy. We certainly are called to care for those in need, but in the world we live in different people, and often it goes back to citizenship, have different privileges.

God can certainly work despite privilege, but he can also use privilege to further his kingdom. Maybe it’s citizenship, maybe sharing a culture, maybe it’s sharing a common language or willingness to learn a language. As Luke mainly focused on Paul for the past 10 chapters, we know that there were other missionaries and ministers that God successfully used in other places. Paul was unique in that he was an apostle, but his calling was not to be the only one and squash all others. No, he was a partner in ministry. He could only go where God called and sent him. He brought partners along the way. He left people in certain places to continue ministry.  

When we think about ourselves or others that are considering going out, whether in our community, our country, or abroad, it’s not completely wrong to consider privileges. Do we or they have access to certain people or groups that others have been struggling with? Do we know and are we able to speak a foreign language that others don’t know? Do we have financial resources or technological resources or the ability to access remote areas that people of other countries may not have access to? Don’t be ashamed of those privileges. Do be careful against pride and against pushing others out, making it all about you. But seek how God may call you to use your privilege.

 That’s point one, point two moves us to Paul’s appearance before the Sanhedrin. Don’t abuse the privileges God has given you. What a change from last week. The previous day, we read in Acts 22 verse 1, Paul referred to the Jewish crowds as “brothers and fathers.” He starts out chapter 23 before the leaders in a similar way, “My brothers,” and yet having been struck at the high priest’s command, Paul’s graciousness seems to have worn thin. Starting at verse 3, “…‘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.”’”

           Paul had tried to be truthful. He had God and God’s calling on his side. He knew these men were wrong in their accusations. Yet he was still called to kindness and respect to his opponents, especially leaders. Commentators differ about Paul’s approach to the high priest and his “whitewashed wall” statement. Did Paul not remember what the high priest looked like? Was he having trouble seeing who spoke to him as some believe he had eye problems? Did Paul know exactly who the high priest was, who had spoken to him, and yet was willfully mean-spirited? Summing up John Calvin’s comments, Paul meant, “‘I recognize nothing priestly about this man.’”

Right or wrong, whether we really like being around someone or can’t stand being in their presence, we are called to a loving respect of others, even our enemies. Paul’s quoting of God’s law in Exodus 22:28, “‘Do not blaspheme God or curse the ruler of your people,’” was important for him to remember as well. This doesn’t mean that we have to waver from truth or that we can’t say when we believe someone is wrong. But how we do that is important. Partly for ourselves, but also partly that we don’t cause others to question that God is with us.

We’re living in a time when there is so much contention around those in leading roles in our society. While it’s a lot easier to make connections for a Jewish high priest to be a ruler, our rulers, our president, our elected officials, the board that serve even in our county are not to be spoken evil of. We may have major concerns with the way they want to lead us. We may strongly disagree or protest and voice our opinions through voting or contacting them directly, but we are to remember that our God has called us to be loving to others, to pray and to honor those in authority over us. May it be with our good works, our respectful tones and words, towards those we feel violate our rights or who we disagree with, that others see and know and even ask why we act in this way—why aren’t we speaking poorly against our rulers? We might point them to Christ.

           We come to our final point now. It’s not anything new. It’s actually the foundation of our first two points, and it applies not only to Paul, but all who claim to be Christians. Christians are privileged to know and believe the resurrection of Christ and to have faith. Saving faith, gospel faith, is a privilege. To be clear, not every Christian or Christian tradition believes this, but God’s word teaches it. When we looked at the Canons of Dort around this time last year, we went to Ephesians 1, part of which says, “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ…He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure…”  

While not every Christian has a Damascus road-type conversion like Paul, where it was so clear God was calling him, convicting him, changing the course of his life as opposed to completely his own choice, God has been and will continue to be at work accomplishing the choosing and calling of those to himself who he has mercifully planned to. While we preach and believe that every single person should have access to hearing the gospel and we desire for those who do believe to stand on their confession, it is God who wills and works to save his chosen, his elect.

Whether a Christian accepts that in the same way we do is not as important as accepting and believing in resurrection. Looking at verse 6, “Paul says, “‘…I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.’” There are again differences of opinion about Paul’s reason for bringing this up. Did he say this knowing it would divide the Pharisees and Sadducees, trying to get the heat off himself or get them to turn on each other? Or was he actually being sincere?

           At the end of the day, this was why so many of the Jews had turned against Paul. It was his Christian beliefs that he would not stop teaching. James Montgomery Boice writes, “When we talk about the resurrection (and when Paul talked about it) we are not merely talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, though it has bearing on the subject. The resurrection of Jesus proves a general resurrection. Rather, we are talking about resurrection itself. And what that means, to put it in contemporary terms, is that there is a reality beyond what we see and know physically…The great division in our day (as in Paul’s) is between those who are willing to be bound only by what they can see, measure, touch, and feel, and those who believe there is something beyond what is tangible, something that is intangible and has to do with God.”

           What makes Christianity as a faith, as something worth following, isn’t just believing God created all things and has power over them, it’s that Jesus came and died on a cross, was definitely dead, and then came back to life. It’s that when he ascended, he promised to come again. It’s in the New Testament teaching that when Christ returns, the dead will rise and those yet living will meet them in the air. We believe that God recreates in a new, beautiful, and perfect way. What is dead—what is sin, what has corrupted his good creation—will not last forever; it will be banished.

           Whatever Paul’s motives were, this was a central confession of his Christian faith. It’s our confession, too. On Thursday, if you’re following the Sunday School At-Home schedule, I invite you to sing a song I learned in Sunday School and hopefully it’s familiar to you, “I Am a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N.” It’s a good spelling lesson for kids to learn how to spell Christian, Christ, heart, live, and eternally, but it’s also a simple confession of faith. We believe this to be true not because of ourselves, but because we have the privilege of Christ in us. We believe that matters not just until the day we die, but we have the privilege of living forever. We have resurrection hope!

           Brothers and sisters, do not be ashamed of the privilege of faith and of privileges God has given you to share your faith, to deepen your faith. Use them, don’t abuse them. Don’t hold them proudly over others who don’t have them. Don’t mock or belittle, but in the love that God has undeservedly, mercifully shown to us, seek each day how you can bring glory to God and continue to spread his Kingdom by the calling he’s given to you. Amen.