Acts 22:22-30

Review:

Last week we looked at a transformed Paul willingly giving up his freedom for the advance of the Gospel. And while there are many fascinating aspect of that story I think the one the modern church all too often overlooks is that the same Spirit that transformed Paul, lives in all who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, and is available to all who would make that profession of faith. It can transform us. Don’t be fooled into one of two opposite but equally wrong views on the 1) thinking that any of us are not in desperate need of help, transformation just like Paul. 2) Believing that The Spirit is powerless to change us.

Background

We are in Jersusalem somewhere between 57-59 AD at the festivial of Pentecost. PENTECOST (חג שׁבעת, chg shb't, “weeks”; πεντηκοστή, pentēkostē, “fiftieth”). In the Hebrew Bible, Pentecost is an annual harvest festival that occurs seven weeks after Passover. It became an important Christian holiday after God poured out the Holy Spirit upon the Jerusalem church on the first Pentecost after Christ’s resurrection. And by the end of these verses we will be back in front of the Sanhedrin the ruling council of the Jewish people made of of seventy men made up primarily of two parties the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Text

English Standard Version Chapter 22

Paul and the Roman Tribune

22 Up to this word they listened to him. Then they raised their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.” 23 And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 24 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.

So we need to go back into last week to understand what has set them off. They are furious at the idea that God would send Paul or anyone for that matter to the Gentiles. At the end of Paul’s speech we looked at last week he concludes by telling the assembled crowd that God had commissioned him to go the to the Gentiles. “And he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’ ”

So we have discussed the racists feelings and disdain the Jewish people had for the Gentiles. But they had let their sense of superiority blind them from the clear teaching of the OT:

Genesis 12:3

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Isaiah 56:6-8

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.”

Isaiah 49:6

He says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

So this speaks a little but to the questions Kelly asked last week “didn’t the pharisees etc. believe they were doing the right thing. And in some ways yes, but I don’t think they were seeking God and his revealed will, or they would have had some reason to stop and consider what Paul has related to them before calling for his death.

So the crowd goes crazy and the authorities decide to beat Paul to try and figure out why they are yelling against him?

English Standard Version Chapter 22

25 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?” 26 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.” 27 So the tribune came and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?” And he said, “Yes.” 28 The tribune answered, “I bought this citizenship for a large sum.” Paul said, “But I am a citizen by birth.” 29 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.

The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition) Chapter 22

22:24 flogging. The Roman scourge was a whip of leather thongs loaded with bits of metal or bone; it could maim for life or kill. Jesus was scourged with such a whip (John 19:1). Thus far, Paul has been beaten (Acts 16:22, 23; 2 Cor. 11:24, 25) but has never endured this severe punishment, which would not be inflicted on a Roman citizen without legal due process.

22:25 stretched him. The soldiers either stretch Paul’s arms around a pole to expose his back or tie his hands and hoist him from the ground to administer the whipping.

22:26 Roman citizen. Paul appeals again to his Roman citizenship, knowing that he is going to be punished without trial (16:37). Roman citizenship was highly prized, usually given only to those of high position or those who had performed some valuable service to the state. It was then passed on to one’s family, as in Paul’s case, since he is “a citizen by birth” (v. 28).

As I thought about it this morning I am not sure why Paul waited until this moment to announce His citizenship and save himself from this terrible ordeal.

Calvin tells us in his commentary why their reaction was so strong to Paul’s proclamation

Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 22

For nothing was then more heinous than to do any thing which was contrary to the liberty of the people of Rome. Valerius’ law, the law of Porcius, and of Sempronius, and such like, did forbid that no man should do any violence to the body of the city of Rome without the commandment of the people. The privilege was so (sure and) holy, that they thought it to be not only a deadly offence, but also such an offence as could not be purged, that a citizen of Rome should be beaten.

Calvin goes on to explain that this was a serious transaction on both sides and had serious consequences if you claimed to be a citizen of Rome falsely.

Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 22

he which did say that he was a citizen of Rome, unless he could bring in some which knew him, or prove it lawfully, he was punished; for it was death for any man to pretend the freedom of the city falsely. Wherefore, the centurion referreth the matter unto the chief captain, as doubting thereof; and he (as we have said) doth straightway examine the matter more thoroughly. And though Luke doth not express by what testimonies Paul did prove himself to be a citizen of Rome, yet, undoubtedly, the chief captain knew the truth of the matter before he loosed him.

Just before this we have the exchange about how Paul came by his citizenship. The Tribune a man of means purchased citizens ship and is a little incredulous that Paul who to Scott’s point last week doesn’t look like much after years of hardship and itinerant preaching has this same status.

English Standard Version Chapter 22

Paul Before the Council

30 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.

Application

“You can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” ― Anne Lamott

Whether it is disdain for another religion of ethnicity twisting God’s words into a pretext for hate and violence is always wrong

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” ― Mahatma Gandhi

And to live in this way requires humility 1st on the part of the Christian

“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.” ― C.S. Lewis

And secondly on behalf of the world and a myriad of excuses and derision they have for our faith (mostly based of the failings of people who are or claim to be Christians). It is important that they and we seriously consider the words of GK Chesterton

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” ― G.K. Chesterton, What's Wrong with the World