You're listening to the teaching ministry of Harvest Fellowship Church in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. You can find out more about us on the web at www.harvestfellowshipchurch.org. We pray that through our teaching, we may present everyone mature in Christ. All right, Acts 22. Brothers and fathers, hear the defense that I now make before you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in the Hebrew language, they became even more quiet, and he said, I am a Jew born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel, according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God as all of you are this day. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women, as the high priest and the whole council of elders can bear me witness. From them I received letters to the brothers, and I journeyed toward Damascus to take those also who were there and bring them in bonds to Jerusalem to be punished. As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon, a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me, and I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And I answered, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting. Now those who were with me saw the light, but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Rise and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me and came into Damascus. And one, Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me and standing by me said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight. And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said, the God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth. for you will be a witness for Him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name. When I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves know that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you. And when the blood of Stephen your witness was being shed, I myself was standing by and approving and watching over the garments of those who killed him. And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles." Up to this word, they listened to him. They raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live. And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, 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. But 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." May God richly bless the reading of his word this evening. So, tell me about last week, the first half of his address. What was covered in that? Yes, Paul's conversion. Where have we heard about that before? There you go. Yeah. Acts chapter nine. Was it told in the same exact way that we saw it in chapter nine? Why was it different this time? Do you remember why this time was slightly different? Paul's perspective. Any other reasons? Yes, there you go. At least your answer makes me think that that's what you had told everybody last week. But yes, it was tailored, so to speak, to the crowd that he was speaking to. And you'll notice that in the way that he phrased certain things. that often, so it does mention Jesus's name, I believe only once, and all the rest of the time it's using these other pronouns to refer to him, not in the way that we hear in our news nowadays, but referring to Jesus as he speaking to me, et cetera. But it was very tailored to this audience. Why would it have been tailored to that audience? They wanted to kill him. Sure. I think you would cater any message to people who are trying to kill you but what were they trying to kill him because of. Sure. Yeah. So there were there were a few charges that were laid against him in general but but you're right centering around teaching against their Jewish ways and even having a Gentile with him and taking him into the wrong place in the temple. So we saw all of that groundwork laid and now we get to verse let's say 17 through 29 even though I read to 30 just for that little extra. But what kind of questions pop up as we read through that? Anybody have any questions from there? I think that's the top question everybody wants to know, right? Yes. compelling the truth, I suppose. No other question? That is the main question. You got one, Ben? Why does that matter? Yeah. It's actually kind of really important for the rest of Paul's life. It has a lot of implications actually. So that's a good question. Anything else? Any other questions? That's a good question too. Right. Yep. Same question. Part one, part two. That's essentially. Yeah. Were they just believing him? Okay. Yeah. And I think that's part of why I wanted to read verse 30, just so that you see there that then he is unbound, even if we don't necessarily cover the verse tonight, but, um, Yeah. No that's a good one too. I had. Does anybody else have any other ones. Those were some of the ones that I had been. That's a good question too. Starting at the beginning here in verse 17, I had written down, what is Paul even referring to with regards to a time he had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple? Because technically, if you look back through all of the previous chapters in Acts, you don't see that narrative of him praying in the temple at that time. We can connect to where that was in the timeline, but you don't see that there. And this one is sort of tongue-in-cheek, I guess you could say, a little bit, but up until what word had they actually listened to him? Singular, what word? Yeah, it's clear, but it's tongue-in-cheek. They put up with it and they were quiet up until their trigger word. I have another one, which is why did the Tribune, or we could call him Claudius Lysias. Why did the tribune jump right to the command to take him inside and have him flogged? Why was that initial reaction? Everybody's getting upset and all in a tizzy again. Why did he say, get back in the barracks and start whipping him? Why was that the first thing to try? And then you guys already got this one, but how could Paul have actually proved his Roman citizenship? These are good, all right. So regarding verse 17 and 18, when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance and saw him, who's him, Jesus, saying to me, make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. So, What in the world is Paul referring to here in this initial section? Because if you think about it, back in chapter nine was when he received his commission. His initial commission, chapter nine, if you look roughly, well, I don't have the commission here, so let me not get ahead of myself. But it's possible that this time period where it says he returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple is spoken about in Galatians, Galatians 1.18. So they had to leave in a hurry. or he had to leave in a hurry and Galatians 1.18 asserts that his first visit to Jerusalem after his conversion lasted only 15 days. So he went back to Jerusalem and it says that he was there for 15 days and then was rushed out of there. But it was really because of this plot of Greek speaking Jews who wanted to kill Paul if we're all the way back in Acts chapter 9. Turn to 9.26 and we'll look at some of those verses there. But in Acts 9.26 it says, And when he had come to Jerusalem, so this was him going back to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples, and they were all afraid of him, because they knew what he had previously been, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. But good old Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were doing what? seeking to kill him. These Greek-speaking Jews were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus. So this is the 15 days that it talks about in Galatians 1.18. When he was in Jerusalem for that time, he had come from Damascus and was initially there. But even then, these Greek-speaking Jews were trying to kill him. Welcome to the ministry. His first time in Jerusalem. Back in Jerusalem, that is. And also in this first verse, right, so he had returned to Jerusalem and one of the activities that he was participating in was praying in the temple. And that's when he fell into his trance. Where do we see praying in the temple in other places? Well Acts chapter 3 says Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, which was the ninth hour, which is roughly what time? 3 p.m. So that was the hour of prayer. Peter and John were going to the temple for that hour of prayer. In Luke 18 10, You know the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. It says that these two men went up into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and one the tax collector. But they were going into the temple to pray. So this was a common activity. In fact you see in Acts 3 when Peter and John go that there was an hour of prayer and so you would go and you would do that. So it was completely regular that Paul would have been doing this during this 15 days that he had returned to Jerusalem back in Chapter 9. What about this idea of falling into a trance? Have we seen that before in Acts? Somebody fell into a trance in Acts chapter 10. Yeah, Peter, when he saw the sheet lowering down. No, no, no, no, no. I wasn't correlating the two, but yeah. Right. Yeah, in Acts 10.10, it says that Peter became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance. This is not normal. It's not normative that people just sort of... But in this occasion, during this time period, they still needed in these occasions, they needed these words from the Lord for vital, vital things that were happening at that time period, which Paul is now being threatened to be killed again over the same idea. the Jews and the Gentiles. So going all the way back to Paul's commission and then Peter in chapter 10, this idea of the Gentiles being included by faith, everyone being saved by faith has been a theme throughout Acts. And here we are again. But in that trance, it said, And I love how this is worded. He saw him saying to me. So he actually saw him speaking. It doesn't say I heard him saying to me. I saw him saying this to me. Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. And that is true from what we read in Acts chapter nine that they were seeking to kill him and that they had to get him out of there quickly. Verse 19, Paul says back to Jesus, And I think this goes to Ben's question, why is Paul appealing to that? Why in this speech or even in this, whether it's a retort back to Jesus for what Jesus had just told him, regardless, why is he saying this? Surely it's not because Jesus does not know these things. He knows that the people understand Paul was going around and ravaging the church. Jesus knows this. Paul is just stating plainly the obvious, that he imprisoned and beat those who believed in Jesus. So it's not necessarily trying to retort. Like I said, he's not retorting, he's not coming back against what God's saying. In fact, he's saying these things to support in a way what it is that Jesus is saying to him here. Yeah, they're not going to accept the things that you're saying about them. Oh, I know they're not going to accept those things that I said because I used to kill them all. So he's saying this in a way in support of what the Lord is telling him. You're going to need to get out of here because they will not accept what you're saying. It's almost like, yes, I understand. And these are the reasons why they will not accept what I'm saying to them, because I did all of these horrific things. And that exclamation point on the end of that is, I was even standing there when Stephen was killed, holding all these garments, watching over the garments, standing by and approving what had happened. So not only was he commissioned to do all these things, but then even in this martyrdom of Stephen, Paul had a hand in that. In Paul's mind, he had a hand in this happening. And the really interesting thing, in a way, is that you could say, to some extent, Paul was the successor of Stephen in the way that he spoke, in the way that he put together these speeches. They're all very similar. to what was going on with Stephen and this same animosity against him. It's the same thing that was going on with Stephen. So it's almost as if Paul is a successor to Stephen. So on one hand, Paul recalls this participation in the death of Stephen to show his identity with true law-abiding Jews who guard the purity of the Jewish faith. Remember, he's giving this speech to the Jews. They may be saying, yeah, that Stephen guy, you did kill him, that was great. He's still having to make this connection with those Jewish people that want to kill him, lest he be killed. And so he's, in some ways, he's tailoring this message. He's using a lot of these circumstances that we already know from earlier in Acts, and he's catering it to that audience, these Jews that want him dead. Now it seems odd still because they want him dead just like they killed Stephen. It seems odd to appeal to this death of Stephen in that way. But if they're so zealous for Judaism in that way, what better way to make a connection than to say, and he said it in last week's verses that we covered, we all are literally, we were the same conviction at that time. We were all of that same conviction that we were all zealous for the Jewish faith and its purity to the extent that we would kill people. So maybe to some degrees pointing out the ridiculousness of the fact that they want to kill him. But regardless this is all stuff that in the context of talking with Jesus in this trance in the temple that Jesus knew full well that these are the reasons why they will not accept what you're saying. This is similar as well as what he said in verse four from last week. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women. That zealousness was spoken about then, it's spoken about even now. And all of this was spoken about even before this time. In the book of Matthew in chapter 10, when all of the disciples were being sent out, it says in 1017, beware of men for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues. Matthew 1017. You can't get more plain than that. These things are going to happen to you all. Now in Paul's case, literally, that verse is happening right now in this narrative. But think back to Acts chapter 7. They cast Paul out of the city. They cast him, not Paul, sorry. They cast Stephen out of the city and stoned him, and witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man." And this is the moment that we hear the name Saul in chapter 7. In chapter 8, verse 1, it says, Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So all the people fled. All of these times, whether Stephen and his death, or this circumstance Paul finds himself in now, or what Jesus told them about in Matthew, that they'd be delivered over and flogged in synagogues, etc. All of this is because of a zealousness that these Jews had misplaced. A misplaced zealousness, let's just say. And I know when we read about occasions like this we think how ridiculous these people are trying to murder Paul. And as we read on causing a big ruckus there at those steps again after Paul mentions that G word Gentiles. But let's take just a minute and put ourselves in their shoes in the Jews shoes. Are there any, I'm just going to say it this way, are there any pet doctrines that we all have that were so staunchly resolute and set that this is how this is? Think about the Jews of that time. This is the exact same thing that they're thinking. This is what our scriptures say. taken all the way to the nth degree so far as to want to kill people. I mean, they literally killed Jesus. They killed Stephen. They want to kill Paul. All of this for a misplaced zealousness of essentially doctrine they held to incorrectly. And we think, well, they missed the boat. They didn't understand the Old Testament truly. They didn't, you know, all these things. How many things do we misunderstand? As you're reading God's Word each day, do you understand every single thing that is in there as you read it? Do you sometimes latch on to certain things and think, this is exactly what this says. I will die on this hill. But just think about being in their shoes in that way current day. We need to be very, very careful that we're not so influenced by the other things that people say, by other traditions that we were raised in, by other previous worldviews that we had that can distort the truth of what God's Word plainly says. And we certainly find little tiny hills to die on all the time when it comes to God's Word. But what should we do When we have those things, those pet doctrines, those questions that come up as you're reading, what should you do with them? What can you do with them? Yeah. Could you talk to other people about them? Could you seek out your eldership about them? Could you read from other sources that are not the ones that support your specific thing that you're looking for it to support? Ultimately, you need to take it all to the Lord so that He will clear these things up for you. I think we all need to be careful, and I think that's just the point that I'm saying, as you want to throw stones back at the Jews of this time period, don't be so quick to do it, but reflect on how we handle things like that. Well, that's why I said small hills, right? Those are big hills. Yes, non-negotiables for sure. But I mean, think about how they would have read in the Old Testament that God desired for their hearts to be circumcised, or God desired not their sacrifices of animals, but the sacrifices of themselves. So think about the things that you could say, well, they miss this and they miss that, but regardless, this isn't some sort of a specific thing. Right. There's lots of things that we will not tolerate as far as unorthodox doctrine. Definitely. But there are other things that we sometimes are challenged on. And it's a good thing for those kinds of things to think deeply about what the scripture actually says and to Well, yeah, they took it to the nth degree like I said Correct. Yes, but churches split up friendships are torn apart, etc, etc over what I You believe in the rapture and I don't or whatever. Like these things that should not divide. Right. And that is not that's not my example. I'm just saying like there are things like that that do truly divide believers and that causes harm to Christ's church. So that's that's the point. Right. It's not a literal comparison but but they were zealous for some of these things. Overly zealous. Verse 21, here's where we get to the icing on the cake, the exclamation point, because then he says that, he said to me, go, for I will send you far away to the, and there was like a drum roll, I think, right when he said that, and all the cymbals went, because of their reaction in the following verse. But this is what he was told, at his commissioning. In Acts chapter 9, it says, And Paul has suffered up until this point, and he will suffer even after this point. But this detail of what Jesus said back to him here in verse 21, go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles, isn't necessarily another commissioning that he's talking about. He's just reiterating that commissioning from Acts chapter nine. So he's, if you think about this situation, he's talking about praying in the temple and being in a trance and seeing Jesus talking to him. Jesus is further reiterating that initial that initial commissioning that he had given him, I will send you far away to the Gentiles. Because Paul was right, they are not gonna let up, they're not gonna accept your message, I will send you far away. The interesting thing here is that in this verse, the term for Gentiles isn't necessarily exclusively speaking about non-Jews in an ethnic sense. So differentiate the ethnic sense and the geographical sense. That little phrase that says, I'll send you far away to the Gentiles. Did Paul still go and preach to Jewish people in all of these far off places? Where was often the first place that he went? The synagogue, yeah. So it wasn't a commission to say, and now you can never ever tell another Jewish person the gospel. Paul told every single person the gospel, but it was the proximity. And did he go far away over all the years that he was traveling in his missionary journeys? Yes. Did he interact with both Jews and Gentiles? Yes. In the geographical sense, surely some Jewish people were converted and many of them were not. Many Gentile people were converted and many of them were not. But these were all nations, if you think about it, outside of Israel that he went to. So this just further emphasizes this initiative to preach the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles was not one that Paul made up on his own. In verse 21 it says, he said to me, go, Now, granted, he did really only mention Jesus' name one time in this speech, but those dots are connected. Jesus is speaking. The Lord is telling him, go. So that's not something that Paul concocted. This was a commission that was divine. It was a divine command to go. And maybe that's part of why they get so riled up with this sentence. Maybe it's not the word Gentiles, maybe it's the fact that he's saying, God told me to go to them. It doesn't necessarily say that, but in this sentence and in what he's saying, he is clearly communicating this was divine. This trance, God speaking to him in the temple, and this command to go to the Gentiles, it was all a divine command. There was no getting around that. But what was their reaction, whether it was to the fact that he was saying, God told me to go to them, sorry guys, or whether it was the fact that he was kind of avoiding this word Gentile and kind of avoiding some of this in his speech thus far, now he finally says it. And their reaction, it says, up to this word. whether literally the word Gentile or whether it was, like I said, that God had commissioned him to them, up until then they had listened to him and were quiet. But then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth. Not just get him out of here. May he be anathema. Get him off of this earth permanently, for he should not be allowed to live. and as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air. This was quite a reaction. And a lot of people, as I read about this part, a lot of people say, is Luke using the literary device here with that ending word Gentile and then the reaction? Was there anything else that Paul had spoken? Was he able to make his case even further? Because in the way that they would present cases in court back in these days, there were certain arguments and certain things, sections of their speaking. And some of those are missing from this. It's possible he had more words. But regardless, the importance here isn't, did he say anything else besides this? It's that Luke wrote this down for a reason. And that reason was to show their animosity again being stirred back up. at this divine commission that he just told them about. The other interesting thing in these verses in 22 and 23 really, with their reaction, is that this meaning when it says they're shouting, throwing off their cloaks, and flinging dust into the air, is likened to Acts chapter 13, where it says that they shook off the dust from their feet against them and went to Iconium. So when their message wasn't being received, They shook off the dust from their feet, from their cloaks, shake it off. It was symbolic of what? We're going to move on. We're done. We're done with this here. And so essentially, they're kind of saying the same thing, shouting the same thing. We are done with this man. Kill him. And the flinging of the dust and all that stuff was was happening, but was also symbolic of them shaking out their cloaks, shaking out the dust at this man Paul. The fun part, and I don't want to get too far ahead, but in Acts chapter 23, this isn't the only time the Jews react this way in 22. When we get into 23, it becomes violent again. So we'll see this repeated. This animosity just continues and continues to persist. But upon hearing this statement that God was sending Paul to the Gentiles, they concluded that he just confirmed all the reports they had heard about him. Everything that they had said, we heard about you and how you're spreading this message and telling people not to be Jewish anymore. This confirmed all of that. And they turned against him again. Three decades earlier, a Jewish crowd shouted almost the exact same words to Pontius Pilate. And they demand the death penalty. They did then and they do now in this section. So this reaction was a venting of their emotions and turmoil and utter confusion was happening. So we get to verse 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 immediately remove Paul from their sight. Who knows what in the world is going to happen. A huge riot is going to break out. What was this tribune's job? To keep peace in Jerusalem. And these people keep getting all tweaked out over everything that Paul does and says. So, take him back in the barracks. But he still doesn't fully understand the situation, which is why it says that he needs to find out why they're shouting against him like this. It's not fully understood by him. but he was responsible for maintaining peace, so he wants to get to the bottom of it. And getting to the bottom of it, in his mind, in this occasion, was barbaric flogging. And that was totally permitted by Roman law. Now we'll obviously get to the part where he declares his Roman citizenship, but if you were not a Roman citizen, you could be examined, questioned, by flogging. And they would use a scourge. Anybody know, care to venture what that was like? So it had a small wooden handle, like the end of a baseball bat, and it had a whole bunch of leather straps coming off of the end of it, and metal and bone and stuff all in the leather straps. And oftentimes trying to figure out what was going on and examine people by flogging left them dead. No, I think he was listening to all of it. I don't think that he understands these theological differences that they are having, right? Yeah, so that they would understand him. Well, and yes, so you've got to also understand how afraid he would be to have a riot break out. That was a real fear because it's his literal task and he could be potentially killed for letting all this stuff break out in Jerusalem and that was his job. So whether he was bipolar or whether he was very afraid to let this unrest occur, but Either way, I want to get back to the potential beating that they are about to give him because it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 11, five times Paul had received at the hands of the Jews 40 lashes minus one. 2 Corinthians 11, 24, five times he had received 39 lashes. And because we already read this, you know that he doesn't here. So this is five other times that this man was beat like this. Paul and Silas, when they were in prison, the crowd joined in attacking them in Acts 16. Magistrates tore the garments off of them and gave orders to beat them with rods. And you can read all about Paul's plight, but He went through a lot. And in this occasion, as we get to verse 25, they have him stretched out to proceed with these whips. And now, he says to the centurion standing by, now's the right time. Here I go. Is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a Roman citizen and uncondemned? Now, the question I think that I have, that we all have, is why does he bring this up now? In his life, he was beaten five times like this. Why does he bring it up now? So just to speak to the Roman law, a Roman citizen, a citizen could only be scourged after they were convicted on capital crimes, and it would be right before they were executed. But in this case of Paul, precisely because he was a Roman citizen, it was very, very much different than what had happened to Jesus. If you compare these two things, Paul, being a Roman citizen, saved him from that same plight. Paul invokes this Roman law. Why does he do it now? A lot of people say, that's the wrong question to ask. The question isn't why did he do this now? It's why didn't he do it all the other times? Which also doesn't have an answer. Why would he allow himself to be beaten all of these other times? If you go back to when he was imprisoned with Silas, it was for the believers to see that it was worth being beaten for. There are all kinds of different circumstances to all these things that happened to him, but now this is a different circumstance and he pulls out his citizenship card, so to speak. He exercises this right twice. once in chapter 16, and then here in chapter 22. And then later, he'll appeal to Caesar, which also had to do with his Roman citizenship, giving him the ability to do that. And it's possible, although this is totally conjecture, that he was gonna continue to use that to get in front of kings and powerful people to spread the gospel even further, or to get to Rome. He wanted to go there. How are you going to get there? Appeal to Caesar. It's entirely possible. We don't necessarily know what he knew from the Lord was going to happen to him. We know that he knew some things that were going to happen to him here in Jerusalem. What all does he know? We do not know that. But regardless, he makes this appeal. And he doesn't make this appeal while he's within earshot of the crowd. Again, going back to his tailored message to them so that they wouldn't have heard also, he's a Roman citizen also? He loves Gentiles and he's a Roman citizen. They may have overcome the whole entire crowd of the guards. But as we continue through, Verse 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. 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. There was actually a variety of ways that citizenship could be obtained. But a lot of people believe that in this particular case, citizenship was rewarded to Paul's parents for something. A lot of people, this is all also conjecture, but because they were all tent makers, people said it's possible that they made tents. for some of the Romans, maybe for some of the Roman army, they made tents for them, and they rewarded them by giving them citizenship to Rome. During the days of Claudius, which is likely the reason why this man, this tribune, is named Claudius Lysias, because he bought his citizenship during the time of Claudius. Lots of bribery happened with high officials. And we don't know anything like that that goes on nowadays. Bribery with high officials. But regardless, this tribune bought his for a large sum of money. But Paul received his by birth. Whether it was given to his parents, however that came, to his family, parents, grandparents, however it came, Now by birth he received that citizenship because they had that. The interesting thing is that Paul's status supersedes the status of the Tribune. Being born having citizenship by being birthed into it obviously was better than purchasing it through bribery. But in that time, citizenship would be granted to individuals or groups or communities that distinguished themselves for some sort of service or loyalty to Rome. It was a prize that they would hand out if you were loyal to Rome in that way. So this is likely the means by which Paul's family at some point may have obtained citizenship. But the bigger question then, potentially, So how did Paul become a Roman citizen? Now you have, how did Paul prove his Roman citizenship? Technically, I believe that Andrew answered that at some point in past teachings, but they would actually carry with them a small piece of wood called a diptych. And they would carry a Diploma Civitatis Romanae. That's very precise. They would carry that with them. And if you think about all of the traveling that Paul did for all of his missionary journeys, it was probably important to keep that on you in general to prove who you were. And that wasn't just for citizenship, but also like a birth certificate. stating that he was born and given citizenship through birth. So this certificate would have been inscribed on a small wooden diptych. So don't just take Paul at his word that he says yes and the guy goes, okay, I believe you. Take all the chains off. He doesn't necessarily do that. But those who were about to examine him, given his answer and given that he superseded the Tribune's citizenship, they withdrew from him immediately. And the tribune also was afraid. So not only was he afraid of the turmoil that the crowds were actually spinning up, but now he's afraid because he locked Paul up in manacles or something to that effect and was about to whip him torturously. So just in time, you could say that Paul revealed this to them. But he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him. Now a lot of people do believe that it's possible, it does not say this, there's so much in this, but that if he was manacled initially, that they may have put lighter chains on him now that they found this out. So maybe he wasn't so bound as he was before, but he was still lightly bound. And then as you get into verse 30, those are what are taken off of him when they call the council meeting of all the chief priests and Jewish council. But he was still bound up until that verse 30 occurrence. So they came very close to violating their own law. And Paul came very close again to a sixth potential 39 lashes. But I think that this is going to lead then into next week. this tribune calls for a Jewish council because he realizes in all of this exchange there is a theological issue here between this man and these people. And so they have to sort that out. And he I don't want to get too far ahead but he has the authority to call this and to convene to convene them for that and really get down to what is going on here. But think about this. Paul Paul revealing his Roman citizenship here continues to play out again and again. Imagine as he's appealing to Caesar and this goes far ahead but he's being transported all the way to Rome and all the time of house arrest that he's under and all of the circumstances that he is going to be under for the rest of his life. It could have been worse. They could have killed him here if he wasn't a Roman citizen. They could have taken him before the council and let them deal with him as well. He could have ended up dead in all of those occasions. He could have ended up much more harshly treated in house arrest and jail and all of the things that he proceeds to have happen to him as the rest of his life goes on. But because he has this Roman citizenship it changes that course in a way and allows him to speak before loads of other people some in very very high ranking positions and to explain to them the gospel. But just as we end this, one last thing to keep in mind here. Did Paul stir this all up? Did he antagonize this in any way this entire time, if you go back in all this narrative? Right. It originated with them accusing him of something falsely, right? But I want you to think about this as we go, that although the gospel of Jesus, and that is Paul's anchor through everything, the gospel of Jesus is revolutionary. Christians don't start revolutions. Paul's not starting a revolution. He's not saying, let's go, come on guys, we're going to cause an upheaval. They're all doing this to him, but the message is revolutionary. The message that he carried, the message that we carry. So even though the Christian message of the gospel of Jesus Christ has visible consequences and effects on society, it's never happening through a revolution. as we could understand some sort of forceful revolution. It is the changing of hearts, and that is how God works the gospel throughout this entire earth. So we don't preach, viva la revolution. We preach Jesus, and this is what Paul did. We are witnesses of Jesus. He was a witness of Jesus crucified, risen, exalted. This is what we preach. This is what he preached. It's all been the same for all of this time. So even though our convictions of the truth of God's word and the gospel change society, they change what people value and they change how you behave, they don't aim to provoke in this way. He didn't start political upheaval. people were changed in their hearts. And those changes in their hearts are what change outwardly and have effects on society in general. That is a work that God does. That's not a work that Paul was advocating in any way or any of these men that took the gospel all over the place. As we go out and as the next amount of days plays out the next few weeks, the next month. Our call is to appeal to people's hearts through the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not any other type of appeal that is going to change anything. Let's pray. We can wrap up. Lord God we thank you so much for this speech of Paul's. Lord we thank you for the example that we have of him in this occasion and of all of these men even other than him with all of these speeches that we've gone over in Acts that are so laser focused on the truth of Jesus Christ. Lord may we take that same message in that same way to all of those that we come in contact with regardless of all the circumstances around us in this day and age. Circumstances were also bad back in these days that Paul lived in and the remedy was your gospel. Lord, we thank you for that example that you give us. We pray that we would be a peaceable people, that we would be content in all things, to live peaceful and quiet lives, and to spread your good news. So Lord, as we go from here tonight, we pray that this truth of your word would be on our lips, that you lived a perfect life died a substitutionary death, raised again to life, ascended and are seated at the right hand. Lord, we put all of our trust and hope in that and in the truth of that for our lives and for the lives of our children and children's children, that that would be the sure cornerstone and foundation And we pray that you would be with us as we leave tonight that you would allow us safety in our travels that we would return again back here to lift up your name again this Sunday. Lord we thank you for every time that we are able to meet and we pray all of this in your holy name. Amen.