Study #69: Paul used his citizenship against the Romans and his heritage as a Pharisee against the Sanhedrin (Acts 22:22

Study #69: Paul used his citizenship against the Romans and his heritage as a Pharisee against the Sanhedrin (Acts 22:22 - 23:11)

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The Golden Ratio outline of Acts Chapter 2.4:

Acts, Chapter 2.4: Paul the free man traveled to Jerusalem to witness to the Jews (21:1 - 23:11)

§Unique Introduction: Paul continued traveling to Jerusalem, in spite of opposition from the Holy Spirit through other believers (21:1 - 14)

¶Opposite Paul and his missionary band sailed from Asia Minor to Tyre, where they stayed with a church for a week (21:1 - 6)

¶Opposite Paul refused to listen to the urgings of other Christians not to go up to Jerusalem (21:7 - 14)

§Complement Body: Paul demonstrated his faithfulness to the Law, but was attacked by unbelieving Jews in the Temple (21:15 - 22:21)

¶Unique Paul declared to the other Apostles at Jerusalem what God had done among the Gentiles by his ministry (21:15 - 19)

¶Complement The Apostles told Paul to demonstrate his fidelity to the Law of Moses before the zealous Jews in the church (21:20 - 26)

¶Complement The Roman Centurion rescued Paul from being killed by the zealous Jews in the Temple (21:27 - 39)

¶Opposite Paul testified that he was a zealous persecutor of Christians before he was met Jesus Christ (21:40 - 22:10)

¶Opposite Paul testified that the Lord Jesus sent Paul away from Jerusalem to preach to the Gentiles (22:11 - 21)

§Complement Conclusion: Paul used his citizenship against the Romans and his heritage as a Pharisee against the Sanhedrin (22:22 - 23:11)

¶Complement Paul frightened the Romans soldiers with the news that he was a natural-born Roman citizen (22:22 - 29)

¶Complement Paul caused great division among the Sanhedrin Council by identifying as a Pharisee (22:30 - 23:11)

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Comments: This study will focus on the two paragraphs of the Conclusion Section. Notice how the themes complement each other:

§C Conclusion: Paul used his citizenship against the Romans and his heritage as a Pharisee against the Sanhedrin (22:22 - 23:11)

¶Complement Paul frightened the Romans soldiers with the news that he was a natural-born Roman citizen (22:22 - 29)

¶Complement Paul caused great division among the Sanhedrin Council by identifying as a Pharisee (22:30 - 23:11)

The Bible text, arranged according to the Golden Ratio design (from the Kingdom Study Bible version):

§Unique Conclusion: Paul used his citizenship against the Romans and his heritage as a Pharisee against the Sanhedrin (22:22 - 23:11)

¶Complement Paul frightened the Romans soldiers with the news that he was a natural-born Roman citizen (22:22 - 29)

Opposite And they listened to him until this word; and then lifted up their voices, and said, “Away with such a man from the earth: for it is not fit that he should live!”

Opposite And as they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the castle. And he ordered that he should be examined by scourging, that he might know why they cried so against him.

Complement And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said to the centurion that stood by, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman citizen, and uncondemned?” When the centurion heard that, he went and told the tribune, saying, “Be careful what you do: for this man is a Roman.”

Complement Then the tribune came, and said to him, “Tell me, are you a Roman?” He said, “Yes.” And the tribune answered, “With a great sum I obtained this freedom.” And Paul said, “But I was born a Roman citizen.”

Unique Then immediately they left him who would have examined him; and the tribune also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman; and because he had bound him.

Comments: Notice the 2 opposite, 2 complement, and 1 unique design of the Golden Ratio of the subparagraphs.

The Apostle Paul was born in Cilicia, the southeastern region of Asia Minor (today’s Turkey), which was an important part of the Roman empire; therefore, Paul was a full citizen of Rome. The tribune was a former slave who had purchased his freedom and citizenship. In that time, a full citizen of Rome enjoyed all civic rights, but freed (or manumitted) slaves did not. So a full citizen of Rome was in an elite class of people in the empire.

“...under Roman law a manumitted slave might become a citizen if the proper legal form was followed, although he did not enjoy full civic rights.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Freedman

So you can imagine the terror in the minds of the tribune and the other soldiers when they learned that Paul was a full Roman citizen! They could have gotten into big trouble for what they did to him.

This tactic worked for Paul, but only in part, because he was still a prisoner of Rome; and now there was no way for him to get out of his situation easily.

The Bible text, arranged according to the Golden Ratio design (from the Kingdom Study Bible version):

¶Complement Paul caused great division among the Sanhedrin Council by identifying as a Pharisee (22:30 - 23:11)

Opposite On the next day, because he was willing to know the real reason that he was accused by the Jews, he released him from his bonds. And he commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down, and set him before them.

Opposite And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, “Men, brethren: I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.” And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God shall smite you, you whitewashed wall! For do you sit to judge me after the Law, and command me to be smitten contrary to the Law?” And they that stood by said, “Do you revile God’s high priest?” Then Paul said, “I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people.’”

Complement But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Men, brethren! I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; of the hope and resurrection of the dead am I called in question!” And when he had said this, there arose a disagreement between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the multitude was divided: for the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection; neither angel, nor spirit; but the Pharisees confess both. And there arose a great cry; and the scribes that were of the Pharisees’ part arose, and protested, saying, “We find no evil in this man! But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.”

Complement And when there arose a great dissension, the tribune, fearing lest Paul would have been pulled in pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down, and to take him by force from among them, and bring him into the castle.

Unique And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul: for as you have testified of me in Jerusalem, so must you also bear witness at Rome.”

Remember from previous studies in this Chapter that Paul was not in the will of God:

Acts 21:4 “And, finding disciples, we waited there seven days, who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.”

God had told Paul not to go up to Jerusalem; but he did anyway! If he had only obeyed the Spirit of God in this matter, he could have been a free man for many more years, perhaps; and only God knows what was lost by this misguided decision to go against the will of God.

When a Christian gets out of the will of God, things can become very confusing and troubled. Paul was brought before the council of the Sanhedrin, a group of men who knew him very well; in fact, Paul himself had been either a member of the council, or serving the council in some manner before his salvation on the road to Damascus.

Then Paul blurted out, “Men, brethren! I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee; of the hope and resurrection of the dead am I called in question!”

Was that really what Paul was called in question about? No! Paul was in trouble with the Sanhedrin, because he had believed in Jesus Christ and become a born-again Christian! It was partly true, because the Pharisees believed in the resurrection; and Jesus had risen from the dead; however, that was not really the issue.

Paul had been a Pharisee before he became a Christian; but he no longer was! So his statement was definitely not true.

At best, Paul tried to mislead the council, and at worst, Paul lied to the council! In any case, Paul was not being entirely truthful, which shows that he was not walking with the Lord at that difficult moment of his life.

Now this is not something that Christians like to talk about, because we want to believe that the Apostles were sinless and perfect men who never did anything wrong. Clearly, that was not the case.

In defense of Paul, he was in a difficult situation, and his life was in jeopardy. How would you and I have done in that same situation? Probably, most of us would have done a lot worse!

Also, while Paul did wrong in this situation, he did not commit any immorality, so he was not like many modern “Christians”, who think little of cursing, looking at pornography, smoking, drinking, and so on.

Paul was not alone in falling short of the glory of God: Paul denounced Peter in front of a large group of people for being a hypocrite, because in private, he was friendly with Gentiles; but in public, he pretended to be like a Pharisee, because he was afraid of their criticism (Galatians 2:11-14). There are other examples of Peter doing wrong, such as denying Jesus and cursing.

Mark was not an Apostle, but he did author one of the Gospels of Jesus. He returned back to Jerusalem from Paul and Barnabas, because he was afraid of being a missionary; he was unfaithful to God, at that time in his life.

I’m sure that, if we knew all of the facts about the Apostles in their personal lives, we would find many more things like this.

Paul was now in jail and I believe that he was getting right with his Lord and Savior, and confessing his sins to Him.

Acts 23:11: “And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, “Be of good cheer, Paul: for as you have testified of me in Jerusalem, so must you also bear witness at Rome.””

Now that Paul was in a situation that he could not get out of without the Lord’s help (and God did not help him get out of prison), the Lord determined to use Paul to be his witness of Him in Rome, even as a prisoner.

In other words, God was going to turn sour lemons into sweet lemonade in the life of Paul. The prison time for Paul would be a time of blessing, because four of his letters fourteen letters were written while he was a prisoner in Rome: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon.

Being in prison gave Paul lots of time to meditate and focus on writing these tremendously important letters that we still enjoy today in our Bible.

But the point is that Paul was not right with God by going to Rome against his will; and here are some lessons that we can learn from this experience of Paul:

1) When we go against the clear will of God, we are inviting trouble into our lives that God did not intend for us. Numbers 13:1 - 14:35

Psalm 81:13-16: God said, “Oh that my people had listened to me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I would soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of Jehovah should have submitted themselves to him, for then their time would have endured forever. He would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock would I have satisfied you.”

2) When we finally realize that we have sinned against the will of God, we need to repent and get right with Him.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

3) If Paul had obeyed the will of God, the Lord could have led Paul to take time off from his missionary work to write those same letters, so I don’t believe that prison was a necessary experience for Paul to have written them.

4) We miss the best that God has for us, when we fail to follow the will of God for our lives. God can still use us, as He did Paul; however, the path forward will not be the same as it would have been.

Psalm 106:13-15: “But they soon forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert. So he gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul.”

5) The Apostles were not super-humans or sinless! They were ordinary men whom God used, because they had learned by experience to be obedient to his will. The letters of the Apostles were written by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and are infallible and inerrant in the original writings. But the men themselves went through the same sort of trials and troubles that we face today. Therefore, God can also use us, in spite of our weaknesses and failings, but only if we continually repent and turn back to God as soon as we are aware that we are no longer following Him.

2 Chronicles 15:1-2 “And the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded; and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: Jehovah is with you, while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.”

6) We must not let sin grow in our lives until it becomes a monster that will devour us and destroy our testimony for Christ. Immediately confess every sin to God as soon as you are aware of it.

James 1:13-15: “Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”: for God cannot be tempted with evil; neither does he tempt any man. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it births sin; and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.”

When I was a young Christian, I thought that my pastor and other preachers were holy men of God and never did anything wrong. If they had walked on water, I wouldn’t have been surprised! But I was wrong. Pastors are only men, and like the Apostles, they can make mistakes and do wrong as well, which shows that we should pray for our pastors and church leaders. They get discouraged and make mistakes too; although hopefully, not mistakes that will cause great harm.

That should be an encouragement to us, because we make mistakes and sin also, don’t we? But God is merciful and will stand with us, just as He did with Paul, when we repent and get things right with Him. Amen!

Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.” John 14:6.

John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life.”

You cannot be a child of God until you have been born again; and you cannot be born again until you have repented of your sins and asked Jesus Christ to come into your life to become your Savior. This is done by your prayer of faith in the Finished Work of Christ on the cross, and not by the water of baptism or by church membership or by your good works.

Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been permanently saved through faith; and that faith is not out of yourselves: it is the gift of God; not of our own works, lest any man should boast”

Romans 10:8-13: “But what does it say? “The Word is near you, even in your mouth, and in your heart”; that is to say, the Word of faith (which we preach), that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved: for with the heart man believes into righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made into salvation: for the Scripture says, “Whosoever believes on him shall not be ashamed.” For there is no difference between the Jew and the Gentile: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him: for [it is written], “whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”

If you want to be saved, and become free sin and Satan; and have a future in Heaven, here is how you do it: if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that He died on the cross for your sins, and that He rose from the dead on the third day, you may pray this prayer to receive Him as your Savior and be saved:

“Lord Jesus, I know that I have sinned against YOU. I am no good, and you are righteous! You are my only hope for salvation! I believe that you died on the cross for my sins, you were buried, and you rose again from the dead on the third day. I want you to come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. Please come into my heart right now. Forgive me for all my sins, and save my soul. In the mighty Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen!”

If you have turned from your sins and accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and only Savior from sin, please message me through Facebook and let me know that you have done that, so that I can pray for you and rejoice with you in what God has done in your life. Amen.