Paul’s Trial In Jerusalem (Acts 23)
Messenger dox
Call to worship/Old Testament reading:
Pastor Andrew
Exodus 22.28
New Testament reading:
pastor michael champoux
Luke 22.63-71
song:
In Christ alone
Historical reading:
Pastor Bobby Owens
Apostles Creed
song:
His mercy is more
Confession & Pardon:
pastor zachary mcguire
song:
See the destined day arise
Sermon:
dr. alex loginow
Acts 23
paul’s trial in jerusalem (acts 23)
Introduction
Have you ever been in an active courtroom? Like, have you ever witnessed or participated in a trial? What is your personal experience with a working court of law? When I was in elementary school me and another kid visited the Madison Heights court and watch it in action for a day because we had written a letter to the judge as part of a school project or something. There have also been a handful of times as a pastor when I have been in a courtroom to support a member of the church. Besides those though the only time I have appeared in court, as a defendant was when I was in high school.
My first ever job was bagging groceries at Holiday Market in Royal Oak and 1 night while driving home from work I ran an orange light on Main Street. While I still dispute that the light was red, it is indisputable that the flashing lights I saw behind me were. I was issued a ticket and my dad told me that I was going to have to stand before the judge and pray that I didn’t get any points. So I dressed up, pleaded guilty, and promised that I would not run any more red lights. While, as a high-schooler, I was nervous to stand before the judge the scene really wasn’t that dramatic. In fact, none of the courtrooms I have ever been in have been that dramatic. Movies like A Few Good Men, shows like Law & Order and other Hollywood portrayals of trials are always so dramatic and I’m sure there are many trials that actually are even more dramatic than Hollywood; I’ve just never participated in any.
The scene here in Acts 23 is 1 such trial. Paul, following in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus stands trial before the Jews and we’ll see next week that he’ll stand trial before a Roman governor. As we’ve seen throughout the book of Acts there is much about the experience of the Apostles that is unique in redemptive history – there are things the Apostles did and said that we will never do or say but in the stories of the Apostles there are also timeless truths we can reflect on and grow from and in this pericope we see 4 such truths.
The Persecution of the World
The 1st timeless truth we see in Acts 23 is that until Jesus returns, Christians will face persecution from the world. What persecution does Paul experience in this chapter? Paul is falsely accused and tried, Paul is struck in the mouth by those who stood by him, and the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by oath that they would not eat until they had murdered Paul. We’ve consistently seen the world’s hatred for the Apostles and the church throughout Acts and this should not surprise us because Jesus told us this would happen.
On the night that Jesus was betrayed he spoke these words to his disciples:
18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me {John 15. 18-21}.
The world hated and murdered the Lord Jesus so it is only logical that the world will also hate the followers of Jesus. In our church history class a few weeks ago we noted that this persecution did not end with the apostles but the 1st few hundred years of church history included some of the worst persecution in history and the church has been at odds with the world, to some degree or another, for the last 2 millennia. The book of Revelation shows us that the will be true until the Lord Jesus returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new. If you have been a Christian for any period of time, you have already experienced this spiritual warfare, if you have not been a Christian for long, you will experience this spiritual warfare, and as long as each of us are alive, to 1 degree or another, the world will hate us.
You may experience the hatred of the world through family or friends who don’t approve of your faith, doctrine, or obedience to Jesus. Some of your family or friends may hate that you want to be baptized, or that you want to get married so that you don’t live in sexual sin. Our culture hates the Christian sexual ethic, our view of the sanctity of life, and the exclusivity of the gospel. The reasons why the world hates the church changes over time but until Jesus’ 2nd coming, the world hates Jesus and the church.
The Sovereignty of God
It’s hard not to feel defeated with the realization that to some degree the world will always hate and persecute the church, but there is another timeless truth we see in Acts 23 that gives us perspective and security in spite of our adversarial relationship with the world and that is the truth that God is sovereign. What a beautiful reminder of this sweet doctrine here in verse 11 of Acts 23 – Luke tells us that the night after Paul stood trial in Jerusalem that the Lord Jesus 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.” With these words Jesus reminds Paul (and Luke reminds us) that everything is going according to plan. Even though the Jews and the Romans persecute Paul, they are pawns used by God in his great sovereign mission of covering the globe with the glory of Jesus as the waters cover the seas. Jesus is controlling everything that happens to Paul, the other apostles, and the early church, and even though the world is trying to stamp out the Kingdom of Christ, everything they do only serves to proliferate the Kingdom of Christ.
This was not only true in the 1st century but has been true for all of history. One example we see of this in the Old Testament is in the life of Joseph. Joseph was persecuted, not only by pagans in Egypt (like Rome) but also by the sons of Israel. After Jacob died Joseph’s brothers were worried that he would take vengeance on them but Joseph confessed, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today (Gen 50.20). God was working through the evil perpetrated against Joseph for the salvation of his people; in the same way God was working through the evil perpetrated against Paul for his glory and for the good of the church.
Not long before this trial St. Paul penned the epistle to the church at Rome and he would remind us of this truth in Romans 8.28-30 when he wrote,
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
And because the New Testament reveals Jesus to us what we see in experiences had by men like Paul in Jerusalem and Joseph in ancient Egypt were shadows reflecting the Son of God. All of these pieces fit together in the gospel, or the good news, of Jesus Christ. The gospel is the good news that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We needed Christ to die for us because we are all created in the image of the 1 true and holy God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and in Adam we have inherited a sin nature. Because we have a sin nature, we sin against God in thought, word, and deed so we are guilty and rightly deserve death and eternal, conscious punishment in a place called hell.
That’s the bad news. The good news is that God loved us in this way that he sent his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him will not die but will live forever. The eternal 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; he lived a truly human life, yet without sin, he died on the cross, bearing the wrath of God against the sins of the elect suffering the penalty of death, and he was buried. But on the 3rd day he resurrected from the dead, reversing the curse and inaugurating the new messianic Kingdom. God raised Jesus from the dead because Jesus was not guilty, and because Jesus had satisfied God’s wrath, and because the world is being made new and Jesus is the first-born of the new world. This was God’s sovereign plan from before he even created the world and everything that has happened in history has served this end. Everything that happens in the world now, in this church, in your life and home, everything that happens in America, and in the middle east, everything that has ever happened everywhere, is under the sovereign control of God and is orchestrated for his ultimate glory and the ultimate good of his people through the gospel.
The Confession of Sin
This passage reminds us that the world will always hate the church but also that we can remain faithful in spite of persecution because God is sovereign. Acts 23 also reminds us that it is not just the world out there that stands in opposition to God but it is also our own sinful hearts that oppose God and we must always confess and repent of our sin. You know, often times when we look at the apostles we are quick to note Peter’s sin (and how can we miss it?; as Luther encouraged us, Peter always seemed to “sin boldly”) but we don’t do the same with Paul. Paul is different than Peter, of course, but especially after Paul’s conversion many of us speak of Paul as if everything he ever did was right – as if Paul didn’t sin. Well, Acts 23 reminds us here that that is not the case.
Don’t gloss over the spot at the beginning of the narrative where Paul gets lippy and sarcastic with the high priest (and who could blame him?). But note that when it is brought to Paul’s attention that he is disrespecting the high priest, Paul repents. Paul even quotes Exodus 22.28, which we read from our Old Testament reading in our call to worship, acknowledging that he has broken God’s Law. Paul may have followed in the footsteps of Jesus in these trials but 1 way that Paul did not follow in Jesus’ footsteps is by sinning – Jesus never sinned.
And that is why until Jesus returns and we are resurrected and glorified we must always continue to repent of our sin. This is the initial response to the gospel – faith and repentance. Faith is comprised of knowledge, assent, and trust. To have faith means that you know that God is holy, you are a sinner, and that Jesus lived, died, and resurrected for the forgiveness of sin and the hope of eternal life. You must not only know that good news but you must also assent to it – you must confess it and not deny it. Finally you must transfer your trust to Jesus alone.
If you do have faith in Jesus you will repent of your sin. Repentance entails 2 facets – confession and turning. First you must confess that you are a sinner; you must acknowledge that reality and then you must turn away from your sin to toward Jesus. Repentance is how we first become Christians but it is also the path we take for all the rest of our lives. When we sin we must always repent – we must confess and turn. Sometimes God brings us to repentance on our own, sometimes it is with the help of another Christian, or through a sermon, or reading the Bible, regardless, the Christian life is a life of repentance.
The Shrewdness of the Kingdom
The world will persecute the church but we can persevere because God is sovereign and while we war against the world we must war against our own sin. But the Christian life is not merely playing defense against the world and against our own sin, no, we are also on offense for the glory of God, the spread of the gospel, and the good of others. One way that we are on offense for the Kingdom is through practicing shrewdness. Shrewdness is not a word used often in the church but it is imperative. Shrewdness means “having or showing sharp powers of judgment; astute.” The Greek word in the New Testament for shrewdness is φρονίμως, which means, “understanding resulting from insight and wisdom.”
Jesus taught his church to be shrewd in the parable of the dishonest manager that we read from Luke 16 in our New Testament reading. And we see the church acting shrewdly in Acts 23. Paul is shrewd when he pits the Pharisees and the Sadducees against one another. Paul’s nephew acts shrewdly when he tells Paul of the plot to kill him and then there’s more shrewdness when Paul sends his nephew to the Roman tribune.
Jesus indeed taught his church to turn the other cheek, and to pray for our enemies, and to submit to authorities (so long as they don’t promote what Scripture condemns or condemn what Scripture promotes), but Jesus never taught us to be naive, or foolish, or weak, or to lack discernment. In fact, the whole point of the parable of the dishonest manager is we should be more like him! Not in his dishonesty, of course, but in his shrewdness. Above all people Christians should be the ones reading the room, leveraging every situation, and discerning every word, every thought, and every deed for the Kingdom of Jesus.
Are you shrewd for the Kingdom of Christ? Are you scheming for the glory of God? Are you trying to read the room? Discern every situation? Leverage every occasion for the glory of God and the good of others? Or are you content with being dull? Are you content with pretending like other areas of your life – work, home, marriage, kids, neighbors, etc. has nothing to do with the gospel? Everything has to do with the gospel! Wake up and see that and train yourself to be as shrewd as you can for Jesus.
Conclusion
We’ve used Paul’s name a lot this morning but Acts 23 isn’t most ultimately about Paul; it isn’t even most ultimately about the church for the last 2,000 years, or even us; most ultimately it is about Jesus. At the end of his life Paul is recapitulating the ministry of Jesus to the point where he is even tried and will die like Jesus – tried by the Jews here and then tried by the Romans in the coming chapters, Paul follows in the footsteps of Jesus Christ who was falsely tried and convicted by the Jews and the Romans, even though he never sinned. And it is because the innocent Christ died and resurrected in our place, to atone for our sin and reverse the curse that we too can follow in the footsteps of Jesus. We may never stand trial in Jerusalem, or Rome, or even anywhere but we will be persecuted by the world, and we must confess our sin, and we must be shrewd for the Kingdom, and we must do it all resting in the sovereignty of God and the gospel of Jesus. Like Paul we can persevere through any trial we face in this life because Jesus was convicted on our behalf, he paid the debt we owed, and he is our advocate who will never leave us nor forsake us.