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By Tyson Thorne

October 29, 2014
 
 

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In an effort to understand why the Jews wanted Paul dead, the commanding officer organized a mediation between the parties. He invited the high priests and the heads of the temple religious parties, the Pharisees and Sadducees, along with Paul to meet together and hammer out the details of the case. As a Roman and the accused, Paul was gave the first opening statement, the Jews would then be permitted to make theirs.

Paul had barely begun when the high priest ordered Paul be struck. Paul lashed back with both an insult (calling the man a hypocrite) and a legal accusation (the accused was not to be punished until guilt had been determined). Once it was made clear to Paul the man he insulted was the high priest he backed off, realizing he nearly violated God’s Law given in Exodus 22.28.

We don’t know how long the discussion lasted before Paul became aware of who all the opposition players were, but once the identities were made he was able to mount a proper defense. Similar to political parties, the two religious parties of Pharisees and Sadducees had many opposing beliefs, one of which centered on the resurrection of the dead. Luke point out that while the Pharisees believed in this event the Sadducees did not. Since it was Paul’s teachings about the resurrected Messiah, Jesus, which was at the root of the conflict Paul’s claim that he was on trial for believing in the resurrection of the dead wasn’t far from truth.

This pronouncement swayed the Pharisees to his side and sparked a debate that was soon on the verge of becoming violent. Seeing that arbitration had failed, the commander had guards remove Paul from the proceedings and place him in protective custody. The next day Paul was at a loss as to how to move forward and that night the Lord appeared to give encouragement.

Notice first of all that there is no mention of this being a vision. Paul was not brought “up” to the heavenlies to receive this message. Notice also that it does not say “an Angel of the Lord”. This is most likely Jesus in a post-resurrection appearance. This would mark the second time Paul had a face-to-face meeting with the Messiah.

Jesus encouraged Paul saying, “Have courage. For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem you will testify about me in Rome.”

There are two truths easily discerned from this statement. The first is that Paul wasn’t going to be freed. The second is that God wasn’t finished with him yet. There was one more missionary journey to complete, and this one was to the highest echelons of political power.