THEMES:

• Divine Promises: In Acts 23 we see God’s promise to Paul being kept. Paul was told by God that he would make it to Rome and that nothing would stop him. Paul had faith in God that he would keep his promise and that is why he went to Jerusalem where he knew there would be verbal and violent attacks against him for his relations with the Gentiles. In Acts 23 we see God's provision and protection of Paul. In Acts 23 fifty Jewish nationalists plot to kill Paul with the help of the Sanhedrin. But, God had Paul’s nephew overheard the plot and then report it to the Roman guards in charge of Paul’s protection. The Roman prefect, Claudius Lysias, then sends 200 soldiers to protect Paul from this assasination attempt on his trip to defend himself before Felix. Here we see that God is keeping his promise to Paul. What God says he will do, He does. God is sovereign over all things, and he causes the world to work in anyway he chooses. As Proverbs states, “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will.” God directs all things, and keeps every promise he has made. So what promises of God will he keep with us, his church? Well, God in Jesus Christ through the seal of his Holy Spirit has promised: salvation (Romans 10:9), eternal life (Romans 6:23), forgiveness of sins (1 John 1:9), resurrection from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:50-55), power over temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13), rest (Matthew 11:28), peace (Philippians 4:6-7), and more! These are promises that the church and its individual members are given by God. This story shows us that God keeps his promises and is completely sovereign, so we should have faith in the promises of the Gospel. God protecting Paul on his journey to Rome gives us confidence that he will protect us on our journey to eternity. Amen!

PEOPLE:

• Ananias:  “not the Ananias of Acts 4:7, Luke 3:2, John 18:13, but the son of Nebedæus, appointed to his office by Herod; he was high priest from c. 47–59. He was sent to Rome on account of the complaints of the Samaritans against the Jews, but the Jewish cause prevailed, and there is no reason to suppose that Ananias lost his office. The probabilities are that he retained it until he was deposed shortly before the departure of Felix. Josephus gives us a terrible picture of his violent and unscrupulous conduct as high priest (he was a drunk, glutton, and fornicator), Josephus’ Antiquities, xx., 9, 2. But because he was a Roman sympathizer, it made him an object of hatred to the Jewish nationalists, and in A.D. 66, in the days of the last great revolt against the Romans, he was dragged from a sewer in which he had hidden, and was murdered by the weapons of assassins, Jos., B.J., ii., 17, 9, “Ananias,” B.D.2, and Hastings’ B.D., O. Holtzmann, Neutest. Zeitgeschichte, pp. 130, 146.”

CULTURE:

Places

• V 31 - Antipatris - “a city built by Herod the Great, and called by this name in honour of his father, Antipater. It lay between Caesarea and Lydda, two miles inland, on the great Roman road from Caesarea to Jerusalem. To this place Paul was brought by night (Acts 23:31) on his way to Caesarea, from which it was distant 28 miles.”

Cultural Background

• An Illegal Act According to Jewish Law: “For the illegality of Ananias’s action toward Paul, see Lev. 19:15:  You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.”
• “Ananias’s command to strike Paul’s face (23: 2) was a violation of judicial propriety. Paul’s protest (23:3) was justified, even though the bystanders were more shocked by his calling the high priest a “whitewashed wall” than by the high priest’s scandalous behaviour. The “whitewashed wall” may hark back to Ezekiel 13:10-16, where a coat of whitewash concealed the fragile state of the wall but could do nothing to prevent its collapse under the stress of the storm.”

• Pharisees v Saducess in Jewish-Roman Society: “Socially, the Sadducees were more elitist and aristocratic than the Pharisees. Sadducees tended to be wealthy and to hold more powerful positions. The chief priests and high priest were Sadducees, and they held the majority of seats in the Sanhedrin. The Pharisees were more representative of the common working people and had the respect of the masses. The Sadducees’ locus of power was the temple in Jerusalem; the Pharisees controlled the synagogues. The Sadducees were friendlier with Rome and more accommodating to the Roman laws than the Pharisees were. The Pharisees often resisted Hellenization, but the Sadducees welcomed it.”

CONTEMPLATING GOD:

Voice of the Past:

• Divine Consolation by John Chrysostom: “Everything Paul spoke was perfectly right before God. And the night following the Lord stood by him, etc. See what strong consolation! First our Lord praises him saying, As you have testified to My cause in Jerusalem; then He does not want Paul to be afraid for the uncertain issue of his journey to Rome: for there also, He says, you shall not depart alone, but you shall also have all this boldness of speech. Hereby God made it clear, not (only) that he should be saved, but that he should have great opportunities in Rome. But why did our Lord not appear to Paul continually in his afflictions? Because it is evermore in the afflictions that God comforts us; for we seek him more in the affliction itself, while we are in danger we must most sincerely trust in Jesus…“Paul's sister's son heard of it.” Acts 23:16 This was God's providence, the murderers were not perceiving that it would be heard. What then did Paul do? He was not alarmed, but understood that this was God's doing: and casting all cares upon Him, so he acquits himself having called one of the centurions, etc. Acts 23:17 He told of the plot, he was believed; he is saved.”

‍

Footnotes:

Expositor’s Greek New Testament. Acts 23:2. Ananias.

http://eastonsbibledictionary.org/253-Antipatris.php

ESV Study Bible, p.2134.

F.F. Bruce, Commentary on the Book of Acts. Chapter 23.

https://www.gotquestions.org/Sadducees-Pharisees.html

John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles. 49, paragraph 2.

‍