Be Courageous: You Must Also Testify in Rome
First B Jackson
2025-08-24

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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The church. And my prayer was, Lord, please bless our church family with your Holy Spirit, Lord. Would you please touch our hearts, Lord? And may we gather together in a beautiful way that we see your work done in our lives. Amen?

Until we depart from this world, we are work we are a work in progress. Amen? But as long as we stay focused on the Holy Spirit, he will guide us and he will walk in our lives, and he will direct our paths in the right direction. Now, bless the Lord of my soul. Hallelujah.

Amen? We're gonna have a special three this morning. Maria is gonna lead us in this beautiful song. And let's worship the Lord and feel his presence. Amen?

If you don't wanna sing, that's fine. Close your eyes and have a beautiful prayer in your heart with your savior. Amen? Heavenly father, thank you for giving us the privilege to be here, Lord. It's so great to sing and to worship you, Lord.

That's why we are here, Lord. Touch our hearts, Lord. Holy Spirit, speak to us. Bless us this morning, Lord, so we can be equipped, trained, so we can serve you outside of this building. In your precious name, pray.

Amen. Pastor.

Oh, yeah. Think y'all can have a seat. What are they now? So here they are. WANNA registration is open.

That is starting. First day is September 15 and that's coming fast. So if you'd like to register, can go to our website. That little QR code would probably take you to that website. Iwana registration is open.

That's pre k, like two years old, all the way up to fifth grade, and that is happening September 15. If you are a volunteer that would like to help out with that or if you know of a child that would like to be involved in that or parents who would like to get their children involved in it, let us know. That's a good thing. Guatemala missions trip. That's happened in October 11 through the eighteenth with Hope of Life International.

And Mike tells me that there's gonna be in between services an informational gathering down in the connect hour. Is that right? Today? Yes. This morning.

So a little more information if you wanna know more about it. First b jackson dot org is the place to go on the Internet, but if you'll go down the hall, Mike will let you know more about it. Guatemala missions trip, Zacapa, Guatemala October 11 through the eighteenth, that's coming up. Seeking truth in your twenties is happening out there off of Zenith Drive behind the airport. Spring Gulch Road extended out that direction.

Sunday night, 06:30, there's McCooley right there waving his hand. We're taking a break from three or Okay. Okay. It's happening eventually. Is that right?

Is not tonight? No. Not tonight. Okay. We're taking a break for three or four weeks, but be praying for that.

That has been very very good all summer long, well attended, and I have heard lots and lots of good things from that. So that will be back in about a month or so. The JH Women's Bible Study, Community Bible Study on Wednesdays will start happening September 10. It'll go through October 29, 10AM to noon. They're gonna be covering the book of Genesis and that will be at the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole, PCJH on South Park Loop.

Sometimes it's here, sometimes it's at Gateway. This time, it's gonna be at PCJH. Childcare will be provided and you can sign up for it at jhwomensbiblestudy.com. That's ladies from all of the churches in the Valley, virtually all the churches in the Valley getting together. And Sisters Saved by Grace, I think someone else is gonna make this announcement.

It is a maybe not. There she comes. Sisters saved by grace. Here you go.

Good morning, We started a small group of women who fellowship and do Bible study in COVID. And we are still meeting and we're gonna start up on September 4 this year. All women in the church are invited. It's on Thursday nights. It's from six to eight.

And this year, we're gonna be studying prayer. And so often we think of prayer as our prayer list and our prayer requests that somebody gives us, that prayer is really a gift of God for relationship with him. And that's what we're gonna be studying. So we would love to see you on September 4. And we will have a book, and it'll be $10 and 06:00 in the fellowship hall.

So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you That's Nancy Baxter, if you don't know. And what's next? Old bills and first B's benevolence fund. So our the thing that we use our old bills money.

How do you say that? That's about right. Old bills is a way of amplifying giving. Maybe I'll start there. Usually, a dollar given through the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole ends up being about a dollar and 0.5 coming to whatever organization.

And there are lots of other organizations in town, lots of other organizations in town. Donations towards any of those five zero one c threes are amplified if you give through the Community Foundation in this season from August 15 to September 12. What we happen to use that money for is our benevolence fund that helps us and the email this week went out and there are like four or five things that just happened this week of ways that we are able to say yes to people when they are in need because of that. So that's happening and it is the season, August 15 through September 12. If there's anything else, our church website is pretty good.

It handles most of that. And if you don't know, you can call us and we'll tell you what else is going on. Did I forget anybody or anything? I don't see anything. Would you stand with us then?

And we'll go straight on back into worshiping the Lord together. I'm glad that I'm here today, and I'm glad that y'all are here today.

Amen. Jeremiah ten six says, Lord, there is no one like you, for you are great and your name is full of power. Let's sing that. Amen? Our God Praise the Lord.

Amen. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your love and goodness, Lord. Oh, God. It's so good to be here, Jesus.

Lord, I'm as we gather here and we are saved by your grace, lord, there is a thankfulness in our hearts. But, lord, I'm praying for those that do not know you right now, Lord Jesus. Would you please find a way to reach in their hearts? Would you please, Lord, use us as instruments to be able to tell them about your goodness so they can come under the same covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ, Lord? Jesus, give us the strength to be able to open our mouth and to share the good news about you.

In your precious name, I pray. Amen. This song is like a good steak. For real. So imagine you're sitting at dinner.

Right? Salad is there, breadsticks, and other stuff, and then the steak is not there. So this song is the song.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna ask the ushers to come forward. And if you would pray with me silently while I pray aloud. Lord, thank you for this place to gather this morning for this for this little representation of the body of Christ here in this particular place at this particular time.

Lord, we thank you that you have tied us together with everyone who put their faith in Messiah to come before Jesus during his earthly ministry and since then, we're tied together in faith, the church, Lord. Those who have been called out of and into. God, I pray that you would allow us the breath in our lungs and the vocalizations of our mouth, Lord, that our heart would overflow with what's in there. And what is in there would be your love and your mercy and your forgiveness. Your good news, your gospel.

I pray Lord that it would so touch our lives in a way that we realize it and that it comes out, Lord. Would you help us get over all of the stuff from the past that we need to get over? And would you help us as we go into the future, Lord, to just be reaching out, to be reaching out with the good news of the gospel. Would you allow us to live it in our lives and to use our words to put a fine point on it, to articulate the good news. Your will, Lord, done in your way, that's what we wanna be about doing.

Amen.

Amen. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He bakes me like thou lingering pastures, and he leads Let's sing that one more time, please. Amen.

Praise the Lord.

Amen. Amen. And it is time for children's church downstairs. That's good. Alright.

So, it's been two weeks since that I have not preached. So you all know what that means. I am super nervous. I was here both times though, that helps a little bit. But here we are and we are up to the very next verses from where I stopped last time.

I stopped at twenty one fourteen. I actually gave you a heads up on fifteen and sixteen that they are heading towards Jerusalem. Now, if you remember from a few weeks before that, Paul had he's just absolutely convinced he must go towards Jerusalem, but in every town that he goes to. Every place he goes, people are prophesying. And it says in the spirit, even the last place that he was, it said, and they were warning him in the spirit not to go to Jerusalem, but he feels he must.

And so, he's going towards Jerusalem. This is what's happening. The clicky clicker is not clicking right now, Josh. Okay. Here we go.

So after these days, we got ready and we started on our way up to Jerusalem. Luke is with him. Luke's with him. He's a firsthand witness. He's given the account after all of these folks were saying, you ought not do it Paul, please don't do it Paul, please don't do it.

You can go, but go later. It's just not right right now. He says, nope, we're going. And Luke says, and so we got ready, we started on our way up. Some of the disciples from Caesarea, that's the last place that they were together.

Caesarea, Maritime Caesarea is on the coast. It's right there actually. So this is an outpost. 5,000 soldiers are stationed there. It's sort of a Caesar's palace, not like the one in Vegas, but it is a place where Caesarea is one thing, Jerusalem is the absolute epicenter of all that is religious Judaism.

It's the place, and he's going at Pentecost. He wants to be there by Pentecost. That's his whole plan. That's why he's been running so hard and so fast to get there. He feels like it's got to be now.

So Caesarea is on the coast, Cyprus you see up there, they're staying with Menneson of Cyprus. He's a disciple of long standing and they're going to stay with him. You all know how that is. You got people staying with you, I got people staying with me. Where you wanna be, that's where you wanna be.

Right? So here it is. After we arrived in Jerusalem, Luke says, the brothers and sisters received us gladly. That's good because what is he expecting? Chains and affliction.

But the brothers and sisters are the ones that receive them well. These are folks who have trusted in Christ. Since it's Jerusalem, we can kinda see that it's probably Jewish background believers because that's what's present in Jerusalem. In the following day, Paul went in with us, Luke's still with him to James. James is the leader of the church in Jerusalem.

He's the head guy. So in the following day, Paul went in with us to James and that all of the elders were present. These are folks who were believers. It was not the Sanhedrin, not the Jewish background opposition. This is Jewish background Christians and they were all present.

And after he had greeted them, Paul agreed them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done. This is a humble statement right here. He's not saying what he did, he's saying, you wouldn't believe it. It was fantastic. We went to this place and we went to that place and look what God has done.

So he's telling them this, but look at the things which God had done among the Gentiles. By the way, would you all listen fast this morning? We got a lot of ground to cover. I meant to mention that to start out with. I'm trying to hit a natural stop, and I feel like if you stop the flow anywhere before I stop it, it's going to be hard to do.

So we're going to go to a natural stop in chapter 23. Okay. After he agreed with them, he began to relate one by one the things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. He saw it firsthand. He saw how God was working.

And when they had heard about them, when when they'd heard about what? When they had heard about the things which God had done, okay, they began glorifying God. That's the proper response. So these are believers, Jewish background believers. They're with James.

If you see James's letter in the New Testament and Paul's letters in the New Testament, you can see that James is a hardcore Jewish guy. Now, but he's also absolutely no doubt about it converted. He's a Christian. They began glorifying God and they, the elders in James said to Paul, you see brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who believe. It's great what God's doing among the Gentiles, but I want you to know that since you left town, there's been a revival here too.

Our people have been accepting our Messiah, Jesus. And so there are thousands here among the Jews who have believed and also they're zealous for the law. Now, if you know about Galatians and you know about a lot of the other books of the New Testament that Paul has written to the Gentiles, a lot of what he talks about is this balance of of grace and grace, it's all about grace, yes. But he also doesn't ever blast a Jewish person for their practice of the law, ever. Now, when it comes to Jews and Gentiles getting along, that's a difficult situation to be in.

Now, what were the Jews supposed to be according to Isaiah? I think it's 49. They're supposed to be a late, a light, not a late, a light to the Gentiles. It says it throughout the Old Testament actually. I'm gonna bless you to be a blessing to others.

Everyone who will come to believe like Abraham. Everyone who will come to believe, I'll bless. Whoever you bless, I'll bless. Whoever you curse, I'll curse. That's scary.

Okay. Great what God's doing among the Gentiles. I think that's wonderful. And know that he's doing a great work among this Jewish background folks too, and all of these folks are still pretty zealous for the law. They're Jews Jews.

They're Jewish Jews. They're really going for it. So those folks have been told about you, and it's a telephone game. They've been told about you from parts far flung, and by the time it gets back to us, this is what they've been told about you. That you're teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles, the diaspora Jews, the ones who've been spread out all over the world, that is the way that they have been treated honestly for a long time.

They've they've been told about you that you're teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to abandon Moses, get rid of the law, get rid of Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor walk according to the customs. That's what they have heard about you, Paul. So is Paul antinomian? He's not. He's not antinomian.

He believes that the law is good. He understands what the law is good for, and he expresses that over and over, but he's not antinomian. He's not. So what is to be done? So what is to be done?

James and the elders say to Paul, okay. So this is what they've been told. This is where you are. I see he's working in the Gentiles. I see he's working in the Jews.

So what is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come, and I promise you, it's going be trouble for you. We have not had sufficient time to make them aware of what's going on. Your accelerated schedule may have caused us a little bit of difficulty. Therefore, please do as we tell you.

We understand our people better now than you do. You've been gone long time. We understand what's going on here better than you do. Yes, the gospel is moving forward. So do as we tell you.

We have four men who have a vow upon themselves. These are poor, probably poor guys that couldn't pay for themselves. Taking and probably a Nazarite vow, it's a month long vow at least, could be longer. We have these four guys who have taken a vow upon themselves. Would you take them along and purify yourself together with them for him because he's coming back from Gentile lands, it would have been a week long thing, a seven day purification deal.

So you take these four guys and purify yourself together with them and pay their expenses, so that they may shave their heads. If you look back just a few chapters, Paul had taken this exact same vow recently. Well, recently as far as the text of scripture, probably been two years since he did it. But he'd taken that Nazarite vow, he shaved his own head. So it's not something he hasn't done.

He's not an Anonymian. He is still a practicing Jewish guy. He he is. He understands that Jesus is the sacrifice. He gets that.

This purification ritual is something else. This vow is something else. It's not for salvation. Don't think that it is. Take them along, purify yourself together with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads, and then everyone will know that there's nothing to what they've been told about you.

But that you yourself also conform keeping the law. Now does he? Yeah. He does. And he knows what it's all about.

What's he doing in the Gentiles telling that they don't have to go back to them? He's Jewish. His background is Jewish. He understands that it pointed towards Christ, it was not Christ. He understands that Christ fulfilled the law, but he still practices.

Why does he start in the synagogue every place he goes? Why does he express from their scriptures, the old testament stuff from Moses? Why does he go in and say, listen, this is what it's about everywhere that he goes. Yeah. But regarding the Gentiles who have believed, we sent a letter.

Remember, so the Jews, they're still practicing and that we understand and this is the most Jewish place on earth. This is where they're gonna do this Paul. They're gonna do it. And if you'll go do this, it'll show them that you're not against them, that you're with them. But regarding the Gentiles who believe, we sent a letter.

You know about the letter. We decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed idols from blood, what is strangled from sexual immorality. If they'll do that, it will go well. That's what the chapter says back in the Jerusalem Council, fourteen fifteen, Acts. So you know that that's what we said.

This is kind of the limitations that we put on them, but God is free to save whoever he saves through his good gospel. All of us believe in Messiah. This is we're walking out the practice. And then Paul, it says, took along the men. And the next day, after purifying himself together with them, he went into the temple and he was given notice of the completion of the days of purification, seven days for him, longer for them, until the sacrifice was offered for each of them.

It's not for salvation. It's not for salvation. That's important. Now, when the seven days were almost over, probably on the seventh day, the Jews from Asia, oh boy, remember Asia. Ephesus is in Asia, all around Ephesus is considered to be Asia, and he had had some significant difficulty.

Remember there was a riot in Ephesus? Yeah. That's one of the things. He also was hindered from going into Asia earlier. He stopped in for a brief time, and then when he got back, he stayed longer there than anywhere else.

So he had time to see a lot of people come to Jesus, and he also had time to make a lot of enemies. So when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and they laid hands on him. They grabbed hold of Paul and crying out, these Jews of Asia cried out, men of Israel, help. This is the guy. He's the one who instructs everyone everywhere against our people and the law and this place.

He's against us. Now, Paul was there, literally there, doing a purification ritual. This is the guy and you can almost hear the venom. And besides, he's even brought Greeks into the temple, and he's defiled this holy place. Now, that's the worst thing that they've charged him with so far.

Actually, for us that might be like, I don't see what the big deal is because you're not a first century Jewish person. They had previously seen him with Trophimus the Ephesians. Trophimus the Ephesians is an Asian. He's from Asia. He's one of the people that they knew, and they saw Paul with him.

It says in the city, they saw him and they assumed that he had taken him into the temple. They thought that Paul had brought him into the temple and so thinking that, that's why they made that report. Now, had not seen him in there. According to the text, it doesn't look like he took him in there. I don't think Paul would have done that.

I don't think James would have let him do that. There's not much chance that he ever went in. For those of us who are not first century Jewish, that covers us all. This is a stone. This is this one's in its entirety.

This is one of the stones of the balustrade that is between the Court of the Gentiles and the sanctuary of the temple. And so this thing, there are actually This is a piece of one in a museum, the Museum of Israel, and this one is a This one is made to be more easily read, an inscription in another museum. This is a copy, you know, it's made up. But that's what it says. In fact, this is what it says.

Let no foreigner enter within the parapet and the balustrade which surrounds the sanctuary. And there were a bunch of these. They were placed all the way around. And it said, whoever is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death. Would you cross that line?

I wouldn't cross that line. No trial, no nothing. That's just do this, you know what to expect. Right here is your limit. Don't go beyond that.

So then the whole city was provoked. They were provoked because they thought that Paul had that Paul had sullied the temple. And if he did that, it was defiled until they killed him. That's the rule. Yeah.

It's a big deal. So the whole city was provoked. The people rushed together. They took hold of Paul. They dragged him out of the temple.

This is on the other side of those stones. That's where he was when they saw him. They dragged him outside of that area, and immediately the doors were shut. Now, first for the Jew then to the Gentile. This is this is this is an actual thing that actually happened.

They dragged him out of the temple, slammed the door shut. I get that, but boy, what a metaphor. He's doing his best towards his people. As Roman nine says, he would have given his own life so that his people would know and believe the gospel. So they seize him while he's doing what they want him to do, and drag him out, and immediately the doors were shut.

It's it's a it's a metaphor for that in addition to it being the truth. While they were intent on killing him, a report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. Now, when we see Jerusalem in the New Testament, there's a lot of times where it's in confusion. A lot of what we think about the passion of the Christ, there's a a time period of heightened religious festivals, there's always something going on. And you'd think, how can they get there so fast?

Well, this is the Antonia Fortress. This is right next to the temple. Actually, this is a model that's in Israel these days. It's enormous. But this is the Antonia Fortress, and that's the temple.

So you can see that. You can look down and see when something's going on. It's not hard to see. But the report comes up, hey, y'all got to get down here. Next thing, he immediately, the commander of the Roman cohort there, who does not want a riot, he immediately took along some soldiers and centurions.

He ran down to the crowd, down because they were above, looking down, and when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. When the Jewish guys saw the Romans approaching, they stopped. We're not doing anything. Looking all innocent, they stopped beating Paul. And then the commander came up and took hold of Paul, and he ordered that he be bound with two chains, and then he began asking who he was and what he had done.

Okay. He's trying to figure out what's going on. He is the law in this place, and so he's trying to figure out what's going on. But among the crowd, some were shouting one thing and some another. And when he could not find out the facts because of the uproar, Let me just have a seat for a moment.

Have you all felt like you just cannot figure out the facts for the uproar in our lives today? Some are shouting one thing and some are shouting another. It is exhausting. It is absolutely exhausting. He could not find out the facts because of the uproar.

So he ordered that Paul just be taken out of the situation where his life was in danger, and be brought into the barracks. And when Paul got to the stairs, you remember the picture? It's the stairs going up. It's a good place. When Paul got to the stairs, it came about that he was carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob.

Mob tends towards violence. Mob tends towards riot. Great numbers of people do not think well. Individuals can think well, but man, you can get caught up in a mob so easily. When Paul got to the stairs that came about that he was carried by the soldiers because of the mob for the multitude of the people kept following them shouting, away with him.

Get him out of here. They don't want him anywhere near that temple. And as Paul was about to be brought into the barracks, he said to the commander, may I say something to you? This is one of the most polite. It's the most polite way you could possibly say something.

He's being carried, think crowd surfing, up the stairs. He goes, can I have a moment? May I say something to you? And the soldier responds, do you know Greek? And he said, if you know Greek, you're not the Egyptian.

This is who he assumed he was. From all the uproar, he couldn't tell what was going on, but his assumption in AD fifty four, just four or five years before this is happening right now, there was an Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a revolt, led 4,000 men of the Assassins, that's the name of their group, out into the wilderness. It didn't come of anything against the whole Roman army. It's not likely to, but you don't want that sort of thing on your watch. And so his assumption was this guy is a bad guy.

We know who this is. But when he asked him something so politely in Greek, do you know Greek? I I still have to keep going back to this right enough. I love this line. The majority did not know what for what reason they had come together.

Paul said, I'm a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no insignificant city. Tarsus is a free city. At that point, they should have known he was Roman. Tarsus, it wasn't Alexandria in name, like Alexandria is a place of learning. Tarsus was just as big a place of learning.

Half a million people there, big city, not insignificant in any way, and I beg you, allow me, please, let me speak to the people now that I've got a platform and some bodyguards. Please. And when he had given him permission, he waited on permission. Paul standing on the stairs motioned to the people with his hand, and when there was a great silence, probably miraculous because it's hard to imagine the people calming down. In Ephesus, they screamed for two hours, great is Artemis of the Ephesians.

You know, this seems bigger than that. But Paul standing on the stairs motioned to the people with his hand and when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew dialect Aramaic saying, brothers and fathers, also polite, also including himself with them. It's not oppositional in any way. Brothers and fathers, hear my defense which I now offer to you. So this is Paul's defense before the Jews is the heading in some of your Bibles, and he actually does it in Aramaic, but he does it according to sort of a Latin Greek, exordium, narratio proofs, you know, provatio.

So here it is, brothers and fathers, hear my defense what I now offer you. And when they heard that he was addressing them in Aramaic, they began even became even more quiet, and he says, there's that story telling technique again of the historical present. He says, I am a Jew, born in Tarsus Of Cilicia. Where did I hear that? Four verses ago.

But brought up in this city, I was educated under Gamaliel, and you all know Gamaliel. Strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today. I understand why you're doing what you're doing. I've been there. I persecuted this way, the one that I'm following now.

I persecuted this way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons as also the high priest and all the council of the elders can testify. When I left here, had the writs in my hand. From them, I also received these letters to the brothers and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. I understand why I'm being carried away. I was one of the people who would have carried me away, but I was that.

I've been called into something new. But it happened that as I was on my way, I was approaching Damascus at about noon and a very bright light suddenly flashed from heaven all around me on all sides of me, and I fell to the ground and I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Every time that I hit this and you hit it a lot in acts, actually, we're gonna hit it two more times. Every time that I hit this in acts, it always, you know, we call ourselves, we think about, oh, this is the body of Christ. When I prayed this morning, this little representation of the body of Christ.

Paul was, Saul was, after followers of the way, and when he has a direct encounter with Christ, he says, why are you persecuting me? That's heavy. That's cool. I fell to the ground. I heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?

And I answered him, who are you, Lord? And he said to me, I am Jesus the Nazarene. I'm the one you're persecuting. It might look like you're persecuting these folks that you think are not following the law the way they ought to be. You're persecuting me.

And those who are with me saw the light, but they didn't understand the voice of the one who's speaking to me, and I said, what shall I do, Lord? What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, get up, go on into Damascus, that's where you were going, and there you'll be told about everything that has been appointed for you to do. You can't handle it right now. But since I couldn't see because of the brightness of that light, was blinded.

I came into Damascus and I was led by the hand. As virulent as he was when he left Jerusalem, going forward militantly, going to take these people back, and then he's led by the hand into the city where he was gonna go persecute people, and those are the people that received him. Now, a certain guy, Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the law and well spoken about by all the Jews, lived there. He came to me and standing nearby, he said to me, brother Saul, receive brother, Saul, receive your sight. And at that very moment, I looked up at him.

You think Ananias knew who Saul was before that? God spoke to him directly, so yes, we do know that immediately before that, but probably before that. He was gaining fame for being the guy who did what it was that he was going to do. And at that very moment, I looked up at him and he said, the God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will and to see the righteous one. That's what he calls Jesus.

That's what the prophets often called Jesus. He's speaking to a guy who knew the prophets. He's speaking to a guy who knew Torah. He's speaking to a guy who knew Deuteronomy 18 where it says, the Lord will send for you one like me. Listen to him.

And Paul hadn't Saul had not been listening to him. The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will to see the righteous one and to hear a message from his mouth for you will be a witness for him to all people of what you have seen and what you have heard. Think about that for a moment. That's what he's doing right now. He's a witness up there on the top of the stairs near the Antonia Fortress near the temple, and he's telling all the people of what he has seen and what he's heard.

Now, why do you delay? Get up and be baptized. Get yourself baptized. That's what it says. It sounds very southern to me.

In the Greek, it's like get up and get yourself baptized. Wash away your sins by calling on his name. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Doesn't matter if you're Jew, Gentile, doesn't matter your religious background. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved because he's calling you out of something and into something completely different.

Then it happened, when I returned to Jerusalem and I was praying in the temple that I fell into a trance and I saw him saying to me, hurry and get up out of Jerusalem quickly because they will not accept your testimony about me. Ain't that sad? He has all the learning, he has all the understanding, he has a direct message directly from God, but people will not let their religiosity They won't won't listen to the truth because of their religiosity, because of their cultural tradition, because of man's traditions. And I said, Lord, they themselves understand that in one synagogue after another, I used to imprison and beat all those who believed in you. Lord, surely they'll know.

I get to tell them this, that's why he's wanting to tell the story right now. Surely Lord, they'll do this. Jesus, come on. Let me tell them. And Jesus just told him, get out of here.

They're not gonna believe your testimony about me. They shut the door on that, quite literally. And when the blood of your witness, Stephen, he continues, when the blood of your witness, Stephen, was being shed, I was also standing nearby and I was approving and I was watching over the cloaks of those men who are killing him and there's some of y'all here right now that remember that or your dads remember it. And he said to me, go, go for I will send you far away to the Gentiles. And he's been doing that.

He's been doing that for some time now. They listen to him up to this statement. They're fine up till they're listening because it's it is pretty inclusive. Our our brother, sister, all that love love love, but it says, but then Messiah Jesus said, go to the Gentiles, and they were listening to him up to that statement, and then they raised their voices and said, away with such a man from the earth for he should not even be allowed to live. He should already be dead.

Why are we listening to him at all? And as they were shouting and they were throwing off their cloaks, just like you would beat out a carpet, they were getting the dust off of it, like, get him out of here. I don't want to have anything to do with even what's around this guy. They're tossing dust up into the air and the commander, the Roman commander, ordered that he be brought into the barracks saying that he was to be interrogated by flogging, that is enhanced interrogation. That is the interrogation it's talking about.

We're gonna beat him and interrogate him at the same time, so that he would find out the reason why they were shouting against him in that way. I don't get what's going on in your little petty nonsense, but I'm going beat you until you tell me what it is. But when they stretched him out with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing there, and they already told him he was from Tarsus Of Cilicia, is a free city and should have meant that he was already a citizen. But he's in the middle of what could be a riot, so when they're spreading his arms and legs out with straps, Paul said to the centurion who was standing there, is it loss ful for you to flog a man who's a Roman? And yet, uncondemned.

You haven't given me my due process. Is it lawful? Actually, it wasn't even lawful to bind a Roman even if at this point, if you found him condemned. You still didn't do that. There was dignity in being a Roman citizen.

And so anyway, when the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and told him, so what are you what are you about to do? This man's a Roman. When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia upon seeing him in the temple began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on. Wait a second. Did I just do that again?

Hopefully, it'll get back to where I'm supposed to be. The commander ordered He brought be brought into the barracks. There we go. Sorry. I had a 150 slides this week because I did that.

I went from chapter 22 back to chapter 21 and redid it, and I I did the same set of slides two times. I doubled the slides this week. And thank God I didn't have to deal with this again. Really. Thank you, Lord.

The commander ordered that he be brought into the barracks saying that he was to be interrogated by fogging. There we go. Somebody's gonna stretch them out. When the stewardenturion heard When this, what are you about to do? This man's a Roman.

Tell me, are you a Roman? And he said, yep. Yes. I'm a Roman. The commander answered, well, cost me a lot.

It cost me a lot to be a Roman citizen. The service that he had put into the military probably is how he bought his citizenship. And he said a large sum of money, probably perhaps. And Paul said, I was actually born a citizen. I was born into a free city, and I was born a citizen.

I have been that my whole life. Therefore, those who are about to interrogate him by flogging immediately backed away from him and and the commander himself was also afraid because he had given the order to beat a Roman citizen. When he found out that he was Roman and because he had had him put in chains, absolutely illegal, actually, he could be punished because he had done that. Now, on the next day, want to know for certain why Paul had been accused by the Jews, let it calm down overnight. Here we go on the next day.

He released him, but he ordered the chief priest and all the council to assemble. I'm sure with the presence of Roman overseers, and he brought Paul down. He placed him before the council. So remember our little semi circle of the 70? There's 70 people on this Sanhedrin council.

They're sitting smartest guy in the middle all the way out to the dumbest on the ends. That's what they would generally do. And so the council assembles and they bring Paul down and they place him right in the middle as James as Peter and James and John as other disciples had been accused before that. Now, looking intently at the council, Paul said, brothers, he still considered himself the brother. Brothers, I live my life with an entirely good conscience before God up to this day.

I was ignorant. He says that in multiple places. He said, I was ignorant and God was merciful to me in my ignorance, but when the truth came to me and I embraced it, I know that I am washed clean. I live with a clean conscience before God. Brothers, I've lived my life with an entirely good conscience before God up to right now, But the high priest Ananias, not the same guy in Damascus.

But the high priest Ananias commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth, hit that guy. I don't care if the Romans are watching. This is our business. I'm the high priest. He just blasphemed, hit him in the mouth.

And Paul said to him, God's gonna strike you, you whitewashed wall. You're not listening to what I'm saying. Do you sit to try me according to the law and in violation of the law, you order me to be struck? I haven't been found guilty yet. You just had somebody punish me.

That's not right. But those present said, are you insulting God's high priest? I can't believe what they said about him. He's our leader for crying out loud. You can't insult that guy.

And Paul said, sorry. I was not aware, brothers. Sorry. When I left, it was a different high priest. I didn't know he was the high priest, I don't know what he looks like.

We don't have LinkedIn. For it is written, you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people. Exodus twenty two twenty seven says, you shall not curse God and you shall not curse a ruler of your people. And you know, we see David doing that when Saul is pursuing him and he says, I'm not gonna touch the Lord's anointing. He's the Lord's anointing, even though he's dead wrong, you know.

But Paul Uh-oh. Did I leave something out? Paul said, oh, I was not aware brothers that that he is the high priest. It's written and I know it I wouldn't have done it had I known it. Sorry about that, my bad.

But Paul perceiving that one group were Sadducees and there was another group present that were Pharisees, he began crying out in the council. Brothers, I'm a pharisee, son of pharisees, and I'm on trial for the hope of the resurrection of the dead. Now, that is a grenade. He throws that right in the midst of them and they go for it. When he said this, a dissension occurred.

We there's nothing new under the sun. You get a little group of people and they will divide if you give them a chance. He said this, now wait a second. He's a pharisee and the pharisees believe in resurrection of the dead. Well, it'll say this.

Here we go. When he said this, a dissension occurred between the pharisees and sadducees and the assembly was divided. They can't decide anything divided for the sadducees say there's no resurrection nor any angel nor any spirit, but the pharisees acknowledged them all. They acknowledged the spiritual realm and the resurrection, and Christ has been resurrected, and that's what Paul preaches everywhere he goes. And so, the pharisees acknowledged this.

This is hilarious to me. The very next line says, and a great uproar occurred, of course it did, and some of the scribes of the Pharisee party stood up and started arguing, heatedly saying, we find nothing wrong with this man. Let him go. Everything's hunky dory. He's on our team.

Suppose a spirit or angel has spoken to him. And when a great dissension occurred, the commander was afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them. And so the government, the Roman government, which by the way, we know that the people hated the Roman government. We know that that's the case. The Jews hate the Roman government.

We know that. We know a lot of oppressed peoples hated the Roman government. But in the New Testament, centurions always wear a white hat, always. They're good guys, every single time. And the government is what's protecting them right now.

When a great dissension occurred, the commander was afraid that Paul be torn to pieces. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him back into the Antonio Fortress, back into the barracks. So there he is safe, protected, and this is where we're going to end today. Twenty three eleven says this, but on the following night, the Lord Jesus Christ stood near him and said, be courageous. It's pretty courageous what he's just done.

You know, be courageous for just as you have testified to the truth about me here in Jerusalem. And you know what? He doesn't castigate him and say, shouldn't have come. I told you not to come. The spirit told you not to come.

We're here now. We're here now. Be courageous, Paul. For just as you've testified to the truth about me here in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome. Now, there's a lot that happens between here and Rome.

But Paul has now direct word directly from Jesus that you're gonna make it to Rome. Praise God. That's the stopping point I was looking for. Can I pray and as the band comes back up? Lord God, with all this information, with all this history, would you allow us to extrapolate out of it, Lord, the actual truth that that we need for today in a divided land, in a divided time.

More than the majority, lord, or at the majority have no idea why they're showing up to the fight, but they're showing up to the fight. So Lord, I pray that we would be people of peace, that we would be instruments of your peace, that we would be polite, and winsome, and helpful, and give a clear and accurate defense of the hope that is within us that is not one-sided. It's not from or for one side or for the other lord, but it is all about Jesus. Would you allow us the grace, to turn our eyes on Jesus in such a way that other people would turn and look to Jesus too. May we follow after Paul in the way that he was following after you.

May we receive a fresh word as to our mission and our audience, and may we recognize the moment when we're in it, when we get a chance to speak a good word. In Jesus name, may we be a light. In Jesus name, amen. But if you wanna come forward to pray, you're welcome to pray. If you wanna come forward and talk to me, I'll turn the microphone off and quit playing the bass.

Lord God, would you do your will and your way right now among us. Lord, I pray that we'd be ready. Amen. Lord God almighty, I pray that we would be open and sensitive to your spirit's movement. I'm thankful, Lord, for the business that you have with us.

I pray to be open, Lord, to doing business with you. In Jesus' name, I pray for your blessing on this assembled crowd. Amen. And now, may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Amen.