Steve Webb 0:00 These people felt that they had the moral authority to commit murder! Steve Webb 0:05 This is the Lifespring! One Year Bible coming to you from Riverside, California, and podcasting since 2004, I'm your hopefully-on-the-mend OG Godcaster, Steve Webb. It's Gospels Saturday, and we'll read Acts 23 and 24. The website is lifespringmedia.com, and I'll have contact information at the end of the show. Before we read, let's pray. Our gracious heavenly Father, how we love you, and thank you so much for your Word. Thank you for revealing yourself to us through it. I pray that as we read today, you would teach us. I pray that you would touch our hearts. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, are you ready? Let's get started. Steve Webb 0:46 Acts, chapter 23. Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.” At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” Those who were standing near Paul said, “How dare you insult God’s high priest!” Paul replied, “Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: ‘Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.’” Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.” When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.) There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. “We find nothing wrong with this man,” they said. “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks. The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.” The next morning some Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty men were involved in this plot. They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, “We have taken a solemn oath not to eat anything until we have killed Paul. Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring him before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about his case. We are ready to kill him before he gets here.” But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the commander; he has something to tell him.” So he took him to the commander. The centurion said, “Paul, the prisoner, sent for me and asked me to bring this young man to you because he has something to tell you.” The commander took the young man by the hand, drew him aside and asked, “What is it you want to tell me?” He said: “Some Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul before the Sanhedrin tomorrow on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about him. Don’t give it to them, because more than forty of them are waiting in ambush for him. They have taken an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed him. They are ready now, waiting for your consent to their request.” The commander dismissed the young man with this warning: “Don’t tell anyone that you have reported this to me.” Then he called two of his centurions and ordered them, “Get ready a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight. Provide horses for Paul so that he may be taken safely to Governor Felix.” He wrote a letter as follows: Claudius Lysias, To His Excellency, Governor Felix: Greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and they were about to kill him, but I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen. I wanted to know why they were accusing him, so I brought him to their Sanhedrin. I found that the execution had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment. When I was informed of a plot to be carried out against the man, I sent him to you at once. I also ordered his accusers to present to you their case against him. So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris. The next day they let the cavalry go on with him, while they returned to the barracks. When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, he said, “I will hear your case when your accusers get here.” Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace. Steve Webb 5:20 Acts chapter 24. Five days later Ananias, the high priest, arrived with some of the Jewish elders and the lawyer Tertullus, to present their case against Paul to the governor. When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented the charges against Paul in the following address to the governor: “You have provided a long period of peace for us Jews and with foresight have enacted reforms for us. For all of this, Your Excellency, we are very grateful to you. But I don’t want to bore you, so please give me your attention for only a moment. We have found this man to be a troublemaker who is constantly stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the cult known as the Nazarenes. Furthermore, he was trying to desecrate the Temple when we arrested him. You can find out the truth of our accusations by examining him yourself.” Then the other Jews chimed in, declaring that everything Tertullus said was true. The governor then motioned for Paul to speak. Paul said, “I know, sir, that you have been a judge of Jewish affairs for many years, so I gladly present my defense before you. You can quickly discover that I arrived in Jerusalem no more than twelve days ago to worship at the Temple. My accusers never found me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor stirring up a riot in any synagogue or on the streets of the city. These men cannot prove the things they accuse me of doing. “But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people. “After several years away, I returned to Jerusalem with money to aid my people and to offer sacrifices to God. My accusers saw me in the Temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting. But some Jews from the province of Asia were there—and they ought to be here to bring charges if they have anything against me! Ask these men here what crime the Jewish high council found me guilty of, except for the one time I shouted out, ‘I am on trial before you today because I believe in the resurrection of the dead!’” At that point Felix, who was quite familiar with the Way, adjourned the hearing and said, “Wait until Lysias, the garrison commander, arrives. Then I will decide the case.” He ordered an officer to keep Paul in custody but to give him some freedom and allow his friends to visit him and take care of his needs. A few days later Felix came back with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish. Sending for Paul, they listened as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus. As he reasoned with them about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, Felix became frightened. “Go away for now,” he replied. “When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.” He also hoped that Paul would bribe him, so he sent for him quite often and talked with him. After two years went by in this way, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And because Felix wanted to gain favor with the Jewish people, he left Paul in prison. Steve Webb 8:38 Let's think for a moment about the conspiracy to kill Paul that we read about in chapter 23, verses 12 through 22. We read that it was a group of Jews and they bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. So here, these people felt that they had the moral authority to commit murder! What? How can this be? The Mosaic law clearly states that murder is forbidden. It's even in the 10 commandments, right? Thou shalt not murder. (Sidenote: the 10 commandments does not say thou shalt not kill. Killing and murder are two completely different things.) So what's going on here is an excellent example of what can happen when a group of people have such an extreme and rigid view of an agenda or ideology, that they're willing to do anything to defend that ideology. My goodness, that sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it? The more things change, the more they remain the same. These Jews thought that Paul's message contradicted the law, and they were so extremely incensed that he would dare to preach a different message that they would not and could not accept his reasoned response to them. They were so rigidly adhering to the letter of the law that they could no longer hear God's voice in the intent of the law, which Jesus came to fulfill. And so they conjured up this scheme to silence Paul. You might call it a permanent cancellation. When a group is so passionately affixed on an ideology that any opposing idea results in invectives and violence. There's a problem, folks. If we can't agree to disagree and discuss our differences in a calm and reasoned fashion, we know that something's wrong. Listen, just because I disagree with you does not mean that I hate you, nor does it give you the right to call me names or strike me or destroy my property or do some other kinds of violence against me. This is true in matters of religion, in matters of culture, in matters of politics. Civilized people don't behave this way. But then there does seem to be a shortage of civilized people today, doesn't there? I'd love to hear from you. If you have thoughts or questions, send a boostagram or call the Lifespring Family Hotline or go to the comments page or write an email. I'll tell you how to do all that stuff at the end of the show. Tomorrow will be Epistles Sunday and our reading will be 3 John. Steve Webb 11:10 We have a couple of Executive Producers to thank today. There's Jason Paschall who came in with his monthly $50 donation. Thank you, Jason. God bless you. And Anonymous came in with their weekly $33.33 donation. Thank you. And God bless you as well, Anonymous. And we have an Associate Producer today. Michael Haner came in with his weekly $7.77 Stryper donation. Thank you, Michael. God bless you. Beloved, this is episode 350 of the 364-episode 13th and last season of the Lifespring! One Year Bible. That means there's just 14 episodes left, two weeks. Can I ask you a question? Has this show brought something good to your life? I certainly hope and pray that it has. Could I ask you to please prayerfully, consider sending a gift to show your appreciation? Once the show's over my plan is to keep every episode I've ever produced online at lifespringmedia.com, and that's well over 3000 episodes that will be there for you as far into the future as I'm able to do that. But once I stop producing episodes, expenses will still need to be paid for the website, for the bandwidth needed for episode downloads, for software licenses, and a myriad of other things. So I'd like to humbly ask your help with those bills if you've benefited from the show. Please pray about it. Would you partner with me to keep all those episodes available into the future for others who want to hear the reading of God's Word? If you would, here's where you can do that. Jingle 12:41 Lifespringmedia.com/support Steve Webb 12:44 I'll thank you. Those who hear these episodes in the future will thank you. And I believe that God will bless you. Steve Webb 12:53 Our next time of prayer together will be tomorrow. If you have a praise report or a prayer request, send it to me, would ya? I'll pray for you in my quiet time, and I'll share it on the show. Steve Webb 13:09 As always, I invite your comments and your questions. There are several ways to get in touch with me. Send a boostagram using a modern podcast app from podcastapps.com, or call the Lifespring Family Hotline at +1-951-732-8511. Or if you have a prayer request or a praise report, go to prayer.lifespringmedia.com. You'll find an easy-to-fill-out form there, and if you want to remain anonymous, there's a place you can tell me that on the form as well. If you have a question or a comment, go to comment.lifespringmedia.com. Or you can send an email to me at steve.lifespringmedia.com. Steve Webb 13:53 Thanks to the team Sister Denise, Michael Haner, Scott Snider, Jason Paschall, and Sister Brittaney for their generous donations of time and talent. Scott Snider did today's show art. And thanks to Jason Paschall, Anonymous, and Michael Haner for helping to make this episode possible. Beloved, thank you for inviting me into your day. If you missed yesterday's show on Revelation 7 through 11 because it was published late, be sure to go back and listen to it. Until tomorrow, may God bless you richly. My name is Steve Webb. Bye. James Cooper 14:24 All the programs in the Lifespring! Media family are made possible by the generous gifts of people like you. Transcribed by https://otter.ai