Acts 23:1-11 And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brothers, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.… 1. The scene is shifted from a torture chamber to a court of justice, from heathens to Hebrews, from soldiers to ecclesiastics, from Roman tyrants to the missionary's schoolmates and countrymen; but the change only subjects him to ruder insults and more deadly perils. 2. Bad men's impatience of real goodness is not uncommon. The prisoner looked straight into the faces of these councillors. If they had expected a criminal's frightened, wandering eye, they were disappointed. With the swiftness of memory, and possibly for a moment with its tenderness too, some of them thought, "Why, this is the same Saul we used to know." Then the man "before the council," as they might have anticipated, without exordium and with easy self-possession, assured them that since he had met them he had "lived in all good conscience before God." Instantly, the gentle offices of memory ceased. The present arose. "Smite him on the mouth," was the high priest's command. To this mad bull Paul's "good conscience" was the red rag. Just so was it that David's innocence wrought upon King Saul, the quietness of the Prince of Orange upon Alva, and Jesus upon this very Sanhedrin. 3. Yet in such antagonism goodness proves its power. Meekness is quite consistent with self-respect. The exposure of a sham is benevolent and just. To resent and defeat a wrong often becomes the plainest duty. Paul did his duty here. The judge is silenced by the prisoner, and during the approaching "Jewish war" he is murdered by assassins — God smites the "whited wall." 4. But Paul will not have it supposed that in mere anger he had been betrayed into disrespect toward "God's high priest." "I wist not that he was high priest," said he composedly, Further effort in behalf of the high priest nobody attempts. In the swift hours which make history such rubbish as Ananias is soon put out of the way. 5. Then one learns how a man with a "good conscience" may be served by his wits. Paul's had not been wasted by disuse, dulled by self-indulgence, nor worn out by his sufferings. The irony which he had just used so effectively against Ananias becomes almost mirthful in its shrewdness, as he now disposes of the other councillors. Well Paul knew how cordial were the contentions of two chief parties in Jerusalem. "Of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question," cried Paul. Then followed the conflagration. How comical it must have seemed as these high councillors flew at one another! For more than half the court what a meritorious person had the accused suddenly become! Especially would Paul appreciate "the scribes which were of the Pharisees' part." To one so familiar with the rapacity and heartlessness of their partisanship, whose own strategy had accomplished this marvellous change of front, the lofty air, the love of truth, the conscientiousness, the fear of fighting "against God," must have been ludicrous. Nor is the solemnity of the scene enhanced by the sudden reappearance of Lysias and his soldiers. Shall the rulers of the people of God be set to rights by the worshippers of Mars? 6. As, however, the earnest missionary goes back to the castle, his smiles would quickly fade at the sad contrast between this fanaticism and religion. Zealots are not always saints. The high priest and Pharisees and Sadducees were capable of dying for their shibboleth. And, though our bigotry be of a milder sort, we need Hot despise a warning. The best time to kill thistles is when they are sprouting. We furnish a climate for them as well as Jews, but it is but poor soil in which Calvinism or Episcopacy or Arminianism thrives more than godliness. How does charity thrive? There is the question for all sects and for all ages. 7. But there are times when moralising must wait. Life's problems and contests are too vast; our weakness yields under them. What we require is not authority, but tenderness. Such an hour had arrived for this weary missionary. Yesterday and today bad been even full of perils and excitements. The man is too weary to sleep. Who is there to comfort him? Not unaccustomed was Paul to have the fairest visions on the darkest roads. The dungeon at Philippi had become to him a throne of glory. Expelled from the Corinthian synagogue the Lord draws near to him there. And the same vision that was to strengthen him on his way to Rome comforts him now: "The Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul." And we may suppose that he who had been too weary to sleep was now too happy to sleep.Conclusion: 1. We think of the preciousness of a good man. We have bad here the usual variety of men — a pretentious hypocrite, his furious associates, an average heathen captain, his stupid soldiery, and besides these one man who "lived in all good conscience before God." It is easy to see who is Master, and He rules our hearts today. 2. Yet the good man is among enemies. He did not imagine that to be on the right side is to be on the easy side. 3. But the good man among enemies has God's care and love. (H. A. Edson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. |
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