May the Lord be pleased to bless
us this evening as we commence our meditation on the 23rd chapter
of the Acts of the Apostles. And we'll just read tonight the
first five verses. We'll just read them again. And
Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren,
I have lived in a good conscience before God until this day. And
the high priest, Ananias, commanded them that stood by him to smite
him on the mouth. Then said Paul, answer him, God
shall smite thee, thou white in wall, for sittest thou to
judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to
the law. And they that stood by said,
revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wish not, brethren,
that he was the high priest, for it is written, thou shalt
not speak evil, of the ruler of thy people." Now, just to
remind ourselves, of course, the Apostle Paul had come to
Jerusalem, and he'd been preaching in the temple, and he was taken
from the temple, and the people then rose up against him. If
it had not been for the chief captain to come with the soldiers
and rescue him from that situation, he would have probably lost his
life. And then he was able to go and
stand on the stairs to the castle and give his account of, or his
defense rather, of why he was preaching as he did. And then we, having spoken as
he did, then he came to this situation where They decided
to, the chief captain answered and said, with a great sum, obtain
I this freedom. You remember that was because
he admitted he was a Roman, and then straightway they departed
from him, which should have examined him. And the chief captain also
was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, and because he
had bound him. And on the morrow, because he
would have known the certainty whereof he was accused, the Jews.
He loosed him from his bands and commanded the chief priests
and all their council to appear and brought Paul down and set
him before them. So here we see here is Paul now before this
council and we see his attitude. He wasn't afraid of them and
we read here that Paul earnestly beholding the council. You remember
there was the occasion also when Stephen, he was before the council
and he gave a good account as he was brought before them. And so here we have Paul then,
in a similar situation, and he tells them, in all honesty, men
and brethren, I've lived in all good conscience before God until
this day. And we may think, well, that's
a very strange thing for Paul to say. But the reality was,
of course, that even before his conversion on the Damascus Road. Although he was wrong, yet he
did those things which he thought was right. And he did them clearly
in those days to the best of his ability. We know that even
then of course there were those pricks of conscience which were
told because it was hard for him to kick against the pricks.
But nonetheless, he did those things which he felt was to be
right. Then, of course, since that wonderful
day on the Damascus Road, when he was brought to the knowledge
of himself and the only Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and from
that time he preached Christ, and he was able, therefore, to
say, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this
day. Now, we then read about the high
priest Ananias. Well, the truth was, of course,
that there was no high priest now. because the Lord Jesus Christ
was the High Priest. There was no need of a natural
High Priest. So although he was still referred
to as the High Priest, we're thankful to know that the old
dispensation was done away in Christ. and Christ had satisfied
all the law and was now, and is now, that great and glorious
high priest for his people. So, although he is referred to
here as the high priest, in reality he was not. But still, he was
spoken of, and Ananias commanded them that stood by to smite him
on the mouth. Now, this of course was totally
contrary to the law, because here was a man who hadn't been
judged, and yet the high priest was basically condemning him
for something which was not proved. And the law, the ceremonial law
was very clear that they had to prove these things before
somebody was judged and somebody was condemned. So Ananias was
really stepping out of line when he did this. He tells us, and then said Paul
unto him, unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall,
for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest
me to be smitten contrary to the law. You see he's referring
there to the law which I've just referred to. And he spoke in
these terms, very hostile terms, weren't they really, to Ananias. Now we must just remember as
we look on that of course Paul probably did not in actual fact
as we read know this was the high priest and we might say
well why is that? Well first of all remember he'd
been away from Jerusalem for a long time and the high priests
were changed quite regularly in those days, and the general
mode was that the high priest would wear his robes when he
was in the temple, doing the work necessary, but outside of
the temple he would generally just wear normal clothes everybody
else would wear. And indeed, when they came to
meetings at the council, he wouldn't have been dressed as a high priest. So it's not unreasonable, therefore,
to come to the conclusion that the apostle did not realize that,
in actual fact, Ananias was the high priest. And so he spoke
then to him in this way. And how false was Ananias, of
course, in his religion? He was still following, in fact,
that which was ordained before the blessed life and death and
resurrection of the Saviour. And he was following that. And
that's why you see the Apostle addresses him like this and says,
Thou whited wall, or we could use another term, a hypocrite.
Yes, here was somebody pretending to be a man of God, pretending
to be somebody in authority, pretending to be a judge, and
yet not operating in accordance with the law. And so we have
the example, how necessary it is for us today to recognize
that we have the Word of God. And the Word of God sets before
us how we are to deal with people, how we are to judge people. And
we should not find ourselves left to our own spirit. This
man was clearly left to his own spirit. and had caused Paul to
be smitten by those that stood by him. And that's why the Apostle
addresses him in this way and speaks so very clearly to him
and says, Paul, unto thee God shall smite thee. thou white
in wool, forsittest thou in to judge me after the law, and commandest
me to be smitten contrary to the law.' So the apostles have
very clearly stated the case. And although we know this refers
to the Old Testament, we should also be concerned that we walk
today in accordance with word of God in accordance with the
New Testament and what it says before us and to realize that
we should not therefore do things which are contrary to that. And
then Paul was spoken to by those that stood by and they said,
revilest thou God's high priest. And that's why the apostle comes
and says, I wish not brethren that he was the high priest For
it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of the
people. Well, the apostle was therefore
quite clear in the reason why he had spoken as he did and hadn't
therefore perhaps not spoken. But he didn't realise it was
the high priest and therefore he spoke from his heart, recognising
those things which had been done to him were wrong and were contrary
to the law. And we can see that the Apostle
spoke very faithfully. And we noted, as we've considered
the life of the Apostle Paul, how he did those things which
were right, and he wasn't really concerned about what would follow. He just did that which was right,
and he was very honest in the things that he did. And we must
therefore conclude that he was honest then the statements that
he made here regarding the high priest and how important it is
for us in our lives that we should always be concerned that we are
honest in our statements and always be willing if necessary
to recognize that we've made mistakes perhaps and to seek
for forgiveness and to see that we may be not left to our own
spirit. It's very easy be left to our
own spirit. The high priest here was clearly
left to his own spirit, and there appeared to be no real grace
of God in his heart. He was only concerned, really,
that the Apostle Paul should be condemned. And it may be that
because Paul was here looking earnestly at the council, and
Ananias might have thought he was the important person, and
that Paul should therefore have addressed him. And it may be
because of that he was in this position and speaking so angrily
against the Apostle Paul. Well, the Lord knows the hearts
of all men and we should be concerned ourselves that we walk in accordance
with God's word and not left to our own ways, to our own thoughts,
even if as they may seem to be justified. Naturally, the high
priest might have thought he was justified in doing what he
did. But of course, in accordance
with the law, he was not. And now today, we live in the
gospel age and we have to be very careful that in our walk
and our conversation, we do and say those things which are in
accordance with God's word, and not for our own glory, not to
justify ourselves, but always willing to be made subject to
God's law and God's will in all our life, so that we may walk
before him in the light of his countenance and not walk in sparks
of our own kindling. Amen.