The Book of Acts 23:12-35 Plan to kill Paul and his rescue

OK, well, today we're going to cover the remaining parts in Chapter 23 of the plan to kill Paul and his rescue. I'd like to go back and just before we jump into that, kind of review the earlier parts of Chapter 23. So can I get a volunteer to read Acts 23, 1 through 11, I believe it will be. Acts 23. one through eleven.

I'll do it. Thanks. Okay, if you say so. Let me know if I'm in the right place. Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council, said men and brethren I've lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall, for you sit to judge me according to the law. And do you command me to be struck contrary to the law? And those who stood by said, do you revile God's high priest? Then Paul said, I did not know, brethren, that he was the high priest, for it is written, You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.

But when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other were Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. Concerning the hope and resurrection of the dead, I am being judged." And when he said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. For Sadducees say there is no resurrection and no angel or spirit, but the Pharisees confess both. Then there arose a loud outcry. And the scribes of the Pharisees' party arose and protested, saying, We find no evil in this man. But if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him, let us not fight against God.

Now when there arose a great dissension, the commander, fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from among them and bring him into the barracks. Is that it? And verse 11. But the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.

Great. Great. Thanks, Holly. OK. So we're going to look at the following verses. And the following verses are basically divided into two parts. There's a plan to kill Paul. and there'll be his rescue. And one thing to note here, it talks about back up here when Holly read in verse 10, there's basically, here's a good picture.

There's this fortress Antonio, which is just outside the wall of the temple area. There's also the Sanhedrin or the councils over here and you can't see it. When they talk about the barracks, it's in this structure over here and this is some reconstruction, not reconstruction, but a model. There's several good models. They're in Jerusalem. You can go see them. You know, I would say to scale. Exactly. I know it's huge. It's a huge model of Jerusalem. Right. So actually, this fortress Antonio is going to play a key part in our passage today. And it did in the last passage, because Paul is going to be. taken there for his protection and in what they call the barracks.

We'll see that several times and also they can see what's happening. It's sort of like they have a bird's-eye view. They can look over the wall and they can say, there's trouble brewing down there and we're going to send down people to take care of that trouble. So it's kind of kind of cool with this picture. Oh, yeah, they get there. They can see see what's going on and there's trouble brewing. So that's that's pretty important.

The other interesting thing is that, In verse 11, it talks about that night. Basically, the Lord stood beside Paul and basically encouraged him. And actually, that's not the only time that happened. In Acts, there's four other occurrences. There's certainly the one on his conversion, the road to Damascus. There's also a vision. I want to look at a couple of these.

There's a vision they had back in Acts 16. So I just want to review a few of the previous Encounters with the Lord that he had in Acts 16 You'll see that Acts 16 and verse 9, basically, and a vision appeared to Paul in the night, a certain man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision, immediately, we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that God was calling him to preach the gospel there. So it seems like these, These visions and the Lord interjecting in Paul's life were at critical points in his life.

This one here we're going to see, he was going to be killed. The plot was pretty serious. There were 40 of these guys and they bound themselves under this oath to death that they were going to kill Paul. And there was every indication from surrounding verses that the Pharisees were in cahoots with him. Oh yeah, and actually the whole, the incredible thing is the whole Jewish infrastructure, the Pharisees, the Sadducees were all in on this plot to kill Paul. And you think, oh wow, doesn't that remind me of something? The whole establishment of the Jewish system wants to kill him. Well you go back to Christ and the whole establishment of the Jewish system wanted to kill Christ. So it's the same thing. Pilate was trying to let him have an out and not kill him.

And we see here the same thing. They demanded it. The Roman commander says there's no reason to kill this man and that's why he rescues him. So we'll see that. Also because he's a Roman and they know he's a Roman. Exactly. Without him being a Roman I don't think he would have made it.

He might have had extra savvy for knowing what had happened in the past because he wanted to stomp this brush fire disagreement as quickly in the butt as he could. You have to go through a crucifixion or something. But it's interesting, we're going to see here, how the Lord provides a relative of Paul's. I have not actually realized that he had a sister and a nephew or whatever and that's going to be a key part of this.

And another part of this is, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself, Roman prisoners had rights. You could call up and say, hey, I'm not being treated too well. You're in prison. The prisoner says, do this, do that. He could make, he had prisoner, I call it prisoner rights. Like you get, you know, shopper's rights or patient's rights. Well, he had prisoner's rights. Well, like our prisoners today. They have a lot of rights. Gym and work out. Become attorneys. Right.

So he could actually appeal and that's what he did. He appealed, we'll see that shortly. OK, what else I want to say about this here? OK, so that was one that another vision he had was in Acts 18. Let's just look at that. Act 18. So there's actually five, five different occurrences in Acts of the Lord encountering with Paul. So the one in 18. 18 verses 9 and 10 and this one isn't See here. It says and the Lord said to Paul in the night that in night by a vision do not be afraid any longer But go on speaking and do not do not be silent for I am with you and no man will be Will attack you in order to harm you for I had I had many people in this city okay, so that's that's another one and then the They're the one that we're looking at now.

And then the very last one is in Acts 27. Of course, there's a road to Damascus. I'm just going to skip over that. We've read that multiple times. And that was his conversion. This one is in Acts 27, 23 and 24. And we'll see this down the road when we get there.

23 and 24 and that very night an angel of God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood before me saying do not be afraid Paul you must stand before Caesar and behold God has granted you all those who are sailing with you. Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe that we will turn out for exactly as I have been told." Now, I was kind of thinking, you know, here, this is the early days of the Church. God appears before men.

I was kind of thinking about the trials people, including our family as well, You know, God doesn't, sometimes I talk with Bonnie, it would be wonderful if the Lord stood right here and comforted us, but what's amazing is He says His Word, that function is now in His Word and the Holy Spirit is going to provide that comfort. So the whole picture has changed. The Lord isn't any different, it's just that the way He conveys that comfort is via His Word and by the Spirit of God, encouraging by the Word. And that's, we don't need, a vision in the night time, we don't need somebody to stand before us, even though it sounds wonderful, but his word is to do that by the Holy Spirit.

It would probably scare us to death. But he did say himself, the Comforter will come. And the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, and that's exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to do. He wants to take the word of God. The Spirit's job is to take the Word of Christ and make it real to us, to make it real in our lives. And that's where our comfort comes from.

By His Word, as we look at it, as we meditate upon it, the Spirit of God encourages us that way. Well, and you think about all the strife in the world. the evil in the world. If we dwell on that, if we don't have the Holy Spirit to comfort us, and this to really hold on to, we could go berserk. We could go all crazy. Exactly. That just kind of brings to mind, just this morning we were talking about the verse that says, bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

I can't think exactly where it's at, but it sounds a little bit harsh, but I think in a way, the Lord is saying, don't get too far drawn away. Don't get your mind, don't look at all these bad things that are happening out there. I mean, we got to know about them, but don't dwell on it. Focus on me. You know, keep your mind on what I've done for you and you're resting in me and who you are in Christ. Keep your focus there. That will keep your mind going, you know, correctly. In the right direction. Exactly. He says, well, to enter into his rest, he says, be anxious for nothing. I know. And you're like, how can I be anxious for nothing? And everything's total chaos. Falling apart before our eyes. Right. Literally. Yep.

And I think personally that sometimes God sort of does give us like, I don't know if I call them visions, but a knowing, like I'll even use Mike for example, when he said when Nancy and Vern came to visit him, that he knew that all of Holly Hills was with them.

That kind of knowing, vision-y kind of thing. I think the Holy Spirit comforts us even with Well, I often think how you'll see how things kind of play out, you know, in your mind, you're praying or you're, and you say, well, this day is going to hold this and you have a mind of what tomorrow will be this and it's going to be good or bad, maybe. But then when it really comes, when that day has been played out, you think, wow, that was different than what I thought it was. And many times it's, it's actually better because we tend to have, I tend to have, you know, all this sort of pessimistic, well, tomorrow is going to be a really hard day.

And this is like, but then you think, wow, look how that worked out. Thank you, Lord. It worked out. I'm so thankful it worked out that way. And the way I had in my mind it was going to work out was, you know, much more difficult. So the next one comes along, we do the same thing. Yep, that's right. We don't learn. Okay. All right.

So, so those five, five different, Paul had five different encounters with the Lord in Acts, and those are the five that went through. Okay, so now let's look at the text today. Here's the plan to kill Paul. So basically what I did, this is not a very elaborate chart, I took the text and I kind of just put it in bullet form.

So basically, the previous night the Lord spoke to him, it says, when it was day, The Jews, now these are the Jews. There's a pivotal, let's go back to Acts 21. There's a pivotal thing that happens in this kind of these several chapters of discourse. And this pivotal thing is in verses 27, 27 through 29, Acts 21, 27 through 29. Can I get someone to read that for me?

And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews, which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people and laid hands on him. Crying out, men of Israel, help. This is the man that teacheth all men everywhere against the people and the law in this place, and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place. For they had seen him before in the city, Trophemus, an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. So the event that just got the Jews just so stirred up was that they would have a non-Jewish male in the area of the temple.

And actually, apparently, from what I've heard from Macaulay and others, there were signs that said, if you went past this certain point, they had the right to kill you. I mean, if you were a male and not Jewish, you went past this point, they could kill you. And the Romans would say, go ahead and kill that person. They violated that temple area.

There's actually, and I think you could talk to others about it who do these models, that it's possible. of those stones was preserved. And if you knew your Greek, you could get it in next to their Latin translation, next to that, the top, the Hebrew. Then yeah, you were told three different ways. Oh yes. It was a multiple languages. It wasn't just one line. If you went past this point.

So when they, when they thought that Paul actually brought a non-Jewish person into that temple area, that, that made him, he, he should be killed because he violated everything that was, you know, right under Judaism. But it wasn't true. They supposed that even though he was with this guy, and he never took him in there.

So this kind of set this whole chain of events, which eventually will go to Rome here, and we're going to see that. He's going to go to Felix here in a little bit. But that passage here talks about how infuriated they were, and it just got worse and worse and worse. And yet when you look at it, God orchestrated it for good.

Right. Couldn't Paul, couldn't he be a little more peaceful? Maybe he should, you know, maybe this guy didn't go there. No. The Lord uses the situation and plays out and it worked out for the best. How do they explain that according to their own law?

Thou shalt not kill. It doesn't matter. It's okay to kill. If you were against the law. You can't break the law. So it was really a violation of the law. They're going to plot to kill Paul. That's just fine. They say we're in cahoots. We're going to do this all together. We'll get Paul to come down here. will capture and kill him. And they're all hypocrites.

Exactly. Exactly. Interpreted differently. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Somebody would actually want to make a comparison with Islam. It's almost as as as this little occurrence is almost as radical and as We're doing this for God and it doesn't matter. We're going to kill this man because in our mind he's against God and it doesn't matter. It's so radical and so over the top. times when like Christians did that. That's a good point. Do Christians, is that a way, I don't know. Of course, look at the crusades. Crusades when they went in to Israel. Oh my gosh, they slaughtered thousands of people in the name of God. And by the way, in the name of Christ.

I mean, really? That's a sore spot in the Middle East. I'm not kidding you. The Crusades are still a sore spot. I mean, they bring it up. All right. So basically these Jews, and that's a pivotal event, they form a conspiracy. It's a secret combination. They bound themselves under an oath. This is kind of interesting.

The idea of this oath, it's actually an oath or a vow, is that God, if I don't succeed in this oath or vow, you can damn me to hell. Curse me forever. That's how intense this oath is. That's the same kind of oath the Muslims take. That's exactly the same oath. We're going to kill this man. If I don't succeed, you can damn me. was interesting, but it's interesting.

Along with that, the rabbis had a way out of this. There are four different exception clauses. This is pretty wild. This is not this from a colleague. There are four different exceptions that you could be released from that vow, because they vowed that they would not eat or drink until they killed Paul. Well, what happened was Paul got rescued and they couldn't, so they all should have been, you know, they all should have just kept not eating and they all died. So there are four situations. Either sometimes you may speak something in haste and and not really think it through, that was an out clause.

Like a take back? Yeah, I'll take that back. I got carried away there. Just kidding. I really got mad. I got mad at Holly, and I really shouldn't have. I lost my head. We used to have at King Soopers a little notice that, oops, we goofed, and they showed the price difference, and we were right the first time. Newspaper screwed it up. Right. Another one was exaggeration.

You just got carried away like, I'm going to kill you if you don't do this. You're not going to actually kill the person. You're so upset with that. You'll say that about maybe your relatives. Brothers and sisters, why you did that? I'm going to kill you for doing that. You know, you don't mean that.

So exaggeration was another one. It could be an error. You could have made an error. You thought something happened like they thought that Paul brought this Greek into the temple. He really didn't do that. So if you made a vow to kill Paul and it really wasn't true, that was another out. And then the fourth one is the case that I think applies here. that you cannot fulfill the vow. If Paul's rescued, you can't kill him. So therefore, that's an out too. So they had kind of a clever deal here. Have all these oaths. Here are these out clauses. We can get out of this. So that's kind of loopholes, right? We don't see that today, do we? So.

So basically, they were in either eat or drink until they killed Paul. And there were 40 of them who made this, who had the plot and made the plot. So here's the cool, here's not cool part, here's the interesting part. They came to the chief priests and the elders and this is the establishment were totally involved in this and they want them to do this ruse. They're going to pretend they want to examine Paul some more to get him to come down to the hall of the Sanhedrin. So we bound ourselves, so they tell the chief priests and the elders we bound ourselves together on a solemn oath tasting nothing until we have killed Paul.

And I just put this in here. This is more for your notes. This is just what Constable said. I mentioned before the oath was not so suicidal as it seems since it provision made by the rabbis to release the participants from consequences of failure to carry out their purposes. And that's what happened. They couldn't carry it out. So they got released. Okay.

Now, therefore, you, the chief priest and the elders, so they want them to do this ruse. They want them to notify the commander to bring down Paul from Fortress Antonio and we're going to investigate his case more. We're going to review the charges, so to speak. They didn't even review the charges. They wanted to kill him.

And basically we're under oath on our part, the 40 or more, to be ready to slay him once he comes near the place. I think the place is basically what's called the Hall of the Sanhedrin down here, as Constable relates. So their plan, according to what Constable says here, which I think is true, their plan was to have the chief priest and the elders ask the Roman commander to return Paul to the Sanhedrin for further questioning the assassin's plan to kill him somewhere on the street between Fortress Antonio and the hall of the Sanhedrin. So somewhere in that picture between the fort and over here, they're going to kill him. And they want to make it look like it was just a riot, a mob scene, as opposed to them having anything to do with it. So the Romans won't get their, you know, they won't get in trouble with the Romans.

Well, the thing that's really interesting here is because he, and why they, I believe they took him off to the, to Felix, the governor, he was a Roman citizen. It would have been a big deal if a Roman citizen got killed by the Jewish establishment. That would have been a big deal. And they would have been in hot water. You're letting that Roman citizen get, you know, you're not protecting our citizens.

Like, you know, in the U.S., we, for the most part, try to protect our citizens. Maybe not the greatest sometimes. Like this guy in Mexico didn't take a long time for him to get out of there, but he finally did. And that was a, I haven't really followed it. I don't know. 257 days. He was in the military. I know, that was just incredible.

And if you've ever been to that bridge, and we've been to that area, and I want to tell you, it is so easy, if you're not in the right lane, to bypass that. If you're in the wrong lane, it only goes into Mexico. And it's a big, like, four-lane highway. And if you get off on the wrong exit, or you are in the wrong lane, because you can't get over, because the road splits and it goes on this way and it's the bottom interstate that runs along that part right on the border. We almost did exactly the same thing because we didn't know where we were going. We're trying to read the signs, you're going 65 miles an hour and all of a sudden this thing goes off and if you're in the wrong lane There is no way to turn around. There's nowhere to go.

You're in Mexico. It's that fast. It ought to say a sign saying you are leaving the United States. Well, there are signs, but I'm just saying it's an interstate highway. And you're going 65 miles an hour and there's a lot of traffic. And so you can easily be in the wrong lane. You can't get over. And if you miss this split, There is no other way. You're over in a lane. You go on that. And that's exactly what that guy did. He was new to El Paso. He didn't know that road. Right. And he was in that lane. And he you're in Mexico. If you don't have your passport and all that stuff. And he had a gun. I know that's that's a really got, you know, I mean, scary. I'm not kidding you.

Bob and I, when we saw that article, we said, gosh, we were there. We know. We almost got killed getting over to avoid going across that bridge. They should have American flags on the pavement like they put here near where I-70 splits. You're right, that would be a good one. If you were ever in that intersection you would understand how easy that was to happen.

Anyway, off the track. That's okay, no problem. Okay, so let's go to the next one. OK, so here here's cool. So now enter Paul's sister's son. But the son of Paul's sister. heard of their ambush. It's interesting how the word got around. I mean, I don't know. So the word got around. Yeah, real tricky. And he came to this quote, supposedly secret plot wasn't so secret.

And he came in. So another cool thing is Paul's in this Fort Antonio and this young boy. There's some question about his age. I'll let you look at something that's kind of interesting about his age, how old he was. He just comes in like, hey, I want to come in and talk to Paul. But he's a Roman citizen too. He is. His sister is a Roman citizen. Why?

He strolls in there and says, hey, oh, by the way, Paul, guess what's going to happen to you? This is the only occurrence that talks about Paul having a sister. But let me just interject this. When we were in Rome and saw where Paul had been held in prison, The the you don't they didn't feed you.

Right. Oh yeah. Exactly. So it makes me think that his sister and the son had maybe been Going there on a regular basis maybe? Taking him food because they didn't feed you or anything. You didn't have somebody from the outside bringing you food. You didn't eat.

That's excellent. That's a very good point. They don't say that here. I agree. If you look at the culture of the times, what they did, they were not in the business of giving any creature comforts to prisoners. You're there. You're in the cell. If you die, there's less people to worry about. Exactly.

Very good. the son of Paul's sister and he's called a young man and we don't have to look at those two passages but basically there's some question about how old how old he is because later on it's going to say that the Roman commander takes him by the hand and it's all and you think That seems a little strange. Like if I took Wayne by the hand, they'd think, oh, that's not real bad, but it seems like it's overprotective. It's too protective. Later on, we're going to see it. He was led by the hand into the commander.

So there's some question how old was he? He can be anywhere from his teens up to his thirties. And actually one of these references here is basically to Paul when he was younger. He was called a young man. So the word young man is kind of a wide, wide boundary. Well, how old would Paul have been now in this? Boy, he wouldn't have been very old. Well, you know, some time has passed. Remember, he was in the Arabian desert for what? Three years. And then he went seven or eight years. He was after his conversion. He went back to, to, you know, lifespan was very short. I was like 40. Right. So he could, he could have been, He could have been in his early 30s. Exactly. But so it seems like that this the age of this young guy possibly could be a young teenager or even younger, even younger. OK, so.

So basically, so now Paul, so his his nephew comes basically and Paul calls the centurion and says, hey, leave this young man to the commander. And he has something to report to him. So the prisoner's rights, hey, this guy has something to say about that. They said, OK, we'll take him there. No, no, no obvious opposition to this. The prisoner has these rights to get people to.

You know, to do this? Yeah, but they didn't feed you. I didn't feed you? But at least you could plead your case and say, hey, listen to this guy. That was a precursor to the one phone call. Yeah, they probably didn't have the attorneys. Okay, so he took him and led him to the commander. Which is probably not that big a deal.

Okay, so now he says, the guy says, Paul the prisoner called me. So the prisoner called me, so that's what the centurion says, and asked me to leave this young man to you since he has something to tell you. Here's the thing. The commander took him by the hand.

I don't know. I mean, some people made a big deal about that. I don't know enough to know whether that means something or not, but it's interesting. Took him by the hand, stepping aside, inquired privately of him, what do you have to report? And the young man said, he gives the account. The Jews have agreed to ask to bring Paul down tomorrow to the council, as they are going to inquire somewhat of him.

And it says, so do not listen to them. And more of 40 of them lie in wait for him. They bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink. And now they are. This part here, does someone have that last, what verse is that? It says, and now they are ready and waiting for the promise from you. That promise seemed like the wrong word to me. Someone read verse 21, the last phrase in there, that has something besides an American Standard. It says a promise in mine.

I don't know. I didn't look it up. But anyway, it's this thing kind of funny. The promise or I don't know, see promise. Maybe, maybe it's, I mean, obviously it's more of an agreement that he'll bring him down. Exactly. Okay. All right. So, so the commander led the man go instructing him to know one of what you notified me of these things. So, okay.

So, so that's basically the plan and then the notification of what's going to happen by, Paul's nephew. So now we go to Paul's rescue. So the commander called to him. It's amazing that the number of troops, they were going to make sure Paul was not going to be, you know how big this crowd was. So basically get 200 soldiers ready by 9 p.m. to proceed to Caesarea with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen. That's a heavy-duty force. This guy was taking no chances with the Roman citizens. Nobody's going to get this guy. We're going to get him out of here and nobody's going to get him. This guy knew that if he was killed it would be his neck. You better believe it.

They're going to get Paul Mount on a horse, apparently, to take safely to Felix the Governor. And OK, this is so this is actually the third time I want to look at these other two here. The third time Paul's been, you know, rescues away. So the other ones are an axe. Nine twenty five. Do you think by this time, if this were the present day, we have two of the records of this clown? Don't we want to do this differently now? Yeah, I know.

Okay, Acts 9.25. Let me see here. Can someone read 23 through 25 in Acts 9?

And after that, many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him, but their delaying of wait was known of Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall and basket. Right, so that's the one in Acts 9 and this one in Acts 17.

So, you know, in the Gospels, Paul recounts, I can't think what is it, Romans or maybe Corinthians, somewhere he talks about how many times he was stoned, how many times, it just goes, and you begin to think, wow, this is just, you know, all these times he's miraculously rescued. So, verse 10 says, And the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they had arrived, they went into the synagogue. Okay, so that's not quite as So so Paul escapes by night again.

So then the commander, the Roman commander, sends a letter to the governor. And this is this is a letter basically. And it has a certain form. So he greets. So the commander's name is Claudius Lycius, maybe. to the most excellent governor, Felix. And we don't have to turn there, but in Luke, Paul, I mean, Luke says most excellent Theophilus. It's apparently a term that you would give to a person of notoriety. You might say representative, president, or it's, you know, most excellent. This means that you're the, you're the highest official, even though if you read the history of It's not in scripture of Felix.

Felix was actually a pretty common guy. He was nothing special, but he kind of made his way up through the ranks, so to speak. And he, you know, he was a vicious man too, just, you know, pretty nasty guy. Even though Felix sounds like kind of a Felix the cat, the all nice little Felix the cat, you know, no, this guy wasn't a nice little Felix. He was a bad Felix. What birds say that they are not so nice or the not so great Herod, right? Right. Okay, this man Paul was arrested by the Jews. Okay, he's recounting what's happened.

I was about to be slain by them. I came up to them with troops and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. And that passage there in Acts 22, 28 and 29 is the account where he says, I'm a Roman citizen. Let me just read that. Oh, he says where he was born. Exactly. And actually, they'll come up later on. And basically, the commander said, I acquired my citizenship with a large sum of money. And Paul says, I actually was born a citizen, therefore. All right. So continue the letter.

I want to ascertain the charges for which they were accusing him of. I brought him down to the council. OK, so that basically they refer to here in Acts 23, 9 is where the where Paul kind of cleverly has he has a Sadducees and the Pharisees kind of so. So from an outsider's perspective, they're arguing over something that that's a Jewish matter. That's what his view of it is.

But under no accusations deserving death or imprisonment. And then if you go back and look at Christ, basically in John 18, 38, it says we find I think it says we find no. Pilate said to him, what is truth? And when he had said this to him, he went out to the Jews and said to them, I find no guilt in him. And actually, that phrase is used multiple times there in terms of Christ as he was passed from one person to another.

When I was informed that there was a plot, against this man. I sent him to you at once. Also instructing his accusers to bring charges against him. So Paul's going to be held here with Felix until they come to... Get around to it. Get around to it. Come to Caesarea.

So the soldiers, in accordance with their orders, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipasteros. Antipasteros, according to what I could find out, is about It is about 70 miles here. It's actually I have my map there, but it's about it's an it's basically north. Northwest of Jerusalem about 37 miles it says.

Apparently they had the soldiers and they had the people on the horseback. It looks like a big group. So they took him there and apparently after this city it was a pretty safe area. So they actually let part of people go back home. So it says but the next day leaving the horsemen to go. So the horsemen went on with Paul and they the soldiers returned back to the barracks in the Fortress Antonio. Fortuna soldiers went back to Jerusalem, but the horsemen went with him on to Caesarea. And when they had come to Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor. They also presented Paul to him.

And then Paul before Felix, when he Felix read it, so he read the letter, he asked him what province he was. And when he learned this, he was from Silesia. I guess what I also found out is that I guess it was sort of like a courtesy thing if the district you were from. was big enough or had some, they would invite maybe the ruler of that to this. If there was a person that was under trial, they would invite some officials to come there to be part of the judgment about Paul.

So apparently, Cilicia wasn't a problem. So he didn't need, Felix didn't need to invite anybody else to come. People pointed out that Philip was a vicious man, and apparently Paul being a Roman citizen, and he said he would hear him, the fact that he agreed to this was pretty significant.

He could have just said, you're a problem, we'll get rid of you. But he didn't. Maybe he just didn't like the Jews either. I think that was true. Probably the fact that he was stirring up because of their law, That probably gave him satisfaction to have a man. Yeah, kind of rub it in the nose. Yeah, I bet you. Might even be that they want to push the Jews around a little more so they don't have to mess so much with the Romans, especially Roman citizens.

They say, you get over here, you tell us what you think is wrong. We'll show you. Right. That's good. So he's going to be given a hearing. So Felix will listen to him. So actually he got to stay in the official residence. I mean, that's pretty cool stuff. So the Herod'satorium, it's official residence. So that's pretty cool.

So that's basically, that ends that, you know, that's the end of chapter 23. We're going to be heading into the chapter 24. And so 24 will start, And once again, Paul will give a defense. He'll make his plea again because he's going to be on trial again for the charges from the Jews. They're going to make their case. Paul's going to defend himself again. So ultimately, we're going to we're marching toward Rome here. We're going to get toward Rome. We get to 28. Thoughts, sir?

Though it seems like this is just one among many instances where over a series of decades, the Jews finally got fed up and rebelled. And they just thought about all these things. They knew they were under the thumb of Romans when they were getting sick and tired of it.

Well, they actually had, you know, if you look at, it's interesting that the Fort San Antonio is right next to their whole area. Makes you think that the Romans didn't want them to get too much out of hand. They kind of, we're going to build a fort right there. That's where the whole Jewish culture lives around the temple. So we're going to have, so that would quell any kind of issues that would happen. Yeah. And I think it was not, circumstantial that they had those tall towers look over right over yeah they can look right into right they could see trouble yeah that's why they could so quickly take care of this all tower of power all righty I think let's see I think actually Yes, that's right, that's right.

So basically Paul before Felix. Okay, well let's close then. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this day. Father, we thank you for the blessings we have. We just continue to pray for Brother Bob and just for all the other requests, Lord. We thank you that you know all things and we pray for your comfort and your peace in this situation. In Christ's name, Amen.