Acts 22:23-29

This morning we are going to pick up the action where we left off last week in Acts 22.  Paul has come to Jerusalem in 57 AD because he loves his people.  He wants verily badly to connect to the Jews in Jerusalem.  He wants to be able to share the joy of Jesus with his own community.  He wants them to experience the grace of our Lord Jesus   The Holy Spirit had warned him that if he went to Jerusalem bad things were going to happen. And sure enough they did.

We saw last week that he is accused of bringing a Gentile into the Temple.  The crowd went ballistic and they were about to tear him into pieces parts, when a Roman commander saved him from the mob.  Instead of being grateful,  Paul wanted to connect so badly that he persuaded the commander to allow him to speak to the mob.  He preached this amazing sermon about who he was and what the Lord had done to him and the commission he had received to take the message to the Gentiles. But, as he mentioned the Gentiles, he lost his audience and they began to riot, again. He had failed to convince his own people.  He had failed to connect.  He had tried. He had given it his best shot.  But he could not penetrate their fear and hatred of anything Gentile. 

Acts 22:22-24  The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they raised their voices and shouted, "Rid the earth of him! He's not fit to live!"  As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the commander ordered Paul to be taken into the barracks. He directed that he be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this.

Let me read a paragraph about flogging.  If we were on TV there would be a warning, “This program may be unsuitable for children.  Viewer discretion is advised.” This paragraph is by Ben Witherington in his commentary on Acts.

The scourge was a much more dangerous instrument than the rods, or the lashes Paul was given by the Jewish authorities. It had various designs; it was often constructed with a wooden handle and leather thongs strung with lead pellets or knucklebones but could also be made with wires with ends bristled.  The instrument would be used on the subject's back and could tear flesh, and so maim a person for life, or even kill him if used repeatedly. According to Roman law this procedure was recommended only when all non-coercive means had failed to resolve the matter, or perhaps when the situation was so extreme it was deemed necessary.

It seemed the Roman Commander thought the situation called for such an extreme interrogation.  It was his job to keep the peace in Jerusalem and that wasn’t easy.  He needed to find out why the crowd had so violently reacted to Paul. He needed to know who Paul was and what he had done,  and put and end to this nonsense as quick as possible. The quickest way to the truth was to scourge Paul. But Paul, not wanting to receive such a beating – and who could blame him? - asked something unexpected in the next verse that changed everything for the commander and for Paul. 

Acts 22:25  As they stretched him out to flog him, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn't even been found guilty?"

“What?  This guy whom they arrested from the Jewish mob was a Roman Citizen?  Paul, this guy, who spoke Aramaic and dressed obviously like a Jew and who had shaved his head in some for some odd Jewish ritual was a Roman Citizen?”  If this were true they were about to make a big mistake.

Acts 22:26-29  When the centurion heard this, he went to the commander and reported it. "What are you going to do?" he asked. "This man is a Roman citizen."  The commander went to Paul and asked, "Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?" "Yes, I am," he answered.  Then the commander said, "I had to pay a big price for my citizenship." "But I was born a citizen," Paul replied.  Those who were about to question him withdrew immediately. The commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put Paul, a Roman citizen, in chains.

This revelation by Paul raises all sorts of questions. 
-Why did the Roman commander suddenly care he was a Roman?
-Why did the Commander change his mind and forget the scourging?
-How did Paul, a Jew, get to be a Roman citizen?
-How could Paul have proven he was a citizen?
-Why did Paul wait till the very last minute - as he is being stretched out - to mention his citizenship?
-Why in the world do we care a lick about any of this, anyway? 

Some of these questions we can answer.  Some we may have to guess at.  But after looking at what is really going on here, I think I can show why we should care, especially as we are at the end of September, 2008.  Let’s take the first two questions together. 

-Why did the Roman Commander suddenly care?
-Why did the Commander change his mind about the scourging?

Roman law allowed for slaves and foreigners, including Jews, to be interrogated with the scourge.  You will remember, if you have seen the movie, “The Passion of Christ,” Jesus was beaten by the Romans.  He was a Jew.  But Roman law strictly forbade Roman citizens from this means of inquisition.  There is a difference in being beaten as punishment and being beaten for interrogation.  Romans were not allowed to be interrogated like this.  So, this Roman commander almost got himself in deep trouble.  Before administering such a beating he was supposed to have asked a couple of questions like, “Are you a citizen?” It is kind of like reading someone their rights when you arrest them. He had neglected to Mirandize his suspect.  Had he been responsible for beating and maybe even killing a Roman citizen, without a trial, he might have received the same punishment. He cared because of his own skin and he quit the scourging immediately. 

Now what is interesting is this exchange between Paul and the commander and how they got their citizenships.  And it leads to the next question; how could Paul have gotten to be a citizen? There were a variety of ways to become a Roman citizen:
1) A slave could be emancipated by his owner to a citizen.
2) A retiring Roman soldier could be granted a citizenship.
3) There was precedent of establishing a Roman colony. The colonists could become citizens.
4) By a grant for outstanding service or loyalty by an individual or a city…
5) Obviously, by birth to a Roman Citizen.

Note that buying a citizenship wasn’t on the list. The Centurion had probably bribed an official to grant him citizenship. To be a chiliarch – a commander of a thousand – you had to be a citizen. So, he had bought the right to citizenship and then he was able to be a chiliarch.   But Paul had been born to a Roman.  Scholars speculate that perhaps his father, who was from Tarsus, had been part of the city which had done something great for the Romans.  That is just a guess, but by whatever means Paul was born into citizenship. 

The next question, tough also unimportant to the point of the sermon, is none the less interesting. How could Paul have proven he was a citizen? Historians have discovered that Roman citizens, when they were traveling often carried with them a wooden diptych (dip-tick). This was a carving with the official seals and the names of witnesses of the citizenship.  It would kind of like our passports.  We are guessing again, but Paul could have easily produced his diptych and proven his citizenship. 

That was fun, but the next question will get us back on track and begin to move us toward the point of this sermon. We are going somewhere we are not just doing laps. Why did he wait till the last minute to say something about it? Let’s go back to Acts 16 and make an interesting comparison. Remember back in Philippi; the fortune-telling girl, the prison, the beating, the earthquake, baptizing the jailor and then Paul making the authorities come apologize? Here is the only other place in the New Testament where Paul mentions his citizenship.

Acts 16:37-39  But Paul said to the officers: "They beat us publicly without a trial, even though we are Roman citizens, and threw us into prison. And now do they want to get rid of us quietly? No! Let them come themselves and escort us out."  The officers reported this to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.  They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.

Paul didn’t want to go through that kind of beating again, so this time, in Acts 22, he mentioned his citizenship before getting the beating.  Why in Philippi did he wait until after the beating to mention it, but in Jerusalem he mentioned it before? Now we are getting somewhere.  In Philippi his beating and imprisonment led to the salvation of the Jailor and his family.  In Jerusalem it would only have gotten him bloody.  In Philippi he was like Jesus who was willing to undergo the beating and even the crucifixion in order to save the world!   Paul was willing to be beaten to save others.  But, if it served no purpose he avoided it.  Hmmmm….

So, as Paul was addressing the Jews in his speech, which we studied last week, he could not mention his citizenship because that would have made them even madder than they already were, if that was possible.  So, he waited until after he took his best shot with his people, but before he actually got the beating.  Now, this is moving us close to why we should care. 

What were Paul’s priorities? If you were to make a list of the things Paul cared most about and put them in order what might this list look like? 
Obviously, Jesus; his love for his Lord would be first.  His commitment to his Lord superceded everything else in his life! 
Second, I would have to put his commission to preach to the Gentiles.  That was his job.  That was his calling.  That was his second priority.
Third on his list would be his own people, his own family, his own community, the Jews.  He went to Jerusalem knowing bad things were going to happen.
Then, fourth would be his rights as a Roman citizen.  After giving it all up for Jesus, after doing whatever he was called to do to reach the Gentiles, after his attempts to connect to this own family, then he saved his own skin by skipping the beating.  Wow, this story graphically shows what was really important to Paul. 

And that example is why we care about this story.  We care because we need to adopt the same order of priorities.  We can have multiple allegiances!  But they must be stacked in the proper order. 

I want to cheat a bit here and jump into the future from 57 AD just a few years to when Paul is in jail in Rome at the end of the book of Acts.  I want us to listen as Paul reflects back on his time in Philippi, which we read already, and see his encouragement to us to set our priorities carefully.  Listen to some quotes from the letter to the Philippians.

Philippians 1:13 As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

Philippians 1:20-21  I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death.  For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Philippians 2:3-4  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 3:7-11  But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.  What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ-- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Upon reading these passages and watching the example of Paul in Acts 22, I think we need to adopt the following order of priorities:

1) Jesus – first and foremost
2) Kingdom – Its spread and sharing and being his witnesses, his church and our niche.
3) Family – Balance in our family responsibilities.
4) Self – Our own interests, needs and wants and rights.

Perhaps the challenge now for you is to honestly line up your priorities and see if this is how you live your lives. 

I mentioned this was especially significant in light of it being the end of September, 2008.  The election is in just 37 days.   We are first citizens of heaven, but we are also citizens of the USA. Just as Paul exercised his rights as a Roman citizen, we have the privilege to exercise our rights as Americans.  As we vote I would encourage you to vote; carefully and prayerfully. 

Philippians 3:20-21  But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

Los Alamos Church of Christ
September 28, 2008