A bad situation to blessing for many! (Acts 23:1-11)

[Stephan Choe]

March 20, 2024

Paul before the Sanhedrin

Key verse 11: "But the Lord stood by him that night and said, 'Be of good cheer! For as you were a witness for me in Jerusalem, so you must also be a witness in Rome."

We often face challenges, such as trials, difficult relationships or financial problems,

But we know that God's plans are perfect and without blemish. His plans always lead us to the best, as he promises in Romans 8:28, "But we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."

Victory in Christ Jesus is always waiting for us.

Faith in our resurrection is crucial for our victory. Despite all difficulties and emergencies, we can triumph in every situation through faith of our resurrection.

We find such stories of victory in the Acts of the Apostles. Paul's arrest in Jerusalem is one of them.

Paul began to speak before the High Council: "Men and brethren, I have lived my life in all good conscience before God until this day" (1).

Paul began his defense with the word of common ground with the Jews. He wanted to explain that he was accused of a false accusation that he had not respected the Jewish law. So he began to address them as brothers of Pharisees. After all, he was a Pharisee. He said that he had a clear conscience. By that he meant that he had kept the law. He was trying to declare common ground with the Jews.

Let's look at the reaction of die High Council in verse 2: "Then Ananias the high priest commanded those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth."

The high priest reacted violently and ordered Paul to be struck on the mouth. He wanted to kill Paul's mouth. The blow to the mouth was an act of condemnation. By striking Paul on the mouth, Ananias showed that he had already condemned Paul as a transgressor of the law without even listening to Paul's defense. For him, the trial was just a formality. But he was breaking the Jewish law with his actions. 

Then Paul replied: "Then Paul said to him: <God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You are sitting there to judge me according to the law, but you yourself are breaking the law by ordering me to be beaten" (verse 3).

Paul was a man of divine justice. That is why he was not afraid of people, but called the beating as the violation of the law.

The Bible says to us that, if we actively serve Christ, we will sometimes face the opposition of the dark power. In Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu countries, people who spread the gospel are persecuted. Here in Germany, too, you will sometimes encounter difficulties if you actively spread the gospel. That is why most Christians in Germany become passive and rarely speak of the gospel. No wonder the number of Christians is declining sharply year-on-year.

For the year 2022 in Germany, Catholic Christians are 21 million people (25 percent of the total population). They are decreasing by around 0.5 million Catholics every year. 

Protestant Christians are 19 million in 2022 (23 percent of the total population), and will also decrease by around 0.5 million each year.

Orthodox and free-church Christians in Germany are about 3 percent of the total population.

Orthodox Christians are 2.2 % and Free Church Christians 1.1 %. Muslims are 4 %.

Churchgoers in 2022 out of 19.1 million Protestant Christians are 705,989 . That is about 4 percent of Protestant Christians.

Churchgoers in 2022 out of 20.9 million Catholics are 1.2 million. That is about 6 percent of Catholics.

The population of Germany in 2021 is 83.2 million.

If we assume that the number of true Christians is slightly double the number of churchgoers, there could be around 1.4 million Protestant Christians and 2.4 Catholic Christians, making a total of 3.8 million true Christians. The population of Germany in 2021 is 83.1 million.

3.8 million Christians mean about 5 percent of the total population in Germany. 

The general atmosphere in Germany for the gospel is either cold or hostile. When we invited students in the 1980s, they reacted much more positively than they do now. In addition, various laws have now been passed that prohibit active invitations to Bible study or church services. For example: in the past, we used to be allowed to visit students in dormitories and invite them to Bible study or worship. But today, the law prohibits visiting student dormitories for the purpose of inviting them to Bible study and worship. Above all, students themselves show much less interest in Bible study than they used to. Last year we invited students on the bridge to the university with a cake distribution. Many received cakes and invitation cards. But hardly any students came to either the Bible study or the church service.

But we don't need to think negatively. Rather, we should think positively and ask God for wisdom in the invitation. God will surely help us find good ways to invite the students.

The high council had falsely accused Paul. Paul then tried to tell them what good things Jesus had done for the Jews.

In response, "those who stood with Paul said, 'How dare you insult the high priest of God?”

Paul replied: "Brothers, I did not know that he was the high priest, for it is written: 'You shall not speak evil of the leader of your people'."

Paul described the high priest as a "whitewashed wall". This was an image of a tomb that looks clean on the outside but is very disgusting on the inside. "Whitewashed wall" was a fitting description of the high priest for his disgusting hypocrisy.

Paul really loved his own people. He had once written thus: "I tell the truth in Christ and do not lie, as my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and pain in my heart without ceasing. I myself desire to be accursed and separated from Christ for my brethren who are my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites..." (Romans 9:1-4a).

Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. But he loved his own people very much and wanted to save them from damnation. He was prepared, if his own people believed the gospel, to be damned to hell too. Now that he had finally come to Jerusalem to preach the gospel to them, he was rejected by the leaders of the people. How frustrated he could be!

He was arrested in Jerusalem and forced into silence so that he would not preach the gospel.

Look at verse 6: "But when Paul realized that one part (of the high council) were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, <You men, brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of a Pharisee. I am accused because of my hope in 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 believed neither in the resurrection of the dead nor in angels. The Pharisees, on the other hand, believed in both.

This was a brilliant tactic to get the Pharisees and the Sadducees to argue with each other. Incidentally, this dispute led Paul to proclaim the message of resurrection through faith in Christ.

In the crisis situation, Paul did not panic, but acted wisely and saved himself from the judgment of the high council.

Luke tells us that the dispute that broke out was so violent that the soldiers intervened because they feared that Paul would be torn to pieces. The soldiers pulled him out and brought him to safety.

Paul was the victor over the hostile situation. That is why he was convinced that he would also succeed in his mission in Rome.

Verse 11 tells us: "But the next night the Lord stood by him and said, 'Be of good cheer! For as you were a witness for me in Jerusalem, so you must also be a witness in Rome."

God wanted to make great use of the imprisoned Paul as his witness both in Jerusalem and in Rome in order to make the gospel of Jesus Christ known to the people there.

Imprisonment would seem to be a tragedy for anyone who was taken prisoner. But God also used such a seemingly tragic event in a precious way to make the gospel known to the people in Jerusalem and also in Rome.

This God also makes the best out of seemingly negative situations for people today.

I was injured in my right hip when I was about 8 years old. The cause could have been that I fell on an icy road in the cold winter, or that one of my aunts from my mother's side had stepped on my leg while I was sleeping on the floor of my room. If my hip hadn't been injured, I would have had to work as a lumberjack or farmer after I finished elementary school, because my family was very poor at the time and couldn't pay my middle school tuition. But because I was injured, I had to take a four-year break from school and finish elementary school two years later than my peers. In Korea, elementary school lasts 6 years. The class teacher of my 6th grade, Mr. Sohee Yeon, loved me very much. He visited our house and asked my older brother, who was in charge of the family's finances, to allow me to take part in the middle school entrance exam. So I passed the entrance exam with the highest score among the applicants and was able to attend middle school and then high school and university with a scholarship. I was then able to come to faith in Jesus Christ during my first year at university. I then came to Germany as a missionary and helped German students with the Gospel. Without my hip injury, after graduating from elementary school I would have had to work as a farmer or wood chipper to survive. But God turned my misfortune into a blessing for me and others. God's will is wonderful! Praise be to God!