Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 23. Now, you remember at the beginning of Acts 23, we had, you know, Paul had been in 22 in the temple. You remember, he got to Jerusalem and the church there, they received the gift that he was bringing from the churches and that they brought as a blessing, a diaconal gift to help Jerusalem in its time of difficulty, the church in Jerusalem. And then the church leaders there said, Paul, everybody's saying that you say to not listen to Moses and to not keep the ceremonial law, that you forbid it even. And so we have this plan for you to go take, you know, this process for the the ending of a vow to do it publicly with these other men and you can pay for them out of your own pocket. And so go and do that. Paul's doing that. He's pretty far into that process as an eight day process towards the end of that time. then Paul gets seen. There's this slander that he is bringing Gentiles into the temple and defiling the temple, and that's based upon this sort of this speculative assumption that because he was walking around in Jerusalem with a Gentile, therefore, Trophimus, he therefore must have brought that Gentile into the temple. Then he is seized by the crowd. They are going to kill him. We have Claudius Lysias comes with troops and saves him. He thinks that he's an Egyptian rebel and that he was leading Sicarii, they're assassins that would kill Roman soldiers. They'd have daggers up their sleeve and run by and kill them in passing and move along. Sometimes those are also associated with the zealots. But anyways, that commander found out that that was not who Paul was, and gives Paul the opportunity to speak in front of the crowd. He speaks to the crowd in Hebrew. He spoke to the commander in Greek. The commander was surprised at his level of ability to speak in Greek. And then the crowd hears him in Hebrew. The crowd gets upset when he talks about the fact that Paul was sent to speak to the Gentiles, and that Jerusalem was unwilling to hear him as a prophet. And so There's an ending of that. Paul's taken into the barracks. There's a calling of the Sanhedrin to come and talk to Paul to tell the accusations in front of the commander, Claudius Lysias. And then in that, Paul was able to cause the parties inside of the Sanhedrin to start disputing the Pharisees and the Sadducees over the doctrine of the resurrection and of belief in angels or spirits. and so used their factions to cause them to begin to fight each other there. And you will remember that there was this famous line where Paul says to the sitting high priest, after the sitting high priest doesn't let Paul speak, right? The sitting high priest says, have that man struck. He says, 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 so, you know, he said, do you revile God's high priest? And then Paul says, I did not know. And we spent a lot of time on that last time, that Paul talking, saying these things to the high priest to say, oh, I didn't know that you were a ruler, that that was silly. Because remember, the argument is, 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. So it seems like a pretty lame excuse that this guy who's part of the Sanhedrin commands you to be struck, and you didn't know he was a ruler of your people. And so this is, remember, a denial of the fact that the high priest is actually a legitimate high priest. And I found, by the way, a Princetonian theologian who agreed. Joseph Archibald Alexander, who Archibald Alexander Hodge is named after, wrote a commentary on Acts. It takes the exact same position. So I thought you'd enjoy the fact that there were some other theologians who have written that out. So that was an additional note there. So let's proceed now starting with Acts 23 verse 11. We're picking up after the end of that attempt at having the accusations explained. So 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." Now, I'll give a continuous reading here, but I want to make a note of this. This is an important verse that's going to control for us the interpretation of the rest of this book. This is kind of a mini-thesis here for the rest of the book. And this connects back to the main thesis, back at the very beginning. So I want you to have both the main thesis and this kind of miniature thesis in mind as we continue reading through. So let me remind you of the thesis of the book which we haven't thought about for a while. Acts chapter 1 verse 1. The former account I made of Theophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up after he, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandment to the apostles whom he had chosen, to whom he also presented himself alive after suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." So then verses four through eight lay out this idea of being baptized in the Holy Spirit, the receiving of power, and being witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the end of the earth. It's the end of the earth part. That's where we are in this book. Chapter 23, verse 11. Think about it in the context of that broader mission. This is Jesus' mission to have the kingdom of God spread. Chapter 23, 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. Verse 12. And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now there were more than forty who had formed this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and elders and said, We have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul. Now, you therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him. But we are ready to kill him before he comes near." So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, He went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you. Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside and asked privately, what is it that you have to tell me? And he said, The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire more fully about him. But do not yield to them, for more than 40 of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you. So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. And he called for two centurions, saying, prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night, and provide mounts to set Paul on, and bring him safely to Felix the governor. He wrote a letter in the following manner. Claudius Lucius, to the most excellent governor, Felix. Greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them. Coming with the troops, I rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman. And when I wanted to know the reason they accused him, I brought him before their council. I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law. but had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains. And when it was told me that the Jews lay in wait for the man, I sent him immediately to you, and also commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against him. Farewell. Then the soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatrus. The next day they left the horsemen to go on with him. and returned to the barracks. When they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him. And when the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. And when he understood that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will hear you when your accusers also have come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's praetorium. Now, after five days, Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. And when he was called upon, Tertullus began his accusation, saying, seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity is being brought to this nation by your foresight. We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix. With all thankfulness, nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear, by your courtesy, a few words from us. For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law. But the commander Lysias came by and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you. By examining him yourself you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. And the Jews also assented, maintaining that these things were so." Well, we have laid before us here a rather determined plot. More than 40 men who were willing to swear to not eat or drink until they had killed Paul. Now, you take into account the drinking, they have a very limited time to kill Paul. This seems to have been a desperate oath. Their plan fails. There's an effort here to conspire together to coordinate between pieces using the power to summon, along with the ability to then ambush on the way. Then we have Felix, who is no friend of true religion, being used by the hand of the Lord to take Paul out with an extraordinary force. And then we have, at the same time, Felix, I'm sorry, I don't know if I said Felix was the one who took him out, not Felix, but Claudius Lysias. Claudius Lysias, who is no friend of true religion, also Felix is no friend of true religion, but Claudius Lysias takes Paul with a great force to go to Governor Felix, and then Governor Felix hears, and hears the enemies of Paul, and then they give this speech with this man who is a paid orator. So there are many forces brought to bear against Paul, and there is this degree to which you might look at the whole and say, how can Paul possibly bear up under so many enemies and with so many godless men all around him? But we go back to verse 11, and whereas on the way into Jerusalem Paul was told that he would be persecuted greatly when he arrives there, he now receives information about the future again from Christ, and we see in verse 11 that Christ doesn't just come to him in a vision but it says 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 so Paul certainly does not expect to be killed in Jerusalem he does not expect to be killed in Antipatris He does not expect to be killed in Caesarea. He expects in all of those cases to continue moving on. And so he is encouraged by the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ in his boldness and continuation to fight. But even when he expected bad things, we saw his courage. So let's consider this conspiracy for a minute. More than 40 men conspiring together with an oath to kill Paul. Then they have the consent of the Sanhedrin, or at least a significant piece of it, at least the high priest and his willingness to call the moderator to call for Paul to be brought to the Sanhedrin. This may remind you of Julius Caesar, who the assassination plan for him was to call him to the Senate to discuss so that the Senate could then kill him. And so with all of these men conspiring against Paul, Julius Caesar having had this occur to him less than a century prior, this would certainly be something that was a very famous story and the comparison of them would, I'm sure, jump to mind for many of the original readers. So we have this plan to kill Paul. Now, Paul's sister's son, his nephew, hears of the ambush. He went and he entered the barracks and told Paul. He's concerned he doesn't know what to do, but he acts with boldness and briskness. This is decisive action. He does not dither. He goes and he talks to Paul, saying, here's what we found out. This is a problem. He doesn't know what to do, but he goes to somebody who he believes will know what to do. Decisive action, going to somebody on your side, trying to bring that information, is often all that's necessary to foil the plots of an enemy. Paul has no power to stop it on his own, but he does have a sense of how to proceed here. He then calls for a centurion. He explains to the centurion that the young man needs to talk to the commander. He wants to maintain operational security. Rather than just explaining to the centurion what the problem is, he takes it to have less people so that there can be this realization that this is a message that has to be communicated quickly, accurately, to the person with the power to make a decision. The commander is the one who has the power to order something to change here, and Paul is aware of that. So he doesn't waste his time trying to persuade bureaucrats in between. Oftentimes we have a goal, and we try to persuade everybody along the chain. That is one of the reasons people are bad at sales, is because you don't know who to sell to. One of the skills in sales is to find out who's the decision maker. And everybody has to deal with sales. Every time you're trying to persuade somebody to do what you want, you are being a salesman. And so that skill, figuring out who you need to persuade, is one of the most important pieces. Paul doesn't have to figure it out because he already understands the chain of command of the organization that he's interacting with. And so he has the centurion take his nephew to the commander. He's not concerned to persuade the centurion of anything other than to take his nephew to the commander. And oftentimes that just takes a sense of urgency and sincerity that this person needs to talk to the other person. Does his nephew have any way of getting access to this commander of a Roman cohort? Is there any reason why you would expect that to happen? It's just simply the way that Paul does it, his respect that he's been able to build with these centurions. And so sometimes, even if the centurion, for example, in this case is not the decision maker, he's a gatekeeper. And so when you understand who the decision maker is, interacting with gatekeepers well allows you to get access to the people who are guarded by the gatekeepers. And so maintaining respectability, a good witness as a Christian, seriousness allows you to be able to draw upon that political capital that history of effort the background of what you have done and it makes it so that in times of decisive need decisive action can be effective so this centurion takes the young man to the commander and I know I'm emphasizing this but it's important to I want you to think about all of the people that want to see the garrison commander in Jerusalem. Do you think this man's a busy man? And so to get access is a significant thing. This is a town that's known for being difficult to govern, right? And so there's dispute between the local rulers and the Roman garrison. This man only has around a thousand men in his garrison, by the way. And so keep that in mind. when you think about the men that are sent with Paul. So the centurion sends the boy to the commander. Verse 18, so he took him and brought him to the commander and said, Paul, the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you. The commander doesn't just dismiss that, right? The centurion doesn't take on all responsibility. Hey, commander, you need to talk to this guy. He was willing to take him, but there's still some responsibility put on Paul here. And so, the commander knows enough about Paul that he's willing to listen to this person that Paul has sent. He's had some experience here. He's seen Paul behave himself, have good bearing in the meeting with the Jews. And he's seeing here that his opponents seem less reasonable than him. Verse 19, And the commander took him by the hand, went aside, and asked privately, What is it that you have to tell me? It's not only giving him an audience, but giving him a private audience, which is a risk. Talking to somebody by yourself is a risk. It's a physical risk, and it's also a risk for slander. He does this. His commander does this. And so the Lord has granted favor in his sight after this point. Here is this bureaucracy, this military command system working for Paul's favor. So the young man, look at this. This young man, he communicates confidently, crisply, Clearly, concisely, there is a confident communication of what needs to be said. Look at how important the matter is and how brief and clear the communication is. So the commander says, what is it that you have to tell me? And here's the young man's reply. The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire more fully about him. but do not yield to them. Okay? So here's what's happening. Context. This makes it very easy for this commander to process the information. See, when you come up to a person and just start telling them either what you want or what your concerns are, it's very difficult for them to get oriented. But when you walk up to a person, especially a busy person like this commander and tell him, here's what's going on, and here's what's going to happen. Or here's my concern about what's going to happen. These are the parties, this is the party, this is what's going on, here's what's going to happen. That makes it really easy to process the rest of the information. Then here's the request. But do not yield to them. And there's the reason. for more than 40 of them lie in wait for him men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him and now they are ready so it's urgent the importance of it and the urgency of it are being established waiting for the promise from you so the promise is the thing to not give don't give this promise notice there is not an effort to explain the obvious Notice there is not an unnecessary addition of detail. This guy is treating this busy commander as though he is able to figure out those obvious things, which makes it more persuasive. When you are talking to someone who has a position of authority and you are asking something from them, this is like an ideal statement example of how to deal with it. Very impressive. for this young man to be able to do this and to go and talk to this commander in this way. So the commander let the young man depart. Think about that for a second. When you have somebody who has just given you information about a conspiracy to kill a prisoner under your control, to allow that person to leave as opposed to holding them until you've resolved the situation, there's a lot of confidence in that person and confidence that they've given you all the information that's important. So He lets him depart, which is a risk for operational security. Remember, operational security has to do with information and communication, the ability to be surprised. Here's a guy who has just walked through this group, the camp, and given this information. And what would you expect this commander to do? You'd expect him to take Paul out of the city, wouldn't you? There's a conspiracy in the city to have him killed. The obvious maneuver here is to move Paul. And so that being the case, you would be expecting, with that information being delivered, to make it easy to now ambush this force as it leaves. And so allowing this man to leave is a great act of trust. which suggests that he trusts Paul, trusts this young man, and is acting with confidence based upon the information taken. That is a great deal of favor in his sight given by the Lord. So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. He's concerned that this information not get out, and he's willing to trust this young man to not tell anybody. These are rather large acts of faith in this man. Now, verse 23. Claudius Lysias does not act as a fool in this scenario, however. He called for two centurions. Remember, centurions are commanders of about 100 men, saying, prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen. to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night and provide mounts to set Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor. Notice also the crispness of this command and these communications with the military men. I love it. There is a clarity about what the mission is. There is a statement of here are the resources I want you to deploy. and then figure it out. He expects these men to figure it out. He gives them the resources and he tells them the objective and relies upon them to do it. And then he wrote a letter in the following manner. So this is now a letter that's meant to make sure that Governor Felix understands the situation. And you'll notice there's a little bit of a change of history here in terms of the order of things that makes Claudius Lysias seemed a little bit better than he was. Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent Governor Felix. Greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them. Context. What are we talking about? Coming with the troops, I rescued him. That's true. having learned that he was a Roman. Well, that's not true. He didn't find out that he was a Roman and then go save him. He, instead, went to save him and found out after the fact that he was a Roman. But it's an important piece of information. He does need to know he's a Roman. Verse 28. That will ensure that Felix treats him with the rights of a Roman citizen. And when I wanted to know the reason they accused him, I brought him before their counsel. So he's explaining, I went through due process here. I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law. but had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains. So it's questions of their law, it's not the Roman law, you're not obligated to punish him. Furthermore, I've already determined the case and found that he is not deserving in the charges of anything worthy of death or chains. So don't listen to anything with a penalty that involves death or chains. It will require you to overturn your decision. This is even in the charges, which limits the charges that can be brought against him. Okay, so this is now saying this is nothing that under Roman law would require him to be enchained or to be killed. So that limits the charges that can be brought. Verse 30. And when it was told me that the Jews lay in wait for the man, I sent him immediately to you and also commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against him. Farewell. So he's explaining now also that the accusers are acting in bad faith and seeking to undermine Roman authority and Roman rule and to usurp Roman authority. This is a letter that is remarkably powerful in Paul's interest. And so the Lord is using all of this very powerfully for him. Now, think for a second. So this letter is being carried and Paul is being taken. Let's go back up and look at the two centurions that Claudius Lysias sends. He sends two centurions with 200 soldiers. These are going to be Roman soldiers. These are the men that are naturally under their command as a part of their role in the legion. Then there are 70 horsemen. And so this detachment of horsemen is probably the majority of the horsemen attached to this cohort. Then in addition to that, they have 200 spearmen. These 200 spearmen would likely be what are either called auxilia, which means non-Roman soldiers that are being brought in. They may be from somewhere else because auxilia from Judea are not going to be very good at suppressing Judean revolt. They would likely be unreliable, so these may well be Gallic or Germanian or they may be from Hispania or someplace else, right? These are Auxilia troops. They are non-Roman troops that are brought as spearmen. They are essentially mercenaries that are under the banner. This is the French Foreign Legion of Rome, okay? And so you have these men being brought and so they don't have their own independent cohort command. Ordinarily the cohort's going to be between between 400 and 600 men in addition to having the Auxilia and support troops. And so that's where this group comes from. So you don't need additional centurions to be in command of them. They would be attached to Roman units and under the command of the centurions. That's why you only have two of them. So you have the horsemen, you have the Roman soldiers, and then you have these auxilia troops. And so this group, okay, this group of soldiers, we're looking at well over 400, at least 470, plus any sort of administrative and command elements. That's a very large percentage of the soldiers that were in Jerusalem that are being sent on this one particular mission. And then, in addition to that, you have the resources of additional mounts being used for Paul, which, funny enough, has the most commentary on it of any part of this in the stuff that I'm reading about. People speculate, are these mounts for the apostolic group that's with him? Is this for, like, Luke and other people? Is it to have multiple horses for Paul so he can maintain the fastest speed? Why are there so many horses assigned for Paul? And so, but I would, if I had to go down into one place, I would say it's because the idea is to make sure he can travel very quickly to get on. And so that would be about transportation being fast. This journey, okay, from Jerusalem to Jerusalem, Antipatrys is about 30 miles, and then to go on to Caesarea from there is probably closer to 10 or 12, depending on the roads. And so when we look at verse 31, Then the soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatrys. The next day they left the horsemen to go with him and returned to the barracks. Now, I've set all this up to think about for a minute here. The level of tactical resources and command and everything that's been provided here is the extraordinary favor that's been granted. 40 men that we're going to potentially be ambushing has resulted in a force 10 times its size being used to transport Paul. And then when there's this move out, okay, and the move is at night, they are going out, there's a decisive move to get out, to get past the points of likely ambush, having the 400 infantry, right? The 200 spear, the 200 Roman soldiers, and you've got the horsemen. The horsemen are certainly a sufficient guard to then move beyond there. And so they double almost the number of men who would ambush them with those horsemen. And so the idea is you have an extraordinarily large force leading out, getting out of the city, out of the gates, out of the places of obvious ambush, and moving beyond, an encampment. And after that kind of encampment, the horsemen are continuing. And so this fast night march, moving out, having men guarding, and then having the horsemen carry on with Paul, this allows for the men to march at a brisk pace, become exhausted, and get to this point of distance, and then to stop and have the horses be able to carry on. And if they brought extra mounts for the other soldiers also, those mounts could be brought back by the other men, the infantrymen, and have the cavalry unit and Paul carry on with the extra mounts. And so you see the well-resourced mechanisms that are put in place here to allow for this to occur. Also, the further away you get from these men who are planning to kill him, the less likely they are to know actually where you are. And you make it so that as you're gaining distance and speed, you're decreasing the likelihood of the danger. And so the resources necessary to guard Paul keep reducing there. And so all of this is very well planned and involves almost half of the military resources available to this commander. So in the Providence of God, these apostate Jews trying to murder Paul are used to provide Paul with an extraordinary military escort out of town under the command of a godless man to put Paul before another godless man so that Paul is able, through legal process, to be able to argue and explain the gospel before leaders. Now, verse 32, the next day they left the horsemen to go on with him and return to the barracks. When they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him. And when the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. And when he understood that he was from Cilicia, He said, I will hear you when your accusers also have come. Now, he cares about where he's come from because Felix is an impressive politician when it comes to conniving. Felix actually was a former slave. And as a former slave, he became a free man. And as a free man, rose very quickly. Becoming a governor in the empire was a very impressive post. Now, Felix is said by the Roman historian Tacitus, Felix occupied the office of a king while having the mind of a slave, saturated with cruelty and lust. The idea of being noble, having nobility, being generous, being magnanimous, having liberality, as we've talked about, is often associated in cultures with the rich, which, you know, in our culture, we go, that doesn't make any sense, right? And this idea in the Middle Ages of the noblesse oblige, the obligation of the nobility. There's this idea that having been raised with much, you feel as though you have a tendency to expect the world to kind of work in your favor, so you are inclined to be more generous. That's the idea. Now, that can be the case or it cannot be. And the idea is that the poor, the peasants, the slaves, they have a tendency to be grasping. To be grasping, because the idea is they have an assumption that there is not much. They have an assumption of poverty. And so the idea is that if you are accustomed to things just kind of falling into your lap, you will be more generous. And so that's a character element that makes somebody a better ruler. And then at the same time, people who don't have much, there's this tendency for them to be grasping. That's the idea. That is what this quote from Tacitus is about. And so that would be a prejudice in Rome. And in the Bible, we talk about how we see that the rich often oppress the poor. which is a kind of grasping behavior, right? That they are the enemy of the faith, which is ungenerous when you compare it to Roman religion and the philosophies of the Greeks. They're far more silly than the Christian religion. And so these are things that subvert expectation. These are things in the Bible that subvert expectation. Now Felix happens to support the prejudice. He fits the stereotype. Having been a slave, he's grasping. And so he's known by his rule being a grasping sort of rule, a tyrant king, this insufferable person who takes, takes, takes, takes, takes. And so coming before Felix, there is this expectation that Felix, as a grasping sort of person, is going to look for how to weigh the politics. So this idea of slavish behavior by a politician then is we just expect our politicians now to do horse trading. And so this idea that he's asking where are you from, this is about what people might I upset if I rule against, if I decide against you. He's trying to do the political calculus. And so, hearing where he's from, he said, I will hear you when your accusers also have come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's praetorium. Now, he's telling him, I'm going to hold you a prisoner. I'm going to hear your case. And while you're waiting, I'm going to keep you in Herod's seaside palace. It's a prison, but it's a nice prison. It's a white-collared prison. They have a zen garden. lots of hours where you can walk in the yard by the sea salt air so that's where Paul is going and this time where Paul is stuck there some people think that this is actually where most of his prison epistles come from I I don't know I don't want to come down on that but this could be and at the same time he's stuck here and this time could have been some of the time where he's writing some of the prison pencil so this could be kind of the earliest period where that's occurring there are other later ones that were other later possibilities but so this would be the earliest that these could be that any one of them could be now I want to take a moment there and think about this there's a Charles Spurgeon would work himself to the bone, and then would, after working very hard, he would take breaks going to a seaside place. And he often got a lot of writing done there. His books are known for having been a great blessing to the people of God. And so he would intentionally take kind of a break. John Bunyan, being thrown in prison, gained time to write Pilgrim's Progress. He would not have written it had he not been thrown in prison. The Martin Luther was given time, being kind of imposed in a prison-type place, when he was exiled, so to speak, by his own prince, not because of crimes, but to keep him safe. He was put into the Würzburg Castle, and he there translated the Bible into German. And so this time, after basically a couple of decades of constant hard work and going, going, going, going, going, always having some place to go, some place to be, rush, rush, work, work, teach people, audience, over and over and over again. Paul is now locked in a seaside palace. And this time for reflection, consideration, possibly for writing, for focusing on maybe fewer of his companions, would have been a time that is very different than how he had spent his last several years. And so in this way, God uses the enemies of Paul, the enemies of Christ, to provide for Paul and to make it so that in his time where he is writing in prison, we have great fruit that is given to us in the prison epistles, the pastoral epistles. Then, in the midst of this rest, five days, Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. They're providing this book of evidence. This is what we presented to the previous court, perhaps. And when he was called upon, Tertullus began his accusation. And he starts with flattery, saying, seeing that through you we enjoy great peace, and that peace could include prosperity. And then it says in prosperity, really it's reform would be a better translation. And reform is being brought to this nation. The reform would be the imposition of Roman law, imposition of Roman rule. You see the nonsense, of a Jewish court having their prosecutor say that they appreciate the reforms being brought by the Roman governor, saying that through you we enjoy great peace and reformation, reform is being brought to this nation by your foresight. And that word is providence, by the way. Okay, so seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and reformation is being brought to this nation by your providence, We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. That is the introduction of a slave. Everything you do, oh noble ruler, we are thankful for. We accept it always, in all places. You are always right with an infinite jurisdiction. We're always thankful for it. Your Providence is so great. Your Reformation is wonderful. We enjoy peace because of you. Prosperity comes by your hand. This is bootlicking obsequiousness. Nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, what other things could you say to the ruler? But not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear, by your courtesy, a few words from us. For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law. But the commander Lysias came by and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you. By examining him yourself, you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. And the Jews also assented, maintaining that these things were so. Now examining him yourself, there's some debate about is that Lysias or is it Paul? I think it's clear that actually it's Lysias. And the idea is call Lysias, have him come the 40 to 60 miles of road, depending on the road, have him come here and examine him. And that idea is that this guy, Felix, who is supposed to, he's capricious. His rule is not magnanimous. He makes decisions fast, but he does it with his own favor, his own concerns in mind. He won't take the time to ask Lysias about this. And so the goal here is to flatter and to take this and make Paul sound really bad. He's a plague. He causes dissension through all the Jews, through all the world. And he's a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. A ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Sounds a lot worse than being a pastor of the church. And so this is the kind of stuff you're going to run into. So this is impressive rhetoric. This is impressive slander. This is impressive flattery. That's what it is. So we'll see, we'll examine that in more detail next time and we'll see how Paul responds. So there's your cliffhanger. Comments, questions, objections from the voting members? Mr. Nye. Thank you for your teaching, Elder East. I wanted to point out briefly that verse 9 of chapter 24, the majority text says, and the Jews also joined the attack. I believe the attack of the Orion Thank you, I don't know why I have missed so many of these majority text things here recently I think I scattered some of my notes as to where they are. I've been using my English translation as opposed to my Greek there In the last few weeks. I'm sorry. I've missed a few of those things. So thank you. So the verse 9 should read, and the Jews also joined the attack, maintaining that these things were so, as opposed to, and the Jews also assented, maintaining that these things were so. So obviously, one, they are communicating the same thing happened, but we're getting additional interpretation, not just that they're agreeing, but that it's an attack in the majority text. So thank you for that, Mr. Nye. Okay. Then let's pray. Father, we thank you for the Apostle Paul, that you have gifted the reign of your Son and the work of your Spirit. We thank you for the capturing of these things as a history for us, both to instruct us and to give us an example in the New Testament. We thank you for preserving it and giving it to us, and we ask that you would build us up by the things that we have considered here, that we would believe the Word and that we would have wise application. We thank you for the examples of action and also of speaking and of writing that we have here, that we can examine them and consider them. And we ask that you would help us to imitate Paul as far as he imitates Christ, and that we would be able to communicate well and effectively We thank you for the example even of that young man, Paul's nephew, and the way in which he was able to deal with these things competently and well. We pray that you would help us to be competent for our stations, and that you would help us to be effective in our duties. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.