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UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES
We resume our excursion through the Book of Acts, here again are Dave and Tom: This is our Understanding the Scriptures segment, we’re in the Book of Acts, we’re in Acts chapter—lets start Chapter 24: “And after five days”—Verse one, “And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul.” Sounds like he brought a lawyer, a mouthpiece for himself.
Dave:
Yeah, yeah, sharp guy.
Tom:
Okay, “And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence.” Sounds like he’s buttering somebody up.
Dave:
That’s right, that’s right.
Tom:
“We accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee,—
Dave:
I like that, he’s been pretty tedious so far.
Tom:
I was going to say, Let’s keep it rolling here. “I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words.”
Dave:
See, the law profession hasn’t changed.
Tom:
I guess not, Dave. Verse 5: “For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law. But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands, Commanding his accusers to come unto thee: by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things, whereof we accuse him. And the Jews also assented, saying that these things were so.”
Dave:
That would be this whole gang that’s come with him, probably some people in the audience, some cheers—
Tom:
Right. Yeah, the entourage, as well.
Dave:
—rabble-rousers.
Tom:
Do you think there were any of those who took the vow, that they weren’t going to eat until, till Paul was dead?
Dave:
I—Tom, I think they were delivered of that because he was whisked away by the soldiers. Okay, the high priest himself and the elders, Verse 1: and descended, it says. Well, they are going down to the coast, this is Caesarea, they’re coming down from Jerusalem, which is much higher in elevation. And here comes Tertullus, he introduces Tertullus as the man—the chief prosecutor of this case, I guess, you could call him. They’re buttering him up, buttering up Felix, as you mentioned, Tom. But we would ask you, Felix, most noble Felix, just hear us out because this is a pestilent fellow, and he is causing much trouble. And of course the governor would not want trouble in the empire, that could cause some riots or whatever.
Tom:
Make him look bad before Rome.
Dave:
Yeah, and he’s a mover of sedition. Okay, so that is like plotting against the government and that’s very serious. Actually none of this is true. Throughout all the world, and a ringleader of the sect called the Nazarenes, oh my goodness. Paul was not a Nazarene, he was a Pharisee, a Hebrew, he was a Pharisee he said, I’m a Pharisee, son of a Pharisee, and so forth. Who also had gone about to profane the temple—again that’s not true, he did not. That was a false accusation, remember they said, Well, he had a Gentile in there. Well, they saw Timothy with him, but not inside the temple. He did not take Timothy in the temple. And he says, We took him, we would have judged him according to our law. They were going to judge Jesus according to their law too. The law was stoning. That’s why they could not execute their judgment upon Jesus because He had to be crucified. And Paul, of course, he’s not going to be killed at this point because the Lord wants him to testify in Rome. And he, well he’s kind of putting the chief captain down, he has a little bit of complaint against the Roman soldiers, I mean, Oh, you’re wonderful Felix, you’re a wonderful governor and everything is great, but your soldiers, they’re kind of rough on us, and they took him with great violence. Well, I guess they had to use violence to—this violent crowd.
Tom:
Yeah, zealots to kill Paul for God.
Dave:
To get them to release their grip on Paul, and commanding the accusers to come and, so, here we are! And everybody that’s come with him down from Jerusalem, Yeah, that’s right. So, now Paul has his chair turn.
Tom:
Verse 10: “Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself: Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city: Neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me. But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all the things which are written in the law and in the prophets: And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men.”
Dave:
Well Tom, this is a masterful defense Paul makes. Of course he’s using the same tactics as Tertullus, and he’s buttering up Felix a bit, you know, I’m happy that you’re the judge, Felix because you’ve been judging this nation for a long time, and I more cheerfully answer for myself because I’m at your judgment seat here, and I know that you’ve honestly dealt with us, and so forth. Now it’s only twelve days ago that I went up to Jerusalem and they didn’t— none of these things are true, they didn’t find me in the temple disputing with anyone, nor rousing the people. I wasn’t a rabble-rouser, I wasn’t seditious, I wasn’t involved in seditious activities, nor in the synagogues of the city, and they can’t prove anything of which they now accuse me. Now I like this next verse, Verse 14: “But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy,”—so Paul is making his confession, he’s a heretic, by their standards, but not by the Bible’s standards—‘…after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:” Okay, Paul says, Look, they call this heresy, but I am simply going by the Word of God. And I “have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” And he says, I’m determined that I would always have a conscience void of offense toward God, and toward men. Paul is certainly a reasonable man. He’s showing that all he’s doing is following the scriptures. This is what he follows, the same scriptures that they themselves claim to follow. We have the same problem today, Tom. We’re accused of all manner of—well people make all manner of false accusations against us, what’s the problem? We try to stick to the Bible and they want to change the Bible, they don’t like what the Bible says, and we’re simply going to stand on the Word of God. And this is all Paul was doing, and that’s all we want to do, and this is why we call it, Search the Scriptures Daily, be like the Bereans, check us out. Please! If you find that we are not true to the Bible in any regard, please write to us or call us, and if you are correct we will apologize publicly.
Dave and Tom will continue their discussion on the topic of salvation next week, we hope you can tune in. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. And now, to tell you more about our ministry, here’s TBC Executive Director Tom McMahon: The name, The Berean Call, is taken from the Book of Acts Chapter 17, verses 10 and 11, where we find the apostle Paul entering the synagogue in the Greek city of Berea after he had just come from Thessalonica. To these Bereans he preached that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah sent from God. They were commended for being noble, or fair-minded, not only for their willingness to hear what Paul had to say about the matter, but more specifically, because they searched the scriptures daily to find out whether or not what the apostle was saying was found in God’s Word. That’s what we hope to encourage through this ministry. Our mission is to alert believers in Christ to unbiblical teachings and practices impacting the church. We want exhort believers to give greater heed to biblical discernment and truth regarding what they are accepting as spiritual. We hope to supply those who profess to be biblical Christians with information and material that will encourage the love of God’s truth. Hopefully, we can help mobilize believers in Christ to action in obedience to the scriptural command to earnestly content for the faith, found in Jude 3 [2]. And finally, our prayer is that we can be used of God to stimulate Christians to look to the Bible alone as their rule of faith, authority and practice in living lives pleasing to our Lord and Saviour. Gary.
Gary:
If you would like to expand your knowledge of God’s Word we offer a wide variety of items that we hope you will find helpful, from books and tracts to audio and video recordings, CD-ROM, our website and much more. For a complete list of materials or to get a copy of today’s broadcast write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97708, call us at our toll free order number, 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org [2]. If you would like a copy of this broadcast on compact disk, ask for Program #4207, and be sure to mention the call letters of this station. And if you would like to watch Dave and Tom, our weekly broadcast is available on DVD, ask about a subscription when you contact us. You can also download both audio and video podcast at our website. Get a pen or pencil ready, we’ll repeat our contact information in just a moment.
Next week, we begin a new series of programs addressing the latest spiritual phenomenon called, The Emerging Church, and “What is the emerging church?” In Religion in the News, Islamonauts, we’ll take a look at that story and address the question: Can we turn someone over to Satan? We hope you can join us. If you have questions or comments about this program, we urge you to contact our offices. Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers and your financial support. I’m Gary Carmichael, and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for tuning in and invite you to join us again next week. In the meantime, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily.