What? Paul has a nephew?
Acts 23:12-22 · Vern Peterman · Sep 9, 2018
Acts (2017-18), No. 78
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191157427

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're here stepping into Acts chapter 23, verses 12 through 22, as Laban just read for us here. And as we do that, we'll be looking at these. This is actually a fairly brief passage we're looking at, but it's got some very pivotal and important things for us to take a look at. So we'll begin doing that.

Just to bring us into context the Apostle Paul here has been Now for two days in a row in in a situation the first day. It was a mob situation the next day It was a situation before the Sanhedrin the Roman soldiers in both cases had to rather rescue Paul and And in each case, it was apparent they had to do so because the intent of the Jews present was to kill him. This is June 2nd and 3rd, 57 AD. And then that night, the Lord Jesus had appeared and actually spoken to Paul and said, just as you have been my witness in Jerusalem, so you shall be in Rome.

And so that brings us into this current context here. You have on your handout this picture. This is looking east over the Temple Mount and the courtyard where this mob action had taken place was this outer courtyard that you see there. There was a set of stairways between this outer courtyard and the Fortress Antonia, which was the Roman fortress, overlooking and immediately adjacent to the courtyard. And everything that we see take place in today's passage happens in this Fortress Antonia. So everything is inside this fortress. So far as today's passage is concerned, although we're soon going to see That Paul is going to exit this fortress and we'll see them under the conditions the conditions under which that takes place This would be a view, and this is looking at a model, but inside the towers and plaza of the Antonia Fortress, the commander, Claudius Lysias, has called this the barracks, as he's ordered the troops to take Paul in and out of here.

And so from these towers, the Romans would overlook the courtyard and they would see what's going on with the Jews if things got out of hand they could then come down the stairways that are between this fortress and the courtyard and intervene in whatever way seems fit. So it's inside this area that the Apostle Paul has now been retained and contained He is apparently given some degree of freedom inside here Because of the fact he's now looked upon as a Roman citizen, but still he has to remain inside and He was not Once it was discovered. He was a Roman citizen.

He was not kept in the degree of confinement and certainly not the degree of punishment for which he was at first headed and That area, this Antonia Fortress, is almost entirely destroyed. The Romans came in and actually came over the top of it in order to enter into the courtyard area and take over Jerusalem. And so it's almost entirely destroyed.

The lower part is what remains. This is the lower prison that When we went to Jerusalem, that lower prison is still there and can be seen. This is not where Paul was kept. It might possibly have been where Christ was located, but that remains. And then here is a part of the floor of what remains in the Fortress Antonia. You can see some markings on the floor etched in to play the games that the Roman soldiers would play. And so Nancy got this picture and here's another one. some of the different games that were played there. So parts of this fortress are remaining in the lower area of the prison and some of the floors, but the upper part was destroyed basically about a decade roughly after the time that we're looking at here.

Keep in mind that the Apostle Paul had written just months before, perhaps three to five months earlier, I had written to the church at Rome, and this gives the perspective that the Apostle Paul had as he's going through these things here. And so he writes in Romans 15, verse 25, to begin with, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints. So that's his mindset. Going to Jerusalem is not a, I might go. It's not a, you know, I'm thinking about going. He is in fact going.

His intent there is to serve the saints and we see confirmation that that's exactly what was fulfilled and even Christ's recognizes it personally with the Apostle Paul and then it goes like this in verses 29 through 32 I know that when I come to you so this is he's writing to the church at Rome I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea."

So he knows in advance, months in advance, one, he's headed for trouble, and two, that there are those, he says, those who are disobedient, those Jews that are opposed and antagonistic to him, that he may be rescued from those who are disobedient. What we're seeing here in these verses we're looking at today is we see that rescue in exactly how it takes place. So what you're seeing is here is the request for prayer three to five months before. What you're seeing in today's passage is the fulfillment of the prayer that he has asked them to do on his behalf. that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints." While Paul's trial and difficulty here becomes forefront, he in fact has come, one, to along with others bring relief funds to the saints in Jerusalem. Two, he wants to share with them the things that have happened now on his third missionary journey and to encourage them with that and update them with that and then thirdly he is called upon once he is there to also fund the sacrifices for four of the brothers who have made a vow and are going to then have them fulfilled in the temple And it's on the way to trying to fulfill those vows that he finds himself getting into difficulty with the Jews repeatedly. And then verse 32, that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company. And that's going to happen, but it's going to be a few years, right?

So this all comes about and we're seeing that come about in part in the passage we're looking at today. So here on Acts 23 11, this is the night of June 3rd and 4th, 57 AD. This is, but on the night immediately following the Lord stood at his side and said, take courage for as you have solemnly witnessed to my cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also. So it is the next day when this passage and these events that we see recorded here take place. What's amazing here is we do have pretty tight chronology. It even seems sometimes within hours, but certainly within the day of what's taking place.

Acts 23, 12-14 reads like this, When it was day, the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who formed this plot. They came to the chief priests and elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a solemn oath to taste nothing until we have killed Paul.

Now, a part of what's happened here, you've got a group of 40 men. Why do they need that many? It's because they have to be able to overwhelm the Roman guards who would accompany Paul outside the gates. So that's why they have 40. In going about and enlisting those 40, that's where they made a big mistake, because that's how Paul's nephew, as we'll soon look at here, gets wind of this, and as this plot is forming, he overhears this, and who knows, he may himself have gotten an invitation, them not realizing, hey, this is Paul's nephew.

So they put themselves under this oath, it's a fasting curse, if you will, that is, we're not going to eat until we've gotten this done, with the idea that this is going to happen real soon. So, what's amazing here is they are making a plan to do something that's really, really illegal, illegal, and I am telling you, telling you the very, very truth, right? They are doing something that's really illegal by two different counts. One, it is illegal by the Law of Moses.

In the Law of Moses, Deuteronomy 17.6 and 19.15 said a couple of things. One, is you shall make an inquiry into whether or not these facts are true or not before you go and take someone's life. Is that what they're doing? There's been no inquiry, and as a matter of fact, all that we have seen is these guys are operating off of a rumor. There has not been one witness brought forward, and certainly not two or three.

They are most certainly breaking the law of Moses, and in the process, they're likely not only to kill Paul, but all the Roman soldiers who accompanied them. They conspired then to kill Paul, even though now he was under Roman protection as a Roman citizen. They may not even be aware of that. But nonetheless, under Jewish law, these Jews who have conspired to kill Paul are breaking the law of Moses, real clearly. And they are breaking the law of Rome. And so they would have to get some Roman soldiers killed in order to kill Paul. And to them, that's acceptable losses or some other excuse. But the bottom line is that what they're doing is profoundly illegal by any law whatsoever.

So these 40 men had made this solemn oath. They'd made this solemn oath to kill Paul. That was the focus. If there were any other Romans who incidentally had to be killed, oh well, right? and they were not going to eat anything until they did, or so they thought. So these Jewish men had taken an oath to commit multiple cases of murder because they were zealots. So here's the ironic thing. They're very, very zealous for the law, so they're going to break the law of Moses in order to make sure that Paul is dead. So that's really great. It's so ethical and moral and upright of them to do that.

As it turns out, these men are going to have to break their vows or starve to death. It's not going to work out so well for them. And we'll figure out pretty soon how that happens. This isn't going to work out as planned because they're not going to get a chance to go after Paul. It's going to get short-circuited and we'll see how that happens real quick here.

Acts 23.15 Now therefore you and the council notify the commander to bring him down to you as though you're going to determine his case by a more thorough investigation. For we, excuse me, and we for our part are ready to slay him before he comes to the place, okay? So we're going to set up a fake Sanhedrin meeting. We're going to have the Romans then bring him out of the fortress. and then supposedly come to this fake Sanhedrin meeting, but it's not going to happen because the plan is to have the 40 plus Jews overwhelm the Roman guards and to kill Paul, and of course to do that they're going to have to kill the Roman soldiers as well.

So these 40 plus Jewish men who are also very, very zealous for the law are going to break the law. They're not going to go into the fortress Antonia. That's not a good plan. Just count the numbers. Forty plus Jews, hundreds and hundreds of Roman soldiers. What are the odds for that? Not so good. So they're not going to do that. There's one other problem. Where is Paul somewhere inside the Roman fortress? Who knows, right? So that would be just a death wish. So they're not going to do that.

So instead, the way to get Paul outside the fortress is to have a small number of Roman soldiers who are escorting Paul to this supposed meeting of the Sanhedrin, this fake meeting, and then as soon as he gets out of the fortress, then to attack him by surprise, at some point and take care of Paul and the Roman soldiers that are with him in that way.

So here's Acts 23, 16. But the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush. He came and entered the barracks and told Paul. So, how many of you knew that Paul had a sister and a son, and here's the nephew of all things? So this is amazing. Never before in the book of Acts has this come up, and it never comes up again in Acts or any of the rest of Paul's letters. So whatever is in this passage about the sister and the nephew is all we know. We can speculate about it, but that's all it would be. So, we could think of all sorts of questions to ask. You know, here's Paul's sister. Does she live in Jerusalem? Why is the son, you know, her son in Jerusalem the nephew? Is he there for training under a rabbi?

You know, all these questions we could ask. We don't have any real solid answers because this passage is the only thing that really mentions them. They have only these verses about that Paul has a sister, the sister really isn't mentioned outside of this, nor the nephew.

But, prisoners held as Roman citizens were allowed visitors, and particularly if they are Roman citizens. As a matter of fact, in Roman prisons, if you don't have somebody who's on the outside who's willing to help you, you're probably not going to live all that long anyway.

And this nephew has enough family affection to help Paul survive. So on the one hand, it's possible that they're not really buying all that Paul's doing. It's possible they aren't buying into that. But just with enough family affection, they said, no, we don't want to see Paul killed. On the other hand, it is possible that the sister and this nephew have become believers. That could be. And so we have kind of a range of possibilities there. At very least, he has enough family affection and concern for Paul as a member of the family to help Paul survive this incident.

So Acts 23, 17 and 18, Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, lead this young man to the commander for he has something to report to him. Interesting, he wants to keep it, you know, something, you know, but keep it quiet. So he took him, that is the centurion took him and led him to the commander and said, Paul, the prisoner called me to him and asked me to lead this young man to you since he has something to tell you. All right, so still keeping the content quiet, even not even telling the centurion here, apparently. And so this is going to get passed along.

Paul, as a Roman citizen now, would be required under Roman law to be protected as a Roman citizen until he gets fair trial. So this would be the opportunity then for the young man to carry things along and to keep Paul from falling into this trap. So Paul had protection as a Roman citizen. It was required that he have a fair trial and not be beaten, not be held cruelly in prison and things of that sort until there was a fair trial.

And so the commander was bound under Roman law to assure that. So the safety of Paul would be high priority, top priority. As a matter of fact, in the worst case, should the commander and the centurion be found negligent in this, they could lose their lives. So they're going to take this seriously.

So they both have the idea, by whatever reason, this young man is not just passing along town gossip, but there's something very significant here having to do with their obligation, the commander's and the centurion's obligation to protect Paul. So that apparently is clear in how things are said, but it's still not said exactly what does this young man, Paul's nephew, have to say.

So here's Acts 23.19.

The commander who we will find out in next week's passage, Acts 23.26, goes by the name Claudius Lysias. That's the commander's name. He took him by the hand and stepping aside began to inquire of him privately, what is it that you have to report to me?

So the message gets passed along apparently, you know, faithfully and passed along very specifically without giving the content. And so, all right, now it's Paul's nephew before the commander, Claudius Lysias. In Acts 20, he says, and he said, the Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down tomorrow to the council as though they were going to inquire somewhat more thoroughly about him.

So that's the first thing, is as though they were going to inquire more thoroughly. So he explains that. And this is news to the commander at this point, most likely. So, the one thing they're going to do, they're going to give you fake news. Paul's nephew tells the commander that the Jews have arranged to ask you for a meeting tomorrow with the supposed purpose of a further inquiry into the facts. But that's a fake, isn't it? This is the worst fake news that Rome ever got. Except that it didn't quite get there. Though they tried.

So this young man, who is Paul's nephew, is going to save the life of Paul. It's also going to save the lives of all the Roman soldiers who would accompany Paul to the meeting. Those Roman soldiers, under the Roman law, would be bound to defend Paul to the death. And what does that mean? They would have to die in order for the Jews to slaughter Paul. So it's not only saving Paul's life, but saving the lives of all those Roman soldiers who would be attacked as well.

And there was no clear intent of actually having a hearing before the Sanhedrin. This was all fake news in order to get the Apostle Paul out in a place where he was vulnerable and a group of 40 plus Jewish men could overwhelm the Roman soldiers and then take Paul's life. Here's Acts 23, 21, So do not listen to them, for more than forty of them are lying in wait for Him to have bound themselves under a curse not to eat or drink until they slay Him." So this is a forced fast. And now they're ready and waiting for the promise from you. All they want to do is get this set up. And then you, He's telling them, will be in deep trouble. But it's all a fake. Don't listen to them. This is fake news.

So Paul's nephew warned the Roman commander that these, and he gave him a number, more than 40, so more than 40 Jews, bound themselves under a curse, that is, that's an oath with an evil promise and outcome. You know, may this happen to me if I fail to, that kind of thing. And also, it is an oath to not do something good under the law and righteous, but do something evil. So that's this curse.

And it's directed towards killing Paul. These Jews had arranged for Paul to be brought before the Sanhedrin for false purposes. So probably the communications are just getting in motion. to have this take place. They arranged for this bogus meeting that would kill Paul and as many Romans as got in their way, probably all of them because the Romans were bound to defend Paul to the death. Likely some Jews would get lost in the process as well, so this would not be a small incident. Here's Acts 23, 22.

So the commander let the young man go, instructing him, tell no one that you have notified me of these things. So we would say in our own vernacular something like, keep it on the QT, which is supposed to stand for quiet. So the commander let Paul's nephew go. I'll let you go. I won't keep you captive here. You don't have to stay here. He made sure that the young man knew, you're not to reveal this to anyone.

Can you imagine what the problems would be if he began talking it about? It was critical that these 40 Jews continue to think that their plan is going to work. If what is about to take place, and we'll see that next week's passage, if what is about to take place gets out, or that the idea that this isn't going to work, then they will come up with an alternate plan. And the commander didn't want that to happen either. He wanted the Jews to be completely surprised, just like this ambush would have completely surprised Paul and the Romans who are with him. So he didn't want the Jews to have any opportunity to make plan B. None whatsoever. We need to keep this a complete surprise.

So here is Paul's nephew. And I think one of the things we see is that this nephew is showing quite a bit of constraint. Also, the commander is putting a lot of trust in this nephew. He could have said, I can't have you go. I can't risk that you might tell somebody. Instead, he did, in fact, trust him.

And so one of the things I would look at, this young man is a model of character in terms of clear thought and responsible perspective. And I think that is something for us to look at in terms of the children that we have under our care. There's certainly a lot we don't know, but yet we do see a great deal of responsibility in this young man. He not only recognized the critical nature of this information, so far as we have any evidence, he had not told anyone about this before he told Paul, which is really good.

He was trustworthy enough that the commander could tell him, look, I'm going to let you go, but you absolutely must not tell anyone. And apparently he could be trusted with that. This young man was probably somewhere in his, at the youngest, late teens, but probably more likely mid twenties. very oldest, perhaps in his thirties, but more likely in his mid-twenties, he kept quiet about it. So this clear thinking and thinking through and being responsible, there's not even any evidence that he told Paul's sister about that at this point in time.

So this is something to look for. As we look at it, these issues of character One of the questions for parents to ask themselves is, how am I going to bring my kids to a place where they have, and this fellow is a young adult, I would say, where they have that sense of responsibility. Even yet, what characteristics should parents look for in their children who are headed towards adulthood. And how does that take place? So, I'll leave that as a question.

Trusting and resting in the Lord, as we have on the title, does not mean going brain-dead. Notice, when the Apostle Paul is told, well, look, you're going to have chains and affliction, he doesn't just say, well, I guess I'm going to have chains and affliction. What you see is he's still responding thoughtfully and carefully, and I would add prayerfully, about each of the circumstances.

He's responding to these circumstances at different instances. Before he gets beaten, he says, I'm a Roman citizen. Here he gets news from his nephew about this plot to take his life, and so he comes to Paul. The Apostle Paul then says, to the centurion, take this boy to tell his message to the commander.

Paul is still thoughtful and circumspect about things. So, fellowshipping with the Lord, beholding the Lord, and relying and depending on Christ in crisis, or otherwise, does not mean just kind of resigning oneself and stopping thinking. That goes along with careful thought and judgment. Those two go together. Paul did not just go brain-dead in the circumstances. Faith doesn't mean being thoughtless or presumptuous. So what we see, Paul neither quit observing and thinking through things, nor did he depend upon his own perspective and resources.

Most certainly he's praying about this. He had already asked months before the church in Rome to be praying for him about this set of circumstances he knew was going to come to pass. And here in the middle of this, he is still praying about things. The others that he has asked to pray for him are, we can assume, doing just that. And he is considering and observing the different circumstances and responding to them thoughtfully and with consideration.

So one of the things that we would say, you and I are never called to walk that lonesome valley. You ever heard that song, right? You got to walk that lonesome valley. Humbug! Nonsense! Where is it in the Bible that says you've got to walk that lonesome valley? No. What did Paul do?

Months before he asked the believers in Rome to pray for him about this incident that he knew was coming up. Was he walking this lonesome valley? Oh, and by the way, was the Lord with him? Yes, the Lord was in him and he was in Christ, right? So these things were very, very clear. There is no such thing as walking the lonesome valley, nor is it time to quit thinking.

Faith puts dependence upon what is revealed, not what is presumed. One of the patterns of thought and speech that has taken portions of Christianity, I've seen a fair amount of it as I've dealt with people over in Africa, is people will say, well, I'm going to believe God for... and then they'll claim something that God never said in His Word.

That's presumptuous. That's the name it and claim it. That's not biblical. That's presumptuous. Instead, what do we have here? We have in Scripture, Observing, what do I know that God has revealed? What do I see and observe? Considering it carefully, depending on what God has promised in His Word, not on what I presume, and then claim falsely, and then believe that as if that could be believing God for what is claimed. It's not. I have a question.

When did Paul learn about heavenly blessings, seeding, and citizenship? Three to five months before this, he had not written about it as he wrote to the church in Rome. If he knew so, would he or should he have written about it? Certainly! But that's not what you find in the book of Romans. He was beginning, just the first days here, of about five years of captivity under the Romans. So he's just begun that.

One of the great outcomes from this would be that Paul would learn, and we're going to see what is a most likely location and situation for that, about our heavenly blessings, our heavenly seating, our citizenship, He would write about it so that we and others would know these truths about our identification with Christ in the heavenlies. So what we're going to find in the passage right ahead of us here is the Apostle Paul with 70 horsemen, that is Roman cavalrymen, and 200 foot soldiers He is going to be taken that night to Antipatris, which is a city with a Roman fortress. And then he will be taken the next day to Caesarea. That night after they spend the night in Antipatris, the foot soldiers are going to go back to Jerusalem and the horsemen are going to take Paul to Caesarea the next day. Here is the fortress of Antipatrus. It was first built under Herod the Great, then rebuilt. So what you see there is a rebuilt fortress, but this is the fortress. It's now an archeological park. So you can see it.

He's going to go with the 70 Roman horsemen or cavalrymen and 200 foot soldiers. And that'll be on the night of June 4th, 57 AD. He's going to take off about nine o'clock at night with these soldiers. They're going to take out. Paul will continue with the 70 horsemen from here to Caesarea. Now, because we know the date, the moon was 39% full that night, so they had some moonlight to go by.

And then, of course, they would also take torches as well. But even apart from that, they would have enough moonlight, they'd have visibility to be able to see things also. He'll arrive at Caesarea on June 5th, 57 AD. That will be his home as a Roman prisoner, but as a Roman prisoner-citizen for about the next two years. This, we're going to see, is an ideal place while he is in prison much of this time to have the Lord meet with him personally and teach him personally.

Paul? Do you remember when you went to paradise? Yeah, Lord, I remember that. Paul, do you remember that you were told, don't tell anybody about it? Yeah, I remember. Now, I want to let you know, Paul, that you're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places there. I want to let you know, Paul, that you're seated with me there in the heavenlies already. And I want to let you know that you have a heavenly citizenship there.

Now, next time you have an opportunity to write, tell everybody else about it, right? That's how we found out. So here in this perspective, I'm going to Jerusalem serving the saints. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness and the blessing of Christ, what he didn't know when he wrote this. And I will also be able to tell you about your heavenly blessings and heavenly seating and heavenly citizenship. Won't that be an exciting thing for Paul to be able to tell the saints in Rome when he gets there? And to write the believers at Ephesus and Philippi and Colossae and everywhere else he possibly can about those wonderful, unfathomable riches that we have in Christ.

Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you that as we come to you, we run into your lap as Papa. We thank you for what you've revealed here. We're seeing the very brink of how you answered prayer. This prayer request of the Apostle Paul in Romans 15, we're seeing how Paul will indeed be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea. And we're also seeing the setup for the revelation of our heavenly blessings, seating, and citizenship. Oh, what marvelous and wonderful things, the unfathomable riches that we have in Christ. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.