Acts 23:1-10<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin\u00a0and said, \u201cMy brothers,\u00a0I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience\u00a0to this day.\u201d\u00a02\u00a0At this the high priest Ananias\u00a0ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.\u00a03\u00a0Then Paul said to him, \u201cGod will strike you, you whitewashed wall!\u00a0You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!\u201d\u00a0 4\u00a0Those who were standing near Paul said, \u201cHow dare you insult God\u2019s high priest!\u201d\u00a0 5\u00a0Paul replied, \u201cBrothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: \u2018Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 6\u00a0Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees\u00a0and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, \u201cMy brothers,\u00a0I am a Pharisee,\u00a0descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.\u201d\u00a07\u00a0When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.\u00a08\u00a0(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection,\u00a0and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)\u00a0 9\u00a0There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees\u00a0stood up and argued vigorously. \u201cWe find nothing wrong with this man,\u201d\u00a0they said. \u201cWhat if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?\u201d\u00a010\u00a0The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cThen Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees\u00a0and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, \u201cMy brothers,\u00a0I am a Pharisee,\u00a0descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.\u201d\u00a07\u00a0When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.\u00a08\u00a0(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection,\u00a0and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.)<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Paul knew that he may at least may get some sympathy from the Pharisees as he was once a highly regarded one (Philippians 3:5<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0Seeing that the accusers were hardened against him, perhaps he was thinking of Julius Caesar\u2019s \u201cdivide and conquer\u201d strategy (Versus the Gauls)? The Pharisees and Sadducees were strongly opposed to each other\u2019s doctrine on the resurrection.\u00a0\u00a0Since the Sadducees were dug in and did not believe in resurrection (figuring this life is it, nothing afterward), perhaps they could be talked to on another day.\u00a0\u00a0However, the Pharisees did believe in resurrection and so may listen to reasoning about the resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Resurrection was constant and charged subject of debate between the two groups and immediately, as Paul likely surmised, the two began arguing over it.\u00a0\u00a0Furthermore, as Paul had hoped, there was a glimmer of hope that the Pharisees would stand with him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees\u00a0stood up and argued vigorously. \u201cWe find nothing wrong with this man,\u201d\u00a0they said. \u201cWhat if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?\u201d<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0As Paul had hoped, the Pharisees rallied to his side, at least so far as to say they should hear him out.\u00a0\u00a0Perhaps, they said, \u201ca spirit or an angel<\/i>\u201d had spoken to him?\u00a0\u00a0Indeed a spirit, in fact the Supreme Spirit God, had spoken to him.\u00a0\u00a0Paul must have been excited at the sliver of opportunity that they may listen to him if he could separate them from the Sadducees?\u00a0\u00a0However the divide over Paul\u2019s declaration that Jesus, the resurrected Lord, created not only a divide but a violent furor.\u00a0\u00a0Obviously there was pushing, shoving and some punches being thrown between the two groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Paul was likely being physically and violently pulled by both sides.\u00a0\u00a0The Sadducees to pull him among them to kill him and Pharisees to pull a fellow Pharisee back to among the safety of them.\u00a0\u00a0Family this was no polite disagreement, it was a violent brawl. The commander became afraid that Paul would be literally torn apart.\u00a0\u00a0The commander did not want to have to explain how he let the Jews who he had authority over were allowed to tear apart a Roman citizen, so he sent in the troops to remove Paul from the danger.<\/p>\n
Jesus said in\u00a0John 16:2-4a<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThey will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.\u00a03<\/a>They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.\u00a04<\/a>\u00a0I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them.<\/i>\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The time when the Jews, really the Jewish authorities, would cast Christians from their synagogues had come.\u00a0\u00a0The last days were the days since Jesus ascended to the right side of the Father.\u00a0\u00a0These authorities claimed that the Christians were blasphemous in their teaching the Jesus was God in the flesh, the very Son of God, who now, after being crucified, was alive and sitting on the right side of God the Father.\u00a0\u00a0And, if Jesus was not everything that He had claimed to be, it would have been blasphemous.\u00a0\u00a0They taught the common Jews to hate Christians by claiming that they opposed Judaism (though at first, all the Christians were Jews).<\/p>\n However, as we know, Jesus was everything He claimed to be, He is sitting at the right hand of the Father and He was the Son of God.\u00a0\u00a0He was God incarnate and He brought God\u2019s love, mercy and grace to all who would come.\u00a0\u00a0He came to save man and so that all could physically see the beauty of the love of God and personally witness it as Jesus brought the salvation that only God could bring.\u00a0\u00a0Only God is perfect so only He could die for the sins of man.\u00a0\u00a0If there was another way for man to be made right with God, then God would have provided that way.\u00a0\u00a0But there was no other way so Jesus came to die for us.\u00a0\u00a0And it is clear from the Word that even Moses and Elijah were not worthy of being The Savior, Jesus eternally stand while these great heroes of the faith have given way to Him (Matthew 17:1-8<\/b>). There is no other way to God the Father, there is no other way to Heaven (Acts 4:12<\/b>).\u00a0\u00a0That makes people angry when they hear it.\u00a0\u00a0In their delusion, or pride, or both, they want to create their own \u201cway\u201d or to cling to the error that their forefathers clung to.\u00a0\u00a0Some want to create their own religion or philosophy and they demand that God will accept them on their own terms and they assert that if He does not, then he and not them are evil.\u00a0\u00a0This is great foolishness and unless such people resent, they will never see Heaven but instead will forever dwell in the Lake of Fire with the great deceiver, with the one in whom pride was first found, the devil, and also with all the demons who followed him.\u00a0\u00a0For them that refuse Jesus the Lake of Fire is an eternal, no-way-out destination place of suffering beyond what man can currently imagine.\u00a0\u00a0But to all who love and serve the Lord, our eternal home is with God Almighty.\u00a0\u00a0Forever we shall live in His love, His peace, His joy and His rest.\u00a0\u00a0Not idleness, rest in the Spirit.\u00a0\u00a0Praise our God who loves us so very deeply and wants all to be saved, and that only through Jesus.\u00a0\u00a0Praise our God!<\/p>\n P<\/b><\/span>salm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God<\/i>.<\/p>\n Numbers 6:24-26<\/b>\u00a0\u201cThe\u00a0Lord\u00a0bless you and keep you; 25\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26\u00a0the\u00a0Lord\u00a0turn His face\u00a0toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Acts 23:1-10\u00a0–\u00a0Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin\u00a0and said, \u201cMy brothers,\u00a0I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience\u00a0to this day.\u201d\u00a02\u00a0At this the high priest Ananias\u00a0ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.\u00a03\u00a0Then Paul said to him, \u201cGod will strike you, you whitewashed wall!\u00a0You sit there to judge me according to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192],"tags":[82,100,101,94,1874,1871,17],"class_list":["post-2071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotion","tag-acts","tag-john","tag-matthew","tag-micah","tag-numbers","tag-philippians","tag-psalm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2072,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2071\/revisions\/2072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}