Are we willing to speak up?

“There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. ‘We find nothing wrong with this man,’ they said. ‘What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?’ The 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.” (Acts 23:9-10 NIV)

As we read through the book of Acts I am constantly amazed at the violent reaction people had to hearing the good news of Jesus. My amazement stems from the apathy that those in our society have – they simply do not care. Yes, I’ve had names thrown at me as I’ve delivered advertising for a Bible course, but nothing that threatened my life. It seems that the one topic that will get some people upset is when we talk about Creation – and this comes from both those who are not Christians and sometimes those who are Christians. It seems for many the final word is not what God said but what science says.

One of the big controversies in first century Judaism was the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection, nor did they believe in angels or spirits; while the Pharisees believed all of these. Paul, when he was defending his teaching before the Sanhedrin, realised that about half were Sadducees and the other half Pharisees. He used this to his advantage by saying, "I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.”

That put the cat amongst the pigeons – the Pharisees began to defend him: “We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” That led to a violent clash within the highest court of the Jews as the Sadducees and Pharisees turned on each other – Paul had to be rescued by the Roman soldiers stationed near the temple.

Although we would not wish for anyone’s life to be put at risk, it would be useful to get some sort of reaction when we talk about Jesus. Perhaps in years past we saw more reaction when people cared what scripture said and even studied the Bible on their own.

Due to an active threat on Paul’s life, the Roman officials decided it was best to get Paul out of Jerusalem so he could be protected.

“So the soldiers, carrying out their orders, took Paul with them during the night and brought him as far as Antipatris. The next day they let the cavalry go on with him, while they returned to the barracks. When the cavalry arrived in Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and handed Paul over to him. The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning that he was from Cilicia, he said, ‘I will hear your case when your accusers get here.’ Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod’s palace.” (Acts 23:31-35)

There was still a problem because of the Jewish uproar and the Roman authorities didn’t know what to do with Paul. The governor, who at this time was Felix, needed to give a decision as to whether Paul was guilty or innocent. He kept Paul in custody in the palace in Caesarea and informed the Jews to send representatives so that the case against Paul could be heard.

At times it seems that Christians are reluctant to speak up about what we believe for fear of people not accepting us and our message. May we have the boldness of the Christians in the first century who were willing to do what they could to get people to hear the good news of Jesus and the hope that we have of being resurrected to eternal life with him.

Photo of Herod’s palace in Caesarea Maritima, Israel,  by Jon Galloway

Readings for next week: Acts 23-28