Acts 23

Then Paul, looking earnestly at the council said, men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day.

And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth.

Then Paul said to him, 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? Now watch this.

And those who stood by said, do you revile God's high priest? Then Paul said, 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.

Now that's interesting to me that Paul, Paul is here and he's being judged and here's the high priest in front of him and that Paul doesn't realize it's the high priest.

The reason why this is interesting, really several reasons.

One is that you remember back in early Acts when Paul was going around persecuting the church, he received letters from these religious leaders to go and to arrest Christians, even up in Damascus.

And he knew who these leaders were, and he's in this Jewish world.

It makes me wonder this.

Plus, he's right there, and it's not like it's on Zoom, like many of us have had meetings today.

Here's the person right in the same room as him.

It makes me wonder, though, this being toward the end of Paul's life.

Paul has been, by this time, you remember the list in 2 Corinthians 11, he's been beaten many times.

He's received 39 stripes minus one several times.

He has been stoned.

I mean, rocks hitting him in the head, shipwrecked.

This guy has been robbed.

He's had all kinds of things happen to him physically.

In fact, he said, if I remember right, to the Galatians, He said, you remember I had infirmity, he said, and I know that you would have even plucked your own eyes out and given them to me, which to me gives an indication that Paul, maybe because of all of the physical abuse that he had endured, had some problems with his eyes.

And so it makes you wonder if he's not here, but he's not able to see very clearly who that is on the other side of the room sitting in that seat and bringing judgment to him.

So at least that's...

I believe a possibility that's happening here because as soon as they said, do you revile God's high priest? Paul said, I did not know brethren that he was high priest for it is written, you shall not speak evil.

So he said, if I had known that was the high priest, I wouldn't have done it.

Paul is a Pharisee, a former Pharisee.