Acts 24:10-21 Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned to him to speak, answered… Note — I. THE CHRISTIANITY OF OLD JUDAISM. The apostle — 1. Worshipped the Jews' God. "So worship I the God of my fathers." He propounded no new Divinity. 2. Believed in the Jews' Scriptures. "In all things which are written in the law and in the prophets." He not only did not reject them; through Christ he saw them in a new and higher light. 3. Believed in the Jews' resurrection (ver. 15). The resurrection, which was dimly seen by the Hebrews, he saw in clear reality through the resurrection of Christ. Christianity is Judaism ripened into fruit, and brightened into noon. II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GREAT MAN. 1. He is not ashamed of an unpopular cause (ver. 14). All new sects have been heretics, seceders, schismatics. Thus Luther and Calvin were rank heretics in the eyes of Rome; the Puritans and Methodists in the eyes of the Episcopal Church. Thus every new offshoot is a sect, a heresy from the old stock. Providence permits all this refinement from age to age in order that the Church at last might be without spot or blemish. 2. His highest aim is moral rectitude (ver. 16). Note here — (1) The greatest power in man. "Conscience" is not so much a faculty, a law, or a function of the soul, as its very essence, the moral self. That which connects us with moral government, constitutes our responsibility, and originates our weal or our woe. As is a man's conscience, so is he. The New Testament attaches immense importance to conscience; no less than thirty times is it mentioned. Wherever he went Paul sought to commend himself to "every man's conscience in the sight of God."(2) The divinest condition of man. What is this? To have a conscience "void of offence," i.e., not striking against stumbling stones. It is formed from that verb in Psalm 91 (as quoted in our Lord's temptation), "In their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy toot against a stone." St. Paul desires to have a conscience free from collision with rocks impeding its course. The conscience, not the life only, must be kept void of offence. He would be able to say, "I know nothing by [against] myself." The two chief departments of this unstumbling conscience correspond to the two great divisions of human duty — "toward God and toward man." The apostle does not say he has gained this blessed condition, but it was his grand aim. When a man's conscience gets into this state, he has reached the true blessedness of his being. A good conscience is heaven. (3) The chief work of man — to get into this state. "Herein do I exercise myself" by methodical and systematic effort. The greatest work that a man has to do is with his moral self. Paul felt this; his outward battles were as nothing compared to those that he fought on the arena of his own soul. "So fight I as not beating the air." 3. He is frank in explanation of himself. The apostle now reverts to the purpose of his journey to Jerusalem, and to the charge as having come as a mover of sedition. (1) That his recent visit to the metropolis, after many years, was a benevolent one (ver. 17). (2) That he was found in the temple by certain Jews from Asia "purified," not gathering a multitude and creating a tumult, and that those Jews who found him there ought to have been present (vers. 18-21). (D. Thomas, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: |
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