टीका वर्तमान में केवल अंग्रेज़ी में उपलब्ध है। हिन्दी अनुवाद प्रगति पर है।
Acts 23 — Be of Good Cheer, Paul; So Must Thou Bear Witness Also at Rome
Paul tells the council he has lived in all good conscience; Ananias the high priest commands him to be struck. Paul divides the council by raising the resurrection — the Pharisees side with him, the Sadducees against. The night following the Lord stands by him: Be of good cheer, Paul; for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. Forty Jews vow not to eat until they have killed him; Paul's sister's son discovers the plot. The chief captain sends him by night with two hundred soldiers to Felix at Caesarea.
“And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.”
— Acts 23:11
- v.1-11 Before the council; the Lord stands by
- v.12-22 The plot to ambush; the nephew
- v.23-35 Sent to Felix at Caesarea
The Lord stood by him. In the cell, after a long day of accusation, the risen Christ is present in person. The most encouraging visits often come on the worst nights.
So must thou bear witness also at Rome. The travel itinerary is set by Christ. Paul has wanted to see Rome (Romans 1:13); now he is told he will get there. The route, however, will be through chains, shipwreck, and snake-bite — the Lord's appointed road.
The plot is foiled by the unlikeliest agent — Paul's sister's son, who happens to be in the right place at the right time. God's providences often run through hidden corners of family and city.
The forty zealots took an oath against a man God had promised would see Rome (v.11). Either the men were going to be very hungry or they were going to break their oath; what they could not do was undo what Christ had said.
Verse 11 is the Lord's gentle interruption of a hard day. Paul had been struck, mocked, plotted against; that night the Lord came and told him the future would not be wasted. When you have endured a day where it feels the witness has gone nowhere, listen for the equivalent word — He has not finished with you. Your Rome is still ahead.
The chapter is Christ's personal pastoral care of His servant. He stands beside Paul in the dark and tells him the next assignment. The forty plotters and the Roman bureaucracy and the courts and the seas could not unmake that word. Acts 23 shows the Lord engineering the long arc of His apostle's journey, using a teenage nephew, a Roman tribune, a horse escort, and a governor — all to deliver Paul to where He had appointed.
Paul names the real issue. The trial was being framed as religious offense; he reframes it as the hope and resurrection of the dead — the very doctrine the Sadducees denied and the Pharisees affirmed.
A model of putting the right question at the center. When opposition tries to bury the gospel under procedural charges, name the actual point. The resurrection is the issue, then and now.