The Lord Sends Paul to Rome

Over the years, several commentators have found it odd that Paul would so readily proclaim himself a Pharisee and that the Pharisees would jump to his defense during his trial in Jerusalem (Acts 22:30–23:5). After all, in the New Testament we often read of how the Pharisees opposed Jesus and the early Christians. We should understand, however, that the Bible does not present the Pharisees in an absolutely negative light. It does rebuke the tendency of many Pharisees to give their extrabiblical traditions the same or greater weight as the Scriptures (e.g., Mark 7:1–23). At the same time, it highlights some Pharisees, such as Nicodemus, who sought truly to learn from Jesus and not to oppose Him (John 3:1–15; 19:38–42). Furthermore, of all the Jewish groups in the first century, the Pharisees’ theology aligned with Jesus’ theology the most. They shared with our Savior, for instance, belief in the resurrection of the dead and in angels and a commitment to using the entire Old Testament as a source of doctrine. It is true that Judaism in its modern form grew out of the group of Pharisees who never believed in Jesus, but that should not make us exaggerate the differences between the Pharisees and Jesus before the split between Judaism and Christianity after AD 70.

In light of all that, it is not too surprising that Paul, whose preconversion Pharisaic theology was so similar to Jesus’ own, would become perhaps Christianity’s greatest ambassador. Still, Paul was only a man, suffering every weakness that the rest of us must endure also. Before his arrest in Jerusalem, the Apostle was intent on reaching Rome to preach the gospel (Acts 19:21; Rom. 1:8–15; 15:22–24). The uproar in Jerusalem over his going to the temple and his subsequent arrest may have shaken Paul’s confidence that he would make it to Rome. He needed encouragement that he would finally get to the capital city of the empire, and Jesus gave it to him, as we see in Acts 23:11. While Paul was imprisoned in the barracks in Jerusalem, our Savior appeared to him to strengthen him with the word that he would indeed testify of Christ in Rome. Dr. R.C. Sproul comments, “If anybody had ever been constant in ministry from the day he was called, it was Paul; yet Jesus had to come to him personally and shore him up.” If Paul needed encouragement, we should not be surprised when we need it as well.