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Acts 22:24-29  PAULS ROMAN CITIZENSHIP

Introduction

	In this text we learn about Paul being a Roman citizen and how this 
citizenship helped Paul out of a jam.  

I.  A brief review

	While the Apostle Paul was in the Jewish temple at Jerusalem he had been 
falsely accused of speaking against the Jewish people, against the Law of Moses 
and against the Jewish temple.  He had been further accused of bringing Gentiles 
into the Jewish temple.  That is, he was accused of bringing them into the 
Hebrew courtyard of the temple.  Gentiles who had become proselyte Jews could 
enter into a special courtyard which was provided for Gentiles at the temple, 
but under no circumstance were they to enter into the Hebrew courtyard.  Paul 
had not only been falsely accused but he had been mobbed and drug out of the 
temple courtyard where the mob attempted to beat him to death.  
	The Roman army which was stationed in a barracks building adjoining the 
temple wall rushed to his aid and forcibly took Paul away from the mob and 
bodily carried him up the stairs which led to their barracks building.  At the 
top of the stairs he had been permitted to speak to the mob below.  The mob of 
angry Jews had listened intently as he told them about his persecution of 
Christians.  They had listened as he told them about his conversion to 
Christianity and about his baptism.  But when he told them about Jesus sending 
him to preach to Gentiles they became wild and shouted out to the soldiers 
demanded that Paul be taken away and put to death.  

II.  Orders for Paul to be scourged  
	
	V. 24, “The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and 
bade that he should be examined by scourging ;that he might know wherefore they 
cried so against him.  .  Luke says that they tied him with thongs, that is, 
with leather thongs.  Paul was brought into the castle, which was the barracks 
of the Roman army.  The chief captain ordered that Paul should be scourged.  
That is, he was to be beaten with a whip or perhaps a rod.
	The purpose the scourging was not to be done to punish him for any wrong 
doing. The purpose of the scourging was to interrogate the prisoner.  The chief 
captain must have assumed him to be guilty of some dreadful crime, judging by 
the anger of the mob who were beating him shouting out that he was not worthy to 
live.  But the chief captain did not know what his prisoner was charged with 
doing.  He had earlier tried to find out from the mob of people, but some of 
them had said one thing and others said something else entirely.  He thought it 
highly unlikely that his prisoner would tell him the truth if he simply asked 
him what he had done.  So he thought that he would find out what he had done by 
beating the truth out of him.  
	A centurion took some soldiers and proceeded to carry out the orders of 
the chief captain.  Paul was taken out of the chains that had been put on him 
when the soldiers took him from the mob. 
  	V. 25, “And as they bound him with thongs...”  They did not intend for him 
to pull loose.  Luke does not say so, but we can be sure that they tied him in 
such a way that his arms were extended upward and forward so that his back and 
shoulders were bent forward stretching the skin tightly making it easier for the 
whip or rod to cut the skin with each blow.  

III.  Paul’s question to the centurion

	Paul waited until he was tied and the scourging was about to get under way 
when he spoke to the centurion who was in charge and asked him a question.  With 
that question, he dropped a bombshell.  (V. 25), “...Paul said unto the 
centurion that stood by, Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, 
and uncondemned?”  Paul was not asking for information.  He already knew that it 
was unlawful to put a Roman citizen through the torturous experience of 
scourging prior to him being tried and found guilty by a court.  Paul not only 
had not been found guilty by a court, but he had actually never even been 
charged with a crime.  That is what the scourging was all about.  The chief 
captain wanted to find out what he was thought to be guilty of.     
	V. 26, “When the centurion heard [that], he went and told the chief 
captain...”  You will notice that Luke just very calmly said that the centurion 
went and told the chief captain.  He could have said that when he heard that 
Paul was a Roman citizen he panicked.  He must have practically run to the chief 
centurion. It just about scared the daylights out of him.  It was not only 
unlawful for Paul to be scourged, but it was unlawful for him to chained or tied 
with thongs.  He and his chief captain were already guilty of enough to put them 
in grave danger from the Roman government, but they were on the verge of doing 
much worse.  They were about to scourge a man who was a Roman citizen.  
	This really put the centurion in a bind.  He could not immediately turn 
Paul loose because he had tied Paul upon the orders of his chief captain.  He 
could not even call off the scourging without disobeying a direct order from his 
superior.  Luke says that he went and told his captain.  I think that was huge 
understatement.  I think he practically ran at break-neck speed to get to his 
captain and give him the news.  
	When he got to the chief captain he did not mince words.  (V. 26), 
“...saying, Take heed what thou doest: for this man is a Roman.”  This news 
which had so terrified the centurion, now just as much terrified the chief 
captain.  Down in verse 29 Luke says that the chief captain was also afraid.  
His rank in the Roman army would not spare him if the higher Roman authorities 
every got word that he had bound and scourged a Roman citizen.  

IV.  Roman citizenship highly valued

	Roman citizenship was highly valued at that time.  It was valued far above 
citizenship in any other nation in the world.  Rome ruled the whole known world 
at that time.  Holding citizenship in the nation of Rome was one of the highest 
of all earthly honors.  
	In addition to the honor involved in being a Roman citizen, it was just 
downright dangerous for anyone to harm a Roman citizen who had not been charged 
and found guilty of a crime.  The Roman senate had passed a law making it 
illegal for any Roman citizen to be tied unless it had already been proven in 
court that he was guilty of a serious crime.  It was illegal for any Roman 
citizen to be beaten unless it had already been proven in court that he was 
guilty of a serious crime.  The high rank of he centurion and the high rank of 
the chief captain in the Roman army would be no protection for them if they were 
found guilty of mistreating a Roman citizen.  Every citizen of Rome was under 
special protection by the Roman government.  
	So just as the centurion did not waste time in coming to the chief 
captain, even so the chief captain did not waste time going to Paul to find out 
if her were really a Roman citizen.  V. 27, “Then the chief captain came, and 
said unto him, Tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, Yea.”  When he inquired if 
Paul was a Roman citizen, Paul affirmed that he was.  
	It seems that the chief captain at least temporarily accepted the word of 
Paul.  If he should choose to do so, he could request a search in the 
governmental files and he could find out for sure about this prisoner.  But at 
least for the meanwhile, he would treat this prisoner as if he believed him to 
be telling the truth.  He could not afford to do otherwise.  It would be fatal 
to assume that he was lying and mistreat him and later it turned out that Paul 
was telling the truth.  
	The great value which men in that day placed on Roman citizenship can be 
seen in the chief captain’s response to Paul.  V. 28, “And the chief captain 
answered, With a great sum obtained I this freedom...”  The chief captain, 
himself, was also a Roman citizen.  He had obtained his Roman citizenship at a 
very high cost to himself.  He had but his citizenship with a huge sum of money.  
The Roman senate used this means to put money in the Roman treasury.  Many a 
person paid through the nose in order to get their Roman citizenship.  They 
thought it well worth the price.  They were happy to be Roman citizens at any 
cost.  
	Paul’s response was short and to the point.  (V. 28), “... And Paul said, 
But I was [free] born.”  It was a privilege and an honor to pay the high price 
and become a Roman citizen as the chief captain had done, but it was an even 
greater privilege of being having such citizenship from the moment he was born.  
Paul had an even greater honor than the chief captain had --- and it did not 
cost him, as we would say, “one red cent.”  .  That Roman officer must have 
envied Paul.  He would loved to have been born a Roman citizen.   
	V. 29, “Then straightway they departed from him which should have examined 
him: and the chief captain also was afraid, after he knew that he was a Roman, 
and because he had bound him.”  By having his citizenship in Rome, Paul avoided 
the terrible suffering of being scourged by Roman soldiers.  He must have been 
very happy to be a Roman citizen.  

V.  A citizenship which is even more to be desired
  
	In Paul’s letter to the church at Philippi he spoke of holding citizenship 
in heaven.  Philippians 3:20, “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence 
also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  The King James 
translators have translated the particular Greek word found in this verse as 
“conversation.”  But most  language scholars of our day say that a better 
translation of this particular Greek word would be “citizenship.”  So Paul spoke 
of himself and all other Christians as holding citizenship in heaven.  
	This is the best citizenship of all.  It was better that being a citizen 
of the city of Tarsus where Paul was born.  It was better than being a citizen 
of Rome.   Holding citizenship in Rome spared Rome from having to suffer a cruel 
beating from the Roman soldier, but holding citizenship in heaven spared him 
from suffering the everlasting agonies of hell.  Holding citizenship in Rome 
brought him many privileges and honors, but holding citizenship in heaven had 
brought him the privilege of spending eternity in heaven and will in heaven 
continue to bring him greater honors than any man ever had in this world that we 
live in.  So far as I know, Paul’s citizenship in Rome never brought him any 
riches in this world.  But holding citizenship in heaven will bring him great 
riches in heaven.  It will bring him far greater riches than any of us are 
capable of imagining at this present time.  I am sure they will be far greater 
than Paul ever imagined.  
	What does it cost to become a citizen of heaven?  The chief captain said 
of his Roman citizenship that it cost him a huge sum of money.  But citizenship 
in heaven costs so much that none of us could ever pay it.  It cost the shedding 
of innocent blood.  Our blood could be shed, but it would not be innocent blood.  
Only Jesus Christ could pay the price with innocent blood ---- and He did!  He 
died on the Cross of Calvary to pay the price for our citizenship in heaven.  It 
does not cost us “one red cent.”  Jesus paid it all.  Those of us who hold our 
citizenship in heave must say, “Jesus paid it all.  All to Him I owe.”  
	How can a human being, born a sinful body and in a sinful world gain 
citizenship in heaven?  Let me say that as much as I treasure my citizenship in 
the Unites States of America, being born in America does not give one 
citizenship in heaven.  Being born in a certain nationality such as being an 
Englishman, Frenchman, German or whatever, does not give one citizenship in 
heaven.
	Being born even in a certain earthly family will not get citizenship in 
heaven.  For instance being born in a Christian family will not get citizenship 
for the children.  Being born in a Hebrew family will not get citizenship in 
heaven for the children.  Being born in an Islamic family will not get 
citizenship in heaven for the children in that family.  
	No amount of good works can earn citizenship in heaven.  Many people in 
the Christian world teach their children that if they will live good and do 
right they will earn a right to go to heaven, but that is not so.  The Bible 
declares in positive terms that it is not of works lest any man should boast, 
Eph. 2:9.  Certain terrorists have taught their children and their followers 
that if they will give their life in killing their enemies that this will 
guarantee them citizenship in paradise (heaven).  This simply is not so.  
	The only way for any person to gain citizenship in heaven and to spend 
eternity in the Paradise of God is to repent of his sin and trust Jesus Christ 
to keep him out of hell and carry him to heaven.