How to Have a Clear Conscience (Acts 23-24)

Welcome back to the podcast! Today, we continue our study of Acts with Acts 23-24, discussing how exactly to have a clear conscience! Be sure to rate this show if you enjoy it, God bless you!

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In Acts 23–24, we find the Apostle Paul standing trial before the Jewish Sanhedrin and later before the Roman governor Felix. Throughout these intense encounters, Paul boldly declares, "I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day" (Acts 23:1). His words and actions in these chapters offer insights into how to have a clear conscience before God.

• Q. How do you cultivate a clear conscience?
• I’m using “cultivate” on purpose. It’s like a tender plant that needs attention
• Ex: Trying to keep a plant alive or cultivate a garden
• In Greek philosophy, conscience (syneidēsis) was understood as an internal moral compass, a faculty of self-awareness and judgment regarding right and wrong. 
• This is the fundamental problem with the secular idea of conscience: who gets to decide what’s right and wrong? 
• Today’s Oxford defn: an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.
• Our definition of sin (Pursuit Lesson 4): Sin is going your own way, trusting and acting on your own opinions and feelings instead of on God’s truth. 
• Hebrew thought associated conscience more with the heart (lev), emphasizing moral responsibility in light of God’s law. 
• From The Meaning of “Heart” in Hebrew: the concept of the “heart” is best understood as the “inner person” – the seat of our mind (thoughts), emotions (feelings), and will (intentions).
• In the NT, we’ll see today: in light of Christ’s work on the cross and the gift of the HS, having a clear conscience is about submitting your whole self – thoughts, feelings, intentions – to the Way of Jesus. 

Before we get to Paul’s speech in Acts, let’s start with his first letter to Timothy

• This gives us good context for what we’ll be reading in Acts
• It also helps us to understand the value of a clear conscience
• It’s not just good for you, your inner life
• It’s also good for the people around you, it impacts your ability to love

1 Timothy 1:5 (NLT) 5 The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.

• The purpose = believers would be filled with love
• Ring a bell? Greatest commandment = LOVE
• Where that love comes from:
• a pure heart, 
• The whole NEW self – thoughts, feelings, intentions
• Already perfected in the court of heaven, not yet here on earth
• But the longer we’re in it, the more we can love. 
• a clear conscience, 
• A clear conscience frees you up to really love
• If you don’t believe you’re forgiven, you’ll never truly love
• a guilty conscience causes you to be isolated and alone
• How can you love in THAT place?
• and genuine faith
• In JESUS, which is the root of it all
• By faith we can have a clear conscience
• We believe Romans 8:1 (NLT) So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus

Now to the text in Acts:

Acts 23:1 (NLT) 1 Gazing intently at the high council, Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!”

• Talking to the Jewish ruling council called the Sanhedrin, same group involved in Jesus’ trial
• “Gazing intently” - A stare down! Paul looked these guys squarely in the eyes
• This is a sign of calm confidence, he knew who he was
• He wasn’t afraid of the examination, the accusations
• He was being falsely accused, not unlike Jesus. But he was not afraid.
• Q. Do you have calm confidence when accusations come?
• From someone else
• From your own thoughts

Step 1 toward a clear conscience: Put yourself on trial. 

• This may sound counterintuitive, but it’s helpful!
• Don’t be afraid to examine yourself. 
• A clear conscience is not afraid of examination.
• You may not be able to confidently “stare down” your accusers just yet
• But the more you learn the gospel, the more your confidence will grow
• You’ll learn that God is the ultimate judge, and he has made his verdict clear
• Not guilty!
• Rom 8:1 “There is no condemnation…” 
• Later in ministry it happened again, this time among the Corinthian Christians:
• 1 Corinthians 4:3-4 (NLT) 3 As for me, it matters very little how I might be evaluated by you or by any human authority. I don’t even trust my own judgment on this point. 4 My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide.

Back to Acts for our next insight:

Acts 23:1 (NLT) 1 Gazing intently at the high council, Paul began: “Brothers, I have always lived before God with a clear conscience!”

• “Brothers” - Paul used to be part of the elite!
• He knew he wasn’t beneath them, even though they thought he was
• Their thoughts and feelings said one thing
• His thoughts and feelings said another
• Who was right? Whichever aligned with Jesus!
• Now Paul surrounded himself with a different group
• Fishermen and tax collectors
• People who had walked with Jesus

Step 2 toward a clear conscience: Surround yourself with godly people. 

• There’s no substitute for this. 
• If you want to embrace the new YOU, stay rooted in the good news, you need a community of people who are committed to the same thing. 

The Book of Psalms opens with this concept…

Psalm 1:1-2 (ESV) 1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.

• Look at the progression: 
• Walk
• Walking suggests casual interaction, exposure, or initial influence.
• It refers to adopting the advice, values, or worldview of the ungodly.
• At this stage, the person may be merely listening to sinful ideas or flirting with temptation.
• Stand
• Standing implies a greater degree of association and lingering.
• Instead of just passing by ungodly influences, the individual is now pausing, considering, or even participating in sinful behaviors.
• This reflects a deeper acceptance of sinful ways, possibly even justifying them.
• Sit
• Sitting signifies settling down and becoming comfortable in sin.
• At this stage, the person is not just influenced but is actively engaging and identifying with scoffers (those who openly mock righteousness).
• This is the most entrenched stage—one has now embraced a sinful lifestyle and even ridicules those who pursue godliness.
• V1 is about what NOT TO DO. V2 is about what TO DO. 
• Do not hang with the wicked
• Motivational speaker Jim Rohn is famous for this quote: "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with."
• He stole that concept from the timeless wisdom of Psalms.
• Do delight in the law of the Lord
• Instead of being shaped by wicked influences, the blessed person finds joy and guidance in God’s Word.
• Rather than walking, standing, or sitting in sin, he is meditating on the truth, shaping his heart and mind according to God’s will.

Back to Acts for our final step:

Acts 24:14-16 (NLT) 14 “But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. 15 I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. 16 Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people.”

• (Pillar New Testament Commentary) In forensic terms, this is a breathtaking turn: after a series of emphatic denials, the accused is about to make a confession!

Step 3 toward a clear conscience: Admit that you follow the Way of Jesus. 

• Admit it to yourself every day. 
• It’s easy to forget it
• It’s easy to talk yourself out of it
• Jerry Bridges in The Discipline of Grace: "Preach the gospel to yourself every day."
• Admit it to others unapologetically
• Paul unapologetically admitted to his new way of life
• Even though Jesus was a convicted criminal
• Even though the high council wanted to convict Paul
• A clear conscience is the result of a submitted life, not a perfect life. This requires a lifestyle of confession and repentance. 

Hebrews 10:20-22 (NLT) 20 By his death, Jesus opened a new and life-giving way through the curtain into the Most Holy Place. 21 And since we have a great High Priest who rules over God’s house, 22 let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him. For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean, and our bodies have been washed with pure water.