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SEEKING JUSTICE WITHOUT REVENGE
(Acts 16:35-40)
January 29, 2023
Read Acts 16:35-40 - Most of us know of Jesus' command to love enemies and pray for our persecutors (Mt 5:44).
That's hard given our desire for vindication.
Augustine prayed, "O Lord, deliver me from this lust of always vindicating myself."
That is a genuine kingdom prayer that we all need.
But is it ever right to defend our rights against evil?
The answer is Yes.
It's a question of motive.
Three questions will tell.
Am I doing this in defense of myself or in defense of the truth?
Am I defending my rights or the rights of others?
Is there revenge in my heart or genuine concern for my persecutor?
If we can answer those three questions selflessly, the door is open.
Paul's actions here help guide us in how to counter evil in a God-glorifying manner.
I. Covert Release
Paul had cast a demon out of a little slave girl who was making a fortune for her owners by her fortune-telling.
The owners seek revenge by stirring up a mob against Paul and Silas.
The magistrates, with no pretense of a fair trial, stripped them, beat them and threw them into the dungeon of a jail.
An earthquake miraculously opens the jail causing the jailer to start to kill himself, knowing his life was forfeit for losing his prisoners.
But all the prisoners remained, Paul got to share the gospel of JC and the jailer and his family came to faith in Christ.
It was an incredible night from start to finish.
Next morning there is a sudden reversal at the courthouse: 35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the police, saying, "Let those men go."
Why?
Some suggest they decided the beating and jail time was sufficient punishment.
But nothing in the context indicates they planned a morning release.
So what's up?
I think the earthquake shook them up.
They'd caved to the mob.
The trial was unjust.
Now they just want the whole thing to go away.
The Romans expect them to keep peace.
They hope to do that by a covert release of P&S.
Get them out of town til the dust settles.
It's a cover-up.
Make it go away.
Covering up - a very human reaction to sin, isn't it?
We've all been there.
When Adam and Eve sinned - cover up.
When David sinned with Bathsheba and she got pregnant, did he repent?
No - cover up.
We're all cover-uppers!
I arrived in Venezuela late one night on business only to find a long line at immigration.
I had a pass to get thru quickly - but not this night.
After about an hour a great noise erupted on the other side of the wall in baggage claim.
An entourage of police emerged leading a man in handcuffs.
He wore a General's uniform, protesting loudly.
It was a threatening.
He was trying to leave the country with a bag full of drug money.
The dogs sniffed him out.
The bag was not sufficient cover for his crime.
Cover-ups seldom work.
But we keep trying.
Ever since the fall.
Rather than living openly before God and others, we struggle to limit the flow of information about ourselves bc nothing is more unthinkable than being unable to control what people know about us.
Murray Brett in Growing Up in Grace, writes, "Within every human heart is a deep sense of need to cover.
For another person to have complete access to what we are thinking, feeling, and doing is unbearable."
Truth is, the desire to cover is a gift of God.
Sin does need to be covered.
But not by us.
We can't hide from God.
Only the blood of Jesus will do.
This was the lesson of the Day of Atonement.
The goat's blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat (capor -- cover) to cover the sin of the people.
But it took the death of Christ to make final cover!
What we can never cover on our own, He has covered for us.
In confessing his sin, David wrote, Psa 32:1: "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3) For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away thru my groaning all day long. . . .
5)I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin."
God could forgive bc David's greater Son, JC, would one day die to cover his sins, and those of all who believe in Him.
II.
Condemning Refusal
So, Paul is freed.
What a surprise to the jailer when he refused to go: 37 But Paul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, uncondemned, men who are Roman citizens, and have thrown us into prison; and do they now throw us out secretly?
No! Let them come themselves and take us out."
Is Paul seeking vindication?
No!
He needs to set the record straight for the sake of others.
So he first lists the wrongs done by the magistrates.
An unfair trial.
A public beating of Roman citizens.
Now they want to sweep it all under the carpet.
But these were shameful acts against innocent men.
Paul refers to it a year later in I Thess 2:2: having "suffered and been shamefully treated at Philippi."
It was unfair.
And P&S were Roman citizens.
They had rights that Paul now claims.
No had bothered to check that he and Silas are Roman citizens.
According to the lex Julia, a Roman citizen might not be beaten or bound by a magistrate - certainly not publicly without trial!
The citizen had only to say civis Romanus sum to be immune from such treatment.
Heavy penalties attached to those who violated these citizenship privileges.
Had word gotten back to Rome, these guys could have been removed from office, and Philippi might have lost its privileges as a Roman colony.
This was no small thing.
But Paul's aim is not revenge.
That would have made it a sin in God's eyes.
Had that been his purpose, he would have appealed to Rome.
But his purpose was different.
His motive was love.
He wanted to protect the new believers in Philippi - almost all commentators agree.
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