A Fallen Response to God’s Plan Pt. 2.
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Scripture
Father God, we thank You for Who You are. A great Big God who sees each and every one of us here and cares deeply about us. We ask this day, as we are continuing in this time of worship to You, reading Your Word and hearing Your Word, that You refine us with it. Mold us, make us, shape us, rearrange us so that we can more like You, and more made into the image of Christ. Help us be a people who love You and love others so much, that we are moved into action by whatever it is You are going to show us about Yourself today and what that means in our lives. Help us do this, because all to often our selfish and sinless flesh war against our will to follow Yours. As we are doing this, and as we are coming into Your Word today, we ask that You take away any distraction that we may have, and make it go as far away as it possible can, because we want to see and we want to know You better. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.
27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd, and seized him, 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place. What’s more, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.30 The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.
31 As they were trying to kill him, word went up to the commander of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in chaos. 32 Taking along soldiers and centurions, he immediately ran down to them. Seeing the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the commander approached, took him into custody, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing and some another. Since he was not able to get reliable information because of the uproar, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul got to the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, 36 for the mass of people followed, yelling, “Get rid of him!”
37 As he was about to be brought into the barracks, Paul said to the commander, “Am I allowed to say something to you?”He replied, “You know how to speak Greek? 38 Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt some time ago and led four thousand men of the Assassins into the wilderness?”39 Paul said, “I am a Jewish man from Tarsus of Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Now I ask you, let me speak to the people.”40 After he had given permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. When there was a great hush, he addressed them in Aramaic:
Context
In last week’s text, Paul and company finally arrived in Jerusalem and visited the church there, led by James (the half brother of Jesus) and the other elders. Here, they gave their benevolence offering from the gentile churches to the suffering church in Jerusalem. Also, they gave a missionary report of all the great things that had happened on this third missionary Journey of Pauls, with accounts of churches were planted, many came to Christ, and in fact in whole region that had never even heard about Jesus before, now everyone their had heard about Him and His gospel and had the opportunity to respond to God’s call. This was a big deal, and this missionary journey was no small feat, it was a big one, lasting several years. All of those listening had great joy at this report, but their was one matter to attend to.
This was that despite all this good, the evil in man’s heart still tried to find fault in Paul. So much so, that he was in danger from the Jews in Jerusalem and that the false reports about him were a huge stumbling block for many Jewish converts to the Christian faith. So, in the spirit of keeping the peace in the tender box that was the city of Jerusalem, James and the elders had a plan to show everyone that Paul was still a committed and worthy Jew (remember at the time the Christians largely saw themselves as Jews, just that they had found their savior, their messiah). Paul agreed to this plan as it was a plan for peace and more opportunity to gospel sharing and entered a nazarite vow and paid the temple fee for others that were.
While Paul was certainly within his right to refuse to do this, he knew that what was expected of him, not just as a major leader in the church, but as a Christian was different from everyone else. He knew that while this plan was a good one with a good spirit, it didn’t have a 100% chance of success, but it was good enough and with the right intent to proceed. He knew, that his actions and his respect and love for others were a representation of Jesus and His love for people. This is something you, believer, have to keep in mind. Is that no matter what you are doing, no matter where you are, and no matter who to or with, the way you conduct yourself is a representation of Jesus, as you are a child of God. So, you must know and remember as you make decisions in any kind of way, weather it be to do something, say something, or even think something that What is expected of you as a Christian is different from non-believers. Meaning, you have a higher expectation to take the high road when others do not.
From the text, I want you to see and do these actions when you have a fallen response to God’s plan from people, even to the point of harming you.
Message
The first action you must do when others try to harm you is to: Seek Peace 27-30
27 When the seven days were nearly over, some Jews from the province of Asia saw him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd, and seized him, 28 shouting, “Fellow Israelites, help! This is the man who teaches everyone everywhere against our people, our law, and this place. What’s more, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.” 29 For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple.30 The whole city was stirred up, and the people rushed together. They seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and at once the gates were shut.
When the days of purification for Paul and 4 under the vow were almost over, something happened. Some of the Jews from Asia, and if you will remember, the area in the province called Asia that Paul spent the most time in was Ephesus, saw Paul and seized him. They remembered that he was hated by the Jews their, perhaps they were even some of the trouble makers that Paul had encountered before. They grabbed Paul, and cried out for help from others, claiming that Paul was a bad person who taught against everything they as Jews held near and dear. They even made a big scene out of something that wasn’t true. They claimed that Paul had led Trophimus into the temple illegally, as they had saw him the previous day with Paul, and if Paul was going into the temple, and since every time before we saw Paul we also saw Trophimus nearby, then it stands for them to reason this way, yet it was an untrue and unfounded charge. This through a match into the kindling box that was the town, and a mob formed, seized Paul, and took him out of the temple and shut the temple doors. Remember, this happened while Paul was at the temple for the sake of keeping peace and not having things get out of control. Yet, because of fallen people’s response to God’s plan of salvation, things still went wild.
In our world, Peace has not been very commonly held world wide. In fact, in 1988 Moody Bible institute wrote that at that point, over the past 4,000 years, 286 of those years, only around 8% had known peace. Well, I imagine it’s lower now, as everyone here well knows our nation alone has been in some kind of conflict almost every year since 1988. Peace, is not a common thing on our planet, because naturally without Christ, mankind is not a being capable for real and lasting peace for very long. I’m sure some of in this room, in the last few week’s or you know will soon come, will probably have brushes and rubs with your own family members, as you both plan and attend family holiday events.
I hope for you, of course that this doesn’t happen. Though i’m sure it will as it has already for our family. None the less, what we need to be more concerned about is not that a rub or brush will happen, it’s inevitable, but what you believer must be more concerned about is how you and those in your immediate household respond to them. Yes, you may have every worldly right and justification to say something smart alecky and hurtful, or be passive aggressive, or as the kids say, “clap back.” It may make sense to withhold your presence from that person to intentionally wound them. But, that is not what is expected of you believer. You are called to be a breath of fresh air in these situations, to be a calm head who seeks peace, perhaps even apologizing first when it makes no earthly sense for you to, because as a mature child of God, the expectation for you is that you would make a strong move towards harmony and peace.What is expected of you as a Christian is different from non-believers. So, don’t have unrealistic expectations for people who do not know the prince of peace and have high expectations for yourself who does. Seek peace, even in the face of a fallen response to God’s plan.
Another action you must do when others try to harm you is: Don’t return evil 31-36
31 As they were trying to kill him, word went up to the commander of the regiment that all Jerusalem was in chaos. 32 Taking along soldiers and centurions, he immediately ran down to them. Seeing the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. 33 Then the commander approached, took him into custody, and ordered him to be bound with two chains. He asked who he was and what he had done. 34 Some in the crowd were shouting one thing and some another. Since he was not able to get reliable information because of the uproar, he ordered him to be taken into the barracks. 35 When Paul got to the steps, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the crowd, 36 for the mass of people followed, yelling, “Get rid of him!”
While the crowd was trying to bring great harm to Paul, even to the point of killing him, the commander of the Roman legion caught word of the riot happening. So, he took men and officers with him and went to the source of the commotion. The sight of the soldiers caused everyone to stop. Then, the commander took Paul into custody and tried to investigate what had happened. Needless to say, the mob was in too much confusion to get any kind of good answer out of them. Notice too, how Paul’s original accusers are no longer mentioned, they were gone. This implies that they realized they had nothing to stand on, and after seeing all the confusion and violence they fled. So, not being able to get a good answer, the commander had Paul taken to the barracks so that he could investigate more thoroughly. Along the way, the crowd was still very very violent. So much so, that now the armed soldiers were not enough to protect Paul well or hold the crowd at bay. From this description, of their being centurions (who were commanders of 100 men), we can know that there were at least 200 soldiers, 2 officers, and the town's commander. So, those men could not protect Paul, so they had to carry Paul for his own protection.
Paul here, even though it wasn’t easy to see in the situation, until you step back and take a look, put on a great example of what we are supposed to do in these situations. This example almost seems crazy, but it’s the exact same one that Jesus set when he was in a similar situation. Nowhere, do we see an account of Paul fighting back or trying to defend himself, returning evil with more hate and evil, though humanly speaking he was within his right to.
When reading this passage, our minds go back to Jesus’ being arrested by a crowd and then handed over to the gentiles. Never, even during his arrest, did Jesus do so much as even ball up His fists at them. While Peter himself, with a love for Christ but lack of true understanding in that moment, struck another with his sword. Did Christ condone this, nope. He condemned Peter for this action. Did Christ hate these people and act out as his flesh nature would have wanted Him to? No, He understood that the world was confused and blinded because of their sin. And despite the evil that they were willing and trying to bring upon Him, he did not fight it. He knew, as we know, that Jesus is the King of everything. That no matter what may happen to your body and what evils may happen to the world, God is still on the throne and He in the end will win over it all. Believer, when whoever it is trying to harm you is trying to push your buttons. Don’t fall for it. It’s a trap meant to make you lose legitimacy of your witness and make our God seem small to everyone watching. Instead, keep your mind on Christ and His example and remember that What is expected of you as a Christian is different from non-believers. So, do not repay evil with more evil as the non-believers do.
The next you must do when others try to harm you is to Share the truth 37-40
37 As he was about to be brought into the barracks, Paul said to the commander, “Am I allowed to say something to you?”He replied, “You know how to speak Greek? 38 Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt some time ago and led four thousand men of the Assassins into the wilderness?”39 Paul said, “I am a Jewish man from Tarsus of Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Now I ask you, let me speak to the people.”40 After he had given permission, Paul stood on the steps and motioned with his hand to the people. When there was a great hush, he addressed them in Aramaic:
While about to be inside the barracks, Paul asks the commander if he was allowed to ask him a question, that is, can I address the crowd? Needless to say, this is not what the commander was expecting. First of all, he was surprised that he could speak greek (Koine Greek was the common language of the time, and what most Romans would speak). Second of all, he thought Paul was a local known criminal, specifically a rebellion leader who took some four thousand men into the wilderness to hide after their asasination attempts were thwarted. Paul of course, was not this man, and told the commander who he was, a Jew from an important city, not like this Egyptian who came from an unknown city, no Paul was showing that he was quite the opposite than the commander had supposed. This being the case, the commander allowed him to speak, naturally because he was still trying to figure out was going on, and figured Paul’s words to the crowd would be useful for his investigation. Paul then motioned to the Jewish crowd for silence, which they did because Paul addressed them in their native tongue, which would have been surprising from him (as they supposed he was anti Isrealite).
What was Paul about to do? Well, you probably know, he was going to do exactly what he always would any time he had an audience, he was going to tell them about Jesus and the truth that he is the messiah. Now, we will get more into his speech at the new year, but for now know, that even in the face of this crowd trying to murder Paul, he saw his life of little worth, but sharing the gospel with them to be of huge worth.
As I had shared with you before, this reminds me such of what happened with Stephen the first Christian Martyr, the first person to ever die for his faith in Jesus. Once again, how interesting is it, that this is the same town, Jerusalem, where Paul did his evil deeds to someone who would die for Christ, now Paul is prepared to die for Christ himself. Sharing the truth about the savior Jesus, was of the upmost importance for these two saints, even in the face of a brutal death. While thinking about their examples, I am often saddened how my personal witness would compare. Yes, it’s all well and easy for us right now in most situations. But how different would it be if someone was trying to physically harm you and you were about to tell them exactly what they didn’t want to hear. I reflect on this because What is expected of you as a Christian is different from non-believers. So, how about it? Are you, am I truly ready to share Jesus with others, to tell the truth, even in the face of a fallen reaction to God’s plan? Pray with me that you and I are, you never know if you will be asked to.
Conclusion
Beloved, their is a proverb I would like for you to read this week. It is Proverb 17. Now a proverb, is a collection of wisdom and this one has many small wise thoughts. As you look at this proverb, you will see these either directly or related issues to our main points today which were, seek peace, don’t return evil, and share the truth when you are confronted to a fallen response to God’s plan. As this week, many of you will deal these situations as you go into the world and your family for the holiday season, I urge you to read, consider, and apply the wisdom in this proverb and the example that Paul and Jesus shared with us when we face difficult situations because of your faith, because more is expected of you as a child of God.
With all of that being said, I would be remised if I didn’t share the Gospel (or the Good News) of Jesus Christ with you today, for the benefit of both believer and non-believer in the room. This begins all the way back at the beginning, God created everything, and he created all things good. He gave His most treasured creation (us, mankind) the ability of free will, the ability to choose Him or rebellion. Man was deceived by Satan and desired to be like God and sinned (or rebelled against God). This brought the curse of sin and death into the world and it remains with us to this day; which separates us from God. God though, loved His creation (mankind) so much that He worked through history to redeem all mankind that would turn to Him from sin so that we can experience a full and perfect relationship with Him again. This was through the perfect and final sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the pay for sins. Accepting this free gift from God, makes you new and forgiven. All you have to do accept this free gift by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus and you will get to experience the good side of God’s justice forever. So, now that you know this, you can no longer plead ignorance. I invite and urge you to respond today non-believer and apply this to every part of your life believers in the audience today.
With that, Let’s conclude. Brothers and Sisters, I love you all. During our last song together, if you need prayer, or want to talk more about Jesus, or have something you want to talk about, I’ll be here, don’t be afraid to come on down. Let’s pray. Father God, we thank You for who You are and what You are doing to us here in this place. May whatever it is that You are doing in each of heart here, continue as we leave go out into the world this week. Change us, mold us, make us, re-arrange us, that we can be both better lovers of You and better showers of You. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen.
