Following Christ in trial and difficulty.

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.

30 The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him[e] and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.23 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience to this day.” 2 The high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing next to him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You are sitting there judging me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law are you ordering me to be struck?”4 Those standing nearby said, “Do you dare revile God’s high priest?”5 “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest,” replied Paul. “For it is written, You must not speak evil of a ruler of your people.”[a] 6 When Paul realized that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part were Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am being judged because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead!” 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all.9 The shouting grew loud, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party got up and argued vehemently, “We find nothing evil in this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” [b]10 When the dispute became violent, the commander feared that Paul might be torn apart by them and ordered the troops to go down, take him away from them, and bring him into the barracks. 11 The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”

Context

You have probably already noticed a theme that continues through Paul’s return to Jerusalem. This of course is the idea of trials and hardships in the Christian’s life, even in his own life, the apostle who wrote over half of our New Testament.

In our previous texts, Paul was at the Temple to pay for his and others within the Christian church their, temple fee for their Nazarite vow. While their, some Jews from the province of Asia recognized him, and caused a rabbel and riot, making false claims against him. This angry crowd was so violent, that the local Roman military commander along with armed men went down to see what was causing the town to enter chaos. Their they discovered Paul being persecuted violently from the crowd, so they took him, trying to figure out what was going on. Not being able to, they carried him to the guard barracks, where they hoped to be able to investigate better, because of the noise and violence of the crowd. Just as they were about to walk into the barracks, Paul is allowed to address the crowd, where he tells them his testimony and the truth of Jesus.

They didn’t like this, and yelled for his death, so the guards carried him in. Trying to “punish an answer out of him.” The commander ordered that Paul be beaten into giving an answer of what was going on. Just before he was about to be beaten, Paul revealed to them that he was a Roman citizen, and was thus not allowed to be beaten without charges, a trial, and guilty verdict. So, the punishment was stopped, but the investigation continued. To understand what was going on, the Roman tribunal called in the Jewish authorities, and had them (in a sort of informal trial) meet so the Romans could understand what was going on, if Paul indeed needed to be punished, and get on with it. In today’s text, we see something we know to be true, but can forget it in the moment it is happening, so it bears repeating and remembering that, Christ has a purpose for your trials hardships and a way through it This is every bit as true for you as it was for Paul and all other Chrisitians throughout all of time. So, let's jump in and see this unfold where From the text, I want you to see these actions that Paul did/lived out and do the same yourself during your trials and hardships.

Message

The first action to do and live out during your hardships is to: Live in good Conscience 22:30-23:5

30 The next day, since he wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews, he released him[e] and instructed the chief priests and all the Sanhedrin to convene. He brought Paul down and placed him before them.23 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience to this day.” 2 The high priest Ananias ordered those who were standing next to him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! You are sitting there judging me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law are you ordering me to be struck?”4 Those standing nearby said, “Do you dare revile God’s high priest?”5 “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest,” replied Paul. “For it is written, You must not speak evil of a ruler of your people.”[a]

The next day, after the scourging incident, the Roman commander wanted to know why and what the accusations were against Paul. After all, if he was going to “do justice” here, he first had to make a charge against him. Now, while the Roman commander has no real or binding authority to order this to happen, he had the ruling order of the Jews, the sanhedrin and the chief priests come in and do a sort of impromptu trial. So everyone comes into this meeting, and Paul addresses the group, telling them that his life before God in all good conscience, always seeking to do what he thought to be the right thing at the time, and doing to the best of his abilities. Hearing this, the high priest Ananis ordered Paul to be struck in the mouth. Now, don’t let the importance of this pass you, there is a lot going on here.

First of all, during a gathering of the Sanhedrin no punishment was ever supposed to take place until after the trial and judgement was given. So, this strike in and of itself was a breaking of long standing and important Jewish law, they had an expectation of innocence until proven guilty as we do today. Secondly, history books have well documented the high priest Ananias, and what they remember about him is not good. This man was known to be exactly the opposite of what the high priest of God should have been. He was cruel, violent, power hungry, cunning, and traitorous. He shows his character here in this trial.

Paul then addresses him in a way that we wouldn’t expect, responding harshly, calling him a white washed wall who God was going to cut down. We know today that Paul was speaking prophetically here, as God would cut Ananias down because he would be assassinated by a group of Jewish Freedom fighters when Rome would destroy the city of Jerusalem. However, even though Paul had the right to speak out against this injustice, still showed his respect for the office of high priest, settling down when he was told who was addressing. Keep in mind, Paul had been gone for a long time, so it’s fair that 1 he wouldn’t know who the high priest was anymore, and 2 the impromptuness of the trial and where it was located probably did not allow the high priest to wear his garments of office and take a normal seat of authority. Paul shows us here, how he lived in good conscience. Even though he was being treated unfairly and illegally from Ananias, he remembered God’s word to not work against and speak against the rulers of the people. So, he backed off. He knew that His God, the God of justice would make this right someday, and he did.

The Bible commentator Wiersby says of our conscience that, “Conscience does not make the standards; it only applies the standards of the person, whether they are good or bad, right or wrong.” It is something that we all have, while it is hard to describe and in just a few moments I can only scratch the surface of it, but we might call it the internal thought and action filter that we each have.

Now, How a person informs their conscience is very very important. Charles and I were talking about this just the other day. There are all kinds of ways we can feed and inform our conscience. We can take in information and learn from philosophers, teachers, and structured learning, we can watch television or watch the news or youtube, your parents can instill it in you from giving rules and life lessons. Essentially, any information you consume or take in informs your conscience. So, then, you need to ask yourself, what informs your conscience? What are you taking in often informs your conscience, which eventually tells you how to think and what to do? Is it NBC? Fox News? CNN? What about Mr. Beast? What about your favorite social media influencer? Self help books and authors?

While all of those are not in and of themselves bad tools or entertainment, let me tell you of the person who should be informing your conscience WAAAAAYYYYY more than anyone else if you are a follower of Christ. Do you know who it is? I’ll give you a hint, He’s right here, right now. He is God the Holy Spirit, who indwells in you and often uses your conscience to work in and through you. So then, how do we as a believer let our conscience listen to Him more? Because He’s always speaking and working on you, the problem is not Him, but our own selective hearing. We can hear Him better by spending more time with God in our regular time with Him in: taking in God’s word, praying, worshiping God, and casting aside our sin. This will lead us eventually to living out our great commands to love God and love people, and our great commission to Go make disciples. Now, this will lead to difficulty and hardship in your life, but know that Christ has a purpose for your trials hardships and a way through it. So, Live in good Conscience during those trials and hardships. And, if in the meantime you're not hearing from God during them, then go back and spend more time with Him and listen, and I promise when you open your ears to His words you will hear him.

Let’s move on.

The Next action to do and live out during your hardships is to: Hope in the resurrection. 6-10

6 When Paul realized that one part of them were Sadducees and the other part were Pharisees, he cried out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am being judged because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead!” 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8 For the Sadducees say there is no resurrection, and neither angel nor spirit, but the Pharisees affirm them all.9 The shouting grew loud, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party got up and argued vehemently, “We find nothing evil in this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” [b]10 When the dispute became violent, the commander feared that Paul might be torn apart by them and ordered the troops to go down, take him away from them, and bring him into the barracks.

After this happened, notice what happened. While yes, this was a sort of clever move by Paul, I don’t want you to overemphasise on that or focus on it. Remember, Paul had just been struck by order of an unqualified high priest. While there, he also noticed something else that was sinister about the sanhedrin (the council of ruling elders). He noticed that the way this group was, was not like the typical people of Israel or even for that fact the priesthood. Not that most people were necessarily Pharisees, but with regards to the Sadducees, they tended to make up the most wealthy class of people in Israel, especially those that were willing to bend and reshape how they thought God was and His law it helped them increase their rank, status, and wealthy. Many commentators would call them “secular Jews.” These two factions had a strong and bitter disagreement about the resurrection. Paul knew that his faith was built upon the resurrection, as Christ is the first born of the resurrection , and so Paul stood up and claimed that this trial all came up to that idea, of resurrection. Both sides stood up and argued, with the Pharisees favoring Paul as he was a Pharisee by all accounts himself and his claim that belief in the resurrection is why he was on trial. The crowd of Israel's leading “Holy men” and elders became so violent that the Roman commander feared for Paul’s life and he and his troops brought him back to the barracks for safety.

This terrible and uncomfortable political situation and power struggle is something that we are all too familiar with today, with deep and heated divides in political parties, people groups, and even families. As you can see, the tension felt today is not new or unique, but has been and will be a constant with fallen mankind who prefers sin over the righteousness of Jesus. Why is this? Why do we prefer power, influence, resources, money, rank so highly? It is because mankind’s sin nature (which you and everyone else is born with) which leads us to desire these, because they are contrary to God’s will, law, and desire and for our lives.

At the end of the day, everything’s God’s, all the power, all the influence, all the resources, all the money, all the rank. Yet, in sin just like with Adam and Eve, we want to take some of that for ourselves for our own benefit. This of course is a sin, and as it corrupts us, having these can easily corrupt us as well and make us misuse it. Instead of desiring these sinful desires of our heart, instead, we should desire the greater things, especially the forgiveness of sin through Jesus’ Christ’s sacrifice on the cross in both our lives and everyone else around. Instead of hoping in wealth, power and influence, we should have hope in the resurrection. Hope in knowing that Jesus Himself rose from the grave, proving to us once and for all that He has all power and authority as the all powerful and might God, and hope in knowing that He has told us that our bodies to will one day no know decay, but a beautiful resurrection in which time we will get to dwell with Jesus in the joy of our God and wonder of beholding Him for all of eternity. Until that wonderful and joyful day, while you are on this side of eternity know that Christ has a purpose for your trials hardships and a way through it. So, hope with expectation during your hardships, because you, Christian, know that the resurrection is coming.

Another action to do and live out during your hardships is to: Have courage in Christ 11

11 The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”

It goes without saying, that this would have a time for hardship, sadness, and difficulty for Paul. While he knew of course yes, that he can and does trust God, he would have nonetheless been very disappointed and very discouraged because of what had just happened. I mean, just think about it, twice he had just summoned up the courage to stand before his own people, who should have heard his words and accepted Jesus as the Christ if they were truly faithful people, yet despite his best and bravest efforts, they did not and instead they wanted him to be harmed and dealt with violently.

This would have been a low point in Paul’s life and ministry. And anyone who ever has any kind of ministry will know low points if you are doing it correctly. In fact, you will find through just a quick google search that people who are ministers, church planters, or any other staff often deal with some kind of depression. Even the finest of them do. This is not just limited to people that receive a paycheck from a church body, know that. Every believer should be actively involved in ministry, and every believer will have at some point (or at many points) depression and sadness like Paul would have had in this low point. Now, while we don't know the depths of it, clearly Paul was here as well, as he needed something. What? He needed encouragement, which he received from Christ Himself. He told him to have courage, your bible may say “be of good cheer” or something similar. Why? Because this is going to work out for good, and you (Paul) are going to make it Rome.

Needing courage, and to be encouraged in Christ, something all believers must be intentional to do. On top of your daily devotion, it is also important to find and have times for personal sabbathing (resting in The Lord). This means, that yes, even if you have a fruitful and important ministry, that it is necessary for your human body to get a chance to breathe and relax, take a vacation, and even admit it when you are sick. Not doing so, will only build up a spirit of bitterness and drive you into the ground quicker. In fact, I can think of several people I know off the top of my head who did not do so, both in lay positions and as ministers who struggle with their faith, because they forgot that God rested himself, and gave us the command to rest and recoup as well, which helps us to have more courage and endure more in the long run. Doing so, also helps you keep your mind on the prize, Jesus, so have courage in Christ, knowing that He cannot fail, and He has given you a plan, rules, and power to see it through if you are a child of His.Christ has a purpose for your trials hardships and a way through it So serve Him well during those hardships and trials.

Conclusion

Beloved, you have heard these words today, that when you are experiencing trial and hardships, you are to follow Paul’s example. Here we saw him even despite the difficulty live in good conscience, hope in the resurrection, and receive courage and encouragement from Christ. So, I want us all to take a moment, either think about or write it down, whichever works best for you, and think about a recent struggle or one you are going through right now, and think/meditate on how you can apply Paul’s example to your life in that this week, and I will close in prayer, asking God to help us with this, let’s take a moment in silence and do that.

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.