When Things Are Out of Our Control

The Book of Acts - Part 81

Acts 23:6-35 (Read vs. 6-11)

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - May 3, 2015

BACKGROUND:

*Here in Acts 23, Paul was in Jerusalem, in spite of many warnings from the Holy Spirit not to go there. John Phillips gave this good explanation of why Paul was so determined to go:

-"Paul knew that he was in for a rough time in Jerusalem, because the Holy Spirit had told him so plainly. God gave added confirmation in place after place. Paul would be arrested and afflicted if he went to Jerusalem. He knew it in his innermost soul. He knew it from God. But he was determined to go.

*Paul had done much harm to the Jerusalem church in his unconverted days, had made so many widows, so many orphans, so many beggars. Now he had a chance to relieve the sufferings and hardships of the poor saints in Jerusalem with a generous gift collected from the churches he had planted in the Gentile world.

*Paul felt he had an obligation to go. He longed to see, with his own eyes, some of the damage repaired, and the Holy Spirit respected that. He allowed Paul to go. But God left Paul in no doubt as to what he could expect." (1)

*Paul had been in the city less than 2 weeks when a violent mob rose up against him. Acts 21:30-36 tells us:

30. . . All the city was disturbed; and the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple; and immediately the doors were shut.

31. Now as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

32. He immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.

33. Then the commander came near and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and he asked who he was and what he had done.

34. And some among the multitude cried one thing and some another. And when he could not ascertain the truth because of the tumult, he commanded him to be taken into the barracks.

35. And when he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob.

36. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, "Away with him!''

*From that time on in the Book of Acts, Paul was under both the protection and the custody of Roman soldiers. And as they reached the steps leading up to the Roman fortress, Paul asked the commander for permission to speak to the crowd. In Acts 22, He was allowed to speak, and Paul began to give his Christian testimony.

*There was such a violent reaction that Paul was taken into the barracks, and he was almost scourged, but when the soldiers found out that Paul was a Roman citizen, they were terrified. They were terrified, because it was highly illegal to scourge an uncondemned Roman citizen.

*Acts 22:30 tells us that the next day, because the chief captain wanted to know for certain why Paul was accused by the Jews, "he released him from his bonds, and commanded the chief priests and all their council to appear, and brought Paul down and set him before them."

*Here in Acts 23, Paul was still before the High Council of the Jews. With all of this background in mind, let's begin by reading Acts 23:6-11, thinking about what to do when things are out of our control.

MESSAGE:

*When we are young, we like to think that we are in control, and this illusion can last far into our adult years. But time has a way of clearing up that misunderstanding! Over time, we are bound to find out that we are not in control.

*In fact, some of our greatest sorrow comes in those times when we are helpless to change the situation. Oh, if we could only fix it, -- but we can’t. That’s the kind of situation Paul was in here. And here God's Word shows us what to do when things are out of our control.

1. First, trust the Lord to comfort you.

*The Lord gave great comfort to Paul in vs. 11: "But the following night the Lord stood by him and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.'''

*What assurance, what encouragement, what comfort! The Lord comforted Paul and He will surely comfort us.

[1] But we have to let God comfort us in His time.

*Notice that it was the following night when the Lord appeared to Paul. Why did the Lord wait? We don’t know. But we do know that the Lord could have appeared to Paul at any time. We also know that God knows best.

[2] So we have to let God comfort us in His time. And we have to let Him God comfort us in His way.

*The Lord appeared to Paul, and He could appear to us right now. Nothing is holding Him back. And if it was the right and best thing to do, the Lord Jesus would appear to us right now. But we have to trust Him to choose the best way to give us comfort. And always remember that He is here, even when we can’t see Him, "for He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.''' (Hebrews 13:5)

*Maxie Dunnam told about being in a small church somewhere. He was walking down a hall and happened to pass a bulletin board that grabbed his attention. Up top in bold letters was this wonderful message: "If you have everything but don't have Jesus, you have nothing. -- If you have nothing, but have Jesus, you have everything." (2)

*Church: We have Jesus, and He will comfort us! But we have to let Him comfort us in His way. This includes the Lord's sure presence. It also includes His sure promises.

*One of Paul’s greatest desires in life was to serve the Lord in Rome. Held prisoner in Herod's judgment hall at Caesarea, it would have been easy for Paul to give up on his dream. But in vs. 11, the Lord gave Paul a sure promise: "Be of good cheer, Paul; for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome.''

*Based on that promise from the Lord, nothing could have kept Paul from getting to Rome. If those Jewish fanatics had succeeded in killing Paul, he would have gotten right up and went on about his way. That’s how sure the Word of the Lord is! Paul could count on that, and so can we!

*And in a way, the Lord's promise was better comfort than the Lord’s visible presence. I say that because the appearance of the Lord lasted only a few minutes, but the promised lasted until it was completely fulfilled! Thank God that we can always take comfort in His promises and in the constant presence of His Holy Spirit.

2. When things are out of our control, trust the Lord to comfort you. And ask the Lord for more commitment to His cause.

*In vs. 12-15, we see an astounding commitment from some enemies of the cross:

12. And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.

13. Now there were more than forty who had formed this conspiracy.

14. They came to the chief priests and elders, and said, "We have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul.

15. Now you, therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander that he be brought down to you tomorrow, as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him; but we are ready to kill him before he comes near.''

*Those radical Jews had a passion to kill. Christians: We need a passion for life! They had great passion against the gospel. Paul had great passion for the gospel.

*Listen, for example, to Paul's testimony in Romans 9:1-3. There Paul said:

1. I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,

2. that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.

3. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

*And in Romans 10:1 Paul said, "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved."

*Paul's whole life proved his commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And he never lost his commitment! No matter how bad things got, no matter where the storm tossed him, Paul was fully committed to the cause of Jesus Christ. And that's the way God wants us to be.

3. When things are out of our control, ask the Lord for more commitment to His cause. Also ask the Lord for the courage to do the right thing.

*We all need the kind of courage we see in vs. 16. Here God's Word reports that "when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul." Paul’s nephew did the right thing in vs. 16, even though it must have been hard to do. Now God wants us to do the right thing, even when it is hard or dangerous. So we must ask the Lord for the courage we need to take the risk. God will help us to do the right thing.

*King David was a man of great courage. Where did he get it? David tells us in Psalm 3:1-6. He wrote these words when he was on the run from his rebellious son, Absalom. And David said:

1. . . LORD, how they have increased who trouble me! Many are they who rise up against me.

2. Many are they who say of me, "There is no help for him in God." Selah

3. But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head.

4. I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill. Selah

5. I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the LORD sustained me.

6. I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people Who have set themselves against me all around.

*In Psalm 56:3, David also told God: "Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You." David cried out to the Lord and found the courage he needed. So can we!

4. When things are out of our control, ask the Lord for the courage to do the right thing. Then do whatever you can to help.

*There wasn’t a whole lot Paul could do in this dangerous situation. But he didn’t give up. Paul did what he could, and we see the results in vs. 17-24:

17. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, "Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him.''

18. So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, "Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you.''

19. Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside and asked him privately, "What is it that you have to tell me?''

20. And he said, "The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire more fully about him.

21. But do not yield to them, for more than forty of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him; and now they are ready, waiting for the promise from you.''

22. So the commander let the young man depart, and commanded him, "Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me.''

23. And he called for two centurions, saying, "Prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night;

24. and provide mounts to set Paul on, and bring him safely to Felix the governor.''

*Paul did what he could, and the Lord took care of the rest!

5. When things are out of our control, do whatever you can to help. And trust the Lord to take care of you.

*We can always trust the Lord to take care of us. He is in control of resources we can't even imagine. Paul had no idea that the commander would call out 470 soldiers to protect him. But Paul knew he could trust the Lord to provide his protection. God knows the best ways to take care of His people, and He has miraculous ways to help us.

*In the late 1920s, Bert Webb was pioneering a church in Granada, Minnesota. One night word came to him that an elderly Civil War veteran, Colonel Trumble, wanted to see him. So traveling some 30 miles into the country, Pastor Webb came to the bedside of the old soldier. "I'm not going to make it, Preacher," the colonel said. "And I want to tell someone about a miracle I experienced during the Civil War."

*In feeble tones the man told of being one of many Union soldiers incarcerated at the notorious prisoner-of-war camp in Andersonville, Georgia. Of the 45,000 Union prisoners held at the camp during the war, nearly 13,000 died.

*Food was scarce, Colonel Trumble recalled, but even worse was the scarcity of water. In desperation, he said, one day he and other prisoners went to the western edge of the encampment and kneeled in prayer. "We prayed that God would help us," he said. "To our surprise, in a few minutes a huge black cloud came and stood above the stockade. Suddenly, a brilliant flash of lightning burst out from the cloud, striking a huge rock and splitting it apart. A stream began to gush out and continued to flow."

*They named it "Providence Spring", and it still flows at Andersonville today. In 1901, there was a stone house erected at Providence Spring. And this inscription was placed on one wall: "The Prisoners' cry of thirst rang up to Heaven; God heard, and with His thunder cleft the earth and poured. His sweet water came rushing here." On another wall was the inscription: "God smote the hillside and gave them drink, August 16, 1864." (3)

*God has amazing ways of taking care of us, and we can always trust Him to do it. But in today's Scripture, Paul was still a prisoner. Verses 31-35 remind us of this hard truth:

31. Then the soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.

32. The next day they left the horsemen to go on with him, and returned to the barracks.

33. When they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

34. And when the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. And when he understood that he was from Cilicia,

35. he said, "I will hear you when your accusers also have come.'' And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium (or judgment hall).

*John Phillips summed up Paul’s situation by saying: "Thus Paul arrived back in Caesarea. Here he was to stay for two years as a prisoner. His case in limbo and his patience tried to the utmost. His detention was lenient, and he could communicate with his friends. It is to be hoped that the saints at Caesarea were more hospitable than those at Jerusalem. We do not know. We can only see this caged lion impatiently pacing up and down, fretting because of his confined circumstances, until at last he settled down to make his captivity noble by regarding himself as 'a prisoner of Jesus Christ.'" (Philemon 1) (4)

*Even when things don't get better, even when things are out of our control, we can always trust that God is watching over us, taking care of us, and doing what’s best for us. The best evidence of this great truth is the cross of Jesus Christ. Like nothing else, the cross of Christ proves that God is taking care of us! We have also seen His care a thousand other ways.

*But sometimes life is going to get out of our control. What should we do?

-Trust the Lord to comfort you.

-Ask the Lord for more commitment to His cause.

-Ask the Lord for the courage to do the right thing.

-Do whatever you can to help.

-And trust the Lord to take care of you.

*Would you please bow for prayer.

(1) Adapted from EXPLORING ACTS by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "Paul’s Future Prospects" - Acts 20:22-25

(2) Sermons.com sermon "Who Is this Jesus?" by Bill Bouknight - Colossians 1:13-20

(3) Sources:

Ralph W. Harris - "Acts Today: Signs and Wonders of the Holy Spirit" - Cited in PENTECOSTAL EVANGEL, February 18, 1996, p. 11 - Source: Sermons.com sermon "Focusing on the Possibilities" by King Duncan - Matthew 14:13-21 - 2005

Rebekah Montgomery, ORDINARY MIRACLES - Uhrichsville, OH: Promise Press, 2000 - pp. 61-65 - Source: Dynamic Preaching sermon "A Platform for Life" - Romans 8:26-39 - 4th Sunday in July 2002

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andersonville_National_Historic_Site

The Miracle of Providence Spring-Andersonville Prison - 1897 Reunion - Andersonville Prisoners return to drink from the Spring

http://thecivilwarparlor.tumblr.com/post/37607310981/the-miracle-of-providence-spring-andersonville

http://timetracts.com/Home/tracts/americas-patriots/andersonville-the-hidden-story/

(4) Adapted from EXPLORING ACTS by John Phillips, Kregal Publications, Grand Rapids - "Paul detained at Caesarea" - Acts 23:31-35