Stayin' Alive
Notes
Transcript
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.”
Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.” The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him. But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.” So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.”
Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.” And he wrote a letter to this effect:
“Claudius Lysias, to his Excellency the governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.”
So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. And on the next day they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, “I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive.” And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod’s praetorium.
Today, Paul is going to be moved. We’ll start in Jerusalem, the blue star, and he’s going to be brought north about 75 miles to Caesarea, the red star. In his ministry, Caesarea was a place he’d visited previously, but obviously the circumstances this time were different; he was under guard. There’s a brief transition point we read about happening in Antipatris, the yellow star.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, I’ve never gone without food or drink for very long whether by choice or by circumstance, but I know it doesn’t take long for hunger pains and thirst to kick in. Especially when you’re used to having food in a certain amount and at set times, it messes with your mind and mood. I’ve heard the longer you go, if you’re used to doing it, it can get easier. God created the human body to be able to go without food for periods of time more than a few days, but eventually we need nourishment. People can literally starve or dehydrate themselves to death. There is a point our bodies will get to when we can’t handle going any longer.
I don’t want to make light of the reality that some people in different places around the world struggle with malnutrition and dehydration and regular, let alone easy access to adequate food and clean water. Yet when we look at this group of 40-plus conspirators against Paul, who vowed a hunger and thirst strike, they imagined it would only be a day. By this time tomorrow they’d be feasting, filling their bellies with food, drinking as much wine as they wanted, celebrating the troublemaker’s death. Yet their plan was foiled by a young man who cared about his uncle.
Because of this nephew, they wouldn’t get to see Paul in Jerusalem the next day. We actually don’t hear about this group again in the coming passages, and given that Acts 24 verse 27 has a two-year jump in the saga of Paul’s imprisonment, we don’t know what came of them. Did they give up, knowing that there was no real chance they could kill him while he was in Caesarea? Did it take some convincing from family or friends or even the Sanhedrin? “Hey, I know you made a vow, and you take that seriously, that’s good. But it didn’t go as you had planned. Just eat and drink already, you’re not helping anyone, maybe another time you’ll have a chance.” Or were they so stubborn, so convinced that Paul needed to go, that they died trying to keep their word? We don’t know about them, but we know that Paul got to stay alive.
Paul being imprisoned again isn’t anything new for us, he’d been jailed previously. His being persecuted and hated by certain groups of Jewish people isn’t new either. So, we begin today by recognizing something that is as true now as it was back then—evil forces do conspire against Christians and the church. I want that to sink in. I know that some of us accept that a lot quicker than others. For some of us this is old news, but for others it might not be something we often think about—outside of how this year has turned the world upside down, we don’t feel like that much is conspiring against us. But if you’ve gone through a particularly troubling series of financial burdens, a run of deaths of loved ones, bouts with depression, feeling like you’re hitting obstacle after obstacle when you’re trying to do something that others had such an easier path with or obstacles when you’re doing what you feel you’re supposed to be doing, you know how it feels when things seem to be stacked against you. Yet when we’re not in the midst of those things, it’s easy to just think about you and God. Any evil, any trouble, it must be something that you did, something that you sinfully allowed into your life. Active evil forces can be a foreign concept.
Yet Scripture teaches and the church throughout history teaches we live with the reality that there are these forces. We’re not just talking about pesky annoyances, but things that want to stop Christ, that want to draw Christians away from him, that cause them to doubt or question any parts of his character. Evil forces want to put an end to the spread of the gospel and what God desires and demands for the lives of his created human beings. Question and Answer 127 of the Heidelberg Catechism focuses in on this. I invite you to join me on the answer after I read the question: What does the sixth petition [of the Lord’s Prayer] mean? “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one” means: By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment. And our sworn enemies—the devil, the world, and our flesh—never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.
For a while, there’s been something that grips me about that phrasing, “Our sworn enemies—the devil, the world, and our flesh.” I found out this week that this phrase, didn’t start just in the Catechism after the Reformation, but the trio of enemies has been used throughout Christian history. Of course, it has. If we go through Scripture, we find each of those enemies identified. Whether we’re looking at the Garden of Eden or Jesus’ temptation or the book of Revelation, the devil is a real figure. He is the opponent of God, though not eternal or equal. First Peter 5 verses 8 and 9 tell us, “…Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” If you think of Jesus speaking to his disciples before his crucifixion and throughout many prophecies, we hear the world hates God, the world hates Jesus, the world will hate Christian disciples. And yes, the flesh, our sinful nature, is our enemy. It wars against the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, sanctifying us, and seeks to corrupt what is meant to be the good fruit of gratitude.
These enemies have not yet been defeated, brothers and sisters. They are still conspiring against believers. We are still fighting against them. There are times, though, when I think we make too much of something and refer to it as one of these enemies. When we’re having a bad day, when things aren’t going as we like, when we’re a little bit down—the devil must be against us. Where my mind too frequently goes is if we comparing real conspiracies like what Paul was enduring or scandals of heresy or abuse in the church or the concept of an Antichrist or Man of Lawlessness coming into the world, there are many things that some Christians have deemed to be enemies that are mild or minimal compared to those things.
Yet we, myself included, need to be cautious in making those judgments. What is small in comparison, over time, many small things can assemble into a formidable force if we’re not on guard. I could even paint the 40-plus conspirators in Acts 23 as ignorant and misguided, stupid, but if we would take a step back with them and with other things we face and ask, “Could these be evil forces?” We find a real threat: sworn enemies seeking to accomplish their mission.
Moving onto our second point, what must you absolutely know in this battle? I’ve said it before; I’m sure I’ll say it again: we’re not alone. God can intervene as he sees fit. That second half of that Catechism answer I had us read a little bit ago is so encouraging about this, “…And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.” We need God’s help, and he is willing to help according to his plan.
Think about all the different pieces of what’s gone on over the past few chapters. As much as commander Claudius proudly pats himself on the back in his letter to Felix, it’s true to an extent that he and his men spared Paul from the Jewish crowds initially. After meeting with the Sanhedrin, who Luke tells us seemed ready to tear Paul to pieces, the Romans brought him back to safety. Now this young man, a nephew, found out about and spoiled the conspiracy. We don’t know for sure if he just happened to be in the same area or if he was a student of the Pharisees and they forgot or didn’t know the family connection. Whatever it was, he helped Uncle Paul out. We have this ongoing relationship that Paul could speak to the centurions who stood guard over him—maybe it was wealth, maybe they were trying to make up for the arrest and lack of trial. A commander listened to a prisoner’s concerns, and appealed to his superior to move him, even though he really didn’t have a case. Now Governor Felix was willing to take him in to safety, and any who would bring a case against him had to come to Caesarea. These are not coincidences.
Biblical scholar Darrell Bock gives this overview, “…This passage is rooted in God’s providence, which moves to protect God’s children, although the means are not always as they are here. God works behind-the-scenes here. Stephen’s martyrdom shows that providence also does not always mean physical rescue as here with Paul…It is one of the mysteries of God and his providence that many times we cannot see why things are happening as they are. Yet God is surely at work in ways we could not have planned for ourselves.”
We have to keep in mind: God had spoken to Paul. He knew he was going to get to Rome, alive, and he’d get to preach. He could know God was going to provide in a way that kept him safe, or at least out of deadly harm for the time being. God is able to do that same thing in a multitude of situations, though—in sickness, in chronic pain, in our temptations to sin and wandering from his fold. He can keep us safe and away from deadly harm. Yet God’s providence can also allow the opposite—for our lives to come to a sudden, tragic end, to continue in pain or fatigue or sickness, for us to experience poverty and being unsuccessful in ways that we might think if God really cared, we should be better off. Yet when God acts providentially—which is all the time—anything that ends up going the way we hope it does and that we’d label good or helpful—that’s always an act of his gracious mercy.
Brothers and sisters, sin has so destroyed the original relationship or connection God had with human beings. If left to ourselves, we all end up like those who perished in the flood or who met tragic ends in the wilderness as Israel traveled to the Promised Land. God doesn’t owe us a single thing. Yet his character, his benevolence, towards those he loves and even those he hates is far more gracious than we deserve. The Holy Spirit helping us battle our sworn enemies isn’t deserved because we don’t like pain or just because we’re weak.
This is a reality that we so often miss or ignore; we think we should be entitled to more than what we have. Yet the truth is neither salvation nor blessing is deserved just because we think we’ve been halfway decent. We trust in a God who has been so indescribably gracious, merciful, and compassionate with sinners who are prone to sin and to fall again and again and again. But God has chosen and chooses to continue to work according to his plans.
How are we to look at God’s providence? This is what pastor and professor Derek Thomas writes, “We can have confidence, therefore, that in all circumstances—good and bad—God is watching out for us, ensuring that we are under his protection and care…We do not know what God may be doing in us and through us at this point in time, but faith rests in the reassurance that he does know. This is all the reassurance that we need…it is not important whether we understand what God is doing; it is important only for us to know that God knows what he is doing, and that therefore we can trust him.”
I have a feeling I’m not alone in this, but I’m someone who likes immediate or quick results. I especially like when those results go the way I planned or how I want them to. More often than I care to admit or recognize, I’m selfish. I want an easy road. I want to go throughout life without pain. I want to be liked and approved of. I want God to just bless my decisions that I think are probably in line with what he wants. I don’t want to wait for things. I don’t like slow change.
Do you get what I’m getting at? One, what I want, what I work towards, no matter how much I want to consistently say, “This is what God wants,” doesn’t mean that God’s providence will always produce my desired end, our desired end. If we’re willing to allow that space, which basically says about ourselves that we are not God nor do we control him nor do we have any right that he follow our demands---then are we willing to unselfishly trust God, no matter the circumstances, be they pleasant or hard or scary or confusing?
The key to stayin’ alive whether now in our mortal life or heading towards eternity, whether we’re talking about Paul or any other faithful icon in Scripture or ourselves is that beautiful message in Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” Self-confidence is not the greatest goal of the believer. Health and wealth are not a guarantee, or if you’re lacking those, should you necessarily be wondering about your faith. But in all the circumstances of life, which will include struggles not just difficulty but battles against our sworn enemies, put your trust in the LORD, that he does know what he is doing. Amen.