O Jerusalem, Jerusalem

The Princess Bride

In the last Christmas holidays, as our family typically does, we stayed in a house with some of our extended family. In our typical fashion, we packed a fed DVD’s to watch while we were away. The kids tend to pack the ones they’ve watched many times before, but I decided to look at the back of our DVD collection, and there I found a movie which I loved as a kid - The Princess Bride.

Now if you’ve never watched this one, it’s a classic. It has action and romance. It’s got suspense and some mystery.

But it was one that I hadn’t managed to get out of the cupboard since we’ve had children.

So we watched it one night, and Elise stayed up with us to watch it.

Now, I’m not always like this, but I was one of those annoying people that quote the classic lines, which I don’t think enhances the viewing experience of the others watching.

One of those memorable lines involved a character called Inigo Montoya. Now there was a little side story to the main plot of the movie. Inigo Montoya was bent on avenging the death of his father who had died at the hands of a six-fingered swordsman.

When he finds this swordsman, he repeats one line over and over again.

He says: “My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”.

As this part of the story reaches a climax, the two men are locked in a battle, with Inigo Montoya endlessly repeating his one line.

But it all seems lost when the six-fingered man throws a dagger and Inigo seems to be left for dead.

But against all the odds, Inigo summons all his strength and refuses to die. Eventually, through much pain, suffering and great perseverance, Inigo finally avenges his fathers death.

Now, notwithstanding the fact that this is a revenge killing - not something I’m condoning, but there is a sense it which doing mission can be like what happens to Inigo.

He has got one purpose - but everything keeps getting in the way of achieving that one goal.

You know, sometimes I feel all excited about what God is doing. Maybe a few good things happen. And I start to dream big. I allow myself to believe that the people I’ve been praying for to come to faith will have their eyes opened. I dream that our biggest problem as a church will be to figure out how we’re going to disciple all of the new believers.

But then, what happens? Well the enemy drops by. We fight against each other. The family I’ve been praying for has a change of circumstances which seem to have the result of them moving further away from God.

One day I’m wondering how we’ll fit all the believers in the church. The next, I’m wondering how much longer the church has before it can’t sustain itself.

Paul’s journeys

Today I’m going to finish this series of being on mission with Paul.

It’s been an interesting journey for Paul.

Three times he has headed out from his home base of Antioch to take the gospel to new regions. These were three amazing journeys where God acted in powerful ways.

But despite all of this, there was one place left on Paul’s list of places that he really felt he needed to go. Rome.

It was the capital of the empire to which he belonged.

And that nagging feeling, as we will see in the section we’ll look at today, will become more than just a desire - it will become a promise that he will get there.

But as he comes back for one last visit to Jerusalem, things do not go good. In fact, things go rather terribly.

As we’ll see, four times he looks like he is down for the count. Four times the opposition have the upper hand. Four times it looks like everything is lost.

And so as we go through the account now, I want to think about the question: where do we find hope when all seems lost? Can we really trust God to keep his Word?

I mean, I know that of course we will quickly say that God will keep his Word, but there is a difference between knowing this in theory, and really knowing it in your heart.

So let’s explore what happens now.

To Jerusalem

Well, we left things off last week with Paul’s farewell speech to the Ephesian elder where he encouraged them in how to carry out their mission.

In this speech, he foreshadows what we’re about to look at today. That trouble and hardship await him in Jerusalem.

As we get into chapter 21 of the book of Acts, he is now on his way to Jerusalem, and he makes various stops.

The interesting thing about this part of the trip is that the Spirit seems to be revealing to many of the believers of the hardship that is about to come. They consequently try to dissuade Paul - which just shows that while they might be able to discern the Spirit on one level, they don’t understand the bigger picture.

Meeting James

Well, by verse 17, they make it to Jerusalem where they meet James - who by this stage is seen as a leader of the church in Jerusalem.

Now I’m not going to explore this section in detail, but with this meeting you get the sense that the matter started in Acts 15 with the council of Jerusalem hasn’t quite been settled properly.

To quickly remind you, that was where the issue of circumcision came up, or more precisely, the extent to which new believers need to become Jewish.

There is the potential that based on perception alone, Paul could find himself in trouble with the believers, which is a reality that can be hard to take sometimes.

Thankfully, Paul is able to negotiate this situation using an approach that he spells out in 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 9:22 he says: “… I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some”.

In other words, he’s not going to allow semantics to get in the way of what he is doing.

On this occasion, it means that he will happily pay the expenses for four young men to do their purification rites.

The first riot

But I’m not counting this as the first big blow that falls on Paul in Jerusalem.

For that, we need to go to verse 27 where we find ourselves near the end of the seven day period in which these men were doing their purification.

And in some ways it was inevitable. Being at the home of the Jews, it’s not surprising that they were upset with what Paul had been up to. The Jews, for the most part, had been hardened against the teaching of Jesus. They saw Paul as a threat to their way.

So they seized him, and we see people running from all directions.

This is no idle threat. These Jews were not about to give him a little scare then let him go. They had got themselves in a frenzy and they were going to kill him.

The reality was, by the time the crowd had got into the frenzy that it did, there was nothing Paul could do to save himself. All hope had seemingly gone.

But of course - God still had plans for Paul. God still wanted Paul to go to Rome.

Even when things seem impossible, God does what God does.

This time, it is the Romans who save him. The commander comes with his soldiers and he is saved.

Paul’s speech

Now what I love about Paul is his boldness. Despite the impossible situation he finds himself in - that is, being arrested by Roman soldiers, which is taking him away from the hostile Jews - he decides to use this opportunity to share the good news of Jesus.

A careful observation will show that he is keen to highlight his Jewishness here.

In fact, he even manages to keep the crowd silent and listening, that is of course, until we get to verse 21 of chapter 22 when he tells them that God sent him to the Gentiles. This just brings them back to their hostile best, leaving the Romans to bring him into the barracks where they give orders for him to be flogged.

In the barracks

In the barracks he finds himself in another impossible situation. The Romans rule this place. They are not going to allow someone who they know is going to be volatile. For the soldiers, there is really only one main aim for this region - keep the peace.

And so Paul knows his place, he is about to be face a severe flogging.

So, again, all seems lost. His mission is going to come to an end at the hands of the Roman soldiers.

But God does what God does.

This time God enables Paul to think clearly enough to say what he needs to say.

You see, Paul was a citizen of Rome, a status that comes with privileges. One such privilege is that Roman citizens could not be flogged unless found guilty of a crime.

And so we get this almost comical scene. The centurion is standing ready to strike Paul, and just at the last moment, Paul pipes up with the question: “Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t been found guilty?”

This changes everything for the commander - a man who had to pay a lot of money for his citizenship, and no doubt had some jealousy of Paul who was born a citizen.

Before the Sanhedrin

But the commander still wants to know what is going on. He doesn’t understand why one person could stir up so much hostility.

So, he decides the Sanhedrin is the best way to figure it out. Now the Sanhedrin is essentially like a Jewish council. A body of the religious leaders.

You’ll probably not be surprised that Paul doesn’t have a lot of friends here.

And so we find ourselves in another impossible situation.

You see, while God has already intervened twice to get Paul out of impossible situations, he seems to go out of the pot and into the fire.

In front of the Sanhedrin, he knows that it is impossible to argue his way out. These Jews are too hardened against him.

As chapter 23 gets under way, Paul finds himself in trouble, having a run in with none other than the high priest.

So what happens in this impossible situation?

Well, the answer is almost comical. It’s almost that God decides to have a bit of a laugh on this occasion.

You see, the Spirit prompts Paul to say something which is really a bit cheeky, although I don’t think people see it for what it was.

Paul says the words: “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead”.

That might not sound cheeky, but once you understand the context it makes sense.

And Luke, the author of Acts, spells out this context so we understand.

You see, the Sanhedrin is made up of different parties and each of these parties had their slightly different beliefs.

The two most prominent of these parties were the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Now in the Bible, we hear quite a lot from the Pharisees. They were known for the rigid understanding of scriptures. As Paul pointed out, he came from this party.

In verse 8, Luke spells out one of the main differences for the Sadducees. He says: “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.

(Some might even say their belief that there isn’t a resurrection is why they are ‘Sad, you see’)

In case you missed it - the reason I’m calling Paul comment cheeky, is because he knows he is saying something that is going to turn the two parties on themselves. In other words, the focus comes off Paul, and onto an internal dispute within the Sanhedrin.

And it works! They start arguing with each other.

It shows the type of spirit that was present among this Sanhedrin.

Verse 10 tells us that it became so violent that the commander again had to come and take Paul away.

And so again, with Paul in place where he is essentially stuck from carrying out his mission, we see circumstances miraculously aligning, giving Paul yet another exit.

The plot to kill Paul

But as we’ve seen with each of the exits so far, he gets out of one impossible situation, only to find himself in another.

And that’s again what happens this time.

A Promise to Paul

But before I look at that, I want you to look at Acts 23:11.

You see, it must feel very discouraging for Paul being kept on knocked down only to just escape at the last moment.

But at strategic points, we find God giving us a little reminder.

We’re told that the night after this latest disturbance, the Lord stood near Paul and says to him: “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome”.

It is that little promise we need. For Paul, it is the confirmation that this isn’t just Paul’s fantasy. God wants Paul in Rome. And if God wants it, he will make it happen.

The Jewish conspiracy

But then in verse 12 we read of more than 40 Jewish men who form a conspiracy to bring Paul down. They bound themselves with an oath to not eat or drink until Paul was dead.

The plan was simple. Request that Paul be brought before the Sanhedrin again, but have people stationed to ambush him before he gets there.

So how does Paul get out of yet another impossible situation?

Well, have you noticed in each situation, it’s a series of circumstances mysteriously aligning.

Well this time it involves Paul’s nephew.

Paul’s nephew just happens to be at the right place and the right time to hear about the plot. (It’s funny isn’t it how these coincidences keep on happening.)

The information is given to the appropriate people, and Paul is eventually safely transferred to Caesarea.

What happens next

Again it’s not the end of the story, but just to let you know how it ends, Paul has his case heard by the Roman rulers, and though he finds himself stuck for over two years, he eventually appeals to Caesar, and effectively gets a free trip to Rome, albeit as a prisoner. Even that journey has some rather significant hurdles, including a ship wreck and being bitten by a snake, but in the end, Paul is in prison where he can testify to the good news of Jesus.

Application

Now I love these series of stories. I know it wouldn’t have been fun for Paul at the time. I dare say in each situation there must have been some level of doubt - will God come through again? Perhaps thinking: has my luck finally run out?

This story demonstrates however that God will always come through.

But as I mentioned at the start, there is a sense in which we can know this on a theoretical level - but we can’t keep this at a theoretical level.

I want to suggest, that if you really want to know this, you need to experience it for yourself.

You see, the reality is, these “coincidences” that Paul experienced, where the right person turned up at the right time, are experiences that have been replicated countless times by Christians right around the world, and through all history.

In fact, they are not coincidences at all. They are the work of the Holy Spirit.

The danger

But there is a danger to be found. The promise we have, is that God’s plan will always come to fruition no matter how many obstacles are put in the way. It is not that God will make our plans succeed no matter what.

For example, we sometimes dream about constructing a new building for our church. At this stage however, there is no sense in which we as a church have discerned God telling us what and when to build. If we go off and build something without that discernment, there is almost a guarantee that it will fail.

We sometimes see things fail and think that God has let us down. Maybe it’s actually a matter of running ahead of God.

The deist approach

But there is an opposite error we can make. And that is to assume that God is somehow absent from our mission. What we do is to think that everything is up to us.

When things go wrong, we think that we somehow need to fix it.

Or we get worried because we think that the troubles we face are evidence of God’s absence.

But that is not true. Our troubles are there because there is an enemy trying to bring us down.

When troubles occur, we get down on our knees, and see God work in ways that you probably are least expecting it.

God’s mission

So what is our mission?

In essence, we can trace our mission back to what Jesus gave his disciples - what we call the Great Commission.

That is, to “go and make disciples of all nations baptising them… and teaching them to obey everything [Christ has commanded us].”

This is a mission for the broader church, and I can guarantee that it will happen.

Our role as a church and as individuals is a very small subset of that. But we can trust God that he will see this mission work.

Questions to ask

Now really trusting God in this way is hard. But ask yourself:

Is your trust in God bringing you to your knees in prayer?

Are you cultivating a child like dependence? Or are you still trying to do things by yourself?

Are you expecting the unexpected in the way God answers your prayers?

Things will seem bleak at times. It is in these times that we really see where our trust lies.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, we need to remember that this is God’s mission. He is the one directing things, we just need to be careful in listening to him.

And when we do, have a child-like faith that God will see it happen. Even when everything seems against you, we can know that God has it in hand.

So let me pray...