Through The Bible - Acts 23 - Part 3

Brett Meador: They come up with a little sinister plan. They said, okay, you guys call for Paul in the morning to be drilled a little bit more on some stuff, but on the way, we'll lie and wait and we're going to take him and kill him.
Guest (Male): Pastor Bread Medder with assurance that it's the Lord's purpose that prevails.
Brett Meador: But when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying and wait, this little boy goes into the castle where Paul's in prison and says, hey, these guys are going to lie and wait and try to kill you. I overheard them. I love how little children are included in God's plan.
Guest (Male): After his arrest, Paul was shuffled between the Sanhedrin and Roman government officials, uncertain what to do with him. While at the same time, a group of Jews were conspiring to ambush and kill him. However, miraculously, their plot is thwarted, allowing Paul to fulfill God's purposes. In today's word, Pastor Bread Medder marvels at Paul's trust in the Lord through it all.
Brett Meador: Paul finds himself often in jail. He's been in prison several times since we've met Paul. He didn't do anything wrong, but Paul's going to spend a lot of time behind bars during this last season of his life. So we left off. We saw, you know, Paul arrested, beaten by the Jews on the Temple Mount, then taken into custody by the Roman guards, interrogated for just a second, tied up and was about to be scourged or whipped. And remember Paul said, I'm a Roman. And then the Romans freaked out and turned him over to the Sanhedrin. And that's really where we pick it up here in chapter 23. Let's pick it up in verse 11. And the night following, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul. Um he just he's had a pretty rough night. He's been punched in the face, beaten, almost torn limb to limb. And now he's sitting in a jail cell, and the Lord shows up next to him. You got to love that Jesus is right next to him. I think it was a I think it was an appearance of Jesus. Um not I wouldn't die on that battlefield. Maybe it was just an glow or something, God standing next to him. I don't know exactly what that means, but in the Bible, there's a lot of examples where Jesus shows up not only in the New Testament, but in the Old Testament. What is that called when you see that in the Old Testament? Christophany or a theophany. Some people call it different things. So uh interesting. Well, be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome. You say, why is that good news? Because he's going to survive Jerusalem. He's going to live through this and make it out of Jerusalem. The reason I point that out is it's not looking good for him to leave Jerusalem alive at this point. Everybody wants Paul dead except for a tiny little handful of Jews that said hi to him for 10 seconds at the beginning, if you remember. Everybody else wants Paul dead now. And he's in jail uh with the Romans, but it's looking bleak, especially when you read on. In verse 12, it says, and when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse, sort of like a um pact or a contract uh saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. And then is verse 13, and they were more than 40, which made this conspiracy or covenant. And they came to the chief priests and elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul. So these guys are serious about this. Now some of you are like, so what? They're doing intermittent fasting, uh whatever. That's not exactly what's going on here. These guys are literally saying we will not eat. Do you think they're serious about that? What if they start to starve? You have to understand this is a serious thing in Bible times uh for Jews to make this sort of a covenant or pact. We're not going to eat or drink, they said. And there's more than 40 of these guys that said this uh until we see Paul dead. That means at all costs, we need to kill Paul. This was a thing in the Old Testament times and in the New Testament times. It's interesting to me uh you know, this is sort of an interesting vow to make here, sort of a weird vow not eating or drinking. How's this going to turn out for them? Well, if you know, they're going to not eat and drink for a long time. I kind of wonder how this worked out for them because it was such a grave kind of thing. Let me show you an Old Testament example of this. Would you keep your finger here in Acts 23 and go with me to 1 Samuel chapter 14. Go to the Old Testament real quick. 1 Samuel chapter 14. Saul, the evil king of Israel by this time, was not doing well in battle against the Philistines. And Jonathan, Saul's son, is out there doing well in battle. Jonathan's like the hero, Saul's the loser. But let's read. It's 1 Samuel 14:24 says, and the men of Israel were distressed that day, for Saul had adjured the people saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food until evening, that I may be avenged of mine enemies. So none of the people tasted any food. Can I just say dumb? That is the dumbest thing uh you can do. You're a king and you and you you say, guys, I need you to fight good, so we're not going to eat any food. They're going to go out there, you know, weak uh having to fight these battles. Dumb, really dumb. Verse 25 it says, and they of the land came to a wood and there was honey upon the ground. Just honey laying there on the ground. And when the people were come to the wood, behold, the honey dropped. But no man put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath. But Jonathan, verse 27, heard not when his father charged the people with the oath. Wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand and dipped it in the honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes were enlightened. I love that scripture. Have you ever felt that way? You're just dying because you're hungry and you're just feeling weak and and then you eat something delicious and suddenly your eyes are enlightened. You feel your life returning to yourself. So Jonathan, he's there eating the honey. And then verse 28, then answered one of the people and said, thy father straitly charged the people with an oath saying, cursed be the man that eateth any food this day. And the people were faint. Then said Jonathan, my father hath troubled the land. See, I pray you how mine eyes have been enlightened because I tasted of a little of this honey. How much more if haply the people had eaten freely today of the spoil of their enemies, which they found, for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines? And they smote the Philistines that day from Micmash to Aijalon, and the people were very faint. And the people flew upon the spoil and took the sheep, oxen, calves, and slew them on the ground. And the people did eat them with the blood. Well, as it goes on, Saul finally finds out what Jonathan did. Look at verse 43. And then Saul said to Jonathan, tell me what thou hast done. And Jonathan told him and said, I did but taste a little honey with the end of the rod uh that was in my hand. And lo, I must die. And Saul answered, God do so and more also, for thou shalt surely die, Jonathan. Does this sound like a sane guy saying, sorry, son, you had a little smidge of honey when I cursed everybody that's going to eat. So sorry, you got to die. Yep, you're right. Well, um that just shows how crazy Saul was by this time. Uh he lost his marbles when he left the Lord. Well, what happens later on is the people jump in and spare Jonathan's life and say, we're not going to let you kill your son, Jonathan, uh King Saul. You we're not going to let that happen. Uh thank the Lord for that. Now notice this vow was stupid. And also one of the things the Jews knew that if you make a vow, you are supposed to keep it. And the Jews to this day, when they make a vow, it means more than us. Well, Brett, how do you know that? Ecclesiastes 5 5 through 7, better it is that thou should not vow a vow than thou should st vow and not pay. Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say there before the angel that it was an error. Wherefore uh should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands? What does God do? If you break your vow, he destroys the work of your hands. For in the multitude of dreams and many words, there are also diverse vanities. But fear thou God. Now this is the main crux. It's better to not vow a vow than to vow something and then not follow through. Well, these men in Acts, the reason I share that Old Testament story is because you might say, well, those poor guys, I guess they're going to have to break their vow. Um when I get to heaven, I am going to find out what happened to these guys. Did they really just start eating when Paul got shipped off to Rome? We don't know, but I I just wanted you to get the sense that is a serious thing that they made. But uh are they going to try to kill him? Well, yeah, that's where we pick it up in verse 14. Says there, they came to the priests and the elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a great curse that we will have nothing to eat till we have slain Paul. Verse 15. Now therefore, you with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you tomorrow as though he would inquire something more perfectly concerning him. And we wherever he come near are ready to kill him. Now what's going on? They come up with a little sinister plan. Uh they said, okay, you guys call for Paul in the morning to come back in to be drilled a little bit more on some stuff. But on the way, we'll lie and wait and we're going to hide these 40 plus guys and we're going to take him and kill him. And they thought, good plan. But then what happens? This is great. Verse 16. And when Paul's sister's son, that's Paul's nephew, and he is like a little boy, we know that uh by later text here, um when Paul's sister's son heard of their lying and wait, he went and entered into the castle, Antonia's Fortress, and told Paul. So this little boy goes into the castle where Paul's in prison and says, hey, these guys are going to lie and wait and try to kill you. I overheard them. Where did he hear this? I don't know. The little kid was somewhere where he was in earshot of the the plan. I don't know how he heard it, but he heard it. But I I do want to say this, I think it was God. I think God is the one who allowed the little kid um their plan leaks. But it gets all the way to Paul. So it's not a coincidence that Paul's nephew, you know, hears this. It's God orchestrating this. And so this little kid is used. How many times in the Bible does God use little children? It's really kind of cool, really, when you think about it. I think we sometimes don't allow little kids to be used when God says, I could use little kids. Um I'm so thankful that when I was a kid, they let me teach Sunday school at 12 years old. They probably didn't know I was 12, but I got to start early doing stuff uh in ministry, and I'm really thankful for that. But David slew Goliath. Samuel was called into ministry at a young age. Miriam as a child rescued her brother Moses out of the river. Josiah was 8 years old when he began to reign, and he was a good king that served the Lord. There was the little boy with the five loaves and the two fish that led to the feeding of the 5,000. I love how little children are included in God 's plan. Don't sell your kids short, mom and dad. You never know how the Lord might use them. The psalmist Psalm 8 too says, out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies. Jesus quoted from Psalm 8 in Matthew 21:14 when he said, the blind and the lame came to him in the temple and he healed them. And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things he did and the children crying out in the temple saying, Hosanna to the son of David, what's happening? Jesus is healing much people and the little children are running around saying, Hosanna, blessed is he is the you know the son of David. And then the Pharisees said, do you guys hear the what these children say? And Jesus said unto those guys, yep, uh have you never read out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou perfected praise? So Jesus quotes that. The Lord uses little children. Don't forget that. I love that in the Bible. So how do we know he was a kid and not just a young man? Because you might think that well, we get a little more here in verse 17. Says, then Paul called one of the centurions unto him and said, bring this young man unto the chief captain, for he hath a certain thing to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the chief captain and said, Paul the prisoner called me unto him and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee who hath something to say to thee. Then the chief captain took him by the hand. So he's a little guy. Took him by the hand and went with him aside privately and asked him, what is it that thou want to tell me? And he said, the Jews have agreed to desire thee that thou would est bring down Paul tomorrow into the council as though they would inquire somewhat of him more perfectly. But do not thou yield unto them for their lie and wait for him of them more than 40 men which have bound themselves with an oath and that they would not eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready looking for a promise from thee. So the chief captain then let the young man depart and charged him, see thou tell no man that thou hast showed these things to me. It's interesting how Paul is able to see the kid in in in Antonia's Fortress. But he's also able to tell the guys, the guards, hey, let this little kid he's got something to tell him. And they kind of do what Paul says, which is kind of interesting. Um I think that's the grace of God. But now this leader knows, oh man, uh we can't just haul Paul out tomorrow. These guys are all lying and wait and more riots and more problems for me. So what does he do? Uh how does he fix the problem? Well, uh Claudius Lysias listens to what he says. And so check it out. Verse 23, it says, and he called unto him two centurions saying, make ready 200 soldiers to go to Caesarea. And horsemen 3 score and 10 and spearmen 200 at the 3rd hour of the night, which is like 9:00 p.m. And provide them beasts that they may set Paul on and bring him safe to Felix, the governor. And he wrote a letter after this manner. We'll get to that in a second. So you know, here's Paul uh in prison. 40 guys are going to lie and wait ready to kill him. But the Romans say, we got to get this guy out of here. You know, I told you Paul was in big trouble. He was there. The Jews wanted to kill him. Everybody doesn't like him. The Romans were going to scourge him. But isn't it interesting when you have big problems? Would you agree Paul has big problems here? He's got big problems, but like we as Christians like to reiterate, we have a big God, don't we? I've seen that where you know I just think, oh I'm going down. It's not going to work. This is going to go really badly. And then the Lord just shows up. How many times does the Lord flex his mighty arm and show us that he's in control? This is a great example of that. You think, wow, there's 40 guys, more than 40 guys that want to kill Paul. But if you think about it, how many soldiers did just Claudius Lysias just employ for the for Paul's escort? Well, if you missed it in the King James, 470 soldiers, 200 soldiers that were spearmen, 70 horsemen, 200 regular soldiers, 470 in all. And he set Paul on a horse which he doesn't even need to walk. He 's on a horse, which usually the horse was a place of honor in those days. But uh it seems that the wording here is that he's on a horse. And they're going to escort Paul away from Jerusalem back to Caesarea. Now why Caesarea? Because Caesarea was the main hub of Roman rule. Caesarea was the capital city of that area for the Romans. And Felix was the guy who was large and in charge. Claudius Lysias answers to Felix. Now before we kind of get into that, who is this Felix guy? Well, he's in a similar place that Pontius Pilate was in, but maybe even more in charge. Some people believe he was actually one of Pontius Pilate's later successors. His full name was Antonius Felix, 4th Roman procurator of Judea province in 52 to 60 AD. Now the thing that's interesting about this guy, Felix, he was once a slave. He was a slave who was then made uh a free man by Antonia. Do you remember I already used that word Antonia? What was that in? Antonia's Fortress. What was that fortress? It was the Roman Fortress in Jerusalem named after Antonia, who was Emperor Claudius's mother, okay? So Antonia, Emperor Claudius's mother, turned Felix from a slave to being large and in charge. So something happened where Felix was a low life, nobody, nothing. But Antonia, Emperor Claudius's mother, said, you shall be a prefect. So they sent him to Caesarea. Kind of interesting. So with that said, Tacitus, who is a Roman historian kind of like Josephus, he wrote about Felix in his ancient writings. He says this. Felix was the master of cruelty, powers of a king but spirit of a slave. That's what they said about him. He was a scoundrel who exploited political situations, encouraged conflicts, confiscated any loot available. During his rule, the countryside became anarchy. The mountains of Judea ran rampant with gorilla fighters. He was hated by virtually everyone. So Paul's headed over to see Felix. Good times. Now here's the letter. We're about to read the letter uh written to Felix from Claudius Lysias. Uh and it's right here. Says he wrote a letter after this matter. Verse 26. Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sending greeting. This man was taken of the Jews and should have been killed of them. Then I came with an army and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman. When I would have known the cause where of they accused him, I brought him forth to their council. Now pause for a second. Did you notice that Claudius Lysias left something out of the story? He left conveniently out. We bound him up and we were going to scourge him. They didn't say that. Why did they not say that? That would have got him in big trouble. So they kind of left that part out of the story. We helped him. We came to his rescue. It was awesome. But he left out the part where they were going to scourge him because that would have got him in trouble. I think that's funny. Well, verse 29, he brought him to their council. Verse 29, whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or bonds. And when it was told me how that the Jews laid weight for the man, I sent straight way to thee and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him. Farewell. Uh now what's this all about? He's yours, tag by. That's what he's doing. Claudius Lysias is just kind of going, man, I don't want anything to do with this. He's your problem now. So at 9:00 at night, 470 soldiers escort Paul on a horse to Caesarea. And we'll find out Paul's going to remain here for a couple of years uh in his life. His dwelling in Caesarea here is not going to ever really be biblically clear of what kind of environment he's in. Does he have jail? Does he get to walk around freely? Does he have guards stuck with him? Not sure if he was chained up or in prison or free to move around, just just told not to leave town. We don't really know. But uh he was stuck there. So Caesarea is on the Mediterranean Sea. And so uh we keep reading here verse 31. Then the soldiers as it was commanded them took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. On the morrow, they left the horsemen to go with them and return to the castle. So they went back to Antonia's Fortress. Who when they came to Caesarea were delivered the epistle to the governor, presented Paul also before him. So Felix gets the letter and Paul is presented before Felix. And when the governor had read the letter, he asked of what province he was. And he understood that he was of Solicia. Verse 35. He says, I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are also come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall. What is that? We don't really know. Now when we go to Caesarea, there is a palace that Herod built. And it's kind of interesting because the judgment hall might be the palace of Herod. And they had a downstairs that was at the sea level. Uh you see the foundation of Herod's palace still in the water of the Mediterranean Sea. So they believe it was like their basement was a swimming pool in the Mediterranean Sea. Uh it was a fancy palace. Some believe that's where Paul had to hang out. Maybe there. Not really sure. So this horrible guy Felix that I just told you about, what's he going to do to Paul the Apostle? What's he going to do? The answer we'll pick it up in chapter 24.
Guest (Male): Well, Pastor Bread Medder leaving us without any doubt that the Lord has more to accomplish with the Apostle Paul as our study series of the Book of Acts continues in today's word. And stick around as Pastor Brett will close today's message in prayer in just a moment. But first, Bread Medder is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each episode of Today's Word serves to enrich your understanding of God's word and support your ongoing spiritual journey. If you missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. Also want to mention that if you'd like to share your story of how God has changed your life through these daily studies, you can email us at [email protected]. Again, tell us your story by emailing to [email protected]. Or you can go to our website, which is todayswordradio.com. Well, here again is Pastor Bread Medder to close in a brief word of prayer.
Brett Meador: Lord uh this story reminds us of how powerful you are. While men will rage and get upset about politics and about what's going on spiritually or even politically, the Romans, the Jews, it seemed that Paul was doomed, Lord, in this story. But how thankful we are, Lord, that you're bigger than all the problems we ever face. And when you want Paul to get somewhere safe, you can give him 470 soldiers to escort him to safety. Um Lord, we know that there's an appointment for each one of us to die. But we also know that that appointment's not going to happen until you want it to happen. So I pray that we'd walk in confidence, putting our trust in you, Lord, not being afraid of the circumstances we're in. Help us to keep our eyes on your son Jesus, the author, the perfecter of our faith. We see Paul being battered around by these people and not even really getting a word in edgewise. And yet you still have words for him to share all the way to Rome. So help us not to be weary and well doing. You tell us in due season we'll reap a harvest if we faint not. So would you strengthen your church? Lord, for those that are in difficulties, challenging circumstances, Lord, may they remember this story how you are in fact in control and nothing's too hard for you. May we keep our eyes on you, Lord. Give us strength and when our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak, would you intervene? And by the power of your spirit, give us faith to put our trust in you. So we ask these things knowing, Lord, you've heard our prayer and we thank you in Jesus's name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Bread Medder here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will share the Apostle Paul preaching a powerful three-point sermon to the Judean governor Felix. Today's word with Pastor Bread Medder is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.