Extradition (On Trial pt 2)

Thank you for tuning in with us here at Cross Connection. We're continuing our study in the Book of Acts, our series called "On Trial." Right now, we are following the Apostle Paul as God moves him from Jerusalem to Rome under the protection of the Romans. There is a lot that we can learn from the Lord in this passage, so open your Bible to Acts chapter 23 and join us as we study together.

Let's get into it quickly. We will pick it up today at verse 11. In Acts 23:11, we read, "But the following night the Lord stood by him, by Paul, and said, 'Be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness at Rome.'"

When it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and to the elders and said, "We have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will not eat anything until we have killed Paul. Now, you therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander of the Romans that he, Paul, 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."

Lord, we pray that You give us insight and application as we look at this passage of Scripture. You can almost sense at the end of these words, like hearing from the old movies, "The plot thickens." We pray, God, that You would minister Your grace, that You would speak to us, and that You would help us to make application from this passage. We ask it in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, "Amen." You can be seated.

It was probably more than ten years ago now. I think it was on a Saturday night, and I was here late at the church getting ready for some things for Sunday morning. As I was leaving the office, my car was parked down in the lower parking lot. It was pretty late, around 11 o'clock at night, when about a dozen or more Humvees, military vehicles with flashing blue lights, started coming down Nordic Parkway. Then, a huge semi-truck with a flatbed and a big wooden crate on the back followed. More military vehicles with flashing lights trailed behind, and there were all these armed personnel inside these vehicles.

Wow, what's going on? What are they moving all these guys for? It was one of those times when you want to get in the car and kind of follow at a distance, like Peter's style of following from afar to see what's going on. But you know you're not supposed to do that sort of thing. Still, you wonder when you see all this. I wonder where they're going and what they're doing. Your imagination starts to go wild. I wonder what's in that crate. I'm sure it was something completely different from what I was thinking about, but when you see a movement like that—a troop movement, if you will—there's something incredibly striking about it. You wonder, man, there's something cool going on.

Especially for guys, the gals might be like, "Oh my goodness, they're in the way," but the guys are thinking, "What is going on?" They all want to follow, thinking, "Oh, they've got something cool in that container." As we're going to see in our passage of Scripture here this morning, this is one of those instances.

As the story unfolds in Acts chapter 23, we will see an awesomely significant movement of Roman troops from Jerusalem down to Caesarea—nearly 500 soldiers. When you do the calculation, there are 470 of them, almost an entire cohort of Roman soldiers moving from Jerusalem to Caesarea under the cover of night. In the middle of the night, there are guys with spears and swords, and guys on horses. When you look at this large movement, one-tenth of a Roman legion moving from Jerusalem to Caesarea, you would think, man, there is something big going on.

You would never imagine that this entire group of soldiers was given for the protection of one guy—a Jewish man born with Roman citizenship—just to move him from Jerusalem down to Caesarea. You would think these guys have something significant to defend the region against, but instead, they're just moving one guy.

So, God, in His awesome providence, is going to do something that, even though it's very natural, has a supernatural nature to what is taking place here in this passage. You almost sense the sense of humor of God in this. Here is this one guy, representative of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God, now being protected by an earthly kingdom because they don't want this guy taken out. An incredible thing happens here.

In this passage, as we left off in our study, we have seen previously that Paul had been rescued—maybe not the best word, but rescued—by some Roman soldiers in Jerusalem. He came to Jerusalem during the time of the Feast of Pentecost, right about this time of year. As he went up to Jerusalem, a group of people arose, crying out against the Apostle Paul because they believed he had brought Gentiles into the temple, which would have been against Jewish custom and law. They dragged him outside of the temple and were preparing to kill him, to beat him to death right there.

The Romans moved in; about 200 Roman soldiers intervened and took Paul away. They wrongly assumed his identity. As the story unfolds in Acts chapters 20, 21, and 22, we learn that the Roman commander thought Paul was the ringleader of a group of religious zealots trying to incite riots in Jerusalem against Rome. He intended to take Paul into the Roman barracks and have him beaten for examination. As he was being taken in, Paul spoke to him in Greek, asking if he could have a moment to speak to the people. The commander, surprised, said, "Oh, you speak Greek? I thought you were that Egyptian guy." Paul clarified that he was not that man and requested to speak to the crowd.

The commander granted him the opportunity. Paul stood in front of the Antonia Fortress in Jerusalem, addressing the crowd of Jewish men who wanted to kill him. He was likely bleeding and already bruised. He spoke to them in Hebrew, and at a certain point in his speech, the mob began tearing at their clothes and yelling at the top of their lungs. The Roman commander, not understanding Hebrew, decided they needed to take Paul in to figure out what he had said. As it unfolded, Paul revealed that he was a Roman citizen, which meant they could not beat him. The commander wanted to know why this group of Jews wanted to kill him, so he summoned the religious ruling council in Jerusalem to come together.

Paul was brought down for what resembled a formal arraignment. In our study last week, we saw that as he stood before them, things were not going well. He mentioned that he was a believer in the resurrection, which once again incited a riot. The Romans had to intervene to protect Paul and pulled him out of the situation.

Then, when we come to verse 11, we read that the following night, the Lord stood by Paul and said to him, "Be of good cheer."

I'm absolutely certain that when Paul was headed to Jerusalem, it took him about two months to travel from Corinth in Greece all the way down to Jerusalem. As he passed through Macedonia, Asia Minor, Syria, and then Judea, I'm absolutely certain he had no idea that something like this was going to happen. He knew that something crazy was going to be in front of him in Jerusalem, but he probably never envisioned that the Romans would be the ones protecting him. He probably never envisioned that there would be two riots in Jerusalem trying to pull him apart and beat him to death.

And yet, now here he is in this situation. He's back in the Roman barracks, and his own countrymen—people who he knew, people who knew him, people who he once worked with when he was a Pharisee—some people believe that he had once been on that ruling council in Jerusalem, the one that now wants to kill him. So there he is, seated in the barracks, in a Roman prison cell, if you will. He's there not because he's done anything wrong, as we're going to see in this passage, but he's there for his own protection. He’s been protected by these heathen Gentiles, the Roman army that's occupying Judea.

In this moment, the Lord appears to him in the night after this event took place before the Sanhedrin. Jesus comes and ministers to Paul. We're not told how exactly this happened. Did Paul have a dream? Did he have a vision? Did Jesus actually manifest His presence there with him? We don't know the details of that. All we know is that Jesus appeared to Paul, stood by him, and said, "Be of good cheer."

Now, we need to note the implied reality here. When you read through the Scriptures, both Old Testament and New Testament, there are a number of times where God, through an angelic being, reveals Himself to human beings. Almost every time an angel shows up, the first words out of the angel's mouth to the person they are meeting are, "Fear not" or "Don't be afraid." Why do you think they say that? I think the people are probably scared to death. I mean, if all of a sudden an angel just appeared, and we are not given any majorly clear descriptions of angels—sometimes they appear as human beings, sometimes they appear in some pretty awesome descriptions as you see them in Ezekiel and the book of Isaiah—we don't know how these angelic beings appear. But if you imagine someone just appearing and also speaking as a representative of God, you'd probably be a little bit concerned. So the first words are always, "Don't be afraid."

They're like, "Okay, all right, hey, calm down. Don't pass out, just hear it. I'm just a messenger, so don't freak out." They say, "Don't be afraid." The implied reality is that the people are fearful. If Jesus shows up and says to Paul, "Be of good cheer," what do you think the implied reality is? Do you think he's pretty cheery at this moment? I don't think so. I think Paul is a little bit discouraged; he is probably on the border of being depressed.

Here he came back to Jerusalem intending to be a witness for Jesus, hoping to be received by them by bringing this offering from Gentile Christians scattered throughout Galatia, Macedonia, Asia, and Greece. Instead of being received in any way by his countrymen—people who knew him—he faced hostility. These people were not strangers to the Apostle Paul; he was not a stranger to them. Instead of a warm welcome, they did not even give him a cold welcome. They wanted to kill him.

So here he is, being protected by the Romans inside this fortress, and I'm certain that he was discouraged. The text seems to imply that Jesus comes and says, "Be of good cheer." There Paul is in this not-so-cheery situation, not exactly encouraged by what was going on. I think he was definitely discouraged.

You see, Paul was God's man, and he was certainly a great man, but he was not Superman. He was subject to the same sort of things that you and I are. Sometimes we can glorify someone like the Apostle Paul and fail to recognize that he is just a human being like us; he is not divine. He certainly was experiencing some discouragement. We know that was part of Paul's life. Previously, he speaks about that in his letters to the Corinthians. He said, "We were hard-pressed; we were so discouraged that we despaired of life." It got to the point where he thought, "I don't even know if I can continue to go on."

We fail to see sometimes that that's how Paul faced his days and his life. Here he is, discouraged and disappointed. Things were not going the way that he probably hoped they would. Even though he knew, as he was traveling throughout Greece, Macedonia, and Asia, that people were saying, "Hey, chains and tribulations await you at Jerusalem," there was probably a part of Paul that was saying, "Yeah, I know there are some things in front of me at Jerusalem, but you know what? We've got a good message, and God is calling us there, so there has to be something good that..."

The Lord appears to him in the night and stands by him. Paul speaks about a similar situation later in his life. The very last letter that Paul will write is the letter of Second Timothy, and it is right before he faces his final trial in Rome. It is right before he is killed as a martyr; he was beheaded for his faith in Christ. At the end of his life, right before that happens, he writes to Timothy. In Second Timothy, chapter 4, verse 17, he says, "No one stood by me at my final appearance before Caesar, but the Lord stood with me."

A similar thing is happening here in Acts, chapter 23, verse 11. The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, "Be of good cheer, for as you have testified of Me in Jerusalem, so you also must bear witness at Rome." The Lord comes to encourage him. He shows up and brings a prophetic word that provides some form of encouragement in the midst of all kinds of circumstances that are certainly discouraging.

I don't know that this is something we experience regularly, but there are times in our lives when God does this for us. One such experience comes to my mind where the Lord showed up. He didn't come physically; He didn't manifest His presence, but I knew there was a sense that the Lord was there, imparting His peace.

It was almost three years ago to the day that my wife, Andrea, and I were at the emergency room here at Palomar Hospital with our daughter, Addison, because she had ingested some chemical cleaners. While we were in the emergency room, I was sitting on the hospital bed holding her in my arms. They were running all these tests, and everything going on made me want to be frantic and hysterical. We've all been in situations like that before.

As I sat there feeling completely helpless, I couldn't do anything. When something is happening to you, you can almost process it a little better than when something is happening to your two-year-old daughter. In that moment, it was as if a peace came over me, and I sensed that the Lord was there. It was almost as if someone spoke in my ear and said, "It's going to be okay." With that simple word, "It's going to be okay," I felt reassured. I knew that these were frantic situations, but throughout the next few days, as we were transferred...

Down at the children's hospital, there was that sense that it's going to be okay. Even though right now it doesn't seem okay, it's going to be okay. Any of you who have ever experienced that sort of thing know that the Lord just shows up and ministers to you. Sometimes He uses another Christian brother or sister, someone that He places in your path to speak a word of encouragement.

In this situation with Paul, it was just him in a Roman prison cell in the city of Jerusalem. He's not there because he's done anything wrong; he's there for his protection. God shows up. God shows up and ministers to him. Discouraging circumstances do not hinder the personal and private ministry of Jesus. They don't hold Him back from coming and ministering in that situation. He stands by His servants. That's one of the great promises that we have as followers of Jesus: the Lord stands by His servants. He encourages them with a prophetic word and a prophetic promise.

Point number one on your outline, if you have it there in your bulletin: God's prophetic promise does not prevent short-term suffering. Unfortunately, there has been a teaching that has largely grown up in our own nation that Christians don't suffer. There is this doctrine, which is a false teaching not supported by Scripture, that says Christians don't go through these sorts of things. If that's true, then none of us here today are Christians, right? Because we've all experienced trials. We will all experience suffering.

Once you're a follower of Jesus and you put your faith in Him, that doesn't mean that He now takes you out of all the difficulties that other people who don't follow Him experience. That's not true at all. If that were true, then Paul wouldn't be a very good Christian, because he has suffered a lot. He speaks about his suffering in Second Corinthians, and we see his suffering in the Book of Acts. We see not only his suffering but the suffering of many followers of Jesus throughout Christian history.

Even in the midst of trials that are short-term, Paul mentions in his letters to the Corinthians that this is a momentary light affliction. I know that if you're going through an affliction, a trial, or a moment of suffering in your life right now, it doesn't seem momentary. It seems to envelop everything about your life; there's nothing that doesn't go through that suffering in the moment. But Paul says to the Corinthians that it is a momentary light affliction, and it's working for us a far better and eternal weight of glory.

Greater eternal weight of glory. So, Paul redirects us away from the suffering that we're in to a prophetic promise that the Lord gives us. As Christians, although we suffer short-term here and now, we have this promise of restoration and salvation in the future, as well as glorification. This should cause us to see the things that we're going through right now in a different light.

The resurrection of Jesus in the past, as I said last week, and our promise of resurrection in the future affects our reality in the moment. When we have the hope of resurrection in the future because of His death, burial, and resurrection in the past, it changes the way that we experience these things. Even though it doesn't remove us from the discomfort or the trial, there are Christians who think, because they've received false teaching, that if you're a Christian, you won't go through these trials and suffer discomfort. Sadly, there have been a number of people who called themselves Christians who have checked out of the race, running after the Lord. They've given up on their faith, if you will, and walked away from it because of discouragement and discomfort. They had an expectation that they shouldn't go through this.

Jesus speaks about this when He gives the parable of the sower in the Gospels. Do you remember the first parable that Jesus spoke? The parable of the sower went out to sow seed. Some of the seed fell along the wayside, some fell on shallow ground, and some fell among thorns. The seed that fell on the shallow ground sprouted up quickly, but then the sun came up and burned it out. Later on, when Jesus is explaining this story to His disciples, He says, "Listen, the seed is the Word of God, and the ground is the hearts of men." When that seed takes root in shallow ground and springs up, it looks like it has the life of Christ. Yet, when trials come, as Jesus says, the sun burns it out before it can ever produce fruit.

There have been people who started following Jesus and became a part of a church family. It looked like the Word of God was taking root in their hearts, but it never grew to produce fruit. Why? Because suffering came, and they said, "I was told that I wasn't going to experience this stuff." They had an expectation that they wouldn't go through this sort of thing, and now, when trial came, they just said, "Ah."

I give up. Well, you know, the Apostle Peter has a word for us on that very topic in First Peter, chapter four. You can turn there if you'd like; it's at the end of your Bible, right near the very end.

In First Peter 4, verse 12, Peter is talking about suffering and trials. He says this: "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing were happening to you." When you go through a trial and experience suffering, don't look at it and think, "This just doesn't make sense. I don't know why I'm going through this. Christians don't go through this." No, that's not what the Scripture says. Don't think it's strange concerning the fiery trial that is trying you.

You see, God uses those experiences. In His providence, He has a way of using the difficulties, the trials, and the suffering that Christians face. Non-followers of Jesus experience the same sort of things; they experience cancer, the loss of a child, the loss of their career or job, and the loss of health. Whatever it may be, non-Christians and Christians alike experience these sorts of things.

So Peter says, "Don't think it's strange," because recognize that God is using that situation in your life. He wants to use that trial to try you and to prove you. One of the ways that God uses it in our lives is to show other people who are not followers of Jesus the peace, joy, and contentment we have in Christ because of our hope in the resurrection, regardless of the situation.

Another way that God uses trials in our lives is to refine us, to change us, and to transform us more and more into His image. He increases our patience, our hope, and our character. This is exactly what Paul says in Romans chapter five: these tribulations that try us produce in us patience, hope, and character. That hope does not disappoint because God has shed His love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God.

That's what it says in Romans chapter five in the opening words of that passage. So God still allows difficulties to cross our paths, either to show His glory through us or to manifest it in us by transforming us more into His image.

So listen, Christian, if you're going through a trial today, if you're facing some sort of hardship...

Circumstances can be challenging, but we must recognize that the Lord wants to stand by us in our trials. He wants to remind us that we have a great salvation to look forward to prophetically. Right now, He desires to do a great work of glorifying Himself in our lives, in and through those trials. Perhaps today, the Lord wants us to see this so that our prayers might change from "God, take me out of this" to "God, help me in the midst of this to glorify You and bring praise to You."

One more thing about verse 11: I am spending most of our time on one verse, which is not good for our time schedule. In verse 11, notice that Jesus's words to Paul are, "Be of good cheer." Why should I be cheerful? This is not a cheerful situation. The reason is this: "As you have testified for Me in Jerusalem, so must also you bear witness of Me at Rome."

I find this very encouraging because I am sure, based on what Jesus says to Paul, that Paul did not feel as though he had been a good witness of Jesus in Jerusalem. He had two opportunities on this trip to Jerusalem to stand before his countrymen on behalf of the Lord as an ambassador of the Kingdom of Heaven. In both situations, he was cut off from giving the gospel by a riot, and he was pulled out of the situation because his own countrymen wanted to kill him. I am certain that he felt discouraged and thought, "Well, I failed. I didn't do what I anticipated I would do here."

Yet, Jesus comes and says, "As you have testified of Me in Jerusalem." Those words from Jesus are so encouraging because the Lord does not see as we see. Sometimes, we view our efforts for the Lord and His Kingdom as unsuccessful because our measure of success was not met. However, Jesus apparently saw it differently. He tells Paul, "Hey, you did what I wanted you to do. Your work here in Jerusalem is done, and I'm going to get you to Rome."

These words are significant because the next thing Paul is going to learn in this passage is that Rome is a long way away, and there are many obstacles between Jerusalem and Rome. Yet, God assures him, "You will testify of Me at Rome." This was Paul's heart's desire.

Desire. Paul wrote the letter to the church at Rome prior to this event, and in Romans chapter 1, he says, "Listen, I long to see you, Roman Christians. I want to come there." So, Paul's heart's desire was to go to Rome, but he said to the Romans in Romans chapter 1, "I have to go to Jerusalem first, and then I'm going to come and see you in Rome." Now he's in Jerusalem, and everything seems like it's never going to happen.

Have you ever had one of those situations where you think, "What I thought the Lord had spoken to me is just never going to happen?" Here, God says to Paul, "As you have testified of Me here in Jerusalem, so you will testify of Me there in Rome."

Continuing on, verse 12 reveals more discouragement. When it was day, the following day, Jesus meets with Paul that night and says, "Be of good cheer." The next day, a group of Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 of them who had formed this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and the elders, but they did not come to confess their sinful, murderous ambition.

What is taking place here is striking, highlighting the danger of mere religion. These individuals are filled with murderous hate. Remember, murder is a transgression of one of the Ten Commandments. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that merely desiring to kill someone or hating someone is equal in His eyes to murder. So, these individuals have already committed the act in their hearts; they are already guilty of murder.

Yet, they come to the chief priests, the overseer of the faith, the overseer of Judaism in Jerusalem, the one who oversees the offerings and the sacrifices for sin, the one who knows what the law says. They approach the chief priests and the elders, saying, "We have bound ourselves under a great oath, and we will do nothing; we will eat nothing until Paul is killed."

You almost hope, even though you kind of know the story—like knowing the ship is going to hit the iceberg and sink—that the chief priest will say, "Guys, wait! Are you crazy? Don't you realize this is a transgression of God's law? Don't you see where your hearts are?" That is what you want to happen, but it doesn't. Instead, they say, "We have bound ourselves to this, so we want you to be a part of it, chief priests and elders of Israel, representatives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

So, you therefore gather the council and suggest to the commander of the Romans that Paul be brought down tomorrow, as though you were going to make further inquiry. In another arraignment, bring him before us, and we are ready to kill him before he comes near. Not only did Paul's countrymen not receive his testimony, but now they have bound themselves in this oath, in this conspiracy to kill him. Up to the highest levels of Judaism, they have conspired to kill him, to destroy him.

Point number two on your outline: sometimes the most religious can be terribly unrighteous. In fact, at times, religious rules, regulations, and rites can provide the perfect justifying excuse for our unrighteousness. Sometimes, the show of religion can mask our unrighteous, wicked ambitions. I think one of the most striking examples of this is found at the trial of Jesus in John chapter 18. The chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, and the Sadducees bring Jesus down to Pontius Pilate.

In John chapter 18, verse 28, it says that they bring Jesus before Pilate to be condemned to die. They are filled with murderous hate and ambition to kill him. It says that they did not want to go into the Roman praetorium because they were fearful that they would make themselves ceremonially unclean and could not partake in the Passover that night. They want to kill him; there is nothing he has done wrong. They have conspired and lied to have him put to death, but they can't step foot there because that will make them unclean, and they can't religiously observe the Passover.

Wow! You see, sometimes the most religious can be terribly unrighteous. There are ways in which we in churches today can cover unrighteousness with a veil of religion. We establish scales of righteousness and say things like, "You know, Christians don't listen to secular music." So, if you want to be righteous, you don't listen to U2 and Mumford and Sons. We set up these sorts of standards that are not biblical.

Things that we put over our faith can lead to a distorted view of righteousness. We often say that real, righteous people don't engage in certain behaviors. For instance, some might claim, "I only listen to K-Wave" or "I only listen to K-Love, 107.9," which they consider the online radio seminary. When confronted with someone who listens to a different channel, they might react with shock, saying, "Oh, you listen to that channel? What do you have on your iPod? Oh my goodness! Look at this! You have The Beatles on there!"

This leads to a whole discussion where we establish that you are righteous if you adhere to certain standards. Yet, in doing so, one can still be gossiping about those who don't share the same beliefs or be involved in immoral behavior, such as looking at inappropriate content online. They might say, "I never go to rated R movies because that would be bad," while their religious standards cover over incredible unrighteousness.

In this passage, we see a similar situation. A group of people is filled with rage and murderous ambition; they want to orchestrate a very public assassination of the Apostle Paul. They don't care about the collateral damage, including the potential deaths of Roman soldiers. Their sole focus is on wanting him dead. The chief priests gather together the Sanhedrin, the council, and call the commander of the Romans, saying, "We want you to bring Paul down here the next day because we need to inquire of him more fully." They plan to lie about it and wait to kill him as he comes down.

When we look at this, we must ask: how is it possible that these individuals could harbor such vitriolic hatred for Paul, the Apostle, Saul of Tarsus? This brings us to point number three on your outline: if they hate you, know that they hated Jesus first. They didn't hate the Apostle Paul; they hated the Lord Jesus. They despised Paul because he stood on behalf of the Lord. As Jesus told us in John 15, on the very night he would be betrayed, "If the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of this world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."

Listen, Christian: if people in the world don't like you because of your faith in Jesus, if they label you as bigoted, narrow-minded, or ignorant because you don't believe as they do, remember that this is not a new phenomenon.

Believe and you don't follow things that we believe. Because you believe that Jesus is the only way, if they say all those things, even though it's not true, that you're bigoted, even though it's not true that you're narrow-minded, it's just that you put your faith in Jesus. Just expect they're going to hate you, not because they hate you, but because they hate Christ. These individuals hated Paul for no other reason than he stood on behalf of the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus and the cross of Christ are an offense to those who are perishing; it is a stumbling block to those who are walking according to the course of this world.

In verse 16, when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks to tell Paul. Pause there for a second. I don't know about you, but in all of my time studying the Apostle Paul, it just never crossed my mind to think about Paul’s family. Most Bible scholars believe that Paul was single and that he was not married, but we never really think much about his family. At the very least, Paul had a sister who lived in Jerusalem. We don't know her name, but Paul’s sister lived in Jerusalem, and she had a son. Paul had a nephew.

It's likely that he had other siblings. Jewish families were not single-child families; they were large families. It's very likely that Paul had brothers and sisters, and maybe some of them lived there in Jerusalem. Perhaps some of Paul’s brothers were still prominent Roman or Jewish individuals there in Jerusalem, and perhaps even some of his brothers did not like what had happened to their brother Saul.

Here, Saul—Paul—his nephew catches wind of this desire for ambush. He hears about it and comes to the barracks to tell Paul. This gives us some insight into the fact that Paul was not being held as a prisoner; he was being held for his protection. His nephew could come and go into the Roman barracks and meet with Paul, so he’s not there as a prisoner; he’s there being held for his protection.

His nephew opens up all kinds of questions. How old was his nephew? What was his name? How did he find out this information? We're not given that insight. All we're told is that Paul’s nephew found out about the ambush. He comes and tells his uncle Paul, "Uncle Paul, they want to kill you! They've got a plan to kill you." Here’s the plan, the whole thing. So Paul, in verse 17, called one of the centurions to himself and said, "Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell you."

Tell him. The centurion took him and brought him to the commander, saying, "Paul, the prisoner, has called me and told me to ask you to bring this child to you. He has something to say to you."

Then the commander took him by the hand. We are not entirely sure, but I have a hunch that when it says the commander took him by the hand, this is not an adult child; this is not even a teenager. This is probably some little kid. I imagine my son, Ethan. The Roman commander pulls him aside and asks, "What do you have to tell me?"

He said, "The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire of him more fully. But do not yield to them, for more than 40 of them lie in wait for him—men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink until they have killed Paul. They are ready and waiting for your promise."

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

Now, could you imagine Paul receiving this news from his nephew, having not received the word from Jesus the night before? How discouraging would that have been? Here he is in the barracks in Rome. Twice now, he had been rescued by the Romans because he was almost put to death by his Jewish countrymen in Jerusalem. Now he is sitting there thinking, "I don't know what I face. I know that they said chains and tribulations awaited me in Jerusalem, but now it's looking not so good."

Even though Paul, in Acts 20:24, said, "None of these things move me," you have to be pretty awesome to not be moved by 40 guys saying, "We're going to kill you. We have our hearts set on it. We've got a plan; it's orchestrated, and it's ready to go."

So now there is Paul in the Roman barracks in Jerusalem, with 40 of his countrymen, including the chief priests, conspiring to kill him. Yet God is still on the throne. God is still operative; He is still working behind the scenes, doing things in an awesome way.

Outline: God's works in ordinary ways. I know some of you are thinking that might be true, but don't fail to recognize that God works in very ordinary ways. Sometimes God works supernaturally in natural ways. Here, somehow, in some way, Paul's nephew heard about this. God had set it up, and Paul's nephew was able to come and speak to Paul. There was an open door for him to come in and share this with Paul, and then the Roman commander actually listened to Paul's nephew. This little boy that comes in has something to say, and now the commander takes it to heart.

God can work in very ordinary ways. Yes, sometimes He works in extraordinary ways; sometimes He works in miraculous and mysterious ways. But God still works in just very ordinary, normal circumstances. The hand of God is moving.

You see, there are three other situations in the Book of Acts alone where individuals in prison are miraculously freed. In Acts chapter five, the apostles are kept by the chief priests in a detention cell in Jerusalem. An angel of the Lord appears, opens the doors, and says, "Go and preach in the temple," and they go. In Acts chapter twelve, Peter is in prison. Herod had put him there for his witness of Jesus, and God sends an angel to him, opens the door, and says, "Come on, let's go." In Acts chapter sixteen, Paul and Silas are in a jail in Philippi, in stocks at midnight, worshiping the Lord. An earthquake happens, all the doors are opened, and ultimately the Lord makes it so they leave that place.

So, God can work in miraculous and powerful ways, but He still works in very ordinary and normal things.

In verse twenty-three, the commander called two centurions. A centurion represented at least eighty Roman soldiers. He says to prepare two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night, which is nine o'clock at night. Hours were calculated from six in the morning to six in the evening. So, at the third hour of the night, at nine o'clock, he wanted two hundred Roman soldiers in full armor with their swords, along with two hundred spearmen. These Roman soldiers not only had swords but also had spears about seven and a half feet long, weighing between seven and eleven pounds. These guys could throw with incredible accuracy and take out an opponent.

The machine gun of the first century was a formidable force. The commander said, "I want 200 spearmen, 200 soldiers, and 70 mounted Roman soldiers on horses." Why are we going to war? No, we have something to do. We need to provide mounts to set Paul on and bring him safely to Felix, the governor down in Caesarea. I want you to put Paul on a horse in the middle of 70 Roman horsemen, with 200 soldiers at the front and 200 soldiers at the back. You are going to take him from Jerusalem to Caesarea, a distance of 60 miles.

About two weeks before this, Paul had come from Caesarea to Jerusalem, and it wasn't an easy journey. The commander then wrote a letter in the following manner: "Claudius Lysias, to the most excellent governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them. Coming with troops, I rescued him." I love the way this guy whitewashes history. He claims, "I rescued him having learned that he was a Roman." He says, "I found out that the Jews were going to try and kill a Roman citizen, so I went in and protected him." That's not quite how it happened.

He rescued Paul when he learned that he was a Roman, and he wanted to know the reason for the accusations against him. He brought Paul before their council and found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law, but nothing—notice this—nothing was charged against him deserving of death or chains. When it was told to me that the Jews lay in wait for him, I sent him immediately to you and also commanded his accusers to stay before you. The charges against him are farewell.

God works in extraordinary ways, too. I have to think that at nine o'clock that night, when they set Paul on a horse surrounded by 70 Roman horsemen, with 200 soldiers at the front and 200 soldiers at the back, he had to chuckle and say, "God, you're amazing." Have you ever been in a circumstance like that where you just look around and think, "I don't know how you do it, but you do"? Here Paul is, with a full Roman escort to Caesarea. How am I going to get out of this bind? I don't know how I'm getting out of this.

Bind, Paul. I got you covered. God says, "I got a plan." I wonder if, when Paul wrote to the Ephesians and said, "God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think," he didn't think about this situation. I wonder if he didn't go back to that night in Jerusalem when he was surrounded by Roman soldiers, not to kill him, but to protect him, as his own countrymen conspired to kill him.

The soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night to Antepartus, about halfway between. The next day, they left the horsemen to go on with him. So now, the seventy horsemen returned to Jerusalem, and Paul was with four hundred Roman soldiers. They returned to the barracks, and when they came to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him.

When the governor had read it, he asked from what province Paul was from, because the letter stated that Paul was a Roman citizen. He understood that Paul was from Cilicia. So he said, "I will hear you when your accusers also have come," and he commanded him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium. As we go on into the next chapter next week, we'll see that Paul had the freedom to go in and out. He was not a prisoner; he was protected by the Romans once again to stand trial as he was extradited from Jerusalem down to Caesarea. He was moved from one Praetorium to the next.

As we know, in the last ten years of Paul's life, he would spend the remainder of his life in this sort of situation. As we close, there are three things to keep in mind, three things to consider as we go from this text.

Number one: Be careful not to cover unrighteousness with religion. Be careful not to cover unrighteousness with religion. "Oh, I go to church on Sunday. Oh, occasionally I go to Ducati with the church to serve at the orphanage. I help with children's ministry. I give an offering. I raise my hands in church." Because I do all those things, it doesn't matter that I'm looking at pornography. It doesn't matter that I don't act with integrity at work. It doesn't matter that I jip people from time to time, that I backbite or gossip. It doesn't matter that I'm doing these things because I've covered it over with my religious service.

Be careful not to cover unrighteousness with religion. Why? Because the Lord sees. The Lord sees, and He will judge. One of the most heartbreaking things that I've seen in ministry has happened in the last month and a half.

Some of you know about one of the greats within Calvary Chapel, Pastor Bob Coy, who was the pastor of the 14th largest church in America, the largest Calvary Chapel, with twenty thousand people attending the church on a Sunday. It came out just about a month ago that he had been committing adultery with two different women. He lost his church, lost his ministry, and those things don't matter. What he lost is the reputation of being a man of God, giving the enemies of God the opportunity to blaspheme. This is heartbreaking, and so many of my friends within Calvary Chapel have been brought to tears by this.

Looking at this sort of thing happen is dangerous. We can cover over unrighteousness with religion. We might think, "Well, I’m a pastor," or "I serve at the church," or "I’m an elder."

Secondly, be careful not to misunderstand the sanctifying work that God brings through suffering. You might be suffering today; you might be going through a trial. God wants to do a work of glorifying Himself in and through that trial that you're walking through right now. Don't misunderstand it. Don't think that He is doing this because He is mad at you or that He just doesn't care. God has allowed it in your life to bring about His sanctifying work and His glorification through your life.

Thirdly, be careful not to miss the working of God in the natural and the ordinary. Don't fail to see God working in the little things and to be thankful for His working as He works in maybe not so miraculous or mysterious ways. Sometimes we are only looking for the miraculous and the mysterious, thinking, "Well, God’s not doing anything in my life because He’s not protecting me miraculously or providing by ravens from heaven." Don't fail to see the hand of God in the natural and the ordinary.

Amen.

Let's stand, and we'll close in prayer as the worship team comes and leads us in one more song.

Father God, thank You for this text. Thank You for the encouragement that we can receive by just looking at what You have done in and through the lives of men and women of faith who followed You faithfully in the past. God, we pray that You'd help us to walk in faithfulness as well. Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, Lord, help us to run this race in such a way that brings glory.

You don't allow us to cover over unrighteousness with religion. Lord, help us to see that the thing we are facing right now, which feels like a speed bump or an obstacle, is Your tool to transform us.

God, help us to recognize Your hand at work today and tomorrow as we go about our business this week. Work these things into our lives, we pray. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.