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By Pastor Glenn Pease
Paul and Socrates had so many things in common.
Both were trying to enrich their own people.
Paul was trying to enrich the Jews, and Socrates was trying to enrich the Greeks.
But both were brought to trial before the Supreme Court of their cultures on charges of corrupting the people.
Both were hated because of jealously and competition.
They were both considered trouble- makers because of their opposition to tradition.
Both were kept in prison, but they were granted freedom to visit with their friends.
Paul wrote letters to the churches, and Socrates wrote poetry and put Aesop's Fables into verse.
They both eventually died in captivity at the hands of the state, and both looked forward to a better life in the world to come.
On one point, however, they were radically different.
Socrates refused all plans of escape from his enemies, but Paul looked for every possible escape.
The result was that Socrates survived one month, and Paul survived for years.
His aggressive and clever maneuvers got him out of one jam after another and gave him extra years to accomplish the plan of God for his life.
Acts 23 is a record of some of Paul's close calls and clever escapes.
It begins with Paul standing before the Sanhedrin, which was the Supreme Court of Israel.
There were 71 judges on this court, which was led by the high priest.
The first we see take place in this court takes place in the defendant's eyes.
Dr. Luke is obviously there, for he writes this account as an eyewitness.
He is an eyewitness to the eyes of the key witness, for he observing Paul's eyes.
These eyes, which had been blinded by the light of Christ's presence on the road to Damascus, and 3 days later were opened by a miraculous healing.
Paul's eyes had been through a lot because of Jesus, and now they were in court with the rest of His accused body.
Ever since those eyes had seen Jesus they saw everything else in a new light.
Paul saw in the Old Testament what he never saw before, and all of life looked different to him.
He, no doubt, would have agreed with Helen Keller who said, "I have often thought it would be a blessing if each human being were stricken blind for a few days at sometime during his early adult life.
Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight."
It certainly worked for Paul, and he became a much more careful observer after his blindness and restoration to sight.
His observation became a key to his survival time and time again, as it does in this chapter.
It begins with Paul looking at the situation intently because he knows that if he is going to get out of this mess he had to see something that would show him the way out.
Paul's life illustrates the link, not only between listening and salvation, as we saw in chapter 22, but between seeing and salvation, which is part of his conversion account, and the clever escapes of this chapter.
We cannot go into this in depth, but we need to make it clear that the eye gate is one of the primary ways that God gets into our life to guide us.
The New Testament story begins with salvation by seeing.
The wise men came saying, "We have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." Had the wise men never seen that star, they never would have seen the Messiah.
Their eyes brought them to Jesus, and so it has been with millions.
People not only hear the Gospel, the see it in the lives of other people, and in the love of those who have been changed by Christ.
Jesus said, "If I be lifted up I will draw all men to me."
Through the centuries millions have looked up to the Christ on the cross and have been compelled to repent when they saw the love of such a Savior.
Some, like Paul, have had very special visions of Christ.
Placidus was a Roman nobleman who was out hunting and suddenly confronted by a deer with its proud head uplifted and between its antlers a gleaming cross.
He was so struck by the sight that he fell from his horse to his knees.
He repented and became a believer on the spot.
History is full of stories of those who were saved by what they had seen.
Many have given testimony as to how their eyes have been opened after seeing Christ, and how they then began to see all His handiwork in a new light.
George Robinson wrote in his hymn, "Heaven above is softer blue, earth around is sweeter green, something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen."
Billy Bray, the evangelist of the 19th century, said when he was converted, "I remember this, that everything looked new to me, the people, the fields, the cattle, the trees, I was a new man in a new world."
This describes Paul, and we can study the rest of his life just from the point of view of how he saw all things different after he saw the living Christ.
He became a man of keen observation, and because of it he was able to see a way out of what seemed like hopeless situations.
Chapter 23 is a key case in point.
He stands before this awesome body of judges that could take his life, and he stares at them.
The Greek word here is used again in Acts 3:12 where we read Peter's response to the crowd that had gathered when he healed the crippled beggar: "Men of Israel, why does this surprise you?
Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk?"
They were staring at Peter trying to see how it was possible for a mere man to do what he did.
They were staring like we stare at a magician trying to catch the move that reveals how he does his trick.
So Paul was staring at his judges, and what a story those staring eyes told.
Paul was not merely looking down at the floor like a loser who was ready to submit to his powerful foes.
Instead, with head held high he boldly gazes at his accusers.
The odds are overwhelming against him, but he does not flinch.
Like an Indiana Jones, he looks intently for a way of escape.
There is no end to the possibilities in God's providence for the man who keeps looking for a way out.
In his Locusts And Wild Honey the naturalist John Burroughs says the secret of observation lies in the habit of decisive gazing.
He writes, "Not by a first casual glance, but by a steady, deliberate aim of the eye, are the rarest things discovered.
You must look intently and hold your eye firmly to the spot, if you are to see more than do the rank and file of mankind."
Paul saw many things others did not see, and his powers of observation are noted by Dr. Luke.
In chapter 27 he saw a dangerous storm in the atmosphere when the captain of the ship was blind to it.
He saw solutions to problems that nobody else saw.
Now we see Paul seeing his apparent hopeless situation from a totally different perspective then it would look like to any other observer.
It looks like 71 to 1 to everybody else, and it was a foregone conclusion that Paul would be loser.
But Paul was seen what was not evident on the surface.
He was staring at his opponent and observing that those 71 men were not united in all points.
They were both Saducees and Pharisees with many points of disagreement.
Paul saw a way to divide and conquer.
It was only 71 to 1 if all eyes were on him, but what if he could get the focus on another issue, such as the concept of resurrection where these 71 were divided in their views?
This is exactly what Paul does, and by this strategy he escapes the clutches of his enemies again.
Paul teaches us that one of the key ways by which we can be open to the guidance of God is by the power of observation.
We need to be wise in the use of our eyes if we are going to rise above what is, and grasp the prize of what can be God's surprise in leading us to overcome the evil guys.
Paul has the reputation of having very poor eyesight, and yet he saw what most never do.
God even gave him a rare vision of heavenly glory because Paul's eyes were dedicated to seeing what God wanted him to see.
Paul was a satisfied see-er of life.
This combined with his ears ever ready to listen to God's voice.
It made him the unique instrument he was for doing God's will.
His eyes and ears carry him though the rest of his life allowing him to outwit all of the clever sources of his enemies to destroy Him.
I wanted to just move along in his chapter, but I saw in Paul's stare such an important lesson that runs all through the Bible.
I decided we need to look longer at the subject of seeing, for the power of observation is the key to many values in the Christian life.
The power of observation, for example, is the key to-
I. DISCOVERY.
Paul had to observe detail and be able to see their relevance to his need, in order to keep escaping as he did.
Paul had a knack for being able to see whom he could trust.
He was always discovering people that helped him change the world for Christ.
He saw in young men like Timothy and Titus the potential to make a difference in the world.
He was able to see when a person was ready to respond to the Spirit of God.
In Acts 14:9 we read of a crippled man at Lystra who was listening to Paul preach.
It says, "Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed."
Seeing that, he called upon to stand up and he did.
A miracle happened because Paul could see the faith of another person.
Paul was finding hidden treasure everywhere he went because he had eyes that could discern the presence of the unseen.
The point is, people like Paul, who are observant, see more than others who may have better physical vision, but who are not seeing all that might be discovered in a situation.
Paul did not have this kind of insight before he saw Christ.
He was so blind he could not see the marvelous faith of Stephen but watched him being stoned to death as a heretic.
Stephen was looking up to heaven and seeing Jesus at the right hand of the Father, but Paul could not see the authenticity of his faith.
Paul did not see faith until he was blinded, and then restored in his vision.
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