Acts 23:12-

Acts • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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Two weeks ago we discussed the paradox of people rising to high positions in the church who were not doing the Lord’s work. We have example after example and this has lead many to question their faith or faith in Jesus in general. But as we discussed the Bible foresees and cautions us against this very occurrence. Just a few chapters ago we read in Acts 20:

15 “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

So rather than letting false teachers make shipwreck of our faith, we should see the authority and sufficiency of the Bible and it’s role in preparing us for this eventuality.

Background

We are still in Jerusalem following the festival of weeks or Pentecost. Paul has been imprisoned following a hearing before the Sanhedrin that devolved into a fist fight.

Text

English Standard Version Chapter 23

A Plot to Kill Paul

12 When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. 13 There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. 14 They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. 15 Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near.”

16 Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. 17 Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” 18 So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, “Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you.” 19 The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” 20 And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him. 21 But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.” 22 So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.”

So we have these men who have literally put themselves “under a curse”

anathematizo = put under a curse

You can imagine that as the two years pass that Paul is in the custody of few of these men starved to death. As N.T. Wright puts it

Acts for Everyone, Part 2: Chapters 13–28 The Oath and the Plot (Acts 23:12–22)

I imagine the high priest found a legal loophole to absolve them from their silly vow. Or maybe, since they were legal experts, they invented one themselves. It wouldn’t be the first or the last time. And—since part of the point of all this is that they were the ultra-orthodox legal experts, concerned above all for the honour of God and his law—there would be a nice irony in imagining them cautiously explaining to their own consciences how even that most solemn oath hadn’t quite meant what it said.

We also learn here that Paul had family in Jerusalem. How much and whether or not they supported his ministry is unknown. It is likely though that they were meeting his needs in prison. Prisoners had their needs met by friends or family, they were not provided for by the authorities who had them in custody

This passage is not the most dynamic in terms of delving in and finding a lot of deeper meaning. But it does give us an opportunity to pull back and take a 30,000 foot view of God’s plan. And consider evil. why is James killed in Acts 12 and Peter goes free. Why is Paul spared this attempt on his life only to e beheaded in Rome 10 years later?

Let’s consider some world views and how they interact with evil

To an Atheist the world is cosmic chance which if we are honest about that world view should precluded right and wrong. The hip-hop and spoken word artist Propaganda puts it this way:

“That if human behavior is just what protoplasm does at this temperature, Then there is no need for humanitarian effort, Because these atrocities weren't wrong, It's just the universe weeding out bad genes”

Another world view is Theism. The position of a Theist someone who believes in a God just not the personal God of Christianity views our relationship to the divine like a clock maker who set the whole thing in motion and then stepped away. Which either means He is capricious or evil, or a poor designer that produced a faulty product. In that model we aren’t part of a long beautiful story that leads us back to a loving Father, which is our only hope.

Buddhism doesn't believe there is a God therefore it is up to us to put into the world good and love and to suppress evil. In other words our hope is ourselves and our actions...

Many Muslims believe they are only on Earth for a short time. This life is a test from Allah where they must endure evil and suffering as preparation for Paradise.

Regarding the Christian view on evil and suffering Tim Keller write: “The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experiences of cosmic abandonment. Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond even the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power excels ours. In his death, God suffers in love, identifying with the abandoned and godforsaken. Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on a rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us. … If we again ask the question: ‘Why does God allow evil and suffering to continue?’ and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is. However, we know what the answer isn’t. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself. … So, if we embrace the Christian teaching that Jesus is God and that he went to the Cross, then we have deep consolation and strength to face the brutal realities of life on earth.”

So if I say to you Paul clearly was spared here to advance the Gospel to the most powerful city in the world. Which would then begin a chain of events which is not to hard to follow to this very evening in the park. You might ask, sure, but couldn’t he have had a quiet retirement afterwards? Or we discuss any number of the thousands of examples of evil or suffering for or apart from working for the Gospel. Anyone who says they have the answer for those events is likely diluted. But if we look at the possible s lenses through which we can consider these things; atheism, deism, Buddhism, Islam, there is only one that says God entered into the world to share in our suffering, and though that action He will set everything right.

Matt Chandler wrote on this topic:

“Evil and suffering, he added, are even “more of a problem” for the secular world, because Christians have answers “that at least fit into a worldview that acknowledges the world is broken, and there is hope in that brokenness."

“It doesn’t mean it’s always gonna go easy. It doesn’t mean we’re always gonna understand, but there is a hope that we possess,”