According to the Scriptures

Guest (Male): When we're encountering difficulty, it's a great time to seek the Lord so that we can hear from him. As Pastor Damian Kyle explains.

Damian Kyle: There's a certain place where circumstances go that the only thing that can sustain us is to have a word from God. God, how do you see this? I must hear from you. Give me a verse. Bring something to my remembrance, a spiritual gift, something that you want to communicate, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, prophecy. I must hear from you in this situation. Nothing that one person or 10 people or a hundred people could say to me can get me through what I'm going through here. And nothing else can take its place at times like that and certainly not in Christian in Christian service.

Guest (Male): As we go about our lives, we encounter all sorts of events, circumstances that can leave us confused, even discouraged. But when you stop to process it all in light of the bigger picture of God's providence, his presence, his pleasure and plan, well friend, that can really help you get through it. Today on according to the scriptures, this comes to our attention as we turn together to Acts 23. Let's get some much needed perspective and learn how to recognize the providence of God in our lives as we join Pastor Damian Kyle.

Damian Kyle: At this point in the trial, Paul did decide to move the focus of the trial off of himself and to instead put it on something biblical, just like he had done when he spoke to the Jews in the area of the temple as just a day or so earlier, had a chance to establish his innocence before the Jewish people against the charges being made against him. And he thought to himself, what a perfect waste of an opportunity to preach the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ to this group and how he longed to do that to the Jewish people.

And I think it's the same heart that he has in this setting and he takes the trial and he focuses it on something biblical, on resurrection. And I am convinced that he had every intention then of preaching Jesus, his death, his burial, his resurrection as an evidence of the truth of his claims to be the Jewish Messiah based upon the Old Testament scriptures. And this was the very kind of sermon that he had preached all day, every day during his three missionary journeys. Something he was familiar with. It was just a way to get the subject turned to Jesus in front of this audience.

But before he can continue his apologetic here, the two groups begin to fight over the issue of resurrection. And I think that Paul identified himself here as a Pharisee because the two groups of of those two groups, that was the group he was going to try his best attempt at preaching Jesus as the Messiah to them. The Sadducees because of their very bizarre and unbiblical beliefs were five steps behind the Pharisees in terms of trying to deal with them biblically for recognizing Jesus to be to be the Messiah. But at any rate, this is what occurs.

He's taken out of that setting, now brought back into the barracks. And the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for you have testified for me in Jerusalem. So you must bear witness at Rome. You put yourself in Paul's shoes at this point. I mean, his trip to Jerusalem, all the plans that he had for it, might have had for it and all of it lays in a heap right now before him. He comes here to try and build bridges with the Jewish community, the people that he wanted to reach with the gospel and and and to recognize Christ as the Messiah.

All of these efforts have been rebuffed, violently rebuffed on his part. He had spent missionary journeys gathering and offering among the Gentile churches to bring to the Christian church in Jerusalem in their hardship in order to build bridges between the the Jewish group that makes up the body of Christ and the Gentile group. And with all of the commotion that's occurred, there's not even a mention related to the offerings. This great endeavor of his has amounted to nothing. Luke doesn't even record for us whatever became of the offering. That's how quickly it slipped into insignificant.

And here is this trip where everyone had been warning him all along, don't go, don't go. Chains imprisonment are going to await you there, tribulation. And he'd been warned away. And instead he had come anyway and all of those things had happened. And so if you put yourself in Paul's shoes, you might imagine that you would be in a desperate need of a word from God for perspective and for God's perspective about what has just happened in Jerusalem. And God, what do I do now? I know we've all been in situations where we we think something's going to go a certain way.

And then it doesn't. And then it really doesn't. And we have so oriented our heart, our mind, our soul, our strength toward it turning out a certain way. And when something blows up on on the level that this blows up, it can be disorienting to us. I thought I heard, I thought this would turn, I thought that maybe and all all this kind of stuff. And when something like that happens, we need a word from God. And God gave it to him, Jesus himself dead. When somebody's in a and I mentioned every so often and and somebody's in a really really deep trial.

And it's true about our our own lives. When we're in an immense difficulty on the level of what Paul is in here, we are grateful for the encouragement that people give to us. We're grateful for all of that and it's important. But there's a certain place where circumstances go that the only thing that can sustain us is to have a word from God. God, how do you see this? I must hear from you. Give me a verse. Bring something to my remembrance, a spiritual gift, something that you want to communicate, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, prophecy.

I must hear from you in this situation. Nothing that one person or 10 people or a hundred people could say to me can get me through what I'm going through here. And sometimes I pray with people in the middle of a awful awful mess in their lives. And I'll pray something like that. God, thank you for the people that bring encouragement. But this brother and this sister here needs to hear something from you that they recognize. Maybe it's delivered to them through someone, but they'll recognize in the deliverance of it. This is God's word concerning my situation.

Then it becomes clear what's happening here. And what that encouragement and that perspective means to us and nothing else can take its place at times like that and certainly not in Christian in Christian service. And so here in the middle of all of this chaos of the day or a couple days prior and Jesus stood by Paul and and it's I don't think you can improve upon the outline of what happens here in in this encouragement in verse 11 is that Jesus just simply made him aware of three things. Number one, his presence and then number two, his pleasure and number three, his plan.

And concerning his presence, he just let Paul know I'm here. Sometimes when this kind of a trial hits, it feels like God is a million miles away, that he's not close by. And we need that reassurance. I am right next to you. Lots of verses in the Bible that affirm that within our lives that we can claim and and hold on to. And Paul needed that that reminder that the Lord was with him. Sometimes we can we can feel like he's sleeping or he's on a vacation or a hundred miles away, you know, a million miles away running the universe or whatever it it might be.

And and everything but seeing realizing that no, he is right here with me. Even though I can't see him, he's not only present but he's actively present in in my life. And then he tells Paul, be of good cheer and take courage. And so here Jesus informs Paul of his pleasure. So why would Paul why would the Lord tell him to be of good cheer except this really got Paul this really has Paul down. It it's really affected him what it is that has happened. And Jesus and he just encourages him there that be of good cheer, his pleasure with what Paul had done there in Jerusalem.

And he told him to take two reasons for encouraging his courage and and and letting him know you've testified for me in Jerusalem. Paul looks like a disaster to you. That's why you're discouraged. It looks like a disaster to you. I'm pleased. I'm happy with it. I'm happy with what you did. I am happy with what you spoke. I am happy with how you represented me. I am happy with what you tried to do among your people. I am pleased with what happened here. As often we can think that things have to turn out a certain way.

Million people saved or whatever it might be. And then this is the evidence of God's pleasure. It can be a disaster and God is happy with it. And he just lets him know that I'm I am pleased with what you've done here, Paul. And Jesus didn't want Paul at all even remotely consider this time in Jerusalem to be a failure. And how people respond to our service to the Lord and our walk with the Lord and and how they behave. Jesus is saying that's not a reflection on you, Paul. That's a reflection on them. You did great.

We have funny ways of of determining what's great. In the United States of America, success, you know, it's measured in terms of power and and money. And then that can carry over into our ministry lives or attitudes related to the kingdom. It can be a disaster. And God is pleased with it because we've been faithful even when our faithfulness produces the disaster. And there's something about knowing again in these low spots that occur in our lives and in our service to the Lord and walk with the Lord to know that as bad as these circumstances are around me, God says it brings him pleasure.

What I've done pleases him. And if we know that about these circumstances, it doesn't matter who is against us up against all of that that pleasure of of the Lord and it gets us through an awful lot in life. I just think about how priceless to Paul these words must have been and how much they are to us as well. And then he lets Paul know his plan. You must also bear witness at Rome. And so here Jesus revealed his plan to Paul. Would have looked very easy for Paul to look at his life and thought everything is spinning out of control.

And Jesus says, no. It's all going according to plan. Not your plan, but my plan. You came to Jerusalem and you did exactly what you wanted to do and what I wanted you to do. I am pleased with all of it. But because it goes sideways doesn't mean that you've exited my plan for your life. And I have a plan going forward from this. And the very thing that you've done here in Jerusalem, I'm going to have you do in Rome. This is all part of a plan, Paul. And you're right in the middle of my in the middle of my plan.

And and his fate not in the control of Rome and his enemies, the religious Jews, but his life and his fate completely in control of the Lord. And it's true of all of us. Jesus promised Paul that you're going to bear witness just as you did in Jerusalem. You're going to do the same thing in Rome. I'm sending you to Rome. Bible talks about a future and a hope. There's something wonderful at a low point in our lives when God speaks about the future. And more than about the future, but about what he has in mind for our lives concerning the future.

The hope that that infuses in us. I thought I'd blown up my whole ministry. I thought I'll never recover from what I what has happened here in Jerusalem. My name is mud. Three missionary journeys and everything that was done here, this will be the asterisk next to my name in the New Testament history. No, it's all part of a plan. And the plan is continuing, Paul. And it'll continue in Rome. And that 's why you might wonder when Paul ultimately makes his way to Rome and he stands before the Roman emperor, Paul would not use that opportunity to stand before Caesar in that courtroom as a an opportunity once again.

Not that he had tried, but once again he would not use it as an opportunity to explain his innocence and to gain his freedom. He would use it to preach Jesus Christ crucified and buried and risen again because he knew all the way back to this point here in the city of Jerusalem.