The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 23, verses 15 through 25.

Tony Clark: Yes, we are! God bless you. We are glad that you're here today. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. God bless you online as well, and we're thankful that the Lord has brought you out. Alright, let's dive into the word of God together. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter 23. We're going to be looking at verses 15 to 25 as we continue our verse-by-verse look at the book of Acts.

We're going through the New Testament on Sunday mornings. Keep in mind, I'll be back, we will be back picking up where we left off in the book of First Samuel so we can continue to go through the Old Testament on Wednesdays, the New Testament on Sundays, so we can get all that God has for us. Father, thank you that you have given us this book to guide our lives. Lord, that we can hear your heartbeat, so we can hear what you have to say on things.

Dear God, here we are once again sitting at your feet, waiting, Lord, to hear from you. Give us ears to hear, give us a heart to understand, give us a will to want to obey the things of God. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, Acts chapter 23, looking at verses 15 through 25. The title of this message is "In God's Hands." In God's hands. What a wonderful thought to have and a truth to embrace, that we're in God's hands.

This should bring us a level of comfort and a level of peace because knowing that we're in God's hands should calm our fears and it should comfort our hearts. In these verses, we will see how Paul was in God's hands and how God is going to reveal a plot that was planned against Paul to show him that he is in His hands. Now, by way of background, last week we saw the plot being formulated in verse 12 when a group of Jews were unhappy because the commander Claudius Lysias rescued Paul from their hands.

So a group of them banded together and said that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. We know from verse 13 that there were 40 of them who made this agreement. They ended up in verse 14 telling their plans to the chief priests and the elders, and this is where we pick it up. Look what it says there in verses 15 and 16. "Now you, therefore, together with the council, suggest to the commander that he 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."

So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and he told Paul. I guess he didn't get the memo: snitches get stitches. But either way, he didn't get it. Now, these 40 Jews were so desperate that they took their plan to and convinced the chief priests and the elders to take this plot to the council, which refers to the Jewish Supreme Court. They even gave them what to say when they met with them.

They told them in verse 15 to tell the Sanhedrin to bring Paul back and say that you want to make further inquiries about him, but we are ready to kill him when he comes near. This amazes me because how desperate are you to see someone you don't like ruined? It is obvious that they didn't have a real case against Paul that they were ready to agree to murdering him. And the Sanhedrin would not disappoint because they agreed to this plot in verse 20.

How sad it is when Christians and church people are known for things that gangs and the mob and the cartel and wicked people are known for. They will agree to conspiracy to murder and to become an accomplice to murder. We, as the people of God, are called to be different from the world. This shows us that God's people can have wickedness in their hearts to the point where we can be guilty of such wickedness.

This same religious crew killed Jesus in the Gospels, killed James, the brother of John, in Acts 12:2. They wanted to kill Peter, but God intervened by sending an angel to rescue him in Acts 12:7, showing the hand of God was upon his life. The Sanhedrin resembled more the mob or religious hitmen than a group of leaders representing God. This can happen to any of us if we don't stay close to Jesus in prayer, in Bible study, in church attendance.

We will become religious hitmen and women out seeking to destroy people's lives who don't see things the way we or our group sees them. We need to just be aware and be aware of what Jeremiah 17:9 says. It says that the heart is desperately wicked, who can know it? It can be wicked to the point where we will stoop to start doing wicked things. I'm talking about church folk, folks who call themselves Christians.

These were religious leaders here, people who are supposed to represent God, but they are religious hitmen now. They're part of the cartel, they're part of the mob or some gang affiliation that they're out here trying to take people out. Don't think you're beyond that. We're not beyond having this sort of wickedness in our hearts. The Bible says our hearts are desperately wicked. Out of abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

I have seen through your writings on social media and things being said about folks the wicked stuff that folks are saying. You're supposed to be Christians, like Christ, people of God, but the wickedness is coming out, the plotting, the ideas and things. We look more like the world. It looks like the church has become the religious cartel or the religious mob or some gang affiliation that we're out here trying to take people out.

I've seen and heard the wicked things that you said about our president. I heard it and I've seen it. So don't tell me that you're beyond the stuff that's going on here. For many folks, if they could, they'd take him out and wish somebody would. You're no different than these chief priests and religious leaders here. You can easily sit there all pious and say, "Oh, how could they do this and plan to kill this man?" when you, if you had the chance and knew you'd get away with it, you'd be guilty of the same type of stuff.

This is the kind of stuff that's in our heart that we need to be mindful of. Just because we are people of God or church folk, we aren't exempt from this kind of attitude. I've seen it. The ugly stuff you say about folks in leadership, folks in leadership in our nation. I've seen that. You're no different than here. The only thing, here's the difference between these folks and you: your story isn't being told in the pages of scripture.

But you're guilty of the same kind of stuff. I see this all the time, plastered on social media and plastered all over the news. I see it. Christian folk. I was talking to our leadership this morning, and the things that I have posted and seen, these folks out in the world that are looting and cutting up and doing all kind of craziness and all this stuff. I said they're lost. They're people of the world. They need Jesus.

We need to see them through the eyes of Jesus as weary and bruised, like sheep without a shepherd. We need to introduce them to the Savior Jesus Christ. But instead of Christians saying, "Yes, Pastor Tony, that's right," guess what? They're trying to kill me, kill my good name. And instead of me going out and the enemy shooting at me, I'm being shot by friendly fire behind me from Christians around the world.

Because we are wicked folks. We're wicked, and don't think we're pious and oh so holy and sanctimonious. No, we're guilty of the same kind of stuff that they're doing here. We just need to be mindful of that and just look ourselves in the mirror and say, "Yeah, I'm capable. Because of the wickedness in my heart, I'm capable of doing the same kind of thing that they're doing here." Now, we all know that there are no coincidences with God.

Here, Paul's sister's son was there and heard what they were planning to do. It wasn't a coincidence or Paul's nephew happened to be there. No, God had this little boy there. The question is: what was he doing in Jerusalem when the family of Paul lived in the city of Tarsus, which was approximately 400 miles away? Was he studying to become a rabbi like his uncle? It's very unlikely because they wouldn't care what happened to him seeing that he converted to Christianity.

Seeing that a Jewish family would disown any family member who converted to Christianity, many scholars believe, and I tend to side with them, that Paul's sister and her son converted to Christianity when he spent approximately 10 years back in Tarsus before Barnabas came and got him in Acts 11:25. So when Paul's nephew heard about the plot, we aren't told how, he went into the barracks, which was the Antonia Fortress, and told Paul.

Seeing that Paul wasn't formally charged with a crime, he was just in protective custody and was able to receive visitors. This teaches us a valuable lesson. God can use children, teenagers to do a work for Him if they are willing. This young man or child was the human instrument God used to protect Paul's life. My point is clear: don't write off your children as being too young to be used by God because we have a beautiful example here in our story.

Look at what else happened. Look at verses 17 and 18. "Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, 'Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him.' So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, 'Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you.'" Now, when Paul heard about this plot from his nephew, he called one of the centurions.

A centurion is a captain over 100 soldiers. Paul, respecting the ranking system of the Roman military, communicated to the commander Claudius Lysias through one of his captains. Paul commanding this centurion to take his nephew to the commander, and he did it, which shows the respect this centurion had for Paul's Roman citizenship. God told Paul in verse 11 of this chapter that he would bear witness for him in Rome, and Paul believed God's word.

God told him in Acts 18:10, "For I am with you and no one will attack you to hurt you." I bring this up because I want to show you how God works supernaturally in a very natural way. Look at the natural ways by which God protected Paul. God protected Paul from being beaten by using his Roman citizenship in Acts 22:22-29. God protected him again by using the Roman army to rescue him in Acts 21:32-34.

God protected him by being in protective custody in a Roman prison in Acts 23:10. Finally, God protected Paul by allowing his nephew to hear a plot to kill him. God has us in His hands, but so often we miss seeing that it is Him because we chalk it up as a coincidence. "Oh, I was just lucky that time," or "just by chance." Or like Mary did in John 20:15 when she thought that Jesus was just the gardener.

Mary missed Jesus or mistook Him for the gardener because it was still dark when Jesus appeared to her, according to John 20:1, and because she had tears in her eyes, according to verse 11. We are no different. We can miss seeing that we are in God's hands when it is still dark in our lives or we're going through a dark period. When we have tears in our eyes or sorrow of heart, it can cause us to miss Jesus coming to us.

Even though it was dark outside in Mary's life and she had tears in her eyes, notice Jesus still came to her. The same is true in our lives. Jesus will still come to us when things are dark and unfortunate things are taking place in our lives. So the centurion brought Paul's nephew to the commander in verse 18 and says, "He has something to say to you." The question is: did the commander listen to Paul's nephew?

Look at verses 19 to 22. "Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside, and asked him privately, 'What is it that you have to tell me?' And he said, 'The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire more fully about him; 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 till they have killed him.'"

The centurion let the young man depart and commanded him, "Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me." Here we see the commander, desperate to get any information that will help him know what to do with Paul, took Paul's nephew by the hand, perhaps showing us that Paul's nephew was fairly young. Maybe the Roman military scene in the Antonia Fortress was a bit intimidating for the boy, and this is another reason why he took him aside.

So they went aside in a private place, according to verse 19, and he asked him, "What do you have to tell me?" The gentleness by which both the centurion and the commander treated Paul and his nephew shows that they were either finally treating Paul like a Roman citizen or they were starting to believe that Paul was really innocent. The nephew in verse 20 tells the commander in great detail the plot to kill Paul.

Now, we aren't told how he knew these details, but he tells how they have agreed to ask that Paul is brought down to the council the next day as if they were going to inquire more fully about him. But the nephew said in verse 21, "Do not yield to them, for more than 40 of them lie in wait for him." I am amazed at the details nephew knew. He even knew about the oath made by them: they would neither eat nor drink until they have killed Paul.

So he said, "And now, commander, they're waiting on the promise from you. The ball is in your court now." I love this story because God will always raise up a nephew to show us that we're in His hands. A nephew that will clear up the rumors and fake news about you by giving the details and the true story about us. I love that because I've had it happen to me so many times.

The stuff that's been going on lately, I've been pretty vocal about it on social media. And of course, being full of bullet holes from friendly fire from other Christians shooting at me, I've had God raise up several mega-church pastors chime in. When these Christians saw these folks taking up for what I was saying, they all just cowered down. God will always raise up a nephew, someone to give details about you and put to silence the fake news.

God is so gracious to do that for us. So the commander let the young man depart in verse 22 and told him not to tell anyone that he revealed these things to him. Look at verses 23 to 25. "And he called for two centurions, saying, 'Prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night, and provide mounts to set Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor.' And he wrote a letter in the following manner."

The commander didn't waste any time. He called two centurions saying, "Prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen from the Roman cavalry, and 200 spearmen who were javelin throwers to go to Caesarea," which was approximately 60 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the center of Jewish government and Caesarea was the Roman headquarters for the area where the governor Felix lived. Claudius Lysias had Paul escorted by 470 soldiers.

He made sure that a Roman citizen was not killed under his custody. Also, knowing that if these 40 Jews were anything like the ones who tried to kill Paul in Acts 21:31, he knew that they would fight to the death. If I was part of that 40 that said we neither eat nor drink until we have killed Paul, if I saw 470 soldiers pass by me, I would have been like, "Let's go get some ribs and some wings."

I think Denny's is open or IHOP is open this time of night. I'm not fooling with 470 of them. I'm good, bro. Is there a burger joint that's open at this hour? I would have been gone. According to verse 23, they took Paul at the third hour of the night, which was around 9:00 PM. Seeing that speed was important, they put Paul on mounts. Their mission was to bring Paul safely to Felix the governor.

Just a bit of history: Felix is the only slave in Roman history who became a governor. Felix was very, very cruel. He became governor because his brother Pallas was a friend of Caesar Nero. The Roman historian Tacitus said this about Felix: "He executes the prerogatives of a king with the spirit of a slave." Although he was in power as a governor, Felix retained a slave's mentality of getting back at the world.

As was required for a Roman officer bringing a prisoner to his supervisor, he had to write a letter stating why he was bringing this particular person. Luke, the author of Acts, summarizes this letter in the following verses that we will read about God's will next time. I wanted to end a little bit early because we have some things to consider. In this study, we saw how we are in God's hands. He works supernaturally in a very natural way.

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