The Word Made Plain

Narrator: 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 26 through 35.

Tony Clark: Come on, Claudius Lysias! You didn't find out that Paul was a Roman citizen until later on. But he is making it sound like he came and rescued him because he was a Roman citizen. Not true. Let us be careful as believers that we aren't embellishing stories to try to make ourselves look good to our supervisors, embellishing resumes, or embellishing stories on interviews in order to put ourselves in a better light to get a job.

If all you did was work as a janitor, don't put on your resume that you were a sanitation engineer. You were a janitor. Don't try to embellish the story to make yourself look good, especially during pandemics. I'm not going to say jobs are hard to come by; jobs are all over the place. Folks just don't want to work today. Jobs are all over the place. But let us not embellish stories on resumes or in interviews to try to make ourselves look good. Why? Because it is a form of lying. We're doing it for selfish reasons to make ourselves look better, like Claudius Lysias is doing here.

Notice how Claudius left out the part that he was about to have Paul scourged. He left that out because his military career would have been over for scourging a Roman citizen. He did bring Paul before the Jewish council, like the end of verse 28 says, but he left out how they first thought Paul was an Egyptian assassin, which was not true. I was thinking about this this morning. Let us be careful that we aren't making false assumptions about people before we have all the facts about them.

It's an old saying about judging a book by its cover, and we do it all the time. We see folks, maybe down on their luck, or folks that may be holding up a sign, and we just start saying things about them. We've got to be careful. I've said it many times before: All of us are just one paycheck away from holding up our own sign. Let us not make false assumptions about people before we get all the facts. They thought that Paul was an Egyptian assassin that a few years earlier had led 4,000 assassins into the desert. They thought that he was coming back to do some more damage. It wasn't true. We can easily make false assumptions about people, and we need to be careful that we aren't doing the same thing.

Another category or form of lying is leaving out important facts in order to give someone a false impression. This is key. If we leave out certain events in our story to make us look innocent, but if those events were put back into the story we would be guilty, that's a form of lying because you're leaving out important facts to give a false impression.

For example, "Where you been?" "I told you I had to go to the store." "Well, what took you so long?" "You know, you have to practice that six-foot social distance. The line was out the door." But you left out that you saw an old girlfriend there, and y'all got into a conversation and exchanged some pleasantries. You left out key information to give a false impression that it was just a long line because of COVID, but you left out the part that as the line was out the door, you were in line talking to an old girlfriend. By leaving out those events, you gave a false impression to the person you told the story to. That's a form of lying because if those events were put back in there, you know you'd get called on the carpet and there'd be a lot of yelling going on.

We've got to be careful with this sort of stuff. This is what Claudius Lysias was doing to his supervisor, leaving out certain events. He failed to tell his supervisor, "Yeah, I was about to scourge old boy; he was about to get a good beatdown." He left that part out because he knew his military career would have been in jeopardy had he gone through with it.

Look at verses 29 and 30: "I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law, but had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains. And when it was told me that the Jews lay in wait for the man, I sent him immediately to you and also commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against him. Farewell."

Claudius Lysias says something very important in verse 29. He says, "I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law, but had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains." He was saying that Paul was innocent. We cannot stop people from accusing us of things, but the real question is, are they true? For Paul, Claudius Lysias said that he had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains.

The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 2, in the qualifications of being a pastor, that he must be blameless. It doesn't say sinless, and blameless doesn't mean sinless. The Greek word for blameless is *anepileptos*, and it means not able to be held. It means to live in such a way that you cannot be arrested and held as a criminal. There is nothing to accuse or point the finger at you. This is one of the qualifications of a pastor, but this is addressed to all Christians because the Bible is for all Christians. Those who are called to be a pastor, we are to be the example of this qualification.

Claudius Lysias said this about Paul. I just wonder what those around us are saying about us? I pray that a Claudius Lysias can say this about us as Christians, that there's nothing able to point the finger. "Hey, did you know they were a Christian over there?" "Oh, yeah, they always work hard, they just do a great thing," and they have nothing evil to say of us.

I'm sure that the Governor Felix, reading that Paul was innocent or not deserving of chains, was probably wondering the same thing I would be. If this man is innocent, then why is this man being sent to me? Claudius continues to explain in verse 30 that he was told—and we know it was by Paul's nephew—that the Jews lay in wait for this man. "And I sent him immediately to you." He was saying that Paul's safety meant that he had to leave the city of Jerusalem.

Now hold up. If I was the Governor reading this, I would have been like, "Okay, if he's innocent, then why are you sending him to me?" Number two, Claudius, you're in charge and the commander of 1,000 Roman soldiers. Why was his life in danger? If you're in charge of 1,000 Roman soldiers and you said that 40 Jews lie in wait, why are you sending him to me? You and 1,000 soldiers couldn't keep this one man safe? I would have been questioning his leadership and his military abilities.

Then he ended by saying that he commanded his accusers to state before Felix the charges against him. Let's see what else happens. Look at verses 31 and 32: "Then the soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. The next day they left the horsemen to go on with him and returned to the barracks." Now with this letter in their hand, the soldiers went on a forced march and took Paul by night to the city of Antipatris, which was 35 to 40 miles from Jerusalem.

It was a Roman military post often used as a rest stop for travelers between the cities of Jerusalem and Caesarea. It was the halfway point. Herod the Great built it in honor of his father, Antipater. To reach this distance in one night required a serious forced march. We know from last week that they left at 9:00 PM and they marched 35 to 40 miles in one night. It says the next day they were there, and they left the 70 horsemen to go on the rest of the way with Paul because the danger was now behind them. The 200 foot soldiers and the 200 spearmen returned to the Antonia Fortress back to the barracks in Jerusalem according to verse 32.

Look at verses 33 to 35: "When they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to the governor, they also presented Paul to him. And when the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. And when he understood that he was from Cilicia, he said, 'I will hear you when your accusers have also come.' And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium." Now when Paul came to Caesarea, which was about 35 to 40 miles from Antipatris, they delivered the letter to the governor and they presented Paul to him.

The governor read it, and Felix asked Paul what province he was from because he wanted to know whether he had jurisdiction to hear this case. When he understood that he was from the area of Cilicia, he said, "I will hear you when your accusers also have come." And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium. Some extensive excavations were done in this particular area between the years of 1993 and 1998, and they uncovered Herod's Praetorium and it confirmed the things that we are talking about in these verses.

We see the faithfulness of God to Paul. God told Paul in Acts 23 and verse 11 that he would be a witness for Him in Rome. So God protected him from the ambush along the road by the 40 Jews and brought him safely to Caesarea. Now he is being kept in Herod's Praetorium, which was the headquarters of the governor. It was a beautiful place on the Mediterranean Sea. Paul was on the beach for two years as he goes through a series of trials where he was found innocent. Why? Because God told him that he was going to bear witness for Him in Rome. And so God protected him.

Please understand that God is faithful. In 1 Corinthians 1:9, it talks about God being faithful. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 says, "But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one." We see God's faithfulness to Paul, and God will be faithful to us because He has a work for us to do for Him, and He will be faithful to protect us until this work is accomplished. I remember hearing one pastor say this, and I've stolen it from him ever since. This was a good 30 years ago. He said that we as believers are invincible until God is finished using us.

That is true. Nothing can happen to us until God is done using us, and then He'll just take us home to be with Him. He has a work for all of us to do, and He will guard us and protect us until we accomplish that work. God said, "Paul, you're going to testify, give your testimony of the work I've done in your life. You're going to give that testimony in Rome." So it doesn't matter what happens to you, you're getting to Rome. I'm going to protect you until you get there and do the work that I've called you to do. And so as Paul enjoys life on the beach in protective custody, waiting on his accusers to arrive, we will see what happens, God's will, next time.

Let me conclude with this. We talked about passing the buck. We cannot accomplish what God has for us if we pass the buck because what we're doing is difficult or hard. Did you know that the difficulties are the way that God prepares us for His work? God will always prepare us in the difficult seasons, in the midnight hour. Before God sends a man, He prepares a man, and so often He prepares us through difficult circumstances.

He took Moses in the backside of the desert for 40 years, preparing him. God took the apostle Paul for three years in the Arabian Desert. So often God takes us in the desert, into isolated places, in places we think are dry. Those are times He's preparing us. God prepares us in isolation when we feel that we're abandoned by God. Ask the apostle John. When he was isolated and abandoned on the Island of Patmos is when he received the book of Revelation.

I just wonder what God wants to reveal to us, but we're in an isolated situation, questioning whether God is still there or not. God prepares us in the difficult times. I am who I am because of the difficult things that have happened in my life, not because of the good things. I thank God for the good times. Amen. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah when things are good. But I've really seen God in the midnight hour when it was dark in my life. One third of our New Testament is written by the apostle Paul. And guess what? The majority of these letters were written while he was in prison.

The one letter that gives all of us as believers the most joy is the book of Philippians. It's all about joy. And he wrote that in prison. I wonder if we can talk about joy in our prison, whatever it is that you feel imprisoned to. Can you still speak about joy? Or are you angry over God allowing this to happen to you? Let me tell you something. You're listening to somebody who questioned God just that way. "God, why did you allow this to happen? Why?" And I was in a funk.

But God said, "I'm just preparing you. Stay the course. Keep your eyes on Me. I'm just preparing you." That's how God prepares us in the difficult times. Often we don't get a chance to do all that God wants us to do because we pass the buck and didn't want to go through the difficult situation. We pass it off to someone else, and someone else got the experience that God wanted for us. Then they go on to do something and we wonder, "Well, why don't you ever use me?" Because every time the difficult preparation time comes, we're passing the buck off for somebody else to deal with it.

God is speaking to some folks today. This is how God prepares us. This goes for parenting, it goes for job responsibilities, or whatever it is God has for us. It is so easy to pass the buck because we don't want the responsibility that comes with our job or our ministry. This is where we cry out to God and ask Him to help and empower us to be a parent, a single parent, supervisor, or leader. Let us not pass the buck like Claudius Lysias did because the person, the child, or position is too hard.

This is how we grow in these areas, when we take on the responsibility and cry out to God to help us to succeed by the power of His spirit. He's not asking us to do this in our own strength; He gives us His power to empower us to do what we can't do on our own. He's not saying, "Okay, now do it in your own strength." No, we can't. It's only as we ask Him and cry out to Him. "God, give me the power, *dunamis*." The Greek word *dunamis* is where we get "dynamic" from. Give me the dynamic power I need to carry out the work that You've called me to do.

But we end up passing the buck and we don't have any toughness in us. We don't have any stick-to-it-ness about us. Joseph was able in the book of Genesis to forgive his brothers who put him in a pit, left him for dead, then pulled him out and sold him as a slave. Their little brother, sold as a slave because they were jealous of him. He was able to later on forgive them because he felt forsaken and forgotten in a prison for two years.

God was working in his heart. The Bible said that a leanness, a toughness entered into his soul in that prison. He had a chance to work things out with God, and God was saying, "I'm with you. I haven't forsaken you. I'm doing a work in you." Then when he got exalted to the second in charge in Egypt, he hadn't seen his brothers in a long time. They come, and they don't even know it's Joseph because by now he looks Egyptian. And he recognizes them.

Had he not gone through the difficulty of the prison, of being falsely accused or feeling forgotten, he would have looked at those brothers and said, "Yeah, it's about time for some revenge here." But God broke his heart because he had to be broken in the prison of being forgotten and falsely accused. That's why his heart was able to break when he saw his brothers.

It's in the difficult seasons and the tough times that God is preparing us for the work. If he had envy, anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness in his heart, God wouldn't have elevated him to be second in charge in Egypt. God would have said, "No, I can't use that." He would have been in leadership and he would have had a vengeful spirit. God can't use that at all.

So God uses those things. But when we pass the buck, we miss out on the opportunity for God to do His internal work in us. We miss out on the breaking He wants to do of our pride, our anger, and our selfishness. It's through the difficult times that He breaks us. This pandemic broke me down to Chinatown. It broke me. So I know that God has a future work that's going to blow my mind because He had to take me through this pandemic. Everybody has a story of what the pandemic did to them.

I know what was in my heart, and He revealed it during this time. I said, "Oh Lord, I'm sorry that was in my heart." And the work He's going to do is going to just blow my mind. Now I see what You were doing.

Keep in mind that God will be faithful to us to fulfill whatever it is He's calling us to do. He's going to be faithful to you and He's going to be faithful to me because He has a work for us to do. He's going to be faithful to work that work in us if we allow Him. If you have a habit of passing the buck all the time, you're going to miss out.

That difficulty is why He's allowed it. There's something in you and in me that needs to be broken, humbled, and brought to the foot of the cross. This situation, this person, and this responsibility is part of the breaking process that's going to prepare us for the work He's called us to do. God is faithful; He will establish us and guard us from the evil one until we accomplish the work He has for us to do. Let's pray.

Father, thank You for Your word. Thank You for Your spirit. We pray that the word of God would sink deep in our hearts. Lord, I pray for those who want to give up or pass the buck because whatever it is they're doing is too difficult for them. I pray that they would humble themselves before You. God, work in them. Strengthen them where they're weak and build them up where they're torn down. Work in them, Lord, in the way that only You can.

[—Narrator—]

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