Acts 28:17-31 Live By Faith!

Acts 28:17-31  Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders.  When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.  They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.  The Jews objected, so I was compelled to make an appeal to Caesar.  I certainly did not intend to bring any charge against my own people.  For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you.  It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.”  They replied, “We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of our people who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.  But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect.”  They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying.  He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus.  Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.  They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet:“ ‘Go to this people and say,“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”  For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.  “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”  For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.  He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance!

In the above focus, we see Paul in Rome, the center of the western world preaching the gospel.  His life after the Lord’s interdiction carried only one theme, to preach the Good News of God’s grace and mercy to all people.  The Lord said to Ananias, “Go!  This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.  This personal commission from the Lord caused him to endure much suffering as he ministered the Good News to people in Israel and in the surrounding communities of the Greeks.  I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.  That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.  (Romans 1:14-15)  He never backed off in preaching the salvation plan of God’s mercy and grace for all people.  Once he had lived as a self-righteous Rabbi, zealous about keeping the purity of Judaism.  He had a murderous heart, willing to kill men and women if they strayed from the law of Moses.  He was willing to have children orphaned for the cause of his religious views.  Paul was a man of a hard heart and sightless eyes.  But the Lord physically blinded his spiritually sightless eyes, and by doing that He also opened up Paul’s stopped ears to the mercy and goodness of God.  So Paul who once was the quintessential Jew of the law was now a servant of the Creator God who made all people in his image.  From Jerusalem this Good News of God’s love towards all people would travel around the world.  Paul was a chief instrument to see the word of God reach the Gentiles.  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.  For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written:  THE RIGHTEOUS WILL LIVE BY FAITH.   (Romans 1:16-17)  Paul was first obligated to minister this Good News to his beloved Jews.  After his salvation experience, he ministered to the Jews in Damascus and then in Jerusalem.   The Jerusalem Jews wanted no part in this gospel of the Good News.  For the Jews, the law of Moses was enough of God’s revelation for them.  They needed no other revelation of God’s nature.  They knew the God who demanded obedience to his law; anything else would bring the judgement of God hard upon them.  The Jerusalem Jews railed so strongly against this new teaching and against Paul, a messenger of this "cultish belief," that they planned to kill Paul.  The nascent church of Jerusalem found out about this plan to murder Paul, so they sent him packing back to his home: Tarsus.  At this time it looked as if Paul’s ministry about Jesus being Lord was over.  However a revival hit the city of Antioch.  Barnabas a faithful Christian Jew in Jerusalem was sent to Antioch to observe what was happening.  He found that many in that city were turning to the Lord.  He then realized he would need additional help to minister The Way of the Lord to these new converts, so he went to Tarsus to find Paul, at that time called, Saul.  He found Saul, convinced him to accompany him to Antioch.  So Saul resumed his calling by the Lord, ministering the gospel in Antioch.  

But as with Jesus before him, the Good News was primarily given to the Jews.  The Chosen People were to learn about the Good News of Jesus being the Messiah first.  Some accepted this mysterious plan of God revealed to them in the last days, but most refused to alter their belief in obeying fervently the law of Moses.  Any other teaching was cultish and deserved death.  Jesus’ teaching and activity was centered in Palestine.  He loved his people; God his Father loved his chosen, but the chosen refused to accept Jesus as the Messiah, the Redeemer.  Most of the leaders and priests of the Israelites thought of Jesus as a bastard child with no authority from God to alter the religion of the Jews in any way.  But God’s everlasting love reached out to the Jew first. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.  Look, your house is left to you desolate.  For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.  (Matthew 23:37-39)  The Jewish leaders and priests would achieve their goal in murdering this “cult” leader as far as they were concerned.  They needed the help of the Romans for only their authorities could administer capital punishment.  At first the people greeted Jesus as a Savior, a man from God.  They had heard of Lazarus being raised from the dead.  Many had seen Jesus perform multiple miracles of healing.  As Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a colt, they greeted him with joy.  However, later their joy evolved into hatred and bitterness.  Their initial hope rested in Jesus as being their coming King.  He supposedly would deliver them from Rome's heavy hand of occupation.  But instead of him being elevated by God’s sovereign power as their King, they see Jesus bound, beaten and disgraced by the hated Romans.  Pilate embarrasses the Jews by saying, here is your king; He is the evidence of you being a weak people, a worthless people; your king has no power over Rome.  Jesus was clear evidence that the Jewish people were bound and controlled by the Romans.  The people turned against Jesus because He was a disgrace to them so they yelled again and again: crucify him, crucify him.  Get rid of this man who is an embarrassment to the the Jewish people.  So Jesus was led away, carrying a cross, pleasing the people.  The cross fulfilled the will of the people, the leaders and priests of the Israelites, but it also completed the work of God through Jesus Christ, his Son.  The cross was the vehicle to free all of mankind from the slavery to sin.  The Jewish leaders and priests illustrated this slavery to evil very well for they desired to murder Jesus from the very beginning.  Jesus had embarrassed them in front of the people.  HIs teaching had put them down; his miracles had exposed them to their powerlessness.  He even healed on the most sacred day of the week, the Sabbath.  How could Jesus be a man sent by God to the Jews; he was a violator of the law.  But as Paul once was, they were slaves to sin.  Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.  I know that you are Abraham’s descendants.  Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word.  I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father, Satan.  (John 8:34-38)

At the end of Acts we see this willingness to be a slave to sin abiding in the hearts of most of the Jews.  Paul is disgusted with their obstinate attitude towards the Good News.  The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: “‘Go to this people and say,“You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.”  For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.  Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.  “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!  All through the book of Acts, the Jews were the major foes to the Good News.  They persecuted the disciples, even had Herod kill James; they also killed Stephen by stoning.  The leaders of the Jews carried a strong hatred against the Christians; they would crucify all of them if they had the power to do so.  But Jesus understood well the hardness of their hearts, their unwillingness to accept him as the Good News to all the world.  He spoke in parables so they would not easily recognize him as being the Messiah, for their rebellion for centuries had confronted God’s grace and mercy.  They chose other gods made of stone and wood.  They had even given their babies to these gods, destroying God precious ones, given to them from God’s heavenly domain, so Jesus spoke in parables.  The Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.  He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you.  But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!  (Mark 4:10-12)  God is the same yesterday, today and forever.  His everlasting love has always extended to his Chosen.  But they chose to reject his everlasting love and turn to the non-gods of this world.  Paul is now confronted again with this reality.  They were satisfied with a powerless existence of serving God in rituals and in obeying special ceremonies, but not willing to know God as the intimate Creator who desires to gather them under his wing, giving them an eternal existence with him.  Because of their resistance to Jesus as the Messiah, the Jews would face another diaspora, scattered throughout the world, away from their land of Palestine.  But God’s everlasting love never left his chosen.  His everlasting love towards a rebellious people epitomizes God’s love towards all of mankind. He gave his love: Jesus, to the world.  The world treated him miserably, finally killed him, but this was all in God’s plan to save the world from their slavery to sin.  Paul in his last words to us is crying out: open your eyes, hear God’s loving words, accept Jesus his Son as Lord of your lives.  Then your sightless eyes and stopped ears will be restored.  Then, you will know the God of everlasting love; you will know his grace and mercy.  He is waiting for your decision every day.  Today is the day of salvation, do not waste your days serving the gods of materialism, for there is no eternal life in stone and wood.  Jesus Christ is your everything.  Seek him! 

 

 

Acts 28:1-16 You Have Life and Breath!

Acts 28:1-16  Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta.  The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.  Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.  When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.”   But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.  The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead; but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.  There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island.  He welcomed us to his home and showed us generous hospitality for three days.  His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery.  Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.  When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.  They honored us in many ways; and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.   After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux.  We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days.  From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli.  There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them.  And so we came to Rome.  The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us.  At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.  When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.  

In the above focus we see Paul ending his journey to Rome, a journey of about 2,000 miles from Caesarea.  He should have been able to complete this journey in less than a month’s time, but it took him much more time than one month to arrive in Rome.  After the shipwreck on Malta, he stayed there for three months.  After Malta, he had to sail three more times to arrive in Italy.  After he landed in Italy, he walked 170 miles on the Appian Way to Rome.  In his journey to Rome, Paul experienced many difficulties.  While his ship was being battered to pieces on the shoals of the island of Malta, he swam to shore, escaping death in the sea.  However on the island of Malta, he was bitten by a venomous snake.  He survived this snake bite, making many who saw him being bitten think he was a god.  HIs journey to Rome was not easy, taking a toll on his body and strength.  Nothing on this journey was easy.  He knew the Mediterrainean was a dangerous sea so late in the year, but he had no authority to keep the ship, the Alexandria, from sailing.  He was but cargo on the ship, something to carry to Rome.  It seemed that Paul’s journey was too filled with danger to be considered in God’s perfect will for him.  How could Paul’s own words be valid in this harrowing journey to Rome.  We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.  (Romans 8:28)  In Rome, still under guard by the Romans, he proclaims, Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. (Philippians 1:12–14)  He affirmably states that all he has experienced on the way to Rome and in Rome were under God’s perfect will for him.  My circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel.  Because of my imprisonment, Christians have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.  The gospel of Christ was being spread more rapidly and clearly because of Paul’s journey and imprisonment.  In Rome he would write the letters of Ephesians, Philippians, and Galatians.  These letters would proclaim clearly that Jesus is the Son of God and that trust in him and his work on the cross would give people right relationship with the only true God.  Paul’s journey and imprisonment were a necessity in the spreading more widely to the world the gospel of redemption through Jesus Christ, the Lord.  Paul's persistence in following God’s will for him no matter what it cost to him or where it leads him has brought millions into the kingdom of God.

The disciples carried this persistence in their ministry of the Good News. They were beaten, flogged, and imprisoned for preaching the Good News. James was beheaded by King Herod. The Good News was hated by the authorities. These unlearned men who were espousing that Jesus is the Lord were despised by the leaders of the Jewish society. Everywhere they went, people were aroused to beat them, imprison them, to kill them. The disciples had a target on their backs wherever they preached, but they were compelled by the Holy Spirit to minister that Jesus is the Lord and that people could know him through faith in the works of Jesus Christ. The disciples poured out their lives for the will of God. Paul relates this truth to Timothy about his own life in serving God. He, as the disciples before him, persisted in following Jesus through thick or thin. For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near.I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8) Are we today longing for Jesus’ appearance? Are we persistent in following God’s will for our lives? These are important questions when dealing with a world that is chasing after the myth of the world that material things will satisfy the longing for the God of Creation. In this season of Christmas we see materialism as the prominent theme in celebrating Christmas. Paul knows this struggle between good and evil will continue as long as the world exists. He knows that Timothy must endure much hardship to preach the Good News of eternal life. He tells Timothy to serve God with persistence no matter what the cost. In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5) In the day of AI, the composite of all human knowledge and wisdom, we Christians should be steady in season and out of season, placing our lives in the hands of our Lord. No other way of living will satisfy our eternal need of knowing God through Jesus Christ: the fountain of all knowledge and wisdom. God was with Paul on that ship that was doomed for destruction. He told Paul through an angel that the ship would be destroyed, but that Paul would live. As we live here on earth, our destiny lies with God. This earth is but a garment that will be folded up eventually and discarded, but God will endure forever and so will we endure forever in God’s presence. “In the beginning, Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end.” (Hebrews 1:10-12) We have a crown of righteousness waiting for us who persist in faith. We will wear that crown of Jesus’ perfect righteousness in heaven, being forever known as the children of God. All of this honor is ours if we persist in our walk IN CHRIST on this frail, finite earth.

How wonderful to read about Paul healing Publius' sick father and curing all on the island who came to him to be healed. Paul spread the Good News to people who served many gods, healing often accompanied ministry of the Good News. Paul does not only tell them about the Lord being the Savior of all mankind, he also demonstrates the power of God by healing people. Of course these people were under Roman’s influence, and the religion of mythology was part of their society and culture. To separate them from their religious beliefs, God’s power had to be evident in Paul’s life. God’s power had to be prevalent in all of God’s disciples as they ministered the Good News to people in darkness. In Peter’s case, People brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and ALL OF THEM were healed. (Acts 5:15-16) This mighty power of the Holy Spirit in them demonstrated the difference between Christianity and other religions. These healing were evident, open for all to observe--nothing done behind doors or in secret. The Jews needed a sign to believe, but so did the Gentiles need these miraculous signs of deliverance. So Paul performed many miracles wherever he went. But the Greeks and the Romans were also embedded in philosophy or rational thought, so Paul addressed this need by pointing out their idea of worshipping an unknown God. Paul told the Greeks, this unknown God is the God of creation. In Athens he points out that the Greeks have an altar to the UNKNOWN GOD. THE GOD who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands.  He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything.  Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. (Acts 17:24-25) He approaches the Greeks and Romans with a philosophical mind, convincing them the best he could by rational reasoning that God who is unknown to them is THE GOD OF CREATION. However, the Jews needed a sign because they believed they had a sound philosophy about God, brought to them through the law. When the Jewish leadership questioned Jesus' authority to speak for God, they asked Jesus to perform a miracle for them, so they could believe He really had authority from God. This request disgusted Jesus. He tells them anEvil and sinful people ask for a miracle as a sign, but they will not be given any sign, except the sign of Jonah.” Then Jesus left them and went away. (Matthew 16:4) Jesus had performed many miracles for them in Israel. Jesus left there and went along the Sea of Galilee. Then he went up on a mountainside and sat down.Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them. The people were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled made well, the lame walking and the blind seeing. And they praised the God of Israel. (Matthew 15:29-31) But their hearts were hardened as was Pharaoh’s when Moses did many miracles. We see on Malta Paul performing miracles in the midst of Romans. Surely many believed, for they had never heard about such things from the beginning of time. Paul, the miracle worker, finally ends up in Rome where his letters to the Philippians, the Ephesians, and Colossians will convince many people from all lands that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to save all people from their sins. Paul persisted in all situations to follow God. Dear friends around this breakfast table persist in believing God through all seasons of your life, and you will. Love, Dad and Mom 

 

Acts 27:27-44 Open Your Eyes!

Acts 27:27-44  On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land.  They took soundings and found that the water was a hundred and twenty feet deep.  A short time later they took soundings again and found it was ninety feet deep. Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight.  In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow.  Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.”  So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it drift away.  Just before dawn Paul urged them all to eat.  “For the last fourteen days,” he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything.  Now I urge you to take some food.  You need it to survive.  Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.”  After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all.  Then he broke it and began to eat.  They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves.  Altogether there were 276 of us on board.  When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.  When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach, where they decided to run the ship aground if they could.  Cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time untied the ropes that held the rudders.  Then they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach.  But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground.  The bow stuck fast and would not move, and the stern was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf.  The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. But the centurion wanted to spare Paul’s life and kept them from carrying out their plan.  He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land.  The rest were to get there on planks or on other pieces of the ship. In this way everyone reached land safely.

In this passage we have Paul on his journey to Rome experiencing a shipwreck on the shoals of the Island of Malta.  He and the 276 onboard will find safety on the island after abandoning the wreckage of the Alexandria.  The plan of God revealed to Paul by an angel had to be followed exactly.  If not, they would not escape death in the ocean.  Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay with the ship, YOU CANNOT BE SAVED.  God planned their escape from the terror of the sea, no variation, no sloppiness in carrying out his will was tolerated.  We see God’s perfection revealed in the Old Testament when He instructed the Israelites to build a tabernacle for him.  All measurements of the tabernacle had to be precise; no estimation or sloppiness in building his tabernacle would be tolerated.  God is perfect, holy and absolute.  Jesus said we must be perfect as God is perfect; no deviation or sloppiness is allowed in God’s plan of redemption.  As Paul states to the Philippians, Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.  (Philippians 2:11-13)  In our redeemed stature by the blood of Jesus, God is working out his perfection in us, for IT IS GOD who works in you TO WILL and TO ACT in order to fulfill his good purpose.  Now we see the ship, the Alexandria, destroyed on the shoals of Malta; we see 276 people surviving the turbulent sea.  It is God who worked out his will on the beach of Malta.  But Paul had to warn the centurion that unless they followed God’s perfect will, the sea would swallow up all onboard.  God, through Paul’s words, encouraged the people to eat, to gain strength for their exhausted bodies.   Paul said to the people, you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food—you haven’t eaten anything.  Now I urge you to take some food.  You need it to survive.  This horrific experience on the sea had dried up their appetite, fear will do that, but God wanted them to eat so Paul encourages them to do so.  He says this to them while the storm is still raging.  Now they placed their trust of survival into Paul’s hands and his God that he serves.  He told them that Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.  After he said that he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all.  Then he broke it and began to eat.  The breaking of bread is symbolic of God’s presence.  The two disciples on the road to Emmaus did not know Jesus was with them until Jesus broke a loaf of bread to give to them to eat.  When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.  (Luke 24:30-31)  After Paul broke bread on the ship and began to eat, the others followed him, eating until they were full.  The bread of life was on that ship; they would not die in this raging storm, but they would be shipwrecked and experience the danger of the elements and the coldness of the environment.  But salvation had come to the people on the ship through the words of God through Paul.  

Do we really believe the builder of our lives has come to us?  Are we building on the solid foundation of Jesus, The Rock, in this wilderness of life?  Paul is telling the ship’s occupants that God is with them on this raging sea, but they must believe that, trust his purposes in this situation.  Paul is telling everyone on board that God is with them.  They now realize Paul is a man of God; they trust his words and place their faith in his God.  After they ate as much as they desired, they threw the grain into the sea, no more food was now onboard.  They cut loose the anchors that helped them to battle the sea and untied the ropes that held the rudders.  They were now at the mercy of the  ocean’s waves.  By faith, they hoisted the foresail to the wind and made for the beach, expecting now that their ship would make it safely to the land.  But God had other plans; he put rocks in the way of their landing on the shore of Malta.  To avoid drowning within the ship's wreckage, they had to abandon it and swim for the beach. Some paddled to shore on planks and pieces of wood. Their once earthly security was broken up on the rocks, now it was all God or drowning.  God made sure that all of them would make it to shore, surviving this horrible ordeal.  We who are IN CHRIST must depend on God’s work and not our own efforts, knowledge and wisdom.  God is working out our salvation through Jesus Christ.  God assures us that we will make it to the heavenly land He has prepared for us to occupy.  Paul advises us to build only on the foundation of Jesus Christ.  In the process of living we must build our lives wisely on Jesus Christ.  Each one should build our lives with care.  For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.  If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light.  It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.  (1 Corinthians 3:10-13)  The people on the Alexandria followed God’s words carefully and they made it to the land of safety because of listening to God through Paul’s words.  God is a good God, but precise.  They were to follow God’s directions completely.  No deviation, no sloppy assumptions.  If we build our redeemed life on false and careless assumptions, we are not building on God’s redeeming work, which is Jesus Christ.  In Jesus alone is the knowledge and wisdom of God.  If we build in complete trust in Jesus' work, we are building our lives with gold, silver and precious jewels; we can be assured that we will make it to shore alive.  Paul said about the Colossians, I want them to have complete confidence that they understand God’s mysterious plan, which is Christ himself.  In him lie hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.  (Colossians 2:2-3)

We see in this episode of God rescuing the people on the Alexandria an analogy of God rescuing his own people from the raging sea of life.  God has made a new covenant with his people through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ.  As Moses heard from God about the Israelites in slavery: I am Yahweh, no longer just El-Sahddai.  I am more than that, I am your God, your caretaker: “Therefore, say to the people of Israel: ‘I am the Lord.  I will free you from your oppression and will rescue you from your slavery in Egypt.  I will redeem you with a powerful arm and great acts of judgment.  I will claim you as my own people, and I will be your God.  (Exodus 5:7-8)  We do not know if anyone on this ship turned to God with their whole heart, but we do know God rescued them from death.  In the New Testament we see Jesus often rescuing people from their fleshly trials.  He heals people, delivering them from blindness, leprosy, conditions of deformity, and the like.  In his miraculous work through Paul, He restores them to health, places them on the new land in safety.  The 276 people survived on a new land through God’s miraculous work.  The disciples carried on with this work of God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  They helped people to land safely on a new life, away from the horrors of the sea.  One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.  Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts.  When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.  Peter looked straight at him, as did John.  Then Peter said, “Look at us!”  So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them.  Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you.  In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”  Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong.  He jumped to his feet and began to walk.  (Acts 3:1-8)  God would reveal himself to his creation through the work of his Son.  God’s work is always precise, complete, and redeeming.  People who felt the healing balm of God through his Son would leave the arena of the scene, jumping, running and praising God.  Surely the people on the Malta beach were praising the God of Paul, for everything ended just as Paul had said: now they were safe on land, escaping the judgment of death on a turbulent sea.  We who are under the great hand of Yahweh through our shepherd Jesus Christ should live lives worthy of our Redeemer who died on the cross for our salvation.  In Paul’s concern for the souls of the Colossians, he says, We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.  (Colossians 1:9-12)  Christians are to build our lives with gold, silver, and precious jewels.  We are to be obedient to the Lord’s teaching. “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?  As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like.  They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock.  When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.  But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation.  The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”  (Luke 6:46-49)  The people on the Alexandria put the words of God into practice.  They were reluctant at first; did not heed Paul’s words not to sail the Mediterranean so late in the season, but later on they listened to Paul and put his words into practice, for they knew they were from God. Dear friends put in practice the words Jesus taught you so that you might build your life on God and not on your own fleshly desires and opinions.  Then when others need to hear from God, you will be ready to speak his words.   

 

Acts 27:13-26 Have a Strong Heart!

Acts 27:13-26  When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete.  Before very long, a wind of hurricane force, called the Northeaster, swept down from the island.  The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so we gave way to it and were driven along.  As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together.  Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.  We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard.  On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands.  When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.  After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss.  But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.  Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul.  You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’  So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.  Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island.”

We see in this continued saga of Paul’s journey to Rome what it means when one has a partnership with God.  In this union God never leaves Paul even when Paul is experiencing a harrowing journey to Rome.  Paul might have questioned why he was on this ship that he knew eventually would have trouble on a turbulent Mediterranean Sea.  Maybe he should have thought better of going to Rome.  But Paul had a great love for God through the work of Jesus on the road to Damascus.  After that interaction, we know God is committed to Paul, directing his life intimately, keeping in contact with Paul through dreams, trances, and angels.  Through these supernatural interventions, Paul received encouragement not to fear the angry faces of men and women.  One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent.  For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”  So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.  (Acts 18:9-11)  Without that assurance of not being afraid of the faces of people, he and Silas would not have been found in the Philippi jail singing and praying.  In their imprisonment, bound by chains and stocks, they were singing and praising God.  They had been beaten with rods, bruising their bodies; they heard ridicule and hatred from their captors.  Their emotions should have been bitter, defeated, wallowed in despair; instead, they were praising God in the depths of the Philippi prison.  About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.  (Acts 16:25)  Paul was in Philippi because of a vision: During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.”  (Acts 16:8-9)  Paul now could have thought, why am I here in Macedonia?  But in Philippi, Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, became Paul’s first convert in Europe.  Paul was in partnership with God; God was the Director, Paul was fulfilling a role God had planned for him on this earth's stage.  From the beginning of time, God used people to do his will.  Some of his people became heroes in their societies and cultures, but others existed in ignominy, without recognition and reward.  No audience standing and clapping for their performance; instead, There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.  They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword.  They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them.  They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.  (Hebrews 11:35-38)  

After Paul’s rescue from a murderous mob in Jerusalem by the Roman’s soldier, the commander of the Roman garrison summoned the Sanhedrin and Paul to come before him and explain why all this disruption in Jerusalem had occurred.  Paul divided the Sanhedrin by claiming he believed in the resurrection, and some of them did not.  A fight broke out between the Pharisees who believed in the resurrection and the Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection, causing so much commotion that the commander ordered his soldiers to put Paul back into the barracks.  That night, the Director of Paul’s life on earth, told Paul He had another scene for him to play.  Take courage!  As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.  (Acts 23:11)  In today's focus we see Paul playing out this last scene on the ship, Alexandria.  He is a prisoner on the Alexandria, and the ship is at the mercy of a Northeaster storm on the Mediterranean.  Eventually the ship will break up and run aground on some island.  Of course this situation is desperate and filled with despair for the 276 onboard.  But now the crew and passengers were ready to listen to Paul, only a prisoner, but one who seems to know God.  He then gets up before them and tells them good news.   Last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul.  You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’  (Acts 27:23-24)  The intrusion of an angel in Paul’s life, once again reveals God’s partnership in Paul’s role in life.  He could tell the occupants of the Alexandria that they would all come out of this scene with their lives.  All of them would survive, for God has directed Paul to go to Rome.  This theme of be not afraid, I am with you is throughout the scriptures.  We see these words as Joshua is preparing to take Canaan with his army.  Be strong and have strength of heart!  Do not be afraid or lose faith.  For the Lord your God is with you anywhere you go.”  (Joshua 1:9)  In Canaan during the time of the Judges: Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah had to act on the words of God: be not afraid, take courage, for I will use you to overcome your enemies.  They believed what Isaiah expressed later about God’s faithfulness to his people: Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  (Isaiah 41:10).  Paul stood on the faithfulness of God.  If He said, I should go to Rome, then I will go to Rome in safety.  So Paul can tell the crew and passengers that God is faithful to fulfill his words.  Paul can say, Yes, the ship will go aground; your lives will be endangered in the water, but you all will survive.  Definitely encouraging to the humans on board that day.

But hearing and believing are two different things.  Often people hear God’s voice in their inner ear, but to believe and act on what they heard in their spirits is a different story.  Often God desires to direct us, but we fail to accept his direction.  Jesus in the beatitudes spoke about how to be a true follower of God.  He said that we are not to strike back at those who abuse us.  We are not to hate our enemies.  We are to be patient, loving, and caring for our neighbors.  We are to be humble, servants to all.  We are to be as God who sends the refreshing rain on the ones who love him and on the ones who despise him.  We are to fix our lives on God’s words, for they are the rock of our salvation.  The commandments and the teaching of the Lord should be obeyed, not ignored.  Paul believed the words of the angel; he knew those words came from God.  Take courage men, I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me.  Paul acts on the angel’s words by having everyone eat something and relax, for God will do what He told me.  He convinces the Centurion not to let the crew abandon the ship to save their own lives.  Paul’s words are heeded because the people and the Centurion know Paul is a man of God.  He not only heard God, he listened to God and acted upon it.  Often people hear, but do not listen with a desire to obey the words heard.  We often put our own ideas about life in front of God’s commands.  We hear but do not listen.  Sometimes a child, who is hearing words of correction from a parent, will just hear, but not truly listen so that his or her misbehavior can be corrected.  Jesus in Matthew 15:10 called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand.  What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”  We are to listen and obey.  As with food, what goes into our mouths is not the defiling agent, but what comes out of our mouths is the defilement.  Words that go into our ears do not defile us, but what is generated in us with those words we hear do defile us.  Jesus said, the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.  (Matthew 15:18-19)  What should we do with God’s words that we hear.  We ought to listen to them and put them in practice.  Paul knew what he should do with God’s words that he heard from the angel; he put them in action.  He truly listened, not letting his own ideas about life dismiss God’s authority over his life.  Paul knew God is his refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore he would not fear, though the earth gives away and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.  (Psalm 46:1-3)  Paul would obey the Director of his life.  His life was in  partnership with the lover of his soul.  He could trust God to never abandon him or leave him, and that all things work together for those who are in this love relationship.  Dear friends know God as the director of your life; trust him with your life, for He desires to bless the world through you.  And we know you will! 

Acts 27:1-12 Eternity is Love!

Acts 27:1-12  When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.  We boarded a ship from Adramyttium about to sail for ports along the coast of the province of Asia, and we put out to sea.  Aristarchus, a Macedonian from Thessalonica, was with us. The next day we landed at Sidon; and Julius, in kindness to Paul, allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs.  From there we put out to sea again and passed to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us.  When we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we landed at Myra in Lycia.  There the centurion found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board.  We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off Cnidus.  When the wind did not allow us to hold our course, we sailed to the lee of Crete, opposite Salmone.  We moved along the coast with difficulty and came to a place called Fair Havens, near the town of Lasea.  Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the Day of Atonement.  So Paul warned them, “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.”  But the centurion, instead of listening to what Paul said, followed the advice of the pilot and of the owner of the ship.  Since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in, the majority decided that we should sail on, hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there.  This was a harbor in Crete, facing both southwest and northwest.

In the above passage we see the love of God displayed through Paul’s ministry to the world.  He had desired to go to Rome for a long time.  Rome and the Roman world controlled the countries around the Mediterranean Sea and beyond.  Rome powerfully influenced the people they conquered.  Their knowledge, wisdom, their mysticism, their power strongly affected the way people thought and lived.  God sent Paul into this dark Roman world to present Christ as the Lord and Savior of all people.  Paul was driven by the Holy Spirit to minister the Good News to everyone in the Roman world.  Now he is traveling 1,810 miles to Rome with the message of Jesus being the Redeemer of all people.  When God stopped Saul on the road to Damascus, He supplanted Paul's will of how he wanted to live his own life with God’s will of how Paul will live his life.  Instilled in his heart during his blindness was the love of God for him and for all people.  The darkness in Paul’s heart was turned to the light of God.  Paul’s heart of darkness, murder, and hatred for other people, especially Christians, turned to loving others as himself.  Now that love compels him to go to Rome with the Good News.  This journey to Rome should have taken approximately 24 days; instead, it took seven months to complete.  On his way to Rome Paul finds himself in the Mediterranean Sea, swimming for his life after his ship, the Alexandrian, breaks up on rocks.  When on shore of the island of Malta, safe from drowning, he is bitten by a deadly snake while putting wood on the fire that the survivors started to keep them warm and dry.  The snake bites Paul’s hand; he shakes the snake off into the fire.  The inhabitants of Malta when seeing this viper bitting Paul’s hand assumed Paul would die immediately.  For them they now considered Paul was cursed by the goddess of Justice.  He had escaped justice by not drowning in the sea, but now the viper will complete the final act of justice, causing Paul to die before their eyes.  But Paul did not die, so they thought  Paul was a god.  Paul on his mission to spread the Good News to Rome experienced a very difficult journey.  He was a victim of other people’s bad decision.  The owner and pilot of the Alexandrian wanted to sail even though it was late in the season for boats to be on the Mediterranean.  The celebration of the Day of Attonement was past, so it was either late September or early October when the ship’s owner and pilot decided to leave a place called Fair Haven to continue the journey to Italy.  Paul had already experienced difficulty traveling the seas.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea.  (2 Corinthians 11:25)  He knew well the danger of being on the sea in the wrong season.  Even though having no say in this decision to sail on, he found solace in seeking the Lord.  Paul had the natural fear of drowning, but God comforted his heart through an angel and told him not to fear, for this journey to spread the Good News was in God’s perfect will.  He would make it to Rome. 

We see in this journey to Rome, God works in miraculous ways.  He will save Paul from drowning, and He will save everyone on the ship from drowning, 276 people.  Before the ship was destroyed on the shore of Malta, Paul’s words were heeded by everyone on the Alexandrian.  Paul was in charge, and the people knew, Paul’s God was in charge.  How many of them became Christians we do not know, but surely some of them turned to the Redeemer in that harrowing experience.  God works in mysterious ways.  Because of disobedience to God, the Israelites were constantly in danger of being disciplined by God or being threatened to be disciplined for their sinful ways.  They were a hard-nosed people with hardened hearts.  They served other gods with a multitude of shrines and altars in the land of Israel.  To save a remnant of God’s chosen people, his treasured people, God disciplines the Israelites by allowing the Babylonians to conquer their land.  The best of them, all their leaders, all their strongest young men and healthy women, all of their talented artisans and skilled craftsmen were taken to Babylon, a 900 mile journey to the land of their enslavers.  We might assume that this long, agonizing journey to Babylon was filled with tears, hearts of emotional pain.  They knew they were permanently walking away from a land they loved to a land of slavery.  Yet, this was a mission of God’s love.  God was in the business of saving the human race.  He had his seed of redemption in these people who were experiencing unimaginable pain and suffering.  Paul’s ministry of suffering and pain was for the purpose of redeeming the world from darkness into eternal life.  His personal life, not one of us would desire.  Paul as Abraham’s descendants had the coveted position as God’s chosen.  He was chosen as the captive’s of the Babylonians were a chosen people, a greatly loved people by the God who made all things.  Paul’s life was part of God’s plan as those who were brought to Babylon as slaves were part of God’s mysterious plan to redeem the world from its darkness.  The slaves were put to work in a dark and dangerous world.  Paul said he was a slave to God.  Paul, a servant (slave, bondservant) of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God.  (Romans 1:1)  He also worked in a dangerous world, never knowing when his life would be taken from him by people who hated him.  He says, I have worked hard, been in prison frequently, been flogged severely, and been exposed to death again and again.  Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move.  I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.  I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.  (2 Corinthian 11:23-27)  What did God require of Paul, his slave?  To love people, to forgive them, and treat them as potential children of God, worth redeeming.  

What did God require of the Jews who were bound in slavery in Babylon, a wicked and cruel people?  God allowed these people to enslave the Jews in their country of Babylon.  This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.  Increase in number there; do not decrease.  Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile.  Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”  Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you.  Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have.  They are prophesying lies to you in my name.  I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 29:4-9)  Pray for my enemies?  Why pray for them?  Pray to the Lord for THEM.   Is that not too much to ask?  Why should the Jews in Babylon pray for their enemy?  It is too much to ask.  But Jeremiah says, This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.  This is the Lord’s will for you.  Paul says that he would sacrifice his own eternal dwelling with God for the Jews who hate him and wish to kill him.  Why would he say such a thing?  Because this is God’s will for him in the form of his Son, Jesus.  He was sacrificed for humanity.  His Son, Jesus, the Christ, cried out in a loud voice, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  (Matthew 27:48)   Paul could have felt forsaken as the ship breaks up on the rocks, but God was with him.  Definitely the captives in Babylon could have felt God had abandoned them.  But in neither case was God far from them.  He had a plan for them, a plan that would fulfill his mysterious plan of redemption for all mankind.  The Chaldeans of Babylon hated the Jews; the leadership of the Jewish nation hated Paul, and the secular and religious world hated Jesus.  But God had a plan that supersedes the natural will of man to hate and kill.  God is in the process of making perfection.  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  Be PERFECT therefore, as your heavenly Father is PERFECT.  (Matthew 5:44-48)  The Jews in Babylon had no real reason to pray for the Babylonians; Paul had no reason to love those who wanted to murder him.  And Jesus had no reason to love the world who killed him on the cross.  But God is love, eternity is love, a place where love abides.  We are given the daily responsibility to love as God loves.  This is our assignment: our assignment is not to harbor hate and bitterness is our hearts.  If you are abiding in this kind of darkness, ask the Lord to forgive you, AND HE WILL.  

Acts 26:19-32 Keep on Loving Others!

Acts 26:19-32  “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.  First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.  But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike.  I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.  ”At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense.  “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted.  “Your great learning is driving you insane.”  “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied.  “What I am saying is true and reasonable.  The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him.  I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.  King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?  I know you do.”  Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?  ”Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”  The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them.   After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.”  Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

To believe as Paul believed, our world shouts as Festus shouted, “You are out of your mind, Paul!”  Paul believed in the reality of the resurrection; he believed the prophets who prophesied that the Messiah would come to earth to rescue the human race out of darkness.  Paul spread this message of Jesus being the Messiah and that He is the light, the truth, the way to eternal life.  I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.  (John 14:6-7)  After the road to Damascus, Paul’s life was constantly in jeopardy.  Most of the Jews and Gentiles were vehemently opposed to his message of finding and knowing God through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  The people in the Caesarea courtroom rationally supposed Jesus to be dead; his bones resting in a tomb somewhere in Jerusalem.  For these people, Paul was expressing madness, a fanatic who has lost his rational mind.  Paul’s preaching of the resurrection of Jesus was an unbelievable story, counteracting what the rational mind knows about death.  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”  (1 Corinthians 1:1819)  God chose not to allow many to approach his redeeming power through the rational mind.  He selected the foolish and weak things of the world to confound the minds of the elite and strong.  Jesus’ followers were mostly the weak and deprived.  He told John's disciples who carried to Jesus a question from John the Baptist: Are you the anticipated Messiah?  Jesus responds to the two disciples of John, Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the POOR.  (Luke 7:22)  Jesus’ intimate followers that he dined with were considered by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as “scum.”  Paul talks to the Corinthians about the worldly status of most of those who believe in Jesus as Lord.  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”  (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)  Paul in the courtroom of Caesarea does not have men of influence to support his innocence; he has only his testimony to enlighten these influential people.  For them he is expressing madness, yet they knew he was an innocent man who should be freed, but Paul appealed to Caesar so they could not release him from the chains that bound Paul.

Everything Paul is saying in the courtroom is based on a truth he has observed.  He knows through Jesus’ name people’s lives have been turned upside down.  Once they lived in absolute darkness, filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They were full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They were gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful.  (Romans 1:29-30)  These people Paul ministered to in the Gentile world displayed little fidelity, love, mercy to others, especially to their enemies.  But Paul saw the miracle of the newly born IN CHRIST.  Through faith in the work of the cross, their lives emanated love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  God’s presence in them through the work of the cross had made them new creatures.  As Jesus said, you must be born again.  Paul saw the image of God come through these new-born people, Greek and Jew alike.  They once had sat in darkness, but now as new creatures they were living lives of goodness and love.  They were living testimonies of Jesus’ words. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  (Matthew 5:43-48)  As Jesus ministered, Paul ministered.  Paul saw the truth of born-again lives.  He knew his own life changed from hating Christians, killing them, hurting them, persecuting them, wishing for them to recant their belief in Jesus Christ as Lord.  His life was so transformed that he gave his life away willingly to follow Jesus as his Lord.  Festus evaluated Paul's life as madness.  But Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus; he saw the living Savior and he could not put that aside and say Jesus was still in a tomb.  He realized Jesus was alive and that He had a purpose for Paul’s life.  As Jesus who died outside of the Holy City of Jerusalem, he too was to go outside of the camp to the Gentiles and give his life, spreading the Good News to a very dark, wicked world.  Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.  For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.  (Hebrews 13:13-14)  With an enduring city awaiting him, death meant little to him.  The persecution of the world would not deter him from vigorously spreading the Good News everywhere.  Now in the Caesarean courtroom he was stating that his life was not his own; it was purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross.  He was living for Christ’s glory and not for his own glory.  He honored only Christ and no one else.

In Hebrews 11, we read about the ancients, about men of faith who lived in former days.  We read about people of violence who righted kingdoms and brought justice to the world.  They defended the honor of the Israelites through the sword.  Men such as Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel.  They defended God’s Promised Land: Canaan.  But after their rule, the people always descended back into slavery.  As long as the edge of the sword was active, people found peace in their land, but as soon as the edge of the sword was gone, people reverted back to their sinful nature.  Sin was rampant again, idol worship took the place of worshipping God.  Every mountain, every low place, every crossroad, every tree had shrines and idols to gods, but not the living God.  They rejected the consuming fire and the thunderous voice they saw and heard at Mount Sinai.  The sword could not change the Israelites' hearts.  Some of them did not pick up the sword to defend themselves but believed in the God of Mount Sinai.  They were looking for a better world, a place of peace and prosperity.  But without the sword, they were horribly mistreated: tortured, faced jeers and flogging, chains,  prison, death by stoning, sawed in two, death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.  These people were looking for a better world than the one they were living in.  They were looking for the ETERNAL PROMISED LAND OF GOD, not one built by human hands.  These men and women were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.  (Hebrews 11:39-40)  Paul’s ministry expresses the fulfillment of God’s plan for humans from the beginning of time.  Through Jesus Christ who died for the sins of all humans, people can find the way to God.  Perfection can be achieved through the work of the cross.  The  Eternal Promised Land will be inhabited by mere humans because of the work of Jesus on the cross.  But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.  You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous MADE PERFECT, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  (Hebrews 22-24)  To revenge the blood of Abel means violence will bring justice.  But justice was achieved on the cross.  Christ brought justice to the world; no longer do we need to hate our enemies.  Christ has achieved justice for us.  Therefore, Paul’s ministry seemed madness to a violent, dying world, but he was bringing healing to a very sick world.  He proclaimed that God is love.  He loves all people, even those who dwell in the deepest darkness.  God’s plan for them is to know and to emulate God’s love towards all people so that peace can be established in this troubled world.  So as Paul says, Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.  (Hebrews 13:1-2)  Brothers and sisters around this breakfast table, we are to be incubated in the grace of God.  Faith in God’s grace will change everything in our lives; we will be new creatures in God’s eternal love.  Amen!