Let's bow our heads with me one more time as we go to the Lord in prayer to ask His blessing on the public preaching of His Word. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the clarity of Your Word. You have revealed Yourself to us in no uncertain terms. Yet we have often remained uncertain, not because your word is unclear, but because we are finite and slow of understanding. And sometimes we find your word not very natural to our own minds, not very intuitive. It's not what we expected you to say to us. And sometimes it's not what we wanted to hear. So we pray, would you rest and hold our attention now on your word that we might be able to understand it, that you might address us so that we might trust you and obey you more fully. Lord, you say in your word that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord stands forever. So let Your Word stand among us now. Speak, Lord, for Your servants are listening. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Please open your Bibles with me to Acts 23, 12-35. Acts 23, 12-35. And one of the concerning aspects of Christianity to many Christians is how the church, how Christians are to relate to the state, the state power. And here we see a little example of that in a very specific situation. Here in Acts 23, Paul's being protected by, of all things, a pagan Roman military. And he's being protected from, of all people, religious people. Here in Acts 23, Luke's point in showing us this is that the risen Lord Jesus protects his people to publish their witness even when we face threats and lose freedoms. We need to hear that today. Jesus protects His people to publish their witness even when we face threats and lose freedoms. We're gonna open our time together in God's Word this morning with the need for Jesus' protective providence. Then we'll meditate on two parts of what I am going to call Jesus' witness protection program. his invisible providence and his institutional providence. Before we go there, we should read the text in its own right. So let's read. Follow along with me in your Bibles as I read out loud for us Acts 23, 12 to 35. When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who made this conspiracy. They went to the chief priests and the elders and said, we have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. Now therefore, you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes nearer. Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush So he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Paul called one of the centurions and said, take this young man to the tribune for he has something to tell him. So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you as he has something to say to you. The tribune took him by the hand and going aside asked him privately, what is it that you have to tell me? And he said, The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him, but do not be persuaded by them, for more than 40 of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent. So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, tell no one that you have informed me of these things. Then he called two of the centurions and said, get ready 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix, the governor. And he wrote a letter to this effect. Claudius Lysias, to His Excellency the Governor Felix, greetings. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen. And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council. I found he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him. So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. And on the next day, they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him. When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from. And when he learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive. And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's praetorium. So the need for Jesus' protective providence in verses 12 to 15. Paul, you'll remember, has just testified before a grand jury made up of the Jewish ruling council, the Sanhedrin. He testified to his faith and the hope of the resurrection of the dead. just the general resurrection. Paul knows that his fellow Pharisees on the council believe in the resurrection of the dead based on Old Testament texts like Psalm 16, Psalm 49, 15, which we heard preached last Sunday night, Daniel 12, 2. Paul thinks the Sadducees are not only Sadducee, but wrong not to believe in the resurrection of the dead. Paul's insistence that he had been on trial for the hope of the resurrection resulted, you'll remember, in a hung jury. It split them so badly that the tribune who convened that grand jury had to save Paul from getting torn in two by the Pharisees and Sadducees. The tribune whisks Paul away back to the barracks. Jesus appears to him, affirms his testimony, encourages him. He must also testify in Rome, just as he testified in Jerusalem. It is necessary, according to God's plan, for Paul to testify in Rome. And that necessity of divine providence assures Paul that he will make it to Rome safely. in order to testify, come what may. And what is coming, little did he know, was a plot against his own life in order to prevent the testimony that Jesus had just told him was necessary. In the morning out of the hung jury, the Jews collude to kill Paul. These Jews are not part of the ruling council, but they do indeed need the council's cooperation. In verse 15, these Jews who hatched the plot are Jews who need the chief priests and elders to convince influential council members of the Sanhedrin to cooperate with them. So this is not a lone wolf attack. This is not a kid getting up on the roof. This is not a sniper. This is organized. This is a lot of people. There are 40 men on this from the very beginning, and they are not just colluding together, they are committing together. They take an oath. And that word for oath is where we get our word anathema, curse. They anathematize themselves. or commit to doing so if they do not carry through on this plot. This is the equivalent of the Old Testament ban, the total destruction when they got to Canaan, the conquest. When they get there they are told, destroy everything, don't leave anything breathing, smash all their altars and pillars, leave nothing, because I don't want you tempted to idolatry. That's the commitment they take on themselves. They apply the Old Testament ban to themselves if they don't make good on this. This is a serious commitment. It is almost a suicidal commitment. Either Paul dies or we die. We are sick of him. And Luke is contrasting Jewish extremism with Paul's piety here. Remember, Paul has taken two oaths in Acts. One in Acts 18 to stay on in Corinth to do evangelism, and the other in Jerusalem to facilitate Jewish piety and a reconciliation between Jewish and Gentile churches, remember? Paul takes oaths for good reasons, not these guys. These Jews use an oath before God to commit murder or to ask Him to kill them if they can't. What kind of oath is that? This is religious hatred. This is real religious extremism. This is religious violence. It is religious terrorism, and it is anti-Christian. But the contrast of commitments is not just between the Jews and Paul. As readers, we've just seen the risen Christ tell Paul in chapter 23, verse 11, that it's necessary for Paul to testify in Rome as well. So if the risen Christ is committed to Paul testifying in Rome, then the real contrast of commitments is between Jesus' commitment to get him to Rome and these homicidal Jewish leaders who want to prevent him from getting to Rome. Jesus is more committed to protecting his witnesses than the world is to destroying them. And that should encourage you. Now it doesn't mean that Jesus' witnesses will not suffer, but it does mean that in the end, Isaiah was right. No weapon formed against you will stand. Paul makes it. You will, Christian, complete your testimony to Jesus' resurrection. It is necessary. You will overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of your testimony. That is how you get to heaven. That is how you overcome. That is how you win. You testify to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The plot against Paul involves a deception and a manipulation of a government official. That sounds like you could prosecute for that. These 40 Jews want the chief priests, elders, and the Sanhedrin to tell the Tribune to lie to him, to bring Paul back down from the barracks to the temple for a follow-up hearing, a grand jury 2.0, as though you were going to try harder to discover enough evidence to get this thing to trial so they can convict and sentence Paul legally. That's what they're trying to convince the Tribune to do. Hey, bring him back. We want to question him again. The Tribune would probably buy that since it would have been normal for the council to want a second bite at the apple. But the plot was to have a strike team ready on the transit route from the barracks to the court to jump Paul and kill him in the street. And according to Paul's nephew, these 40 men were going to be the strike team. 40 of their men are lying in ambush for him, the kid says. So they're trying to make sure they got enough guys. to make it happen. So these guys are organized, determined, hateful, hostile against Paul, against the Christianity he preaches. Paul needs protection. And friends, so do we. So do we. Now, the way I want you to hear this next little part is as a parenthesis. This is gonna be what I'm gonna call an eschatological parenthesis, okay? I'm gonna just step outside of the world of Acts 23 right now and we're gonna step into the world of Revelation 12 and we're gonna try to interpret Revelation or Acts 23 through the lens of Revelation 12. What's really going on here in Acts 23 from heaven's perspective? Because according to the book of Revelation, this kind of thing is going to happen to Christians on and off from the time of Jesus' resurrection to the time of His return. This persecution of Paul is an instance of what John saw in his vision when Jesus pulled back the curtain to show him what's going on behind the scenes of human history in Revelation 12. You can turn there with me, keep your finger on Acts 23. Acts 23, 12-15 is an instance of the dragon, Satan, trying to devour the woman, the church, to silence her testimony to the resurrection of the Lamb. Revelation 12, 1-2, the pregnant woman is the church of the Old Testament era ready to give birth to the Messiah, Jesus. The dragon is Satan, the serpent from Genesis 3, 15, where God put hostility between the woman seed and the serpent seed, and here we see that hostility. Revelation 12 symbolizes that hostility. The dragon falls from heaven, symbolizing Satan's fall, and he takes a bunch of evil angels with him. The dragon, Satan, stands by the woman, the Old Testament church, as she gives birth to the Christ child, Jesus. He tries to devour the child. Think Herod trying to kill The infant Jesus, in Matthew 2, she gives birth anyway to one who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron, Jesus, the Son of God, in the imagery of Psalm 2. But instead of the serpent devouring the child, the child is caught up to God in His throne. Jesus' resurrection from the dead and ascension to God's right hand. When that happened, the woman, the church, fled into the wilderness, the world, to be cared for by God for 1260 days. How long is that? It's 42 months, or three and a half years, or a year, two years, and half a year. That's all the same amount of time. And it all refers to the period of Antichrist, the last days, these days, our days today, the days from Jesus' resurrection to his return. So now Revelation 12, 7 to 17 refers to the church age. Revelation 12, 7 to 8, once Jesus is ascended, the dragon is thrown down. Revelation 12, 9 to 10, the kingdom of God is inaugurated but not consummated. Satan can no longer accuse us in heaven's court because we have Jesus there as our advocate. But in verse 12 of Revelation 12, the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows his time is short. That's where we are today, this age, the last days. So in verse 13, when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. That woman is the New Testament church. But the woman was given the two wings of the eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, times, and half a time, which is a year, two years, and a half a year, 1260 days, 42 months, the church age. Why that symbolic amount of time, three and a half years? Well that specific length of time, three and a half years, occurs in Luke 4.25 and James 5.17 as the length of time it didn't rain in Elijah's day. When the evil king Ahab persecuted Elijah and true believing Israel, which was at that time reduced to a remnant under persecution by unbelieving Israel. It's a time of persecution. That's what it means. The first occurrence of that phrase, a time, times, and half a time, is Daniel 7, 25, during the reign of the fourth beast, the fourth kingdom that devours the earth. Out of that kingdom, ten kings shall rise, and others shall rise after them. He shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, shall wear out the saints of the Most High, suffering, shall think to change the times and the law, And they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time. This is the time of Antichrist. That's where we are today. And the next thing that happens is Daniel 7, 26 to 27. His dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High. His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. That is an explanation of Daniel 7, 14. where the Son of Man is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom, which shall not pass away or be destroyed. That's the end. That is the new creation to come, the consummation of the kingdom that is now only inaugurated. Long story short, you want to know why it's hard to be a Christian? Because it's potably. It's supposed to be hard. That's where we are, man. We're in Daniel 12. Why do you think this happened? Because that's the plan. That's why. All this is to say the religious terrorism against Paul in Acts 23, 12-15 Parenthesis is over. It's a typical example of the dragon Satan trying to drown and devour the woman, the church, in this case by killing Paul before he can testify to the resurrection. It is also to say that we are now living today in the same age as Acts 23, marked by the same hostility of the same world against the same church because of the same gospel and the same hope of the same resurrection of the dead because of the resurrection and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. This plot, this hatred, this violence, this religious extremism against Christianity marks the whole age So stop acting so surprised. Stop covering up, oh, what's going on? What do you mean what's going on? Read your Bible. This is going on. Don't act like you don't know. He's told you. This is what's going on. You don't have to be a chicken little Christian Sky's falling, sky's falling because bad things are happening to Christians. Is that news to you? Read your Bible. Now again, I want to immediately qualify this statement. This is not to say that the church can and should always view itself as a victim. We're not encouraging the church to play the victimhood card every time we suffer. It's the opposite. You should expect it. This is part of the plan. This is how we win, not how we lose. This is not to encourage Christian fragility, to borrow a word from a popular but misguided book, or a martyr complex. It is actually the opposite. It is to play the victor's card from Revelation 12, 11, which says of the saints, they have conquered the dragon by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. Not by the blood of the followers of the dragon, but by the blood of the lamb. And not by the word of our sarcasm or gossip or anger or vitriol. but by the word of our testimony. Four, they loved not their lives even unto death. There's a qualifier. How are you doing on that point of sanctification? Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them." This is not a pity party. This is a victory lap. But it can only be that to Christians who know what time it is in the history of God's saving plan for the world. In other words, even in this plot against Paul, everything is going according to plan. First application, you, Christian, need to realize that this Christian life is cruciform. It is cross-shaped. You're gonna suffer. You're not gonna avoid it. Because we are where we are in God's plan, we should realize that it will involve suffering from time to time. More or less, to some degree or another, for all of us. That's normal. That's to be expected. It is part of God's plan as revealed all throughout scripture. It was even part of the plan for Jesus himself. The Christian life is cross-shaped. It is cruciform. It is a series of many deaths, many salvations, many resurrections because we are following a crucified Christ. Jesus conforms the arc of our lives either once or multiple times to the pattern of his own life, death, and resurrection. The pattern is always suffering first, then glory. And that is both a micro-pattern, repeated in our lives from time to time, and it's the macro-pattern, the overall form and shape of the Christian life from beginning to end. This is why Paul said in 2 Timothy 3.10 that Timothy followed my persecution sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, Lystra, which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be what? Appreciated, promoted, admired, praised, lauded, no persecuted. Persecuted. While evil people and imposters will go about from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Why? Because you make them look bad. That's why. Because you offend and make their conscience feel guilty. That's why. Your holiness points out sin. They don't want any other conscience speaking or awakening theirs. Because they've already been doing all they can to deaden their conscience. so that they can live like they wanna live. And now when they see you not living the way they want to live, or not living the way they want you to live, so that that excuses their way of living, ah, ah, now they got skin in the game. And they want a pound of flesh. That's why. You gotta know that about the Christian life if you're gonna persevere when it comes down to it. Because the Christian life is not just about achieving the American dream. Those two things are different. Second application, we need to pray. Romans 15, 31, this is one great reason, one of these great instances which made Paul plead with the church. I appeal to you brothers by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and refresh in your company. Paul knew he needed prayer because he knew he had serious enemies against him in Judea, religious enemies, and as we've just seen in Acts 23, sworn, sworn enemies. We pray for these many salvations, many resurrections, for many deaths. So also 2 Thessalonians 3, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as happened among you and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men for not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful and he will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And third, persevere. Persevere in faith. There was nothing for Paul to do here in Acts 23, but keep trusting Jesus. What's he gonna do? He can't do anything about this. Jesus said he must testify in Rome, so he must now trust Jesus to get him there. Paul is not in control. Paul cannot make plans or save himself out of this situation. And there's no angel coming to bust him out of prison this time like he did in Philippi. But unbeknownst to Paul, a familiar and surprisingly little face shows up to visit him. And that brings us to our second point, the reality of invisible providence. The reality of invisible providence, verses 16 to 22. Now, children, if you're in here, listen up. The trap is all but set, the enemy's got a playbook, but there's a fly in the ointment because someone either leaked the plot on purpose, or this young man, probably young boy, just happened to be in the right place at the right time to eavesdrop on the conspiracy. Can you imagine how exhilarating this was for this kid? Ho, ho, ho, ha! This is for real, man! Now, we never do know which it was, an intentional leak or just accidental oversight, but Luke only tells us Paul's nephew heard, and from the way the tribune takes him by the hand, this nephew is probably pretty young. Like, I've never taken any one of you men by the hand before, no matter how seriously I wanted to take you aside and say something to you, I never came up to you. Come here, buddy. I don't do that to men. I might do that to my son. I don't do that to men. I don't think a Roman tribune would have done that to a man either. So this guy is maybe eight years old or so, maybe Garrett's age. It's hard to imagine a Roman tribune treating a full-grown man like this. And it's all the more likely that Paul's nephew is a young boy because he got easy access to Paul as a prisoner in the barracks. The centurion guarding Paul does not see this boy as compromising the security of the prisoner under his watch in any way. No chance of this one breaking Paul out. Long story short, the nephew tells Uncle Paul, and Paul doesn't just relay the message to the centurion, Paul tells the centurion, lead his nephew to the tribune to tell the tribune directly, and that's exactly what happens. In fact, the boy relays the plot with stunning accuracy from how it was hatched in verses 12 to 13. The boy knew what he heard, and he was able to reproduce it. from the request of another hearing, another grand jury, to the number of men involved, 40, he got that right, to the oath they took, to their readiness to pounce. Sharp kid. And sure enough, as we read on, this little boy foils the whole plot. Save Paul's chance to testify in Rome, and who knows, maybe Grace Covenant Baptist Church wouldn't even be here without this kid foiling this plot today. Thanks, kid. Can't wait to meet him in heaven. Now, children, look at that in your Bible. If you're here with your parents, look at that in your Bible. Look at how important it is for you children to do the right thing for the right reason. Look at how important it is for you to tell the truth to your mom or dad, your aunt or uncle, your grandpa, your grandma. Look at how much it matters for you to be an honest child. Honesty matters. Now children, this does not mean that you should be a tattletale, but look at what a difference you can make, even as a little boy, A little girl, when you are honest with the adults in your family. You don't always need to be telling on people to get them in trouble or to get your way. But children, you little people can help us big people in big ways. Little boy, little girl, God can use you for the purposes of the gospel, even to influence history, just like right here, if you're obedient, if you're wise, if you're honest. Paul's nephew heard something that he knew would get his uncle killed. And instead of being afraid to get involved, he was courageous. He told his Uncle Paul, and his Uncle Paul led him to a soldier who took him to the tribune who could do something about it in the right way. And it saved Paul's life. Look, there are books in the Bible that we would not have unless this little boy did what he did to get Paul to Rome. So children, take it from Paul's nephew here. You don't have to be big to be strong. And you don't have to be smart to be wise. You don't have to be famous to be important. And you don't have to be great to do good. But of course, all the credit really has to go to God. This is a wonderful example of 1 Corinthians 1.28. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. In all God's power and wisdom, He chose to use this little nameless nephew, we don't even know his name, to foil a murder plot hatched by forty Adults who are in powerful positions in order to save Paul's life so that we could have a complete Bible and a healthy church based on it. Psalm 82, out of the mouth of babies and infants you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. I think God got a good laugh out of this. I'm going to send Paul's nephew. That's all I'm going to do. And he's going to take it from there, and this is going to end. And Paul's going to make it. When God wanted to foil 40 men this time, He didn't send an angel. He sent a little kid, and it worked! Yet there's also an example of God's providence over mundane, natural events. where you can't really see behind the curtain what's going on. Nothing looks really miraculous here. This looks very ordinary, very humdrum, very blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Nothing different here, nothing really to see here, is there? This is not nearly as exciting as an angel prison break out of Philippi. I mean, that's the life verse passage right there. But guys, God does this stuff all the time. He did it all the time in the Old Testament. Think about it. How did it come about in Joshua 2.1 that the Israelite spies came into the house of a prostitute named Rahab? I mean, there's a lot going on there that isn't even fit to print, probably. How did it come about? They just happen upon her place. She protects him. She defects from Canaan, converts to Judaism, and ends up in Jesus' genealogy of all things. Invisible providence. How was it in Judges 14.4 that Samson's father and mother did not know that Samson's jonesing for a philistine floozy was from the Lord for he was seeking an opportunity against the Philistines and lo and behold he ends up freeing Israel from Philistine power. Invisible providence. How did it come about in Ruth 2 verse 3 that she just happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz? What a wonderfully pregnant phrase, no pun intended. And lo and behold, she ends up in Jesus' genealogy too. How was it in 2 Samuel or in Esther 6.1 that on that night the king could not sleep? And lo and behold, he reads the annals and discovers the Jewish people aren't as guilty as Haman said they were. and they're saved from Haman's genocidal plot in Persia. How was it that a little boy in 1 Samuel 17 just happens to be bringing his brother sandwiches when he hears what would be done for the man who defeated Goliath? Wait a minute, what's gonna be done for him? How was it in 2 Samuel 11 that at the time for kings to be at war, David's walking around his balcony looking at Bathsheba, and lo and behold, she ends up in Jesus' genealogy too. And we don't even approve of that. How was it in 1 Kings 22-34 that a certain man drew his bow at random and lo and behold Ahab king of Israel got exactly what was coming to him just as God foretold. It is because the lot is cast into the lap but every decision is from the Lord. Proverbs 16, 33. It is because the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord and he turns it wherever he pleases. Proverbs 21. It is because the earth is the Lord's and everything is because the Most High is praised and honored for His dominion is an everlasting dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing. And He does according to His will among the hosts of heaven and among all the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay His hand or say to Him, what have you done? It is because whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven, on earth, in the seas, in all the deeps. It is because the Lord kills and the Lord brings to life. He brings down to Sheol. He raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and He exalts. It is because God is the God who says, I am the Lord and there is no other. I form light and create darkness. I make well-being and create calamity. I am the Lord who does all these things. It is because in the words of Ephesians 1.9, this God works all things, all things, all things according to the counsel of His will. And He makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him. So it was that a little boy foiled the plot of 40 men. And of course, God's control over all things for the good of those who love him was proved most clearly when he sent his only son, Jesus Christ, to live the sinless life we should have lived, die the death we should have died, raise him again from the grave, and because that happened, Jesus said to us in Matthew 28, 20, and behold, I will be with you to the end of the age. He was with Paul in the middle of the plot against his life. He is still with us today by his spirit and over us today by his providence to work all things according to the counsel of his will, even when it hurts, even when you don't understand, even when you face threats and lose freedoms. So we don't fear man when our lives are threatened or our freedoms are taken. We fear God and we keep on testifying to Jesus' resurrection. Third and finally, the realism of institutional providence. The realism of institutional providence. Verses 23 to 35. Here, Jesus can commandeer the military of an empire to save his servants. That's really what's happening. What I want us to see here is that Jesus does for Paul what Jesus would not do for himself. When Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane, he said, Matthew 26, 53, that he could have called to his father for 12 legions of angels to save his life, but he didn't, so that scripture would be fulfilled, because he had to die. Instead, Jesus, by his providence, called almost 500 Roman soldiers to save Paul's life and escort him alive to Caesarea, also so that scripture would be fulfilled and that the gospel would be preached to all the nations, like Isaiah said. when a tribune like Claudius Lysias has to transfer a prisoner for purpose of hearings or protection or jurisdiction, he had to send an official letter that would in all likelihood end up in the prisoner's government file. So truth of form, the tribune whose name we now learn is Claudius Lysias, probably because he got his citizenship or bought his citizenship under the Emperor Claudius, he writes a letter to Felix, governor of Judea in the provincial capital, Caesarea. And we already know just a little bit about Felix from histories written in antiquity, and it ain't good. The Jewish historian Josephus recorded that Felix was a former slave turned freedman who rose to governor of Judea, at least in part because his brother Pallas had influence at the imperial court. So it's who you know. The Roman Tacitus wrote that Felix, quote, practiced every kind of cruelty and lust, wielding the power of a king with the instincts of a slave. Hmm. So it looks like Paul is going from the frying pan into the fire. Because he's heading to Felix. But as helpful as Lysias has been, he's no angel himself, judging from his letter. It looks like Paul's nephew might be more honest than Lysias is. You notice this when you read this last week, if you read it last week, you have questions about how Lysias is relating the situation and how he met Paul and discovered his citizenship. Just listen to how Lysias recounts his own history with Paul and you judge for yourself. This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him. having learned that he was a Roman citizen. I mean, if that's not the most Clorox-scrubbed account of that meeting, I don't know what is. That's amazing. When you read that letter, you should be saying, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Is that how it happened? Is that how that went down? Come on, man. Slow down there, Claude. Is that all that happened? Aren't you leaving out that little nugget about how you cuffed a Roman citizen and strung him up for a good flogging before you even realized he was a Roman citizen? Aren't you leaving that little gem out? Didn't this man have to tell you he was born a citizen in response to you bragging that you had bribed your way into your citizenship? And aren't you forgetting that Paul's citizenship by birth would actually trump your citizenship by bribe if the prisoner decided to press charges against you? Your letter is awfully concise, I'll give you that. But it's because you're leaving out a bunch of stuff. Claudius, you write the most self-serving, self-congratulatory, sanitized letters about your own conduct. Lysias comes off like he was only ever trying to do the right thing here, just following protocol, sir, when he might as well be burying the lead. I almost really messed up. That's what you should have said. Lysias is writing a cover-your-own-tracks letter here, and that's putting it very politely. Still, there is an encouraging lesson for us here, which is that Jesus can use even self-serving government and military officials to serve his servants. Felix, not a good guy. Claudius Lysias, less than forthright about his own professional incompetence. But Paul's not complaining, is he? Think about it. How would Luke know about this letter to include it in Acts? Simple version, Felix probably read the letter publicly in front of Paul, which would have been standard operating procedure. So Paul most likely would have heard this letter, but Paul doesn't go pressing charges against Lysias, does he? Countersuit! He cuffed me and I'm a Roman citizen, he can't do that. Paul doesn't correct a letter as dishonest or as not forthcoming enough regarding the circumstances of his detainment. And Jesus doesn't need a sinless instrument in the government to do his own providential work of protecting his people. Lysias didn't have to be a Christian. Lysias didn't have to be honest. Paul didn't need a sinless instrument To protect him. He didn't need Lysias to be an angel. He needed him to be a tribune. Plot thwarted. Prisoners securely transferred. Mission accomplished. Even if Lysias is less than forthcoming on a Jesus, even though he's less than forthcoming. Jesus doesn't need Lysias to be anything other than Lysias already is. He's a self-serving government official. And Jesus says, okay, I can use that. We Christians should act like we believe that. Jesus doesn't need government officials to be angels or Christians or even necessarily moral or honest. Stick that in your pipe in November. We gotta start thinking differently. about what we can expect from a non-Christian politician. I don't care what side of the aisle you're on. It's not about getting you to vote a certain way. It's getting you to think a certain way about your life publicly and about what you can expect from non-Christian people who are leading us in the government and what God actually needs or does not need them to be. Jesus does not need government authorities to be Christians or even act like Christians in order to use them to protect us. Are Christians biblically permitted to serve in secular government, even secular armies? Yes, of course they are. Ask John the Baptist. Would we like Christians to serve in government offices? I don't think we'd complain as long as they were competent, but is that necessary for the spread of the gospel? No, apparently it is not, because Acts 23. So Jesus uses self-serving officials to protect his people. Jesus even uses self-excusing officials to serve his people, the church. This one is about Felix in verses 34 to 35. Even if we didn't know any about his corruption from Tacitus, we can read right off the pages of scripture. He's not exactly looking to go above and beyond here. He reads a letter. His first question is not, what'd you do? It's, what province are you from? That's a procedural question. And it's legitimate. It's a question of jurisdiction. But it looks like he'd rather not hear the case at all because if Paul was from somewhere else, then Felix would just extradite him back to his own province. If Paul says anything other than Judea or Syria or Cilicia, you know what Felix is doing? Off you go. Next. Felix doesn't care. Felix is hungry for lunch. Combine that with Tacitus' testimony to Felix's corruption and you get the feeling that Paul is not in the most righteous hands here. And yet, and yet, we remain in Jesus' hands even when we are handed over to the government. And even when the government hires the wrong people from our perspective. Felix commands Paul to be guarded in Herod's praetorium, but in the context of verse 11, this is the risen Lord Jesus himself commandeering the praetorium by his providence in order to guard Paul until he can testify to the resurrection of the dead. This is the risen Jesus using the institution of Roman government to protect Paul. Is Felix being a good governor in spite of himself in doing this? Yes. Is Felix serving and protecting Paul at the behest of the risen Jesus? Yes, unbeknownst to him. Does he have to do that? Not really. Does it matter that Christians know that Jesus can do these things? Absolutely. Otherwise, when we fall into the hands of a Felix, we'll fall into despair, when in fact we are remaining in Jesus' hands, even when we are handed over to governors as corrupt as Felix was. Christian, the Lord Jesus knows how to use wicked men for his good purposes without them even knowing what's going on. Felix never realized that he was promoting the preaching of the gospel or that he was protecting a man that still had more scripture to write for our benefit. Felix had no idea. He didn't have to know because Jesus is in control, not Felix. I'm gonna give you one more parenthesis, okay? One more parenthesis here at the end. One function of secular government is to protect human life. That's what it's doing here. But think about this. Why does Claudius Lysias even bother protecting Paul to begin with? It's because Lysias himself knows that no one should kill a man who is charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. Even Lysias knows that. That's in his own words. But wait a minute. How does Lysias know that? How does Lysias even know that no one should be killed when they haven't done anything deserving of death and imprisonment? How does Lysias know what is deserving of death and imprisonment? Lysias is not a Christian. Lysias hasn't read a Bible. Lysias doesn't know the Ten Commandments. Lysias is neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he didn't have to be one to know that what was about to happen to Paul was injustice. In fact, what he was about to do to Paul, flog him for interrogation, that would have been injustice too. Now his main reason was because he was a citizen. But still, Lysias knew this is not good. God's law is written on Lysias' heart and his conscience was bearing witness to it. That is the reality of natural law. It's self-evident. God's moral law is woven into the fabric of the cosmos and written on the hearts of all humanity. Human reason is the faculty God gave you and all men to discover and recognize natural law. Conscience is the faculty God gave us to administer praise or blame to our heart for obeying or disobeying that natural law that we know to be true, even if we wish it didn't exist. Secular government, the sword of the state, is God's instrument to preserve social order and safety through The codifying, the writing out, the officializing, the promulgation, the spread, and the enforcement of natural law. That's government's job. That's God's use for government. And that's for the purpose of continued human flourishing and as a theater for the proclamation of the gospel. The threat of punishment deters us from violence. You don't have to be a believer in the Bible to know that murder is wrong. Because you have a conscience that tells you it's wrong to kill people just because you disagree with them on matters of religion or society. Who doesn't know that it's worse to kill a person than a dog? Why do we know that? Even if we're not Christians. It's because of conscience. Now did you ask for that conscience? No, you did not. That came as standard equipment on your hardware. Did you create your own conscience? No, you did not. It came as standard equipment. Where did it come from? Well, the Christian answer is best. It's a given of human nature. Conscience is part of being created in God's moral image as those who know we should practice righteousness. And it's not optional. It's like brakes on a car. It slows you down from doing the wrong thing. But if we all have a conscience, then why do we feel like hurting or killing people who disagree with us sometimes? And why, if everybody has a conscience, is there so much evil in the world? Again, the Christian answer is still best, because human nature is sinful, rebellious against God's moral authority over us, selfish and arrogant. Why then do we want to deny all those things about ourselves? Our selfishness, our arrogance, our wickedness, our rebelliousness, Again, the Christian answer is best because our sin is rebellion against our Creator who made us in His image and made the world as a moral ecosystem that displays and proclaims His righteousness. It's that understanding of the world that everybody's trying to suppress and rebel against. Think about it. Why do we need government to begin with? Because left to ourselves and without accountability, we would suppress our consciences, indulge our lusts, and create the worst version of ourselves as a human race we could possibly create. Yet is that not the spirit of our own age? Isn't that what we're attempting to do? To call evil good and good evil. We are denying conscience, denying nature itself, denying the morality of reality. Raging against a God whose existence we refuse to admit. How ironic is that? Because conscience will not keep silent. It continues telling us we are not as good as God created us to be. One of the great questions of our day is whether or not we are alone in the universe. It keeps popping up all over the place. We live, sinfully, as if the answer to that question is yes, we are alone in the universe, but the answer is no, we are not alone in the universe. God is here with us. Yet that is the one answer we do not want. Because it leaves us accountable to a being whose power we cannot resist, whose expectations we cannot fulfill, and who has authority to send us to a hell we cannot even conceive. But praise God, the Christian answer to all that is also best. There is one. There is one who has in fact fulfilled all God's expectations of us. God gives us the special revelation of the Bible to announce that he himself sent his only son to do for us what we would not and could not do for ourselves. Jesus Christ, sinless in his life, met God's expectations morally. Jesus Christ, our substitute in his death, suffered our penalty in our place for our sins under God's righteous wrath to save us from the hell we deserve. His own people killed him simply for claiming to be the son of God he is. Yet God raised him from the dead to vindicate his claim to divinity, to atone for our sins, to reconcile to God all those who will trust in his death for their forgiveness. Paul did not die here under the hatred of his countrymen, but Jesus did die. under that same hatred. And this church is here to testify to you today that God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the majesty on high in heaven so that if your conscience is guilty, you can appeal to Jesus with repentance from sin and faith in him. And he will cleanse your heart of your guilt and of your corruption and of your shame and your sin by sprinkling his own blood on your conscience as only he can. And instead of relating to God as judge, you'll be able to relate to him as father. Instead of denying reality, you'll be able to live according to it. One of Luke's underlying points here as we close is that the true public menace is not Christianity. It's not a Christianity that reminds us of reality, announces Jesus' resurrection, calls for repentance from all people. That's not a public menace. Christianity is not what's doing violence here. It's anti-Christianity doing the violence. Threatening lives, plotting conspiracies, taking vows to starve to death before letting Paul live. The true public menace is not those who preach Christ's authority. The menace is those who hate Christ's authority, who hate the morality of God's reality. The true hate is not coming from Christians. It's coming from anti-Christians. That is Luke's public point that he wants to make all the residents of the empire aware of, Christian or not. But Luke's point for Christians in particular is that Jesus protects his people to publish their witness even when we face threats and lose freedoms. In fact, Jesus is more committed to our testimony than the world is to our destruction. Think about it. Did these 40 guys really starve themselves to death? I seriously doubt it. Part of the point is that Jesus' promise to publish our witness overrules the world's vow to erase us before we can testify. Isn't that what happened here? Listen, Christian, Christ's servants are immortal until they complete the testimony Jesus has given them to articulate because Jesus always protects his servants so that they can finish their testimony to his resurrection. That means you should live your Christian life and give your Christian witness with confidence in Jesus' presence with you to protect you until you have rendered your full testimony to his resurrection. You, Christian, You are in Jesus' witness protection program until you are finished testifying. He will use his invisible providence and his institutional providence to protect you. And once you're done testifying, Jesus will call you home on his terms. And until then, we trust and we testify. Let's pray together. Father, we confess that we have often been timid. We have loved our lives too much. We have expected things of public officials that you don't even need them to be in order to do your work with them. We have not always testified clearly, faithfully, boldly. We have sometimes forgotten your invisible providence and not given you credit for it. We have misunderstood your institutional providence. Yet we are reminded afresh this morning, Lord Christ, you are on the throne of heaven. You are in control of all things. You know exactly where all of your servants are and what they need from you. And you know, you know how to employ all things to the good of those who love you. so to protect us that we might render a complete witness ourselves to the resurrection of Jesus. For His glory we pray, Amen.