Acts 23. 11-35

Acts 23. 11-35
For Paul, life was getting g more and more challenging.  To remind you of the background, he had turned up in Jerusalem after travelling through Turkey and Greece telling people the good news about Jesus.  He had  been accused of bringing a non Jew into the Jewish Temple – which although it sounds trivial to us, was a big deal to Jews.  He had nearly been lynched as he had tried to talk about his encounters with God and about the challenges of following Jesus.  The Romans had arrested and imprisoned him for his own protection – and he had narrowly escaped a flogging as the Romans tried to find out what he had done, before they realised he was a Roman Citizen.  So he is still under arrest, but also under the protection of Roman law now they know he is a full Roman citizen.  And I can let yo into a secret: he will remain under arrest for the rest of the book of Acts – probably for the rest of his life. Life was tough.  It was going to get tougher.  It would be kind of tempting to despair; to lose a sense of direction in the midst of chaos  and pain, or to begin to feel self-pity... 

It was at this most strategic point that Lord stood near Paul and spoke to him : “‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”   Luke records these direct, visionary experiences, happening to Paul at this conversion (Acts 9. 3) and again shortly after his conversion (Paul tells the story in Acts 22. 17-21) and on four separate occasions during his mission: here and at 16. 9 (when he had a vision of a man from Macedonia, calling for help); 18. 9f (in Corinth when the Jews turned against him); and  27.23f (after the great storm and just before he was shipwrecked!).  These experiences are real, dramatic, powerful; they take place at decisive, and mostly dangerous points in the story;  they are all about God's call on Paul's life; and they are all about mission to those outside the Christian faith. 

Vision gives us a missional destiny
In our world, we need that.  We are not used to visions, to “God-experiences”.   In a  context where there are trials, discouragements, possibly direct threats,we need those vision moments.   Maybe God gives us pictures of beautiful valleys full of flowers and wonderful sunsets over calm seas.  But whatever the vision, they are  given to remind us who God is,  to make us strong, to renew a sense of purpose and destiny, and a missionary focus  so we can not only survive but grow, thrive and make an impact in our world.   They are about maintaining an “Overriding desire to see the world recognised the Lordship of Jesus Christ...”     D L Moody said “God has given me a lifeboat and said to me 'Moody, save all you can'”

Prov 29. 18 says “Where there is no vision, the people perish”.  The word perish has connotations of nakedness.  Without a God vision, we are unprotected, left to our own devices, embarrassed and unprotected from whatever the enemy wants to throw at us – or whatever people choose to throw at us.  

On holiday I've been reading “Birthing the Miraculous” by Heidi Baker, an evangelist and missionary in Mozambique. She writes “I encourage you to reflect on the calling God has given you.... What is it that you want to do?  Who do you want to become?  For what do you want to be known? If you have never asked the Holy Spirit to speak to you about these things I encourage you to spend time doing so now.” 

I believe we need that.  We need to know what God has called us to.  It may not involve going off to Mozambique.  It may be the same thing we have been doing already.  But so long as it's not just what we do for the lack of the imagination and passion to do something better.  So long as it's God's call.   That call, that vision will keep us in shape, keep us together, keep us strong and focussed, when the enemy, the culture, and our personal circumstances are undermining and destroying us, making us feel very very insecure.  

Vision makes sense of circumstances
V. 11, which places Paul’s desire to go to Rome within the purposes of God, also serves as the introduction and keynote for pretty much the rest of the Acts of the Apostles:  “as you have witnessed for me in Jerusalem, you are going to witness for me in Rome”....  And look what follows:

The very next day, (v 12-15) forty Jews, probably highly political types, take a solemn oath, that they would not eat or drink until they had killed  Paul.  A conspiracy, motivated only by bigotry, jealousy and hatred.   They go to the Sanhedrin and tell them to tell the Governor they want to examine Paul again, the next day (They obviously didn't want to go without food too long!)  the idea was that when Paul was being transferred from prison to court, they would make their move and assassinate him.

And the Sanhedrin (who were not above using the most dishonest and underhand means to secure what they wanted) were willing to co-operate with them.  The worldly-wise Sadducee party held the power.  Even those among the Pharisees who felt positively about Paul, weren't prepared or able to oppose this or report it. 

That was left to Paul's young nephew!  The nephew – and indeed Paul’s relationship with his family – is shrouded in mystery.  We don't know anything about this young man and we wish we did!   The young man certainly knew he needed to take action, went and told Paul.

How might Paul have felt at that moment?  How often have God's people been left in  a position like that.  I think of King David in the Old Testament, whom Saul in a fit of jealousy and paranoia pursued, forcing him to live like a bandit, afraid of betrayal.  I think of Martin Luther when he stood trial for posting his 39 theses on the door or Wittenberg cathedral.  I think of David Armstrong, who was hounded out of this church in Limavady for taking a stand against hatred and bigotry.  I think of Heidi and Rolland Baker in Mozambique. Rolland writes, “Our years in Pemba have been tumultuous, intense, filled with demonic attacks, violence, threats, opposition from the government, discouragement, theft, loss, disappointments, failures, staff turnover, and the constant, unrelenting demands of extreme poverty and disease all around us.” But Paul in all his difficulties,  knew what God had said to him   “you are going to witness for me in Rome”. 

 So Paul (now he was recognised was a respected Roman Citizen) was able to get the support of the centurion to introduce the young man to the Commanding Officer.  In the end, the Commander was able to operate discretely to outwit the Jewish plot, rushing Paul to the safer city of Caesarea, which was the “capital” of the Roman province, was in gentile-dominated territory, and had a larger garrison.  The governor, Felix, was the Jerusalem Commander's superior.  Claudius Lysias, the Commander in Jerusalem, wrote a very professional and respectful letter to Felix, that Luke gives us the gist of.  Felix was a freedman: he and his brother had been slaves, but his brother had been freed and had then become a favourite of Emperor Claudius; so Felix also had been freed and had risen up the ranks.  As Governor of Palestine, he had in the words of Tacitus, “the power of a king and the mind of a slave.”  in other words, eh was no gentleman; he continued to be self-seeking and to work the angles for his own personal gain.  Such was the man in  whose hands Paul’s fate now lay.  But as Paul was transferred from Jerusalem to Caesarea, and as the self-seeking shrewd and rather unscrupulous Felix put him under guard in Herod’s palace pending trial – maybe comfortable surroundings but frustrating ones – he knew what God had said to him   “you are going to witness for me in Rome”.

Whether it is the evil and hatred  and fanaticism of conspirators and the hypocrisy of conniving Sanhedrin members, or the meticulous care of a bemused Roman tribune, or the self-seeking arrogance of Governor Felix, or the single-mindedness of Paul himself, are all being used by that sovereign hand of God. 

Vision empowers us for action. 
Paul, his young nephew, and the Roman Commander in Jerusalem, were each able to take discrete, careful steps to defeat the plot against Paul’s life.   In fact, they were able to defeat the plotters using their own strategies – secrecy and subterfuge.  Sometimes we need to defeat evil, on its own terms.  In Lk 16. 1-9  Jesus told a strange  parable about the servant who cooked to books so he would be looked after when he got the sack, and then he said “the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.   Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings”  I am not saying that it is OK to engage in dishonesty – and that is not what Jesus was saying either!  What we are to do is, like Paul, use what we have – opportunities, skills, resources – for the benefit of the Kingdom of God.   Christian missions is the announcement, embodiment and extension of Christ's reign in the world by the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of the Father.

 Paul is able to harvest the experience – or the knowledge it communicated – to enable him to remain calm, confident and dignified throughout the difficulties of the next few years!   Believing God didn’t mean sitting doing nothing.

We need to have the strength of conviction that Paul had, but to combine that with the wisdom and shrewdness to avoid squandering our opportunities.   So we need to have a vision; and we need to do what we can.   As William Carey said, “Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God.”

© Gilmour Lilly October  2014

Acts 22. 23–23. 11

Acts 22. 23–23. 11

The Story Paul has been accused of “brining a Gentile into the Temple”. The Romans have taken charge of him for his own protection; he has been given permission to address the crowd.  He tells his own story up to the point where God calls him to mission among the gentiles:  that word again sets the crowd off and they are ready to kill him, so once again the Roman officer steps in, takes Paul away.  He may not have understood Paul's speech in Aramaic but he knows it has caused a ruckus, so he decides to interrogate him – complete with a flogging – to find out the truth. 

At that point, as the soldiers are tying him to a stake , Paul asks the officer “Hey, is this actually legal?  Did you know I ma a Roman Citizen?”  The officer doesn't think he can possibly be a Roman citizen. After all, Paul is dishevelled, bruised and bleeding.  He doesn't look much like the type to be able to afford Roman Citizenship.  “I paid a lot of money to become a citizen” is a challenge: the officer is in effect saying  “Do you think I'm stupid? I know from personal experience that Citizenship costs a lot of money?”  Paul, of course is able to surprise the soldier by calmly stating “I was born a citizen!”  He outranked the man who had been treating him with such contempt.   The law was clear:
A Roman citizen could not be tortured or whipped, nor could he receive the death penalty, unless he was found guilty of treason.  And the Romans had been on the point of scourging him: a beating that often caused death.
If accused of treason, a Roman citizen had the right to be tried in Rome, and even if sentenced to death, no Roman citizen could be sentenced to die on the cross.

What is Paul doing here?  Is he suddenly afraid of death or of the pain of a beating?  Maybe, but not enough to wriggle out of it!  What we see here, then is part of a major realignment in Paul's identity and self understanding.  He perhaps more clearly than ever before sees himself as a Roman.  Rather, I believe he is using his citizenship because it is his right to do so;   and he is using his citizenship to get himself to the one place on the planet he had hope to get to for years – Rome!   If they were going to accuse Paul of anything, let them accuse him of treason, and as a Roman citizen, he would stand trial in Rome.
In bewilderment and concern that he has already broken the law, the Roman Governor decides to call together the Sanhedrin (the Jewish Council) the next day...  And as Paul begins to speak to the Sanhedrin, the high priest who is called Ananias orders someone to hit Paul in the mouth.  Paul's response is immediate, sharp, and well-deserved “God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!” (23v3)  Now summoned by the Roman Governor, it's likely that Ananias wouldn't be wearing “priestly” clothes: these were holy and not to  be worn  outside of the Temple.   It's quite possible that Paul, as a comparative newcomer to Jerusalem, didn't recognise that Ananias was in fact high priest.  Certainly he wasn't behaving like one!  Paul knows that he cannot accuse someone of breaking the law if he himself does not keep the law, so he apologises. 
He then sets the two sides in the council against each other.  The Sadducees were the upper-class Jews who, were careless about keeping the law, and more concerned about keeping the temple and sacrificial system going.  The Pharisees were often from more modest background; they were obsessed with keeping the law and interpreting it properly so they were very learned.  The Sadducees didn’t' believe in bodily resurrection; the Pharisees did – they were the ones who took the Bible literally, remember.  And Paul divides the council in two by saying “I'm in chains for believing in the resurrection!”  (v 6)   And this was, once again, much more than a clever trick to confuse his enemies.  It reveals some things that were happening in the depth of his heart.  Identifying himself as a Roman Citizen does not in any sense diminish his sense of identity as a Jew and a Pharisee. 

The point: Paul is a “World citizen.”   he says  “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law... I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.”  (1 Cor 9. 20-22) 

Listen: we need to be within a culture in order to save people within that culture.  Hit and run evangelism will not work,  We need presence evangelism; we need incarnational evangelism.

The problem:  Belonging in a culture, identifying ourselves with a group of people,  can be difficult and even cause problems.  Think of the groups you are part of – family, work colleagues, or on the football terraces.  They may be good people but there may also be things in their corporate behaviour that embarrass you and that you don’t want to copy!  Some Christians conclude that we should separate ourselves from all of that:  keep ourselves apart so we don't pick up sin like the 'flu!

Now, when Paul openly identified himself as a Roman Citizen,that does not mean that he suddenly felt that the Romans were a great bunch of lads.  It didn't mean he was blinded to the weaknesses and flaws in their culture: the appalling cruelty, the contempt for those they had defeated, the idolatry and immorality.

But at this point he has decided “These are my people too!”  

Despite his deep disquiet with some of the personalities, and with the attitudes and outlook of his fellow Jews, despite the fact that some of them were “whitewashed tombs”,  he clearly and definitely has his place among them, as a Pharisee who believes in the resurrection. 

We don't need to like everything about the cultures around us. We don't need to be like the people around us in our attitudes and behaviours.  But we need to identify with them, to be part of their lives and to treat others as our equals and our friends.  How can we identify with more than one “tribe” and still remain faithful to Jesus?

The difference.    Some in the Sanhedrin ask “What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?” (v. 9)   But in fact, one had.  It was precisely because of his encounters with Jesus by the Holy Spirit, and the interventions of the angels of God in his life, that Paul stood before these people as a believer in Jesus.  Paul was a citizen of the supernatural realm, the Kingdom of god.  Paul himself wrote to the Phlippians (from prison, possibly in Rome itself!) “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3. 20).  

It is when our citizenship is in Heaven, when we are focussed on Jesus, identify with him, identify ourselves first and foremost as Citizens of the Kingdom of God, that we are released from a narrow, nationalistic, exclusive attachment to one culture only.  We can be Scottish and British; we can be an ordinary person from Rosyth and have specialist knowledge and skills....  no one culture is able to eat us up – because we belong to the Kingdom of God, and are able to enter into other cultures as a stranger and a visitor. 

So, in the end, Paul is kept as prisoner, but kept safe from the Jews who wanted him dead.  And God confirms his plan in it all:  “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”  (v 11).  There would be further cruelties and abuses from the places where Paul claimed human citizenship – both Jewish and Roman.  But the realm where his real citizenship was, where his first loyalty lies, that Kingdom is the triumphant one and will conquer in the end.

© Gilmour Lilly October  2014

Harvest 2014

“SEEDS” Talks

1. How do seeds grow? All by themselves.

Mark 4 . 26 He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces corn – first the stalk, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 As soon as the corn is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.’

There is life in seeds. They are living things, that contain all they need to get a new plant started. All you need to do to see a seed germinate – make a new plant – is put it somewhere warmish and moist. Damp soil usually works well. That's all. There is life in the seeds, that knows just what to do. All by itself, it makes a root come out; then a green shoot that grows into a leaf....

What might help the seeds to grow? Water? A little? Warmth? A little. Keeping the birds off? And later on, training, pruning. What might stop seeds from growing? Stamping on them. Breaking the leaves off. Pulling them up to see how they are doing! Washing them away with too much water!

Jesus says Gods' Kingdom – “what it's like when God is given a chance to be in charge” – is like seeds planted in the soil. God's Kingdom is a living thing. All by itself it knows what to do: it can start new life; it can grow; it can lead to all sorts of good things. We don't make it grow although we can stop it growing, and we can help it to grow well. So I want us to learn how to plant good seeds for god's kingdom, so that we can see God's Kingdom growing in our lives. We can see what it's like when God is allowed to be in charge.

2. Seeds become something much bigger than themselves that blesses others.

Mark 4 . 30 Again he said, ‘What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.’

You plant tiny mustard seeds – like these – and you get a bush that is big enough for the birds to make nests in. Seeds usually grow into something bigger and better. You plant little brown seeds and get beautiful flowers. You plant tasteless little white seeds and get tomatoes and lettuce. You plant hard little bullets an get soft, sweet, juicy peas!

Jesus says the Kingdom of God – “what it's like when God is given a chance to be in charge” – is like that mustard seed: it seems so tiny and stupid ad useless. A wee black dot. But what it grows into is bigger and better than the seed. It is something that can be a blessing, can be enjoyed, can help lots of people. In God's kingdom, great big, wonderful blessings can come from tiny little starts.

3. Seeds reproduce themselves. They are predictable.

Luke 6. 43 ‘No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognised by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thorn-bushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Look at these seeds: do you know what kind of fruit or plants these seeds came from? Apples. Oranges. Grapes (maybe!) Coriander (try a bit!). Tomatoes. Once you identify the seed or the fruit, you absolutely know what kind of plant produced that seed. No questions. No oranges from apple trees. Seeds are predictable.

Jesus said that applies to God's Kingdom – “what it's like when God is given a chance to be in charge” – in our lives. IF we are letting God be in charge, Kingdom seeds will be growing in our lives, and we will grow good fruit – lives that make other people happy; lives that share things out in god;s world; lives that make Gods; world a better place. Your life and mine is either a “God's in charge” tree, or its' a “you’re in charge” tree. We know which is which, not by looking to see if people are singing the songs at Church or whether they read their Bible; we know which is which by whether they are a kind, good, honest person or not. What kind of tree are you?

4. How can I plant good seeds?

Luke 17. 5 The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’

6 He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you.
We connect with God's Kingdom – with “what it's like when God is given a chance to be in charge” – by faith! That means we put our trust totally in Jesus and in what he says; in his love and what eh has done for us.
How much faith do you need to have? How much faith do you need to have to become a new person, a “God's in charge” tree? How much faith do you need to pray and see god answer? Jesus said faith as small as a mustard seed. A tiny dot. Just a little. It doesn't need to be huge. As long as it's there.
And if we trust him, then , really everything in our lives belongs to him. Faith leads to total commitment. There are not areas where he isn't allowed. Jesus told a tiny wee story like this: (Matthew 13:44 ) ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

© Gilmour Lilly October  2014