As we begin our final full week of reading through the book of Acts I look back with awe at the lives of the faithful in the months following Jesus death and resurrection. These men and women found themselves in uncharted waters, and they leaned in to their faith and carried the Gospel message not only to their neighbors and friends, but to the ends of the earth! Thanks be to God for their faithfulness and for God's sovereign grace! Now we are the saints on the scene for this portion of the Gospel story. Will we move faithfully beyond the confines of our prejudices and abilities to extend the Kingdom and dare great things? Lord, help us move in the Spirit again!
This week please read the following assignments; Monday - Acts 23, Tuesday - Acts 24, Wednesday - Acts 25, Thursday - Acts 26, and Friday - Acts 27.
Today we find Paul back before the Council to defend himself against their accusations. As the proceedings begin the High Priest has Paul punched in the mouth for his opening statement. Paul's temper flares and he sounds pretty human as he calls the High Priest a "whitewashed wall". Pretty harsh in 60AD I guess.
Paul quickly and expertly divides the house by calling on the differing theologies of his opponents and proclaiming his fidelity to the house of the Pharisees. The Pharisees and Sadducee's have at it, practically forgetting Paul is in the room. The tribune feared the disagreement between the Pharisees and Sadducee's would grow so violent that Paul would be injured, so he has the soldiers bring Paul to safety and schedules a time for the council to meet again the next day. Word of a conspiracy to kill Paul is uncovered and the tribune sends Paul secretly to Caesarea where he is kept securely in Herod's quarters awaiting trial.
I wonder if the men that vowed they wouldn't eat again until they killed Paul starved to death? It seems like an impractical vow, if you don't succeed in the first week or so your odds drop along with your strength. Paul is safely in God's hands, and while he will be martyred for the faith it will not be on people's time, but in God's time. Paul rests comfortably in that knowledge. Oh that I could trust God so completely with the far less pressing matters of my days.
About Me
- Pastor Bill
- I am a committed follower of Jesus Christ, a happy husband, father and grandfather!
4 comments:
Paul is so clever! What a great technique - reminds me of your approach (albeit perhaps less intentionally) when you were in your ordination interviews and got the team fighting amongst themselves :)
With Paul it reads like brilliance, with me it was grace extended by God to a desperate fool!
It is fun to watch the big dogs fight it out from under the porch sometimes!
Bill
Wow - it really is incredible how important the work of the disciples in Acts is to our faith. If they hadn't done what they had done, Christianity would have died! How is that even possible, with a central figure who is still alive! I guess that's why they stuck it out! Jesus appeared to Saul after he died, now we have an incredible author!
He was pretty clever. It's quite the tactic - take the attention off yourself so that you can not get killed. I think Aladdin did that too!
It's nice that he had some people looking out for him, or he probably would have died. How would that have worked today? If someone vowed to kill or starve to death - wouldn't the other person pretty much die? We have protection and stuff now - but with the weapons of today, one little click and there's no turning back. People aren't necessarily beaten anymore, they just die, pretty quickly for their faith.
Maybe the men who vowed not to eat also thought it would be pretty easy to kill Paul - so they just did that so they'd have more of an excuse to do so. Whatever it may be, they were certainly determined.
But My God saved the day. Haha!
LoveMarsh
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