One of our missionary friends, Mark Schuler, once asked what we would do when our study of Acts reached chapter 23. It's a fair question. Acts 23–26 can read like one story with the names swapped out: Paul goes to one governor and preaches Jesus, then goes to another governor and preaches Jesus. So this Sunday at The River Church we covered all four chapters at once. Seeing them together, the repetition turns out to be the message.
Paul is struck. He is threatened and falsely accused. He is held by corrupt governors, waits two years, and stands before rulers and kings. Through all of it he keeps talking about Jesus. His circumstances change constantly, but his message doesn't.
The Whitewashed Wall
The story opens with Paul in front of the Sanhedrin, Jerusalem's highest Jewish court. The high priest Ananias has him struck on the mouth, and Paul calls him a whitewashed wall: righteous-looking outside, with a problem inside. Ancient records describe Ananias as wealthy, politically connected and deeply corrupt. Years later he was hunted down and killed in a Jewish revolt, and he fades from history.
Paul does not fade. We were reminded: "Don't mistake temporary power for ultimate authority." Ananias could order Paul struck. He couldn't cancel God's calling on Paul's life.
On the surface this didn't look like ministry success. Paul escaped Jerusalem at night under a Roman escort after more than forty men swore not to eat or drink until he was dead. It looked like chaos. But, as Sunday's message put it, "Trouble does not mean that God has lost control." That night the Lord had stood by Paul and promised he would testify in Rome (Acts 23:11).
There was also an honest warning. Opposition easily takes over our story. Someone hurts us and that's all we talk about. Something goes wrong and that's all we talk about. Paul didn't pretend the opposition wasn't real, but "he refuses to let the opposition become bigger than the gospel." When the room gets hostile, at home, at work or anywhere else, remember why you're in the room.
Don't Waste the Waiting Room
Once Paul was safely in Caesarea, you might expect things to speed up toward Rome. Instead he waited two years. The governor Felix kept him in prison hoping for a bribe. Luke covers it in five words, When two years had elapsed (Acts 24:27), but Paul lived every one of those days.
Most of us know the doctor's-office version: show up fifteen minutes early, wait forty-five minutes, then get moved from a large waiting room to a smaller one. Waiting is frustrating because someone else controls the clock. Waiting is also when we start doubting the promise. Did I hear You wrong? Did I mess up? Did You change the plans?
Here's the reminder for that season: "Don't confuse nothing happening with God doing nothing." And: "A waiting season is not necessarily a wasted season." Paul didn't take two years off. Every time Felix and Drusilla called for him, he talked about faith in Jesus. It's fine to pray, God, move. But it's just as important to ask who God has put in the waiting room with you.
God Uses Even Festus
After two years, Festus replaced Felix. When the leaders pushed to send Paul back to Jerusalem, Paul appealed to Caesar as a Roman citizen. Festus replied, To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go. He thought he was making a legal ruling, but he was helping fulfill what Jesus had already said. God can use people who have no idea they're serving Him.
Then King Herod Agrippa II arrived with great pomp. His family runs all through the New Testament: Herod the Great, who murdered the children at Bethlehem; Herod Antipas, who had John the Baptist killed; and Herod Agrippa I, who killed James and imprisoned Peter in Acts 12. Now this king was hearing Jesus preached. Acts 9:15 had foretold that Paul would carry Christ's name before kings, and Paul did it in chains. As he says in Acts 26:22-23, Christ suffered, Christ rose, and Christ brings light. What was meant to silence Paul gave him a bigger microphone. Every courtroom became a pulpit.
Who Gets the Final Word?
Agrippa admitted Paul could have been released if he hadn't appealed to Caesar. That can sound tragic, until you remember that Jesus had said Rome. The Sanhedrin couldn't stop him. The forty assassins couldn't stop him. Neither could Felix, two years of prison, Festus or Agrippa. In the words of Sunday's message: "You can oppose it. You can plot against it. You can delay it. You can put it in chains. But you cannot have the final word."
So what has God placed in your heart that you've let opposition, disappointment or delay convince you will never happen? Here's the challenge we were left with: "Stop measuring God's faithfulness by how easy the journey has been." If God said Rome, then it's Rome.
Watch the full message at theriverag.church, and come worship with us this Sunday in Post Falls.