Acts (Part 2) | Take Courage - Acts 23 | November 9

All right. So last week, we started a story that essentially we're going to

be continuing this week.

And actually, we're going to kind of stretch it. So we were in chapter 22 last

week, we're in chapter 23 this week.

In a sense, we're going to be covering sort of chapter 23, 24, and some of chapter 25.

And then we'll come back and hit some of those chapters again a little bit in

which we talked about chapter six but we talked about we started this story about.

Paul's testimony his amazing encounter with the lord on the road to damascus

how how this encounter this amazing testimony with paul demonstrates as he has he walked in

faithfulness to that it demonstrates not only his faith and trust in the lord

but it also demonstrates for Paul his belief in who God is as the God who created the universe,

whose judgments are unsearchable, whose ways are beyond understanding,

that Paul's testimony was shaped,

by God who controlled history. And because of that, every moment of his life wasn't wasted.

Even those years when he thought he was on God's side, fighting for God,

persecuting the way and persecuting Christians, when he was persecuting the

Lord in a sense, even in those moments, God was writing his story and God was faithful.

So God is in control. His ways are beyond our understanding.

And so this story is going to span the next four chapters.

And what we're going to see is Paul defending himself over and over again before

officials, before kings, even eventually before the emperor himself.

But that's not in this story.

We'll see him in chapter 23 before the San Pedro, the Jewish ruling council.

He'll get taken then to Caesarea by guard to testify before Felix.

And in chapter 24, and then this guy Festus will succeed or follow him,

succeed feelings, and we'll see him testify before Festus as well.

And then King Agrippa in chapter 26, and finally, eventually,

he'll make it to Rome, though I suppose we never really see that too much,

except for just the brief couple statements that he was there.

And he was still imprisoned and house arrest, but he encountered some freedoms.

So, let me, since we're going to be covering a few chapters.

Let me just give us a general overview, a high-level overview of what we see

in sort of chapters 23 to chapter 25, verse 12-ish.

So, that's kind of the scope of where we're at.

So, in chapter 23, this is Paul before the Sanhedrin. This is the holy Jewish phalsep.

So, Paul is standing there defending himself, if you recall, and he was arrested.

Sort of arrested in chapter 23, and he's now on trial before them,

and he declares that, brothers, I have made every effort to live before God

and man and all good conscience up until this day.

So this is Paul's beginning thought to the Sanhedrin, and immediately the chief

priest orders him to be struck, to which then Paul sort of lashes out in this statement.

God will strike you, you whitewashed wall, which is directed towards the chief

priest, which is a domino.

And there's very much the sense that Paul at this point was pretty blind because

he was potentially even on the Sanhedrin.

So he probably knew a bunch of these people. There's a good chance he knew who the chief priest was.

And on a normal day, the chief priest would have been dressed differently.

So it would have been unusual for him not to know.

There's lots of theories out there, but probably he was just kind of blind.

He didn't know he was talking to, which is important for us.

The fact that Paul trusted and Paul was faithful.

All of this, Just imagine how terrifying prison is, and then imagine that you're blind.

And imagine being shipwrecked, and then imagine that you're pretty blind.

So it just amplifies what we're talking about. But of course,

Paul apologizes, and he cites the script, for you shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.

And so Paul, at this point, I believe, probably, if he hadn't already known,

he figured out quickly that he wasn't going to get a fair trial.

And so that kind of explains what happens in the next three chapters.

So, sensing division on the Council, some of them were Sadducees,

some of them were Pharisees, Paul comes up with this clever plan and he speaks

out that it is because of his belief.

Because the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. They didn't believe

in life after death. They didn't believe in angels and demons.

They didn't believe in the spiritual world at all.

So in a sense, they're more of a political

force rather than a religious organization. You can kind of see that.

While the Pharisees believed in all of those things, that Paul was a Pharisee.

So he seeks out knowing that this is going to divide them.

It says that what happens became so fierce and that they were so violent with

one another that Paul is actually sort of arrested again to protect him from

the Jews fighting against each other.

I cannot almost imagine them tugging at him, nearing to rip him apart,

but they're so incited by this statement. So the soldiers take him back to the marriage.

And it's at that very night, what Julie read for the kids, that God shows up,

and these are the words that he speaks to Paul.

Take courage, take heart, be of good cheer, your Bible might say.

Don't be afraid, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about

me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.

So, the very morning that Paul received these words to take courage,

don't fear, you're going to make it to Rome.

We encounter this plot by some Jews, about 40 guys, to have Paul killed.

They come up with a clever plan, so they get the chief priests to ask to be

questioned again so that they can.

Attack paul and kill him and paul's nephew we

didn't he we haven't known paul has any family up at this point apparently has

a sister and he has a nephew but his nephew heard this and he goes to paul and

fouls them that he overheard this paul then gets a centurion to then take the

the boy to the commander who listens to the boy he takes him by the hand and

the boy explains this plot to him,

and he's told to not tell anyone and then the commander who's claudius lesias

then orders for Paul to be taken that very night to Caesarea.

And so he prepares 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spears,

so 470 goddesses to protect Paul.

And they take him about halfway, which sounds like they didn't do their job,

but that's kind of where they were aiming for.

They take him to Antipatris, which is halfway, and then the rest of the journey

was known to be pretty safe.

So just a few extra guards would have escorted them out of there,

and the rest when he returned back to Jerusalem.

But upon arrival, Felix is the governor, you might say, the proconsul.

He's the guy who took over, I believe, after Pontius Pilate.

So he's that physician, right?

He reads his letter. He asks Paul where he's from. Paul tells him of Cilicia.

And then Felix agrees to hear his case when his accusers arrive.

Their system is very similar to ours in some ways, that they have the right to face their accusers.

Also, I think, because some of this, I was like, oh, I wonder if they,

the way Paul's treated, it kind of seems like they operate in the guilty until

proven innocence way that a lot of the world operates. But actually,

I think it's the opposite. They operated pretty closely.

And so, Paul waits, and five days later, the high priest again,

Ananias, arrives with some elders and a lawyer, Tartalus.

Also, none of the—this will be important detail—but he arrives with none of

the Asian Jews who were actually there when Paul was initially arrested.

So, those would be his accusers, and not a chief priest who had no knowledge of what was going on.

But they accused Paul of being a troublemaker, of stirring up riots among Jews

all over the world. They accused him of being a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes or the way.

And they even accused him of one who was trying to desecrate the temple.

And so, Maul's defense, as he's invited to reply, directly addresses the,

he calmly states that he's gone to Jerusalem to worship. He didn't go to stir up trouble.

That there was no crowd or disturbance when he was found in the temple.

And that his accusers, the ones from Asia, who originally saw him,

they weren't even there to really say what had happened. So he wasn't actually

there with the people who saw him.

So the only real issue that he brings up is that he is arrested because he believes

in the resurrection of the dead and the hope of Israel.

So Felix is familiar with the way he's familiar with Christ.

He postponed his decision for when the commander that heard Paul,

that received Paul's letter, that he would come down and he would decide on the case.

So he orders Paul to be kept under God but allowed some freedom and visits from

friends. So he's kind of under house arrest.

He's more under protection than in prison, you could say.

And then Felix is married to a Jewish woman, Drusilla, and there's this great assorted.

Affair about their relationship and all that kind of stuff.

And it's not in the Bible, but it's recorded in history. And so the way that

they react to Paul is kind of based on their own past as Paul kind of speaks out to them.

And it talks to them about all of these things, about the resurrection,

about faith, and about the coming judgment.

And then Felix is so frightened that he He has Paul come back and take him back

to his home, and it says that he'll sin for him. And he actually does sin for him quite frequently.

He wants to hear from Paul. Some of it he wants to get him alive, it says.

But here's the crazy part. Felix kept him in prison, we can say,

even though it's more like house arrest.

For two years, Paul is under house arrest, undergarve, for two years.

So much so that Felix is then succeeded by importious Festus,

who wants to do the Jews a favor, so he keeps Paul in prison for even longer.

And then eventually, as he arrives in Caesarea, Festus hears his case again.

He brings the Jews together, and the Jews plan to ambush him again,

so their plan is to get him back to Jerusalem, to get Paul back to Jerusalem.

So Festus asks Paul if he would like to be tried in Jerusalem.

Paul, of course, responds that he's done nothing wrong against the Jews or against

Caesar or against Rome or against the temple.

And so, confesses, still encourages him, wanting to be looked favorably by the

Jews, to go back to Jerusalem and have a fair trial, or what he says would be a fair trial.

But Paul then makes his appeal to Rome. He's a Roman citizen.

He says, I am now standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried.

I have not done any wrong with you Jews, as you yourself know very well.

If I am guilty of anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die.

But if none of their charges are true, no one has the right to hand me over

to them. I appeal to Caesar.

So Pessus says, to Caesar, you have appealed. To Caesar, you must appeal.

And this is the scope of these two and a half chapters that we're looking at.

Before we get too much further on how Marty come up, I think.

I'm going to. Well, if not, you're going to do it anyway because I just bawled

you out. He's going to read a different story.

You want to read Kansas? You're going to read her story. I don't know how you

segue from. I don't know.

There you go. Now, Elijah, the his wife of Tisby and Gilead, 7 a.m.

As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither

doom nor rain these years, except for by my word.

And the word of the Lord came to him, Depart from here and turn eastward,

and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.

You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you

there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord.

He went and lived by the brook of the Cherie, and east of the Jordan,

and the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and the bread and

the meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.

Then the word of the Lord came to him, Arise and go to Zarephath,

which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.

Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you. So he arose and went to Zarephath.

When he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.

And he called to her and he said, Bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink.

And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said,

Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.

And she said, As the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked,

only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug.

And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go and prepare it for myself

and my son that we meet, that we may eat it and die.

And Elijah said to her, Do not fear, go and do as I have said.

But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterwards make

something for yourself and your son.

For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, The jar of flour shall not be spent,

and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the Lord sends the rain upon the earth.

And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for

many days, and the jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become

empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.

Thank you, Marty. Everybody give a round of applause for Marty.

We want to hear that beautiful voice thank you

yeah so you might be thinking to yourself this seems like a very strange series

of events that has taken place i just recapped a couple chapters and acts marty

read this story from first kings about elijah and this widow from seraphat.

And you might be thinking to yourself what do they have in common you might

be thinking to yourself that I've lost my mind and, or I've had a hard week

and I've just kind of lost touch with, you know, that might be true.

I'm slowly losing my mind. So don't put it past me, but I'm,

I think you'll find that there is a lot shared in common between these two stories.

Even though they're separated by thousands of years, they take place in completely different places.

They take place in completely different places. Man, I should have thought how to say that better.

Through Elijah, God says to this widow when he encounters her,

on her last little bit of oil, her last little bit of flour,

God's word to her through Elijah is, take courage, be of good cheer,

don't be afraid, take heart.

You can translate it in any of these ways. Typically, it says, don't be afraid.

But it's that same word, that same idea that we see with Paul,

that God gives to Paul as he waits in prison, in the barracks. Take courage.

It's this. So it's sort of the same word. Let me specify. The Old Testament

is written Hebrew. The New Testament is written mostly in Greek.

So it's not the same word because that word's Greek, and this is a different word in Hebrew.

But there is a Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint.

And that is the same Greek word that is used here in 1 Kings 17.

And sometimes, this is not a 100% rule, but sometimes it's really helpful to

look up the first time that a word is used in the Bible.

It's really interesting with things like the word worship and different things like that.

You can go back to the first instance of it, and it might teach you something

about it. Now, it doesn't work all the time, but in this case.

This is where this word shows up for the first time in the Bible.

And actually, it doesn't show up very often. In the Old Testament,

it's here and then just a couple of Proverbs.

In the New Testament, Jesus uses it through the Gospels.

He says to the paralyzed man that he meets in Matthew 9, to take courage, to be of good cheer.

He says to the disciples as they're in the storm and he's walking to them,

he says, don't be afraid, take courage. in Mark chapter 6.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

To the blind beggar in Mark chapter 10, he says, take courage,

Mark 10 · chapter mention

be of good cheer, don't be afraid.

To the woman who suffered from bleeding in Luke chapter 8, he says,

Luke 8 · chapter mention

take courage, be of good cheer.

To the disciples, as they're facing tribulation, as Jesus is preparing to leave

and depart from them, he tells them,

take courage, be of good cheer, take heart, I have overcome the world in John chapter 16.

John 16 · chapter mention

And then the other time that he uses it, that God uses this word is here in Acts.

When he says to Paul in his barracks that night to take courage,

that you will testify about me, the truth about me in Rome.

So those are the only few times that this word is used.

And it is always in a moment of God speaking to us or to his people.

People in general, who are facing great suffering, trials, uncertainty,

for them to take hold of courage.

And I want you to think of it that way as we continue.

Not just take courage, but this phrase, take hold of courage.

So these two stories, though they're separated by time and space,

are incredibly similar.

Both of them, these words come in moments of fear and scarcity.

The widow is down to her last handful of flour, her last bit of oil.

There's no security, no visible hope. She has told Elijah that she is going

to make her last cake, her and her son are going to eat it, and then they're going to die.

So Elijah comes and says, do not be afraid. He commands her, don't fear.

Even when obedience seems impossible, she's asked to trust God with everything,

even the empty hands that she has.

And here in prison, Paul, surrounded by hostility, he's misunderstood by his own people.

We will find out very quickly after this that there is a plot to kill him.

To this, God speaks into his life in prison and says, take courage,

take a hold of courage right at the time when it seems most unlikely.

That he's going to make it through. At the time that it seems most unlikely

that he's going to survive this, God shows up and says, take a hold of courage.

So both cases, God's encouragement, it doesn't remove the danger that still

exists, but it shows up in the midst of it and he promises his presence.

So both of these are invitations to act in faith and see provision in that faith, right?

The widow must feed Elijah before she witnesses the miracle of the flour and

the oil never running out.

So, he takes her step in obedience even though she doesn't understand what's going to happen.

Paul must keep testifying all the way till Rome.

Not that that sustains the promise, God sustains the promise,

but his faith walked out is in testifying even as God has made this provision.

Both of these stories occur in a way that the gospel moves out from the Jewish people.

So the widow in Zarephath is not in, she's not a Jew, she's not an Israelite.

And God's provision meets her as Elijah shows up.

It extends beyond what we call God's people, which has always been the plan,

that Israel would be a nation that the world encounters God through.

It's never been for them to hold on to. And we see that as we move into the

New Testament, specifically in the kingdom of God, we see it with Paul,

that Paul is going to the Gentiles, that God's plan of salvation is not limited,

to a people group, but it is for all people.

And it's for this case that the Jews really don't understand him and they come

to dislike him and to even hate him.

So in both these stories, God is expanding the reach of his salvation to peoples outside of Israel.

He's moving and providing that provision and that's sustaining them.

Both of these stories involve God's care for his messengers,

for Elijah that he's provided for and sustained through the widow's obedience,

for Paul as he is kept safe, that he might proclaim the gospel around the world.

He's protected by God's providence.

And we know that even in the immediate future, countless soldiers,

countless officials, countless kings, all of these people, often it says about

Paul, wherever he is, even when he's under guard, that it's such a case that

the entire place learns about the gospel.

Paul can't shut up about the gospel, which is an amazing lesson that I believe I really need to learn.

But God's provision works for the sustenance of his messenger to proclaim his

message, to be his witness.

And this command, fear not, I am with you, at the core of it,

which is why I want you to think of it as take hold of courage.

It's not an inner strength that must be fostered.

It's not a force of will that must be mustered by the person to then walk out in courage.

It is spoken of in a way that to take hold of what is already there.

That as we talk about salvation, that this exists in the same way,

or the fruits of the Spirit, maybe we could talk about it in the same way,

that God has provided courage.

All we need to do is take hold of what is already there.

And in that, it might mean stepping forward in faith.

It probably does, in fact. Sometimes

you'll hear people talk about how courage is the opposite of fear.

But courage can't exist where fear doesn't. So they can't be opposites. Courage is a choice.

When we experience fear, what are we going to do? Are we going to take hold

of what God has provided or are we going to shrink back?

The Bible says in Romans chapter eight, that God has not given us a spirit of

fear to shrink back into slavery, but he has given us the spirit of adoption

as sons, by which we cry, Abba, Father.

And his spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.

So God has not given us a spirit of fear, but fear must be present for courage to take place.

And the widow was afraid. Paul was afraid.

God didn't need to command them to take courage if they weren't afraid. So in them was much fear.

When God commands us to not fear, to be of good cheer, to have courage.

He's always commanding us, and this is a command. I probably have planned to

say that later, but this is a command for us to stand firm in the face of fear.

So when God, in the 365, 366 times that the Bible tells us to not fear,

which even though we're saying take hold of courage, these verses count.

He's telling us to stand firm in the face of fear and take hold of what he has

already provided, seizing and laying hold of something that he has already given,

already supplied, not generating it from our own self-effort.

Not standing on our own ability to take care of ourselves, but in the presence

of fear, standing firm and trusting that God is already providing.

And so here are the two phrases, the two phrases I want you to hold onto today

as we think about this idea, this command, take a hold of courage.

These are two truths, you might say, two realities that we exist in.

And so as we take a hold of courage, in one sense, we are trusting and believing these two statements.

The first is that everything God says he does.

God is faithful. God is the promise maker. He's the promise keeper.

We sang those words this morning. Everything that God says he does.

Paul is gonna make it to Rome. God told him, you will bear witness about my

truth in Rome, Paul is going to make it to Rome. God is going to see to that.

And yet that very night, 40 men make this pact that they're not going to eat until Paul.

Have you ever thought about what happened to these guys, by the way?

Paul's in prison for two years.

I'm assuming that they probably broke their pact. I don't think 40 of these

guys are like, oh, well, I guess I'm going to die now.

So I'm assuming that they died. I'm assuming they ate. I'm assuming they didn't die.

But immediately after, the next statement we see after Paul is given this promise

by God is that 40 guys are going to kill him.

And then the next thing we see after that is that Paul is in prison for two

years, nowhere near Rome.

And then in the chapters that end this book that we'll get to eventually, Paul is shipwrecked.

He's bitten by a venomous snake. All of these things happen to him after the promise is made.

But God is faithful in everything he promised, everything he says, he does.

The destination is set for Paul, but there's a lot of journey he has to go through

to get there. A lot of suffering, a lot of hurt.

And for us, I don't know what your destination is. I mean, I know,

biblically speaking, what our final destination would be.

I don't know when that is, and I don't know what that looks like for each of

us. I don't know what that looks like for myself. Would I want to know? Probably not.

But the destination has been set for you, for me.

The journey is still in progress, but God is faithful in that journey.

And until we arrive at that destination in our lives.

This other truth comes into play, and that is that God will sustain you a day at a time.

One day at a time, God will sustain you. That his mercies are new every morning.

God doesn't provide you more mercies than you need. He provides you exactly

what you need. And we don't have to cling on to old mercies from yesterday.

He provides us everything we need for each day. He'll sustain you one day at a time.

We like to imagine our lives, that our lives are our own and that we're in control

of them and that we can make it and we can do it.

And then there's always some events and usually lots of events that remind us

that we have absolutely no control, no say in what happens, but praise God,

He does. He is in control.

And it's this, the almighty God, Father, Son, and Spirit, who created the world, who created us.

Who breathed life into us, the Bible says, into our bodies and made us living souls.

This God who is in control of everything, each step, each breath,

he's going to sustain us one day at a time.

I love how Francis Chan tended to talk about this.

He has at many times in his different,

sermons or speaking engagements across conferences in the world,

just made it a point to say that every breath that he breathes,

and he'll take these big breaths, this breath and the next breath.

He's like, I'm not guaranteed my next breath.

So the God who is breathing life into me is giving my next breath.

And I'm not guaranteed the next.

It is God who is in control of this. And this is directly taken from words that

Paul has written chapters earlier.

In chapter 17, he says that the God who made the world and everything in it,

being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

nor is he served by human hands as though he need anything.

These remind you of the words that we read from Paul in the book of Romans last week.

That he is not served by human hands. Like who has been his counselor?

Who has told God what to do? This is the scene that we see at the end of Job,

which I think Rebecca mentioned this past week at family group, right?

Like, who are you, Job?

This is the same words that he's not served by anything.

He doesn't need anything since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

That the next breath that I breathe, God has provided. And the next one that

I will breathe, God has provided.

God will sustain you one day at a time so we can keep going no matter what the trial is.

And I know that whenever we are encountering decisions in life,

we always have this idea of, oh, well, maybe God has something better in mind.

This didn't work out, but that means that God has something better for us.

Sometimes I think what we mean when we say that is that God's next for me fits

my definition of better.

And sometimes it does because God is a good God who gives good gifts.

But what we mean when we say that or what we should mean when we say that is

not that God's going to give me a better job.

It's not that God is going to provide for me a bigger house and that he's going

to make my heart fulfilled in all of the ways that it desires.

I have been known to say that God doesn't care about your happiness,

which is true, but needs explanation.

God cares about something far greater.

And God's good for us, his better for us, is that we would be made to better reflect his glory.

That God's good is that you would be more Christ-like whatever comes,

whatever situation, day by day, that He is with you in every season,

in every situation, in every circumstance, sustaining you one day after the other,

that you may arrive at that final destination, however long the journey may

take, and that you will be glorified and taken into heaven to be with Him forever.

That each day, each moment, we are becoming more and more what God already reckons us to be.

And these two realities that God, everything God says he does,

that God will sustain you one day at a time.

These two realities are rooted.

I can say that word. It's an easy word. These two realities,

these two truths are rooted in this one statement that includes this word In

John 16, I mentioned it earlier,

where Jesus is speaking to his discouraged disciples facing tribulation.

He says, I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me.

And here on this earth, you will have many trials, many sorrows,

tribulation, but take heart, take a hold of courage.

Don't fear, take heart because I have overcome the world.

That these two truths are rooted in the reality that the victory is already won.

Trials and tribulations are unavoidable. You will have trials.

You will experience some stuff in this world.

I remember there's a joke that I like where the comedian is talking about how

the fact that at an ABC store, yes, I'm using alcohol in a sermon,

there's two people that shouldn't be carded ever.

Some old retired Marine because he's seen some stuff.

And then some younger people who are buying wine because they're emotional and

they're going through some stuff.

And again, it's a joke, but trials are unavoidable. We're going to fall into

either of those categories.

Either we've seen some stuff, we're going to see some stuff,

or we're going through some stuff. Trials are unavoidable.

In the face of this fear that can be paralyzing, as we mentioned earlier,

that we could so easily shrink back into, God tells us to take a hold of courage.

Now this courage testifies to the surpassing worth of God, the power of Christ

over all circumstances.

In Zarephath, God gave the widow this command. Do not be afraid. I will provide.

Some night in these barracks, to a man who could barely see,

God gave these words, take courage.

I will fulfill my purpose in you.

And to us, he says the same thing. Trust me. I will provide and I will fulfill my purpose for you.

Because I'm already working behind what you can't see.

I'm working behind what you're experiencing now. I'm working behind what you

can't imagine. I'm working behind it all.