Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 28 October 2014 "God protected Paul—through people"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 28 October 2014 "God protected Paul—through people"
Daily Scripture: Acts 23:6 Paul, knowing some of the council was made up of Sadducees and others of Pharisees and how they hated each other, decided to exploit their antagonism: “Friends, I am a stalwart Pharisee from a long line of Pharisees. It’s because of my Pharisee convictions—the hope and resurrection of the dead—that I’ve been hauled into this court.”
7-9 The moment he said this, the council split right down the middle, Pharisees and Sadducees going at each other in heated argument. Sadducees have nothing to do with a resurrection or angels or even a spirit. If they can’t see it, they don’t believe it. Pharisees believe it all. And so a huge and noisy quarrel broke out. Then some of the religion scholars on the Pharisee side shouted down the others: “We don’t find anything wrong with this man! And what if a spirit has spoken to him? Or maybe an angel? What if it turns out we’re fighting against God?”
10 That was fuel on the fire. The quarrel flamed up and became so violent the captain was afraid they would tear Paul apart, limb from limb. He ordered the soldiers to get him out of there and escort him back to the safety of the barracks.
A Plot Against Paul
11 That night the Master appeared to Paul: “It’s going to be all right. Everything is going to turn out for the best. You’ve been a good witness for me here in Jerusalem. Now you’re going to be my witness in Rome!”
12-15 Next day the Jews worked up a plot against Paul. They took a solemn oath that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed him. Over forty of them ritually bound themselves to this murder pact and presented themselves to the high priests and religious leaders. “We’ve bound ourselves by a solemn oath to eat nothing until we have killed Paul. But we need your help. Send a request from the council to the captain to bring Paul back so that you can investigate the charges in more detail. We’ll do the rest. Before he gets anywhere near you, we’ll have killed him. You won’t be involved.”
16-17 Paul’s nephew, his sister’s son, overheard them plotting the ambush. He went immediately to the barracks and told Paul. Paul called over one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the captain. He has something important to tell him.”
18 The centurion brought him to the captain and said, “The prisoner Paul asked me to bring this young man to you. He said he has something urgent to tell you.”
19 The captain took him by the arm and led him aside privately. “What is it? What do you have to tell me?”
20-21 Paul’s nephew said, “The Jews have worked up a plot against Paul. They’re going to ask you to bring Paul to the council first thing in the morning on the pretext that they want to investigate the charges against him in more detail. But it’s a trick to get him out of your safekeeping so they can murder him. Right now there are more than forty men lying in ambush for him. They’ve all taken a vow to neither eat nor drink until they’ve killed him. The ambush is set—all they’re waiting for is for you to send him over.”
22 The captain dismissed the nephew with a warning: “Don’t breathe a word of this to a soul.”
23-24 The captain called up two centurions. “Get two hundred soldiers ready to go immediately to Caesarea. Also seventy cavalry and two hundred light infantry. I want them ready to march by nine o’clock tonight. And you’ll need a couple of mules for Paul and his gear. We’re going to present this man safe and sound to Governor Felix.”
25-30 Then he wrote this letter:
From Claudius Lysias, to the Most Honorable Governor Felix:
Greetings!
I rescued this man from a Jewish mob. They had seized him and were about to kill him when I learned that he was a Roman citizen. So I sent in my soldiers. Wanting to know what he had done wrong, I had him brought before their council. It turned out to be a squabble turned vicious over some of their religious differences, but nothing remotely criminal.
The next thing I knew, they had cooked up a plot to murder him. I decided that for his own safety I’d better get him out of here in a hurry. So I’m sending him to you. I’m informing his accusers that he’s now under your jurisdiction.
31-33 The soldiers, following orders, took Paul that same night to safety in Antipatris. In the morning the soldiers returned to their barracks in Jerusalem, sending Paul on to Caesarea under guard of the cavalry. The cavalry entered Caesarea and handed Paul and the letter over to the governor.
Reflection Questions:
Like many Romans, the commander who rescued Paul from the mob by arresting him was at a loss to understand Jewish religious arguments (which included, in his view, the Christians). He called the Jewish council (the Sanhedrin) together, and asked Paul to speak to them. Knowing firsthand how divided the council members were, Paul cannily called on his history as a Pharisee. They got almost as angry at one another as they were at him.
Things looked glum for Paul. But verse 11 said, "The Lord stood near Paul" (a dream? Luke wasn't any more specific), and God's message was, "Be encouraged! Just as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so too you must testify in Rome." Have you ever received a word of support at a time when you really needed it? How can you keep the "ears" of your heart open to recognize God as the ultimate source of such messages?
Verse 16 said, "Paul's sister had a son who heard about the ambush and he came to the military headquarters and reported it to Paul." Scholar N. T. Wright wrote, "This tells us…something we didn't know and would love to know more about. Did Paul have lots of family members in Jerusalem? Were they Christians? How much contact did he have with them? Were they…supporters of what he was doing or embarrassed by the attention he was drawing to the family? We know none of this." We do know God worked through Paul's nephew, and his alert ears, to save Paul from a deadly trap. When have you seen God work through people, sometimes unexpected people?
Today's Prayer:
Loving Lord, thank you for preserving Paul to preach in Rome, to write his prison letters, to expand further his voice and his impact on the church and the world. In safety or in peril, please let your power work through my humble life and work, too. Amen.
Insight from Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
We all know spiritual gifts: things like mercy, joy, encouragement, wisdom, and so on and so forth. Everyone has a favorite–don’t pretend you don’t. Me, I’m into some of the lesser known spiritual gifts. They didn’t really make the cut to get mentioned by name in the Bible, but they’re definitely useful. Diplomacy? Nothing like resolving a conflict by making both sides agree that it doesn’t need to be there in the first place.
But my favorite is craftiness. When someone can work the system, with all its loopholes and inconsistencies, to the advantage of the kingdom of God, I secretly kind of love that person. After all, Jesus did tell his followers to be shrewd as snakes (but innocent as doves).
In Acts 23, when the Jewish leaders capture the apostle Paul and bring him to trial with the intent of killing him, Paul pulls a move that’s so crafty that I’ve started calling him Mr. Pinterest. He pits the Jewish religious leaders against each other by stirring up a religious argument so divisive that they turn on each other, and in doing so, he actually secures for himself the protection of the Roman military for the duration of the trial. I have to admit, in this story, Paul is kind of my hero.
And Christian history is full of Christians who worked the system to further the kingdom of God. Jesus found plenty of legal loopholes to preach his gospel of grace and forgiveness, and Paul had other tricks up his sleeve. But these stories extend even beyond the pages of the Bible.
The 2006 film Amazing Grace portrays a group of Christians working the system in late-18th-century England to abolish slavery. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth a look, as you can’t help but smile when you see these crafty Christians use the existing laws to turn the slave trade on its head.
There are similar stories surrounding the first English editions of the Bible. The Tyndale version, the first English version translated from the original texts, was so illegal that it had to be smuggled into England. William Tyndale dared to translate that it was faith alone and not sacramental penance that saved us. He ended up paying the ultimate price when the church finally caught him and made him a martyr, but at that point, his Bibles could not be stopped. The church eventually gave in and produced the King James Bible, an “authorized” version of the Bible in English.
These stories continue today. Bible translation and smuggling is even more prevalent today than it was in the 1500s, and missionaries continually look for legal loopholes to continue caring for others and meeting their needs. I’ve heard stories of Christians finding legal loopholes to shut down prostitution rings and slave trade in foreign countries, and even in our own country. Now more than ever, we need craftiness to combat evil and enact good.
Now, I’m not saying that we should go out and break a bunch of laws for Jesus. The Bible’s also pretty clear that laws are a pretty big deal and should be respected whenever possible, and there are entire books of the Bible dedicated to not stirring up trouble so as not to cut short a long life of ministry and influence. The point is that we need to be looking for anything and everything to further the kingdom of God.
Imagine if Christians were known for being so determined, so persistent in doing good that they were a virtually unstoppable force in this world. Imagine atheists and people from other religions joining us because they believe we are the best hope for a better tomorrow. Some of the largest organizations dedicated to ending slavery and world hunger have Christian roots, and these organizations need people with minds for overcoming any obstacle.
If you have a mind for bending the rules, for solving problems politically, there’s a higher purpose for that. And if you don’t have a mind for that, don’t be afraid to explore that. We need every tool sharpened and ready to go to advance God’s kingdom.
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