Picking back up in Acts has been harder than I thought it would be. Many of you have heard the term expository preaching. It’s our philosophy of preaching and it basically means that the main point of the passage is the main point of the sermon. You can do that with a verse, you can do that with a paragraph, you can do that with a whole book, and you can do it with the whole Bible. All that to say, when you get into narratives like Acts, it’s not always easy to see what Luke’s main point is. And this week, it took me a lot of time to see it. 

For the rest of the Book of Acts, Paul will no longer be a free man. And when you zoom out, Paul has done everything right. He’s not a perfect person, but he’s lived a life, in his words, with a free conscience, and starting here everything seems to go downhill for him for the rest of the book. So, I want to look at this passage through the words of Paul in Romans 8:28  28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together hfor good, - Rom 8:28a What I loved this week is being able to see Paul live out what he wrote. It’s one thing to hear great words from someone like Paul, but it’s a whole other thing to see him live it out. 

It doesn’t matter how much money we make, how much technology advances, how many friends we have, all of us are still going to go through very hard times. My wife, Angela says that we can think of life as one long line of peace and happiness with blips of difficulty. But, in fact, life is actually one long line of difficulty with blips of peace ad happiness. All of us will have difficulty with our families, most of us will have financial concerns, if we live long enough, all of us will see our bodies will fail us. There are those out there who say that if we have enough faith, God’s plan is to make us happy, healthy, and wealthy. I know I’ve told y’all that when Angela was diagnosed with cancer, someone told me that it was because we didn’t have enough faith. That’s the closest I’ve come in my adult life to punching someone. 

But, God promises us through Paul’s words, not that we won’t have hard times, but that he will use those hard times for our good. And that is what we see here in this passage. So, I want to look at this passage and see 1) Our struggle and 2) our supernatural hope. 

1. Our struggle

Let’s look at Paul’s struggle and then get to ours. If you remember from last week, the Jews are up in arms about Paul and they are saying that he is teaching all the Jews everywhere against the people, the law, and the temple. The riot that ensued was so bad that the Roman commander took Paul into the barracks so they didn’t tear Paul apart. To the commander’s surprise, he found out Paul was a Roman citizen so he could not lay a hand on him. So, it seems like this commander came up with a plan to hand him back over to the ruling Jewish council, led by the corrupt high priest, Annanias, and let them interrogate him while the commander listens and then maybe the commander could figure out what in the world was going on here. 

This happens and this is when Paul says, “Brothers, xI have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” Now, again, that doesn’t mean that Paul was perfect, we know that he wasn’t, but when Paul sinned, he repented and made restoration where he needed to. That’s what having a good conscience means. 

And what does Annanias do? He has Paul punched in the mouth. The one time I ever got punched in the face, I pushed this football player in college and literally before I could get my hands back to my chest, I was on the ground. Not worth it. 

But, unlike Paul, I deserved that punch. So, why was Annanias so upset that he would order this? Punching or slapping someone in the mouth in that culture was retribution for blasphemy. Likely, Annanias was upset that Paul has been claiming to be both a Christ worshiper and a good Jew at the same time. Two things that Annanias could not see going together. So, here is Paul being physically assaulted by his own people and he has to be wondering if this is going to be the end of his life. 

Why is it hard for us to believe that trials in this life are going to work out for good? Well, because we have this idea that we are the center of the universe. That what is going on in our immediate present is the most important thing. That our comfort is the ultimate plan of the universe. A fallen universe at that. It’s hard for us to let go of that. It’s hard to open ourselves to the fact that everything that is happening is centered on God’s glory and that that is actually better for us than if we were the center of the universe. 

We don’t easily see that if God is doing 10,000,000 things at a given moment that we might only be able to see one or two of them. When we lived in Pisa, Italy, Angela was pregnant with Turner and our doctors over there told us that he had a genetic anomaly that was going to be very severe. It was about the worst feeling I’ve ever experienced. So, we had this deep sense that we needed to move back to the US. So we moved to Mississippi and Turner was born and he was fine. No genetic problems. But Angela wasn’t fine. She had life threatening cancer that we had no clue about. But, we found it just in time to save her life. I mean like days before it spread everywhere. But let’s think about why this happened? We came back to the US because of this flat out wrong diagnosis. We came to Mississippi because I had never done US campus ministry before and the guy who led me to the Lord was a campus team leader at Mississippi State University. Well, Angela’s dad is a doctor in Mississippi and her dad’s friends bent over backwards to fit her into their schedules. If we had been in any other state, the tests would have taken months instead of days and she would be dead. Well, why was her dad a doctor? This is crazy, but true… in high school he got a concussion playing football that rewired his brain and he became brilliant. He went from a C student to never getting anything from that moment on, but straight A’s. 

Do you see how many factors were at play here to save Angela’s life? Well beyond anything we could plan. We couldn’t see the way God was working our deep pain for our good. We weren’t at the center of the universe, God was, and that shapes the way we see hard situations that we don’t understand or control. We have to embrace the fact that we are not in control, we don’t deserve an explanation, we can’t know what God is doing. And then, when we do, we are able to truly open our hands and our hearts to God and believe that he knows best regardless of what is going on in our current present. 

It’s so interesting to see Paul struggle with this in real time. How does he respond to getting punched in the mouth? He lashes out. He says, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall.” What in the world does that mean? There are a lot of different takes here, but I think John Stott’s explanation makes the most sense. Paul had been out of Jerusalem for almost 20 years. He didn’t personally know Annanias. And on top of that, Paul apparently had terrible eyesight. When he wrote to the Galatians, he said, “Look at the large letters here at the end of my letter. You know that I’m writing with my own hand” That’s my paraphrase. Elsewhere, Paul said that the believers loved him so much that if they could give him their eyes, they would have. 

I think Paul saw Annanias in all his high priest garb across the court and just saw some big white blob. He didn’t know who was talking. Many of you can relate to this. Angela had horrible eyesight and it wasn’t until she got glasses in 2nd grade that she realized that street lights were not supposed to have halos over them or that trees weren’t just big green blobs, but that you could actually see individual leaves. And this makes even more sense because Paul is then rebuked by some people who said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” And that is when Paul changed his tune. He had no idea that big white blob was the high priest! That’s when Paul repents by quoting Exodus 22 saying, “You shall not speak of a ruler of your people.” 

How many of us have said things in the heat of the moment we wish we could have back? It makes me think of Romans 7 where Paul said he does the things he shouldn’t and doesn’t do the things he should. I wonder if Romans 7 which he had already written was on his mind that night as he went to sleep. He’s a real person with the same struggles we have. And here we see another aspect of our struggle. Like Paul, we have authority that we don’t always agree with and if we are at the center of our universe, we are not going to be willing to submit to that authority.

One of my favorite shows of all time is Band of Brothers. I’ve probably watched the whole series six or seven times. The main character is Dick Winters and in the beginning of the show, his commanding officer is this terribly incompetent guy, Captain Sobel, brilliantly played by Ross from Friends. By the end of the war, Winters is a Major having leap frogged Sobel and Sobel walks by Winters, but doesn’t salute. And Winters calls him over and says, “Sobel, you don’t salute the man, you salute the office.” He’s basically saying you don’t have to like the person, but you have to respect the authority. 

If we think we are the center of the universe, we aren’t going to be inclined to obey leadership that we don’t like. Leadership who isn’t working for us the way we want them to. We are going to be inclined to complain, gossip, slander, and even disobey. There is a lot we could say about this especially in our current political environment, but even though our leaders are not high priests, I do think we can take cue from Paul who repented of his lack of respect for authority. Paul who wrote this to the Romans.Let every person pbe subject to the governing authorities. For qthere is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been institutedby God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. - Rom 13:1,2 But, Paul not only shows us, he shows us how. This brings us to the second part. Our supernatural hope. 

1. Our supernatural hope

We see two supernatural hopes here. The first, our hope of a future resurrection. Paul saw that part of this group were Sadducees who did not believe in the resurrection and the other group were the Pharisees who did. This is when he said, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope of the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” I struggled to find a modern day equivalent to what Paul is doing because they are all so controversial. But, that’s the point. It would be like someone pulling out a MAGA hat, or a rainbow flag, or a confederate flag. It would be like that because the resurrection so quickly divided this crowd. 

He wasn’t usurping authority, but working within the bounds of it. And the Pharisees backed him. All of a sudden, they said they found nothing wrong with him. Now, they weren’t going to agree that the resurrection was in Jesus or that Jesus had resurrected, but they said, “Maybe he heard from a spirit or an angel.” And that is when all you know what broke out. It became so violent that the Roman commander again had to grab Paul so they didn’t tear him apart. And at the heart of the chaos we can see our supernatural hope. 

The chaos broke out because of Paul’s belief in the resurrection. And Paul’s belief in the resurrection is also what helped him to submit to authority even as his authority was at the heart of his struggle. Paul wasn’t the first person the Jews thought was teaching against the temple. Do you remember in John 2 the Jews asked Jesus for a miraculous sign that would prove his authority. And Jesus responded, “I’ll give you a sign. Take this temple, tear it down, and I will lift it up in three days.” They didn’t understand what he was talking about, but he was talking about the resurrection. He was talking about the temple of his body. 

All their hope was in the Temple in Jerusalem. They thought they would have God’s presence in the Temple. They thought they would have atonement for their sins in the Temple. They thought they would find comfort at the altar. They thought they would find solace with the priest. But Jesus is saying he is the better temple, he is the better priest, and he is the only altar to which we can go for the forgiveness of our sins. 

Jesus was crucified and then came back to life foreshadowing what would be true of every person to put their faith in him. And if we have the guaranteed hope of the resurrection, the promise that that will be true of all of us who God, in Jesus Christ, loves, then we will be able to not only endure struggles in this life, but really trust that God is going to work them for his glory and our good. Even if our cancer is not healed, even if our child goes astray, even if our finances stay stressful. 

Some of the most powerful words Tim Keller said came at the end of his life when he knew he had little time to live. He said simply, “If the resurrection is true, everything is going to be ok.” Our health trials will be ok. Our financial trials will be ok. Our relational trials will be ok. Our emotional trials will be ok. Our political frustrations will be ok. Everything will eventually be ok because of the resurrection. And that resets the way we interact with all our struggles in the present. 

But our supernatural hope isn’t only in the future, it’s also in the present. Our second supernatural hope is Jesus’ presence in the present. After the riot, the Roman commander takes Paul back into the barracks and in verse 11 we read 11 pThe following night qthe Lord stood by him and said, r“Take courage, forsas you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must ttestify also in Rome.” - Acts 23:11 Jesus was with Paul. Jesus had a plan for Paul and was using all those trials to do two things. To accomplish his plan and to draw Paul closer to him. We see here Jesus promising that Paul is going to live through this and that he is going to go to Rome. And then we see God thwarting a plan by the Jews to kill Paul. God has a plan for each of us and nothing in this world can stop that plan. That plan might bring trials into our lives, but that is our call. 

Do you remember what Jesus said to Annanias after Paul’s conversion? Annanias was receiving the most dangerous person in the world to Christians and all he had were Jesus’ words that it was ok. Jesus told Annanias, ““Go, for whe is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name xbefore the Gentiles and ykings and the children of Israel. 16 For zI will show him how much ahe must suffer bfor the sake of my name.” - Acts 9:15,16

That can sound harsh or punitive, but it’s not. This is Jesus using Paul by calling him into the fellowship of his sufferings. Fellowship. He uses our trials to bring us into closer fellowship with him. Let’s go back to Romans 8, but this time keep reading. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together hfor good,8 for ithose who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he jforeknew he also kpredestined (predestined for what?) lto be conformed to the image of his Son… - Romans 8:28,29b

The great promise we have in all our struggles is that God is going to use them to conform us into the image of Jesus. God is going to use them to call us closer to himself. And it is only growing more into the image of Jesus that we are going to find the satisfaction and joy in this life that we need in our struggles. Sometimes that happens in our awe of seeing him fix what look to be unfixable problems and sometimes that happens through problems that will not be fixed in this life. 

Many of you are familiar with Joni Eareckson Tada. She has been in a wheelchair for over 50 years as a result of a diving accident when she was young. Years ago, she said this, “I sure hope I can bring this wheelchair to heaven. Now, I know that’s not theologically correct. But I hope to bring it and put it in a little corner of heaven, and then in my new, perfect, glorified body, standing on grateful glorified legs, I’ll stand next to my Savior, holding his nail-pierced hands. I’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus,” and he will know that I mean it, because he knows me. He’ll recognize me from the fellowship we’re now sharing in his sufferings. And I will say, “Jesus, do you see that wheelchair? You were right when you said that in this world we would have trouble, because that thing was a lot of trouble. But the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you. And the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be. It never would have happened had you not given me the bruising of the blessing of that wheelchair.”

Do you remember when Paul asked God to take the thorn from his side? We don’t know for sure what it was, many think it was the blindness we have already talked about. Imagine how frustrating it would have been to see all these people healed of their ailments, but the Apostle’s sight wasn’t. And what did Jesus say? j“My grace is sufficient for you, for kmy power is made perfect in weakness.” (and what was Paul’s response?) Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that lthe power of Christ may rest upon me.10 mFor the sake of Christ, then, nI am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For owhen I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Cor 12:9,10

Conclusion

Not only do we get to see Paul living out, however difficult, what he wrote in the New Testament, but two other things about this scene should not be lost on us either. First, this whole scene likely happened in the same place, 20 years later, as Stephen’s execution. The first Christian martyr. He was tried for his faith and stoned to death…as Paul cheered on. How much has changed? Paul who had tried to kill Christianity was now about to be killed for his faith in Jesus. What could have caused that to happen outside of a real encounter with Jesus? 

The second thing that should not be lost on us is this: The contrast of this whole scene with Jesus being tried in front of Herod. Luke, who is writing Acts, is the only gospel writer to record Jesus in front of Herod and I don’t think that is a coincidence. Paul is lashing out and doing whatever he can to survive this trial, but what did Jesus do? He remained silent. He remained silent so he could speak for us. He spoke for us by being tried in our place. He willingly went to the cross to receive God’s wrath so we wouldn’t have to. And he speaks to us today through his Holy Spirit, making us, together, the new temple of God’s dwelling. 

And because all this is true, we can not only know, but relish in the fact that we are not at the center of our universe. Our smallness and God’s greatness can be a warm blanket to our soul. God’s love can cause us to be content in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. We can know, as Paul did, that when we are weak, then we are strong.