Not Yet

 By:  Dale Weckbacher

 

Text:  Acts 23:12-35

 

Jeremiah 29:11

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare^[a] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

(ESV)

 

Believers in Christ have a calling to serve as ambassadors for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20).  Like ambassadors that serve a nation, Christians live in a foreign land with diplomatic immunity through the grace of God (Ephesians 2:8-9).  However, Christians can suffer persecution or even death, especially if they are ambassadors in a nation hostile to their beliefs.  This is the position believers in Christ are in and while some serve Christ in nations having freedom of religion, others serve as ambassadors for Christ in hostile nations. 

 

As the text of Acts 23:12-35 begins Paul is held in the barracks under protective custody but the Jews who are against Paul have not stopped their plotting against him.  Their scheming has now escalated to a group of 40 Jews swearing an oath not to eat or drink until they have killed Paul (Acts 23:12-13).  These 40 Jews then seek support for their scheme by taking their plan to the chief priests and elders and asking them to become complicit in the plot by calling on the tribune to bring Paul to himself for further questioning, and the 40 Jews waiting to ambush Paul on his way to the Tribune (Acts 23:14-15).

 

However, God places an obstacle in the path of the Jew’s plan with Paul’s nephew hearing of their planned ambush of Paul and informing Paul of the plot.  While the passage does not specifically make mention of it, Paul might have recalled his recent visitation from the Lord where God promised Paul that he would testify about Jesus in Rome.  This might have emboldened Paul to have his nephew brought before the tribune by one of the centurions (Acts 23:16-22). 

 

News of this plot moves the tribune to formulate a plot to safely deliver Paul to Governor Felix at night (Acts 23:23-24).  To add legitimacy to the situation, the tribune, who we now know as Claudius Lysias, drafts a letter to send with the soldiers accompanying Paul to Felix (Acts 23:25-30).  The soldiers obey their orders and safely deliver Paul to Felix the governor in Caesarea (Acts 23:31-32).  After reading the letter and asking Paul where he is from, Governor Felix agrees to grant Paul a hearing with his accusers and places Paul in protective custody in Herod’s praetorium (Acts 23:33-35). 

 

This passage illustrates two important principles Christians must have awareness of,

 

1)      Persecution may come from an unexpected source, for Paul this source was a group of Jews wanting to kill him, a fellow Jew.

2)      Help may come from an unexpected source, for Paul this was his nephew and the tribune. 

 

In Isaiah 54:17, God tells us that no weapon formed against God’s people will succeed but a history of believers dying for their faith that continues in many parts of the world today seems to contradict this promise.  Resolution of this contradiction occurs by determining what the passage means by not succeed.  Since this verse appears in the context of a prophecy by Isaiah about the eternal covenant of peace, we can interpret success as disarming a weapon attempting to separate one from eternity with God, promised to all who choose to believe in Jesus (John 3:16).  Since God promised Paul he would speak in Rome (Acts 23:11), the plot to kill Paul is foiled for had the Jewish mob murdered Paul, his ministry on earth would have been incomplete.  

 

God has a plan for all His children, a plan for their good and not their destruction (Jeremiah 29:11).  However, a Church history of Christians martyred for their faith would appear to mean that God’s plan for some is their destruction.  This appearance of destruction is untrue for when a believer in Jesus Christ dies, they are in the presence of the Lord and not experiencing destruction but eternity with Christ.  While it is the heart's desire for all believers in Jesus Christ to be in the presence of the Lord, this will not occur until God fulfills his plan for our life on earth (2 Corinthians 5:6-10).  My prayer is that all reading this would search their hearts, pray, and seek counsel to discover God’s plan for their life.  A world in chaos needs revival with all hands on deck in the Church following God’s plan for their lives.  May God bless and challenge everyone reading this post.