Our Duty and Courage in Christ - Pastor Tom Loghry Rockland Community Church Download

Paul rebukes the high priest after being struck and declares he is on trial for the hope of the resurrection, prompting a dispute that forces the Roman commander to remove him. The Lord encourages Paul and promises he will testify in Rome. A plot to assassinate Paul is uncovered, leading Claudius Lysias to escort Paul by night with a large guard to Governor Felix, who finds no charge deserving death.

Transcript:

Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!"

Dear Father, as we come before your word this morning, we pray that you would use it to encourage us, to encourage us by the testimony of your faithful care for us, that you would use it to encourage us to be brave, to carry out the duty that you have handed to us, that we would fear you above all things. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. You may be seated.

Who do you fear? I can tell you there is one you should fear, but I don't know if he is the one you fear. Who do you fear? Maybe it's not a specific person, not any one specific face looming in your mind's imagination. Maybe it is bigger than that. You fear the crowd, facing social disapproval, or worse. You fear becoming the outcast, the butt of jokes, that person. The threat of a sort of death, losing your place, your belonging, your sense of identity.

Popularity and praise, acceptance, we crave it. God created us to be social creatures. It is not good for man to be alone. We fear the isolation. We fear death, but we should fear God more.

Standing for the truth has consequences. When Jesus hints to the disciple the mission that they're going to be taking up, he also tells them who they should fear, because tough times are going to confront them, things that would make anyone fearful. He says in Matthew ten, verses twenty-seven through twenty-eight, "What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight. What is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

If we are more fearful of other human beings than we are of God, we will fold when it counts every single time. When the cards are down on the table, we must reckon whether we will listen to God or whether we will listen to man. Peter and John set before us their own example in Acts four. Maybe some of you will remember this from when we covered it previously.

When the Sanhedrin told them to stop preaching the gospel, they said to them in Acts four, verse nineteen through twenty, "Which is right in God's eyes? To listen to you or to Him? You be the judges. As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard."

We encounter a similar situation here in Acts twenty-three as Paul himself stands before the Sanhedrin, a body of up to seventy-one elders of the people. The Roman commander wants answers as to why Paul is causing so much unrest and so he brings Paul to them. So picking up with the last verse of chapter twenty-two, verse thirty, we begin reading, "The commander wanted to find out exactly why, why Paul was being accused by the Jews. So the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and all the members of the Sanhedrin to assemble. Then he brought Paul and had him stand before them." And as was read before, "Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, 'My brothers, I've fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.' At this, the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. Then Paul said to him, 'God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck.' Those who were standing near Paul said "How dare you insult God's high priest?" Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest. For it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'" Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead." When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the assembly was divided. The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things. There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. "We find nothing wrong with this man," they said. "What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"

So Paul is on trial here. He's on trial before a body that cannot kill him necessarily, just as they couldn't have killed Jesus themselves, but their report is going to be very influential in, in determining what the commander might do with Paul. And so standing before them, Paul makes his defense, and his defense is simply this: "My brothers, I've fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience."

What Paul is saying essentially is, "I'm standing before you in the position that you may judge me, but in fact, I know that before the, the one true judge, God, that I stand faultless. I'm, because I have done all that he called me to do." And we know what he was called to do, which caused some controversy, which is that he was sent to be an apostle to the Gentiles, to bring news to the world that salvation had come not only for the Jews, but for all people in Jesus Christ. Knowing that this is what God had called him to do, even as he faces a body, a group of men who he was raised to revere and respect, a body that he probably wished and desired would say, "Good job, Paul."

Despite all that, he rests assured because he knows he's approved by God, even if these men might reject him. It brings to mind both the words of Jesus and Paul's words elsewhere. Jesus in Luke 17:10 says that when the Master returns, when He returns, we should be able to say this: "so you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty.'" And Paul in Galatians 1:9-10 says in verse 10, "Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I was still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ." In 1 Thessalonians 2:3-4, in verse four he says, "We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts."

You see, if you follow Jesus, there's a very strong chance that you're not going to please people, that sometimes you're going to make them upset, that they're gonna disapprove of you, that they're gonna say that you're doing something that is wrong. But we have a higher duty. We have a higher call. And we have no need to congratulate ourselves in doing that because it is our duty. It is what we are expected to do. We are not going above and beyond. Jesus Christ is Lord, he is due our complete loyalty and fidelity.

And so with that in mind, Paul is able to stand before this body and say, "I have a clear conscience even as you disapprove of me."

Now, this is a call that all of us should take into account for our own lives, that we should consider that as we've been called to be faithful unto God above all things, that we would not be swayed by the disapproval of others when we know that, when their way is going against the ways of God. Now, I've heard it said before, bi-vocational ministry is a, is a great thing and, and it can be a great thing for pastors that work both out in the marketplace and work in the church.

Sometimes I've heard it said that one of the benefits of doing that is then you, you're not held captive by a congregation if they want you to do something that doesn't align with God's Word. And that's always bothered me a little bit, and it's bothered me because it should not matter. It should not matter. Even if a pastor fears that a church may decide, "We wanna get rid of you. You're done here. You're gonna lose your job. You're gonna lose the place that you live," it should not matter. And I can tell you that does not matter to me. It's not about the money, and Paul has said that multiple times in his ministry, that it's not about the money, it's not about the approval of, of others.

Which again, we can imagine Paul desiring here. It's about God...