Review / Introduction:
God @ Work Through Providence (Miracles that Don't Look Like Miracles at the Time):
- God works through unexpected Trials. (Acts 23:12-15)
- God works through unexpected People. (Acts 23:16-22)
- God works through unexpected Circumstances. (Acts 23:23-35)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
-
00:35-00:54
Acts chapter 23. While you're turning there, review what we've seen so far in the book of Acts in this latest little stretch. We've been following the story of the apostle Paul in Jerusalem, coming to give an offering for the poor that were there, and the poor Christians.
00:55-01:05
And Paul was falsely accused of being anti-Jewish. Remember, the mob tries to kill him, and he He was rescued/arrested by Rome.
01:07-01:10
And do you remember Paul asked to address the crowd.
01:10-01:11
He shares his testimony.
01:11-01:19
He told these Jewish people that wanted to kill him, "Here's how Jesus Christ changed me." And didn't get received very well.
01:20-01:22
Because the mob got more enraged.
01:23-01:28
So Paul was kept in protective custody by Rome to protect him from the Jews who wanted to kill him.
01:30-01:36
the Lord showed up to Paul and said, "Take courage." Next up, we're going to preach in Rome.
01:38-01:45
And as we get to Acts 23:12, and you think about, okay, now we're going to Rome to preach.
01:47-01:50
You know, that's quite a promise made to a guy sitting in protective custody.
01:51-01:58
But this passage starts the journey on how the promise is kept.
01:59-02:02
And as we approach the text, something I want you to think about for your life.
02:02-02:05
This is the billion dollar question for your life.
02:06-02:08
The billion dollar question.
02:08-02:14
The question that should matter the most in your life, in your family, in your church.
02:14-02:16
The billion dollar question is this.
02:17-02:18
Do I see God at work?
02:20-02:23
That's why this church was planted, by the way.
02:24-02:26
And that should be why every single one of you are here.
02:27-02:28
to see God at work.
02:30-02:35
The biggest sign that God is working is transformed lives.
02:38-02:45
People saved, people baptized, people repenting from sin, people obeying the call to ministry.
02:46-02:48
Those are signs that God is working.
02:49-02:50
But here's what we're going to look at today.
02:52-02:53
What about the other miracles?
02:55-03:01
Doesn't God work in other ways besides just like the inward heart change stuff?
03:02-03:04
If you're taking notes, I want you to jot this down.
03:07-03:11
There are two kinds of miracles, according to the Bible.
03:12-03:16
And the one kind of miracle, we're just going to call it supernatural.
03:18-03:23
That's when God suspends the natural laws of the universe that He established.
03:23-03:25
supernatural miracles.
03:25-03:30
For example, parting the Red Sea for the Israelites to pass through.
03:30-03:31
That was a miracle.
03:31-03:35
When Jesus fed the 5,000, that was a miracle.
03:36-03:38
There's actually 10 or 12,000, it was just 5,000 men.
03:39-03:40
But that was a miracle.
03:40-03:42
Well, how about when the dead are raised?
03:42-03:44
You remember Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead.
03:44-03:45
That was a miracle.
03:45-03:50
Remember we saw through the apostle Paul, God raised Eutychus from the dead in Acts.
03:50-03:52
That was a miracle.
03:52-03:55
That's suspending the natural laws of the universe.
03:56-04:02
But there's another kind of miracle, number two, and it's not supernatural.
04:04-04:05
This one I want you to write down.
04:06-04:07
This is our word for the day.
04:08-04:09
The word is providence.
04:12-04:13
What is providence?
04:13-04:15
Well, it's not just a city in Rhode Island.
04:17-04:21
Providence is God at work through natural laws and circumstances.
04:23-04:24
Here's a definition.
04:24-04:37
Providence is God's sovereign control over and direction of "natural circumstances" to accomplish His will.
04:38-04:39
That's providence.
04:42-04:47
God's sovereign control over and direction of natural circumstances to accomplish His will.
04:47-04:51
If you're still not sure what that means, here's a much easier definition.
04:51-05:00
Providence is what unsaved people, people that don't know the Lord, it's what they call "coincidence." Okay?
05:01-05:11
People that don't know the Lord, what they call "coincidence" biblically is called "providence." And you know the biblical poster boy for providence, right?
05:12-05:13
That'd be Joseph in the Old Testament.
05:14-05:15
You remember his story?
05:17-05:26
Joseph, his brothers hated him, they faked his death, They sold him into slavery and he's in prison, he's falsely accused, and you know the whole story with Joseph.
05:26-05:28
He went through horrible ordeals.
05:29-05:41
But when you get to Genesis 50 verse 20, Joseph said to his brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." That countless people would be saved.
05:41-05:46
God used Joseph's hard circumstances to save countless lives.
05:48-05:49
That's providence.
05:50-05:53
Because you see, for Joseph, it didn't look like God was working when he was sitting in the dungeon.
05:54-05:59
It didn't look like God was working when his brothers faked his death and when he was falsely accused.
05:59-06:05
And it didn't look like God was working, but God was working, and that is providence.
06:06-06:08
Now we talk about these two kinds of miracles.
06:10-06:11
Let's bring it home.
06:13-06:16
Like, "Pastor Jeff, have you seen supernatural miracles?" I have.
06:17-06:18
I absolutely have.
06:20-06:22
They'll give me some examples, I'll be glad to.
06:23-06:29
When I was in Bible college, a friend of mine who played baseball took a line drive to the eyeball.
06:29-06:33
He went to... yeah, everybody go, "Ouch." Yeah.
06:34-06:42
He went to specialists in Cincinnati, specialists in Cleveland, and because of the injury and the blood clots and everything, they said, "There's really nothing that we can do.
06:42-06:51
your vision is probably going to be distorted or at the best or bad for the rest of your life.
06:51-06:55
And we had a prayer vigil for him at school and his eyesight miraculously recovered.
06:55-07:03
He went back to the specialist and they said, "We have no explanation for what happened." And I said, "I do." It was a miracle.
07:05-07:08
Oh, speaking of eyes, how about my own wife?
07:09-07:18
When she was pregnant with Cade, our second son, and she was told that she could either have her eyesight or have the baby.
07:19-07:20
If you have the baby, you will be blind.
07:22-07:27
And God, through a miracle, allowed us to have both.
07:28-07:30
Cade and Aaron has her eyesight.
07:32-07:41
Oh, speaking of Cade, back when he was four years old, here's another miracle, back when he was four years old, you know, my little Cade, He got kicked in the face by a horse.
07:43-07:45
Kicked in the face by a horse.
07:45-07:49
It was-- long story short, horse got out of the barn and he was a little four-year-old.
07:49-07:50
Oh, look, a horse.
07:50-07:51
Runs up behind it.
07:51-07:53
We're talking like full-size adult rides on it horse.
07:54-07:54
Bam!
07:55-07:58
Double hoof right to the face, catapulted him across the yard.
07:58-08:02
He did one full flip in the air, landed on his face.
08:02-08:03
I ran down.
08:03-08:06
He was lifeless, eyes open, blood trickling out of his mouth.
08:06-08:07
I thought he was dead.
08:08-08:09
I really did.
08:09-08:14
I scooped him up and we ran to the car and raced to the hospital.
08:14-08:19
And the whole way there, his mother was praying for him.
08:21-08:30
We show up to the hospital and the doctor says, "No four-year-old gets kicked by a horse and survives." So they took him by ambulance down to Children's.
08:31-08:56
Long story short, when he woke up the next morning, he jumped out of bed and just started playing singing and dancing and the nurses were trying to calm him down. Not one broken bone. We've had people say, "Oh yeah, you know, you know, kids are pretty resilient." I'm like, "What?" No, no, no. Superman is resilient. He was kicked in the face by a horse.
08:58-09:12
We have a natural explanation for why, you know... Shut up. I say that in good Christian love by the way. What about in our church? Talk to Ryan and Sarah Strupa about Milo, the miracle with Milo. He's back teaching the kids now.
09:13-09:33
But Milo was a baby and the health problems he had. Talk to them about the miracle that we saw after praying over Milo. How about some of you remember in our church our Japanese friend Yuka. How many people remember "Brother Yuka, when she came to us, that poor woman was so sick.
09:34-09:46
She came to Pittsburgh from Japan for medical treatment." And I can't articulate the exact nature of her problem, but the poor woman was so sick, and one day she came to the elders.
09:47-09:51
She's like, "Would you pray for me?" And the elders laid hands on her and prayed for her after service.
09:52-09:53
Then we didn't see her for a couple of weeks.
09:54-09:58
She came back to church a couple of weeks later, She looked like a completely different human being.
09:59-10:01
She came back to guest reception and she was talking.
10:01-10:02
Remember Deb?
10:02-10:15
And I can't remember who, somebody else came into guest reception and you could turn to that person and as matter of fact as anything, she turned to that person and said, "Oh yes, the elders prayed for me and I'm all better now.
10:15-10:19
I'm going back to Japan." Now you explain that.
10:21-10:23
Other than saying God supernaturally intervened.
10:24-10:28
So here's the point, I could go on. I'm not going to, but I could go on.
10:30-10:31
But here's the point I want to make.
10:31-10:46
If we had lunch together, and I just shared with you all these stories, like I'm doing now, for an hour, for two hours, I just share all of these stories with you, my life would look like the book of Acts. Right?
10:48-10:53
These stories that I'm telling you took place over a period of more than 20 years.
10:54-10:54
Right?
10:56-10:58
My life doesn't look like the book of Acts.
10:59-11:07
To give you a baseball illustration, it's the difference between watching the highlights on ESPN.
11:08-11:10
You know, when you watch the highlights on ESPN, what do you see?
11:10-11:11
Right, Matt?
11:11-11:15
It's like, you know, triple, homer, strikeout, walkout, you see?
11:16-11:19
you watch that little 20 second clip, you're like, wow, that was awesome.
11:20-11:25
But when you watch the game, that takes place over the course of like 3 1/2 hours.
11:26-11:28
The baseball game didn't look like that little clip.
11:31-11:32
That's how it is with the book of Acts.
11:32-11:39
These things that we're talking about in Acts, these miracles that we've seen, these events didn't take place over the course of a week.
11:39-11:49
These miracles, and I believe they literally happened, like the ones I've seen in my own life, But these events and acts take place over a span of 30 years.
11:50-11:53
These supernatural miracles are actually rare.
11:56-11:59
And I would say, you're going to see it here today, they're more the exception than the rule.
12:01-12:04
Do we pray for them? Of course we do. Every time.
12:05-12:07
We pray for a miracle. Absolutely.
12:08-12:19
But I need to tell you, more often than not, When God is at work, it doesn't look like a miracle at the time.
12:21-12:27
When God is at work, things usually look totally normal.
12:28-12:35
They look unsupernatural, which my computer tells me isn't a word, but it is now.
12:37-12:39
It looks unsupernatural, but God is working.
12:41-12:47
The details, the timing, the circumstances, the weather, the traffic, the chance encounters with random people.
12:48-12:52
That is God's providence and that is how He is constantly working.
12:54-12:56
Some examples of that, we could talk about healing.
12:57-12:59
I gave you some examples of supernatural healing.
13:00-13:03
Those examples I gave you are a few over 20 some years.
13:05-13:07
Is that the only healing I've seen? Absolutely not.
13:07-13:18
because more often God heals through what looks like normal circumstances, through doctors, through hospitals, through medicines, because all healing is God's healing, amen?
13:19-13:28
So when I pray for somebody that's sick, yeah, I pray for the miracle, but I also pray for the doctor because God might choose to use the doctor to bring the healing, right?
13:30-13:31
Talk about comfort.
13:31-13:33
Does God give comfort supernaturally?
13:33-13:34
Absolutely, he does.
13:34-13:39
He gives comfort from his spirit, but according to 2 Corinthians 1.4, God gives comfort from other people.
13:40-13:42
That doesn't look supernatural, but it is.
13:43-13:47
It's God at work through providence through other people.
13:49-13:50
We could talk about growing the church.
13:50-13:52
We pray that the Lord would grow the church.
13:53-13:54
We pray that He would.
13:56-14:02
Does God have the ability to turn every empty seat in here into a human being?
14:02-14:04
Absolutely, He has the ability to do that.
14:05-14:07
He creates by speaking. He can do whatever He wants, right?
14:08-14:09
Was it Psalm 115 verse 3?
14:10-14:14
"Our God is in the heavens, He does all that He pleases." Yeah, He could turn those chairs into people.
14:15-14:16
That's not how He works though.
14:17-14:19
How has He been growing this church?
14:19-14:26
It's been through children being born, and it's been through people excited to share the good news of Jesus Christ with their friends and invite them here.
14:27-14:30
So as we've seen in Acts, sometimes God delivers supernaturally.
14:31-14:37
The passage we're going to look at today, sometimes it's through Providence, and that's what's on display here.
14:39-14:50
As we look at this text, and we're gonna go through it quickly, but something I want you to notice, the irony of this text is, there is no mention of God in this text.
14:51-14:52
There's no mention of Jesus Christ.
14:53-14:54
There's no mention of the Holy Spirit.
14:55-15:02
There is no mention of God in the text that we're going to look at today, but he is in every single verse.
15:04-15:07
So on your outline, now we're gonna get to the text.
15:08-15:09
God at work through providence.
15:10-15:13
In other words, miracles that don't look like miracles at the time.
15:14-15:15
Number one, jot this down.
15:16-15:18
God works through unexpected trials.
15:19-15:21
God works through unexpected trials.
15:22-15:25
Look at verses 12 through 15, Acts 23.
15:27-15:35
"When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath, neither to eat nor drink until they had killed Paul.
15:36-15:41
There were more than 40 who made this conspiracy." That's pretty extreme, don't you think?
15:42-15:44
Forty people. Forty people.
15:44-15:45
Like, "All right, guys, huddle up.
15:46-15:50
Nobody eats, nobody drinks until Paul's dead. Who's in?
15:51-15:52
Aye. All opposed?
15:53-15:55
Alright, that was the plan.
15:57-16:12
They went to the chief priests and the elders, probably Sadducees, we talked about that, people that already hated Paul, and said, "We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul.
16:14-16:31
Now therefore you, along with the council," that's the Sanhedrin, that's the Jewish rulers, "you along with the council give notice to the tribune," and that's the Romans, to bring him down to you as though you were going to determine his case more exactly, and we are ready to kill him before he comes near.
16:32-16:38
So these guys were like, "Okay, if Rome ain't going to kill him, we will." We talked about mob mentality, that's totally what's happening here.
16:39-16:40
Mob of 40 men.
16:41-16:57
So you see their plan. The Jews were like, "Okay, you're going to go to the Romans and say, 'Hey, the Sanhedrin kind of wants to get some more information about Paul, When you bring him out into the open, we are going to rush in, blitzkrieg attack, and we are going to kill him.
16:58-16:59
That's the plan.
17:01-17:09
And at this point, we can stop in the story and say what possible good is going to come from something like this?
17:09-17:14
You have 40 people determined that they're not going to eat or drink until they murder this man.
17:15-17:16
What possible good could come from this?
17:16-17:18
Well, here's the good that's going to come from it.
17:18-17:20
Remember Jesus promised that Paul was gonna preach in Rome.
17:21-17:23
These events kick off the journey to Rome.
17:24-17:38
Somebody would say, "Well, if God wanted Paul in Rome, why didn't he just use Uber?" Well, here's the thing, and if you haven't learned this yet, I promise you, you're going to have to learn this lesson in life.
17:39-17:41
God chooses to work through trials.
17:42-17:43
Oh, I wish it were otherwise.
17:45-17:50
But cover to cover in your Bible, cover to cover in your Bible.
17:52-17:56
God loves to work through your adversity.
17:56-18:15
So if you find the trial in your life right now, whatever it is, that health thing you're going through, that financial problem you're going through, that family crisis or relationship breakdown you're going through, whatever that trial is in your life right now, you can trace God's grace and purposes through that trial.
18:17-18:22
And now you're asking yourself, "Okay, I hear what you're saying, Pastor Jeff, but Pastor Jeff doesn't know exactly what's going on with me.
18:23-18:28
What could God possibly be doing in my trial?" Do you know how many times I've asked that in my own life?
18:30-18:31
"God, why would you allow this?
18:32-18:34
I don't see how you're working here.
18:35-18:42
What is God possibly doing in my trial?" I can tell you emphatically what God's doing in your trial.
18:44-18:48
And it's this, He's changing you.
18:50-18:52
Romans 5, listen to this.
18:53-19:25
Romans 5 verses 3 through 5, Paul says, "Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings, "knowing that suffering produces endurance, "and endurance produces character, "and character produces hope, "and hope does not put us to shame "because God's love has been poured into our hearts "through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us." So if I said to you, "How many people here would like hope?" "Oh yeah, I want hope." Well, if you work backwards in that Roman text, if you want hope, you need character.
19:27-19:31
Like, "You know, I want character." "Sure, I want character." Well, you know how you get character?
19:33-19:33
Endurance.
19:34-19:37
That's how character is grown according to God's Word.
19:37-19:38
It's through endurance.
19:38-19:44
Now how many people would say, "Yeah, I'd like endurance." Well, guess how you get endurance?
19:46-19:47
Through suffering.
19:48-19:49
It's all connected.
19:50-19:55
So whatever trial you're going through right now, God is using that.
19:57-20:03
For 10,000 things you don't know, but for one thing you do, and it is to change you.
20:05-20:07
Which is God's ultimate endgame, by the way.
20:09-20:15
So while we're waiting for our hardships to get better, God is making you better through your hardships.
20:16-20:23
So a word that I want to share with you, that by faith I want to receive myself is this.
20:24-20:30
Don't look at the trials in your life right now as a hindrance for what God wants to do through you.
20:32-20:37
Look at the trials in your life as training you for what God is going to do through you.
20:38-20:41
That's a more biblical understanding of the purpose of trials.
20:42-20:47
God says, "I have all kinds of things in store for you, but we've got to go to boot camp.
20:49-20:58
My training ground is this trial that you're going through right now." So God works through unexpected trials.
20:59-21:01
Secondly, God works through unexpected people.
21:03-21:04
God works through unexpected people.
21:05-21:06
Look at verse 16.
21:08-21:17
"Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.
21:18-21:53
Paul called one of the centurions and said, 'Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.' So he, the centurion, took him, Paul's nephew, and brought him to the tribune and said, "Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you as he has something to say to you." The tribune took him by the hand and going aside asked him privately, "What is it that you have to tell me?" Now we don't know how old this young man was, but he must have been a kid because of the tribune taking him by the hand.
21:53-21:57
That's not a normal thing for an adult man to do with an adult man, right?
21:57-22:07
So, best understanding from the commentaries that I had studied this week, he was probably a very young, young man.
22:09-22:19
Verse 20, "What is it you have to tell me?" He said, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow." As though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about you.
22:20-22:34
"But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who abound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him, and now they are ready waiting for your consent.
22:35-22:47
So the tribune dismissed the young man charging him, tell no one that you have informed me of these things." Okay, so Paul's nephew. Any questions? I have questions.
22:49-22:51
Here's my first question I jotted down on my notes.
22:51-22:55
Paul has a nephew? Like where did that guy come from?
22:55-23:01
He just like parachuted into the text. We didn't even know this guy existed.
23:01-23:08
It's like, "Oh, Paul's got a nephew!" I was not aware. Why was he in Jerusalem?
23:10-23:16
Was he a Christian? I don't have answers to these questions. I just got the questions.
23:17-23:28
But the Tribune says that when he reports the plan in incredible detail, The Tribune says, "Don't tell anyone that you told me because if they know that we know, they're going to abandon this plan.
23:28-23:37
They're going to make another plan, a plan that we don't know about." But obviously the big question here in this passage is, how did Paul's nephew hear about the plan?
23:38-23:41
I don't imagine he was one of the 40, do you?
23:43-23:46
So how did he hear about the plan?
23:47-23:56
I don't know how he heard, but apparently he found out because he knew it down to the letter, the point is just that. Providence is like that. Providence is like that.
23:56-24:22
Because you can look at this passage and be like, "Wow, Paul's nephew heard the entire plan and reported it. What a coincidence!" And I would say, "No, no, no, no, no, not coincidence. Providence! God wanted to protect Paul, so he used Paul's nephew." Now we've studied Acts, as we've gone through Acts, we've seen God deliver through angels, right?
24:22-24:23
Chapters five and 12.
24:24-24:28
We saw God deliver through an earthquake, and sometimes that's what we're looking for, right?
24:28-24:29
God deliver me, God deliver me.
24:29-24:35
We're looking for the angels in the earthquake, and here God delivers through Paul's nephew.
24:38-24:38
Why?
24:39-24:41
Because God works through unexpected people.
24:42-24:44
I've shared with you my testimony before.
24:45-24:49
I was led to Christ by a complete stranger at community college.
24:50-24:51
Butler County Community College.
24:54-25:00
And looking back on that now, looking at my life in the rear view mirror, I see that wasn't an accident, that was God's providence.
25:02-25:05
I want to talk for a minute about a more famous preacher.
25:05-25:06
How many of you have heard of Charles Spurgeon?
25:08-25:12
One of the, if not the, greatest preacher in church history.
25:15-25:16
after Jesus and Paul, obviously.
25:19-25:20
Do you know his testimony?
25:21-25:23
I'm gonna give you the short version.
25:23-25:23
You can look this up.
25:23-25:25
I'm just gonna give you the short version.
25:25-25:30
But before he was saved, it was a Sunday and there was this horrible snowstorm.
25:31-25:39
And he wasn't able to go to the church that he normally attends, but there was this little Methodist church nearby that he was able to get to.
25:39-25:40
So he went to the little Methodist church.
25:40-25:42
There were 15 people in the church.
25:43-25:48
In fact, the pastor himself was not at the church, probably because of the snowstorm.
25:49-25:50
So do you know who got up to preach?
25:51-25:51
A shoemaker.
25:53-25:58
A guy whose job to make sure he got up to preach and his sermon was so terrible.
25:59-26:00
Nope, I didn't hear it, okay.
26:01-26:02
Like, boy, you're harsh.
26:03-26:05
Spurgeon said that, not me.
26:05-26:10
Okay, the sermon was so bad, Spurgeon said he mispronounced most of the words in the Bible, okay?
26:10-26:14
Could you imagine you're sitting in church and the guy getting up preaching He can't even pronounce the words in the Bible.
26:17-26:27
But while this guy was fumbling through his sermon, and Spurgeon was sitting there, suddenly the man just looked Spurgeon right in the eye, and he said, "Young man, you look miserable.
26:29-26:35
And I'm going to tell you, you're always going to be miserable until you call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ." And Spurgeon came to Christ.
26:36-26:37
Through that.
26:38-26:40
That was the day the lights went on for that guy.
26:42-26:43
Was that what you were expecting?
26:45-26:48
That wasn't how I was expecting that story to turn out.
26:51-26:52
But that was how the story turned out.
26:53-27:03
We could line this place up with people telling stories of "God put so and so in my life at just the right time!" Is that a coincidence?
27:03-27:11
No, it's providence, or another word, or term rather, we used to describe it as divine Divine appointments.
27:13-27:15
I can look at my own testimony and say, "What if?
27:15-27:16
What if that person didn't share with me?
27:16-27:24
What if, you know, what if for some reason the person was sick that day that they were going to share with me?" And I can look at Spurgeon's story and I can say, "What if he decided the snowstorm was too bad to go to church?
27:24-27:26
Or what if the shoemaker wasn't even a guy that preached?
27:26-27:27
What if they decided to cancel church?
27:27-27:30
What if the regular pastor showed up and he wasn't a good preacher at all?
27:30-27:33
Or what if a thousand different things happened?
27:35-28:08
God make sure that what if doesn't happen. That's providence. You realize God's not sitting in heaven ever going, "Well what if such-and-such would have happened?" God's like, "What if isn't even in our vocabulary here? It's gonna happen!" That's providence. And you see, as we go When you go through a text like this, it's easy to identify with Paul, but the truth is you're also like Paul's nephew.
28:08-28:18
Because not only does God use unexpected people in your life, you are the unexpected person that God's going to use in somebody else's.
28:20-28:23
That's why we encourage you to share the good news boldly.
28:23-28:30
You realize today, today, somebody's life, somebody's life might change for eternity because of you.
28:32-28:34
because God works through unexpected people.
28:36-28:40
And finally, God works through unexpected circumstances.
28:42-28:44
Let's look at this last chunk of text here.
28:46-28:49
All right, chapter 23, verse 23.
28:50-29:01
It said, "He," that's the Tribune, and we're going to see his name here, is Claudius Lysias. I've been saying that the last couple of weeks, and somebody might be wondering, "How does he know his name?" It's here in the text.
29:01-29:02
I read it.
29:02-29:18
Anyways, "Then he called two of the centurions and said," check this out, "Get ready 200 soldiers with 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night.
29:19-29:27
Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.
29:27-29:30
And he wrote a letter to this effect.
29:30-29:31
Hang on a second before we get to the letter.
29:31-29:34
Math people, Paul's sent with an armed guard.
29:34-29:37
How many people are sent with Paul to protect him?
29:38-29:39
You do the math there?
29:42-29:42
470.
29:44-29:45
Talk about providence.
29:48-29:52
470, and it says, send him at the third hour of the night, that's 9 p.m.
29:54-29:58
So you see obviously what the Claudius Lysias' plan was.
29:59-30:00
This guy's life is in danger.
30:00-30:02
Let's sneak him out at night and we're going to surround him.
30:03-30:04
Nobody's touching this man.
30:05-30:09
We're gonna send him to Felix, the governor up in Caesarea.
30:09-30:13
That was 65 miles Northwest of Jerusalem.
30:14-30:15
Verse 26, this is the letter.
30:17-30:20
"Claudius Lysias, who is excellently the governor of Felix.
30:20-30:30
"Greetings, this man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.
30:32-30:36
Desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council.
30:37-30:48
I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.
30:48-31:09
And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against a man, and I send him to you at once, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him." Okay, so in transporting a prisoner, protective custody, whatever, it was customary to send the required letter.
31:09-31:13
And this letter I would categorize as accurate-ish.
31:16-31:19
Because do you notice in the letter that Claudius Lysaeus totally makes himself look good?
31:20-31:21
Do you notice that?
31:21-31:27
if you were with us the last couple of weeks, you know that this didn't exactly shake down the way he's presenting it.
31:27-31:31
He sort of highlighted the good parts and he didn't mention any of his mistakes.
31:31-31:32
Did you catch that?
31:33-31:53
He didn't say, "Dear Felix, we thought he was the Egyptian assassin, and he wasn't, and we was wrong." Or, "We almost flogged him, which is illegal." Or, "We had him in chains, which also is illegal." He, "Leave that part out of the letter." and just talk about like the good parts.
31:53-31:54
Here's a flagrant lie.
31:55-31:58
He says, basically I rescued this Roman from the Jews.
31:59-32:00
Did you catch the lie there?
32:01-32:05
He didn't know that Paul was a Roman until after he rescued him.
32:05-32:09
He sort of painted it like, I saw this Roman and we rushed in to save him.
32:09-32:12
They saved a guy and then found out he was a Roman.
32:13-32:18
He's just painting himself out to look so superheroic here.
32:19-32:21
So he's like, the guy's innocent.
32:21-32:22
We're sending him to you for safety.
32:23-32:35
Verse 31, "So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Anapatrus." That was like a rest stop between Jerusalem and Caesarea.
32:36-32:39
Anapatrus was 40 miles away from Jerusalem.
32:39-32:44
Okay, so you kind of, you know, stop there on the trip.
32:44-32:46
Now, the next day they returned to the barracks.
32:47-32:51
The soldiers returned back to Jerusalem, letting the horsemen go on with him.
32:51-32:55
So it's like we're out of the danger zone, just send the 70 horsemen, right?
32:56-33:02
So when they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him.
33:03-33:06
Okay, so now Paul's in Caesarea, he's before the governor, governor pulls out the letter.
33:06-33:09
On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from.
33:10-33:12
And we learned that he, Paul was from Cilicia.
33:13-33:20
He said, "I will give you a hearing "when your accusers arrive." And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's Praetorium.
33:22-33:25
So he asked where Paul was from to determine jurisdiction.
33:25-33:26
That's why he asked.
33:28-33:31
Like, am I the right person to be hearing this?
33:31-33:33
Oh, okay, you're in my district, great.
33:34-33:39
So they kept Paul in, it says in Herod's Praetorium, that was basically the governor's residence.
33:42-33:50
And all of this, all of this happened one day after God promised that Paul was going to testify of the gospel in Rome.
33:50-34:08
Do you think Paul sat in protective custody in Jerusalem going, "He said that's going to happen, but I sure don't see how that's going to happen." Turn the clock, he had 24 hours, and Paul's like, "I kind of see how that's going to happen." Here's the point, God is always at work in you through harsh trials.
34:09-34:20
But as in Paul's life, God is also working through the unexpected circumstances on what we would call the peripheral of your life.
34:22-34:34
Realizing in this passage, God had these plans for Paul and all these things that were happening between Claudius Lysias and Felix, Paul had no idea what was happening and he certainly had no control over what was happening, but God was making it happen.
34:36-34:41
And church, you've got to get this down because we miss it.
34:42-34:43
God works and we miss it.
34:45-34:48
Because God so often works through your circumstances.
34:49-34:50
Don't miss that.
34:51-34:59
For example, if you're like, money's really tight, and you're like, God, God, we need money, money's just so tight, God, could you please provide money?
34:59-35:04
And then like a couple days later, your boss says, hey, you're doing such a good job, I'm gonna give you a raise.
35:04-35:05
You see what we do?
35:05-35:07
We say, well, God didn't come through.
35:09-35:10
Good thing my boss did.
35:11-35:20
And do you realize when you do that, you've created a false dichotomy to say either God works or my boss is going to work.
35:21-35:22
But do you realize what happened?
35:22-35:24
God was working through your boss.
35:25-35:26
That's what providence is about.
35:27-35:29
So it's not an either or.
35:30-35:36
It's God taking the circumstances and using other people to make provision for you.
35:38-35:39
I'm going to give you another example.
35:41-35:49
Back when this church was very young, core group phase, some of you remember this, we were working on getting the things that we needed to launch the church.
35:50-35:51
When this church started, we had nothing.
35:52-35:59
We opened a bank account that had zero in it, and when we had enough money to buy a trailer, we stood in the parking lot and stared at an empty trailer.
35:59-36:02
"Woo, we hope God fills it." We had nothing.
36:04-36:12
So we worked with this organization called Church in a Box provides the stuff that you need for portable churches and all those things.
36:12-36:13
And we got a quote from them.
36:14-36:15
Dan, do you remember?
36:15-36:16
The quote was like over $80,000.
36:19-36:20
You talk about sticker shock.
36:22-36:26
Okay, so there's 20 of us sitting in an Airbred's little community room thing.
36:28-36:30
And we're like, okay, here's what we need.
36:32-36:33
$84,000.
36:34-36:36
Okay, so let's take our offering.
36:38-36:42
Wow, we're about 83,500 short.
36:45-36:47
We had one of those thermometers that we colored.
36:47-36:49
It was just like a line.
36:51-36:51
We'll get there.
36:54-36:55
God provided for the church.
36:56-37:00
And I wanna tell you this story by talking about four different parties.
37:00-37:03
When I say party, I don't mean like party, I mean like groups.
37:04-37:06
I wanna tell you the story through four different parties.
37:06-37:09
The first party is this, the Harvest Bible Chapel Choir Group.
37:10-37:15
There was 20, about 20 of us or whatever it was, meeting.
37:15-37:16
That's one party.
37:17-37:22
Second party, I wanna talk to you about, is there was a man who wanted to bless our church.
37:22-37:26
I'm not gonna mention his name because he's part of the church now, but he wasn't at the time, which makes this even more incredible.
37:27-37:30
So there was the second party, is there was a man who wanted to bless our church.
37:31-37:36
The third party is there was a father who had a son that wanted to get music.
37:36-37:45
So the father bought this son like a truckload of brand new music equipment, speakers and microphones and cables and all these things for son to get music, that's the third party.
37:45-37:50
The fourth party involved in this story is the son, who wanted to get involved in music.
37:51-37:55
Well, the son decides suddenly, he doesn't want to do music now.
37:56-38:02
So the father decides to sell off all of this equipment that he just bought that was still in the wrapper.
38:04-38:08
And this father just happened to be friends who wanted to bless the church.
38:09-38:22
And that man said, "Well, I'll buy this equipment at this greatly discounted rate and donate it to the church." So Harvest Bible Chapel got a truckload of brand new music equipment and it cost us zero.
38:24-38:28
So the question is, was that God's provision?
38:29-38:37
While we were sitting praying over our $12 bowl of soup at Panera Bread, Just kidding, we couldn't afford that.
38:39-38:46
We're praying for God to provide and that's how we got all of this stuff.
38:47-38:48
So was that God's provision?
38:48-38:49
Was that God at work?
38:52-38:53
Would you say that was the answer to that prayer?
38:55-38:57
I don't have any other conclusion.
38:59-39:01
God could have turned a tree into a speaker.
39:02-39:06
He could have turned a snake into a microphone cable.
39:07-39:10
God could have done a lot of things, but He didn't.
39:12-39:21
He provided through incredible circumstances, but there's no doubt that that was God.
39:23-39:25
We see all of these in the gospel, by the way.
39:27-39:31
All of these things that we're talking about this morning are all part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
39:31-39:34
You know, Jesus Christ went through an unexpected trial, didn't he?
39:34-39:35
Falsely accused.
39:37-39:39
When I say unexpected, I'm talking about in human terms.
39:41-39:44
Jesus was executed by what we would say are unexpected people.
39:44-39:46
The Romans didn't even really know who he was.
39:46-39:48
You know, remember Pilate, he's like, "So you're a king and where's your kingdom?
39:48-39:49
And like, you know, who are you?
39:49-39:53
And why are they so mad at you?" And he was executed by unexpected people.
39:54-40:06
And suddenly in the ministry of Jesus Christ, suddenly the most, again, human perspective, The most innocent person who ever walked on this planet was nailed to a cross.
40:09-40:46
And if you get that picture in your mind of seeing Jesus nailed to the cross, you can look at this innocent man condemned and crucified and you can say, "Where was God through all of that?" The Bible tells us that God in His providence, not in spite of all of that, but through all of that, was actually offering His Son as a sacrifice to pay the penalty for your sins.
40:48-41:00
So if God can bring glorious purposes through events like that, He can do it through whatever lesser trial you and I are experiencing today.
41:03-41:04
Don't miss the miracles, people.
41:06-41:17
God's providence through His sovereignty is just as much of a miracle, and I would suggest sometimes maybe more, than parting the Red Sea.
41:19-41:34
And when you get to that place in your life that you realize, I'm not going to worry, because God has every single detail in my life under His perfect control.
41:35-41:46
When you get to that place, you will be able to say, like that bold lion, "I will not fear." Let's pray.
41:48-41:52
Father in Heaven, You are awesome.
41:54-41:56
Sometimes we wish there was a bigger word to describe You.
41:58-42:11
But the way that, yes God, You can raise the dead, You can part the Red Sea, but God, the way that You can work through minute details, and choices, and decisions, and everything from traffic, and weather, and...
42:13-42:15
It's all under Your control!
42:17-42:25
So many times, Father, we feel like God never showed up when you were working the whole time.
42:27-42:33
So Father, expand our vision for who You are and how You work.
42:34-42:38
And I pray, Father, You give us the fearlessness that comes knowing that You are in control.
42:40-42:45
And in your providence, you're going to take care of everything perfectly.
42:47-42:50
In our church, in our families, in our very lives, Father.
42:52-42:54
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Acts 23:12-35
"God works through miracles and providence". What do those terms mean, and what's the difference? Why does it seem God usually chooses to work through providence over just doing a miracle?
Tell of a time you've clearly seen God's provision through His providence. In other words, what was a situation where you looked back and said "God was working the whole time! I see it now!" (like Joseph in Genesis 50:20)
What was your "big take-away" from this passage?
Breakout Questions:
Share a hardship you are experiencing now - how might God be working through this? How is God using this to change YOU?