Accused of Hope (Acts 23:6-11; Acts 26:6-19)
Sunday, May 5, 2019
This is what I want to see happen: you, on trial!
And I hope you are convicted.
Guilty! That’s my hope: that you
know the full weight of standing utterly exposed, and with nowhere to turn, you
have to face up to reality. It’s true!
Ok, what’s this about?
Paul lived in the first century. He traveled around
the nations along the Eastern and Northern shorelines of the Mediterranean Sea,
Israel, Lebanon, the independent city-states in what is today Turkey, Greece;
why? Paul was going from city to city talking about Jesus. He felt driven to do this. He made tents and sold them so he would have
money to eat and travel and tell people about Jesus.
Previously, Paul had
been a dignified Pharisee rising rapidly in that Jewish religious sect.
He even acquired arrest papers from the temple authorities to bring
followers of Jesus to trial for the crime of proclaiming Jesus “Lord” and
declaring him to be the Messiah. The high priest felt this message was so
disruptive people preaching it had to be stopped, even if it meant execution by
stoning.
That happened to the
leader of the first appointed deacons. Stephen was stoned to death for
preaching about Jesus. Paul, then a young and up-and-comer among the Pharisees
approved of Stephen’s killing and even held the cloaks of those throwing the
stones. Then, with armed troops, he headed to Damascus to arrest more
Christians.
On the road to that city,
the risen Lord Jesus, appeared to Paul in a blinding flash of light. Paul
realized he was on the wrong side. He
stopped persecuting Christians and became one.
Being blinded by the light of Jesus helps one see and once Paul
recovered his senses and his vision, everything was clear. The Jesus who
met him was the same as the one who had been crucified a few years
earlier. The claims his disciples made
were absolutely true. Jesus was
Messiah! Jesus was Lord!
That’s when Paul started
going everywhere, telling whomever would listen what he had learned. His
adventures in following Jesus are told in the book of Acts beginning in chapter
9. By chapter 23, we have gone with Paul
all the way to the Greek city of Corinth, and all the way back to Jerusalem.
A group of Jews, upset with the message Paul preached, followed him to
the city. They riled up a mob at the
temple with the false accusation that Paul had defiled the temple. He did no such thing, but they convinced a
crowd he had. It’s the one crime the Romans allowed the Jews to punish by
execution. These crazies could kill Paul
without repercussions from the Roman overlords who controlled Jerusalem. And they tried.
Acts 21 - “They seized
Paul and dragged him out of the temple; while they were trying to kill him word
came to the tribune of the cohort that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
Immediately he took soldiers and centurions and ran down to [investigate
the ruckus]” (21:30-32). The tribune was
a Roman military commander charged by his superiors with maintaining order.
He did not care if the temple leaders, Jews, killed one person, but if a
riot ensued, he would be punished, maybe himself executed.
Paul was taken into
Roman custody. The Jews demanded he be executed. The Romans decided to examine Paul.
“Examine” means they were going to whip him with a thick knotted chord
until he admitted what he had done. That’s when Paul dropped his
bomb. He asked the centurion holding the
whip, the one about to turn his body into a bloody pulp, “Is it legal for you
to flog a Roman citizen who is uncondemned” (22:25)? Oh boy!
The centurion ran to the
tribune, his superior, and demanded to know, “What are you doing? This
man is a citizen!” The tribune didn’t
have a very enviable job. He would get
in serious trouble if the nationals, the Jews, weren’t kept in order. He
would get in even more trouble if he mistreated a citizen, and Paul was a
citizen. He immediately halted all
proceedings and interrogated Paul gently,
but before the questioning was over, it was as if Paul had interrogated him.
Paul was a natural born citizen.
This tribune had had to bribe someone to buy his citizenship papers.
This improbable series
of events is how Paul ended up on trial before the Romans accused of committing
blasphemy against the Jewish god. The mob of Jewish roughians could not
slow down Paul’s preaching about Jesus.
The mighty Romans, feared by all, had no control and seemingly were
controlled by this outcast Jesus-loving Pharisee. How did this happen?
Paul gives an indication
in the course of his numerous defenses. When he revealed he was a Roman
citizen, he then appealed his case to the emperor in Rome, which was his right.
The tribune moved him to the city of Caesarea, not far from Jerusalem. There he was held for a couple of years, long
enough for a new Tribune to come into the position and for Paul to have
numerous opportunities to speak about his faith in Christ.
In one of those
speeches, to a primarily Jewish audience, he says, “I am on trial concerning
the hope of the resurrection of the dead” (23:6). Later, this time
speaking before King Agrippa Herod and Roman Governor Portius Festus, he said,
“It is for this hope, you excellency, that I am accused by the Jews! Why
is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead” (26:7-8)?
I am here, accused,
because I believe God raised Jesus!
Why do you find it so
hard to believe God resurrected the dead?
Paul believed the
resurrection of Jesus is what led to him being attacked by both the Jews and
the Romans. And the resurrection is the reason he was so glad to be right
where he was - testifying before the most powerful, influential leaders in
society.
Our core confession is
that Jesus is Lord. He died on the cross for our sins and he rose from
death in resurrection. His resurrection is a prelude to the resurrection
of all people, some raised to everlasting life with him and some to eternal
separation from God and we call that eternal separation Hell.
Seminary Professor
Rodney Reeves tells of one of his fishing buddies from his days as a pastor.
This man said to him, “If it weren’t for the resurrection, I wouldn’t be
a believer.”[i]
Have you ever thought about it that way? Would you be a follower of
Jesus if the resurrection had not happened?
This friend of Pastor
Rodney had lived a hard life. His father murdered his mother and then
took his own life. He and his younger brother ended up growing up in
poverty. He was able to climb out of his
painful beginnings and go to college and build a life. His younger
brother didn’t do so well. He drifted
from struggle to struggle, constantly battling substance abuse, and finally
dying at a young age. His death was connected to his own bad choices. In spite of all the loss, this man lived with
a cheerful, joyful outlook. He told
Pastor Rodney, “The Resurrection of Jesus is my only hope.”
We believe Jesus rose
from death, and at the end of history, on the last day, all who have faith in
Christ will rise as he did. We believe that future hope, but what about
today? How does the resurrection empower
Paul to take on Jerusalem temple authorities and Roman Tribunes and governors?
How does our belief in Jesus conquering death help someone like Pastor
Rodney’s friend overcome such a tough life and live in joy, today? How does resurrection fill our present with
hope?
Theology professor Kelly
Kapic of Covenant College wants Christians to understand this. She
writes, “The work of Christ ... is not just something done over our heads or
merely long ago and far away. United to Christ by the Spirit, we are to
live as God’s children now. ... Christian devotion must always be shaped by the
resurrection of Christ.”[ii] The
resurrection reminds us that God did not simply do something in the past but is
also actively working in our individual lives and church lives now.
The great reformer Martin Luther wrote that we Christians
should live an eternal Easter life in which we continue in the peace and joy of
the Holy Spirit as long as we remain on earth.[iii] And I love Rodney
Reeves’ way of putting it. “The resurrection of Christ is an unstoppable
work of God in the life of every believer.”[iv]
I hope you’re feeling that unstoppable force! I
hope you have opened your heart to Jesus, received forgiveness of sins, and now
are walking in a real relationship with the resurrected one.
At our church leaders summit in March, all elders and
deacons present agreed upon a mission statement for our church based upon what
we do. What do we at HillSong church do?
- We follow Jesus.
- We love others.
- We share hope.
That’s what Paul was doing when he was on trial, sharing
hope that he based on one reality. Jesus had risen from death. Because of the resurrection, he could
position himself to talk to the Roman emperor about Jesus. Because the
Holy Spirit of the risen Christ was with him, he was empowered. Because Jesus rose, we too are empowered. At Christmas time, we sing Emmanuel, God with
us. Because of the resurrection, today, the first Sunday of May and every
day, we have God with us.
No matter how hard or discouraging life becomes, I long
for each and every one of us to live in hope. I pray we will be found
guilty - guilty of the hope of eternal life. And I pray that hope pours forth
from us so that we draw people to Jesus.
AMEN
[i]
R.Reeves
(2011), Spirituality According to Paul, InterVarsity Press (Downer’s
Grove, IL), p.173.
[ii] K. Papic Christianity
Today, “Is the Cross Enough” (April 2019), p.46-49.
[iii] M. Luther, Epistle
Sermons Vol. II, Epiphany, Easter, and Pentecost, translated by John
Nicholas Lenker (1909), The Luther Press (Minneapolis), p.178.
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