The Plot of Life

“We are ready to kill him before he gets here.”  Acts 23:15

Suspenseful movies scare me, but if a film about Paul were to be produced, I would go see it and try to keep my eyes open the whole time.  And parts would look a lot like this...

Furious because their attempts to end Paul’s life had all been thwarted, more than forty Jews made a pact not eat or drink until Paul was dead.  Bold and determined, they went to the chief priests and elders and announced their oath and their intention.  “Now then, you and the Sanhedrin petition the commander to bring Paul before you on the pretext of wanting more accurate information about the case.  We are ready to kill him before he gets here”(Acts 23:15).  (Though this would be cold-blooded murder, perhaps these men weren’t aware that the Ten Commandments aren’t pick and choose!)

The religious leaders agreed and the plan was in the works, but somehow word got around—got around to Paul’s young nephew, the son of his sister, who slipped into the barracks and told his uncle.  Wanting news of the plot to reach the top, Paul summoned a centurion to take the boy to the Roman commander.  The poor kid was obviously anxious for his uncle’s life and unnerved by these important officials because to comfort and calm him, the wise commander “took the young man by the hand, drew him aside and asked, ‘What is it you want to tell me?’”(Acts 23:20).  Paul’s nephew gave him the information and an instruction.  “Don’t give in to them, because more than forty men are waiting in ambush to kill him”(Acts 23:22).

The commander dismissed the boy with a caution, “Don’t tell anyone that you have reported this to me,” and so Paul’s nephew left, surely looking both ways and behind him just in case someone had found out that he had found out.

Armed with this new news, the commander ordered the centurion to “get ready a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go to Caesarea at nine tonight”(Acts 23:23).  So that evening, under the cover of darkness, Paul rode safely out of town, securely escorted by 470 Roman soldiers.

What a cool story!  What a good story!  It contains all the elements of fine literature—good guys, bad guys, a good guy who used to be a bad guy, devious scheming, brave actions, a complex plot, anxious suspense, love, tenderness, conflict, a climax, and resolution.  And the Author of it all is a God who “does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of earth”(Daniel 4:35).  Not for a moment was God not in charge, and He used a courageous kid and a kind commander to protect Paul for His divine purpose.

The plot of life is often frightening, but we can be sure our Producer has a perfect plan. And if you want to know how it all ends, read The Book.  Don’t wait for the movie.

Down and Up

“The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage!  As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.’” Acts 23:11

Paul had plenty of reasons for being down.  He had assaulted, arrested, and almost flogged.  At an assembly where the Roman commander “wanted to find out exactly why Paul was being accused by the Jews”(Acts 22:30), the high priest had given orders to strike Paul in the mouth because he had said, “I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day”(Acts 23:1).  When Paul had declared that he stood on trial because of his hope in the resurrection of the dead, the meeting had turned to chaos.  His comment had been quite clever since Paul had known that two groups with opposing views of life after death were both present.  “A house divided cannot stand,” and the rift over theology had caused an eruption.  “The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them.  He ordered the troops to go down and take him away by force and bring him into the barracks”(Acts 23:10).

Alone in the barracks, uncertain of the future and unsure of his fate, Paul, the great missionary and amazing apostle, did what real people do—he got down.  And our awesome God did what a real God does—He showed up to lift Paul up.  “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage!  As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome’”(Acts 23:11).  When Paul felt lonely, the Lord stood near.  When Paul was afraid, the Lord calmed his fears.  “Take courage,” God said. “I’m up to something good.”   Paul was in those barracks because God had a bigger purpose than Paul had plans.  God wanted the gospel taken to Rome, and this arrest and ruckus was His way of getting Paul there.

When you find yourself in the barracks of life, uncertain of the future and unsure of your fate, take courage.  You are never alone, for God stands near.  When you are afraid, He will calm your fear.  God’s purpose is bigger than your plans, and He wants you to share His truth all along the way.

When you get down, know that God is up to something good. 
And let Him take you there.

Taxes and Thankgiving

“The commander ordered that Paul be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this.” Acts 22:24

Yesterday was Tax Day—the annual reminder that citizens of a country are responsible for its care.  We gripe, and we grumble.  We grouse that our hard-earned dollars are hardly well-spent.  We find fault with budget allocations and pork barrel spending, and I am surely not suggesting that such grievances have no grounds, but, in spite of its many faults and failures, our country is still one of the few where the line to get in is long and the line to get out is short.  

Why?  Because due to the spiritual, economic, and social principles of its foundation, our nation offers more freedom, more opportunity, and more protection than most inhabitants of the globe could ever even dream.  Since few of us have lived in oppression, occupation, or terror, we do not fully appreciate the simple rights to worship as we wish, speak as we want, and remain innocent until proven guilty.  Even the most advanced civilizations of the past rarely offered such rights, as the Apostle Paul discovered first-hand.

When the Jerusalem crowd called for his death, the Roman commander “ordered that Paul be taken to the barracks”(Acts 22:24).  This sounded good until he issued the directive that Paul “be flogged and questioned in order to find out why the people were shouting at him like this”(Acts 22:24).  Flogged and THEN questioned?  Why the brutality?  Why the lack of respect and the lack of rights? 

In the Roman world, only a special few had rights—certain soldiers who had fought for the empire, those born into the proper families, or men with the proper funds.  The commander assumed Paul fit none of those categories, so he gave the order for him to be beaten.  (For more on the dangers of assuming, see Acts Devotion 45 from last Friday.)  “As they stretched Paul out to flog him, he said to the centurion standing there, ‘Is it legal for you to flog a Roman citizen who hasn’t even been found guilty?’”(Acts 22:25).  Hurried questions from his alarmed captors revealed that Paul’s citizenship was a birthright—not a purchased privilege like the commander’s, so Paul’s back was spared, and he was released to defend himself before the Jewish Sanhedrin.

Our country is not perfect, and our history is pockmarked with periods of inhumanity and brutality, but, by God’s grace, we are at a place where all who live in our land—rich or poor, male or female, Republican or Democrat, Christian or heathen, etc.—are blessed with astounding freedoms and abundant rights.

Tax time might be a bad time for your bank account, but it’s a good time to count your blessings.  Thank God the star-spangled banner still waves o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

“Then the Lord said to me, ‘Go, I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”  Acts 22:21

The faulty assumption that Paul took a foreigner into the temple led to the riot which resulted in his arrest, but as Roman soldiers herded him toward the barracks, Paul asked to speak to the angry mob.

Though they had been rowdy and raucous, when Paul started speaking their native Aramaic, the men shut their mouths and opened their ears.  They listened as Paul told of his religious training under the popular and revered teacher, Gamaliel.  They let him speak as he recounted his persecution of Christians and even His come-to-Jesus meeting on the Damascus road, but when Paul repeated the command from God to take the gospel to the Gentiles, the crowd lost it.  “Then they raised their voices and shouted, ‘Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!’”(Acts 22:22)

Why the hatred?  Why the venom?  What was it that instigated such rage and wrath that mature, responsible men were “shouting and throwing off their coats and flinging dust into the air”(Acts 22:23)?  Two words—Pride and Prejudice.  THEY were God’s chosen people.  THEY were God’s special children.  Only two groups existed on earth—THEY were in one category, and everyone else was in another, and the “everyone else” really weren’t worth even mentioning, for in the mind of those angry Jewish men, Gentiles had no value and no virtue.  The very idea that God would reach out to such rubbish and desire to rescue and redeem them was absolutely insane and intolerable.  And so they shouted.

We rarely get so loud, but an honest look into our hearts often uncovers the same vices lurking beneath our righteous veneer.  We try to keep them at bay, but sometimes we begin to think—WE are not like the secular scoundrels around us.  WE love God, and THEY do not.  WE know the truth, and all THEY do is ignore it, mock it, and disobey it. I mean, really, “Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God”(1 Cor 6:9-10).  However, before we start pounding our pompous pulpits with this passage, we should keep on reading.  “And that is what you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God”(1 Cor 6:11).

Pride and prejudice have no place among God’s people.
It’s all grace, all the time, for all of us.

Even them.

No Assumptions

“They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area.”  Acts 21:29

Let’s just be honest.  We all know what assuming does, yet we still do it.  And when we do, we almost always assume the worst. In our own mind, our suppositions soon becomes certain, and we usually end up stirring up trouble for somebody somewhere. 

An amusing and not too damaging example—Several years ago, as I was walking midweek down the city sidewalk, a friend stopped to say how excited she was to hear me sing a solo in church the upcoming Sunday.  Shocked and concerned by this surprising news, I asked her the source of such nonsense and was told that the info came from the church office.  On an immediate visit to that location, I learned that a recent acquaintance had volunteered my musical services in lieu of the choir’s regular special. I quickly tracked down the culprit and discovered that her statement had been based on an assumption—“During the service last week, I heard the most beautiful voice, and when I glanced back a few pews to see who it was, I saw you, and I just knew you would be glad to sing a solo for us!” To which I replied, “I heard that beautiful voice too!  And it wasn’t me; it was behind me!!”  (When I finally convinced her that a large choir was the smallest group suitable for my vocal talents, she acquiesced, and all were spared!)

A serious and most painful illustration—Many years ago, while walking around the temple in Jerusalem, an angry mob seized the Apostle Paul, dragged him away, and began beating him to death.  Their actions were based on an assumption.  “They had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with Paul and assumed that Paul had brought him into the temple area”(Acts 21:29). Paul had not, but when certain men stated their assumption as fact, an ensuing riot led to Paul’s eventual arrest. “The commander came up and arrested him and ordered him to be bound with chains…When Paul reached the steps, the violence of the mob was so great, he had to be carried by the soldiers.  The crowd that followed kept shouting, ‘Away with him!’”(Acts 21:33-36).

Few people make the effort to make sure of the facts.  Instead, they often base their actions and their attitudes on assumptions—their own or someone else’s.  Take time to get the truth, and you’ll spare lots of people lots of trouble.

Don’t assume.  But if you must, assume the best.
Then you’ll bray the least.

Divine Details

“Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles.”  Acts 21:19

You can be sure that the eyewitnesses of Easter never told their stories in mere summary—“Went to tomb but didn’t find corpse.  Talked to angel and headed home.” Oh no. Instead we can be sure that over and over they shared the delightful event in juicy and joyful detail.  The darkness of the early morning, the brightness of the waiting angels, the rolled away tombstone, the stunning announcement, the collapsed burial linen, the carefully folded head cloth, the bewilderment, the fear, the hope, the belief.  Bare bones wouldn’t do when their big God had done such a big thing.

Fast forward a few decades to the Apostle Paul’s arrival in Jerusalem at the end of his third mission trip.  As soon as he got there, Paul got together with the church leaders, “greeted them, and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry”(Acts 21:19).  A short and simple, “Good trip. God did a lot,” just wouldn’t do.  As they listened with excitement, Paul told the men of two years of daily lectures at the hall of Tyrannus in Ephesus.  He told them of bonfires where believers who had formerly practiced sorcery burned scrolls worth 50,000 days’ wages.  He told them of a God “who did extraordinary miracles so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them”(Acts 19:11).  He told of his all-night sermon in Troas and of Eutychus’ back to life experience after dozing off in a dangerous place.  In juicy and joyful detail, Paul recounted how the death and resurrection of Jesus was changing lives around their world, and “when they heard this, they praised God”(Acts 21:20).  The abridged version would have been an inadequate description, for God is in the details.

Some things are just too good—and too God—to summarize.

When you give “just the facts,” give them fully, and others will give God praise.

Empty Is Awesome

“He is not here; he has risen.” Mathew 28:6

Empty is awesome.   

Maybe not so much as a balance in your bank account or as pinging from your gas gauge, but on that spring Sunday morning when Mary Magdalene and company set foot into the vacant tomb, empty was absolutely awesome.  And it still is.

Empty means that we can be full—full of joy, full of hope, full of life.  Empty means that we can have no fear, for our dread that death is final and that life is futile has been wondrously obliterated by the stunning triumph of the Risen Christ.  Empty means that the worst of this world cannot touch the truth of God’s love, for Jesus lived a perfect life, died a painful death, paid the price of sin, and conquered the grave with a power so potent that history and the hereafter will never be the same.

Why do I say this today?  Wasn’t Easter yesterday?  Yes, but an empty grave on Sunday means the most on Monday.  An empty grave on Sunday means that Monday has lasting meaning and definite purpose.  It means that the ordinary stuff of this week matters forever.  It means that meeting with clients, doing the laundry, signing a contract, and rocking the baby are crowned with the glory of a God who triumphed over death and who delights in giving life—all of our days. 

An empty tomb on Sunday means that in the ups and downs and all arounds of life, our relationship with God is bound securely by a power so infinite and eternal that our missteps and mishaps can never cause us to fall from His grace. Without an empty tomb, the promise of the cross would be incomplete, and we would have no hope.  Without an empty tomb, life and death would make no sense, and we would be left to fill our days with the little we could selfishly grab and hoard for these few, fleeting moments.  But an empty tomb on Sunday means that eternity is changed, and every day is changed.

Praise God that Easter’s early risers didn’t find what they were looking for—but instead what they were longing for.

Empty is awesome.

Why Jesus Came

“For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”  John 18:37

Why did Jesus come?

Ask that question and answers abound—to live, to love, to die, to teach, to heal, to model, to remind—but the definitive reply was given by our Savior Himself as He stood before Pontius Pilate one Friday morning in the early spring.  “For this reason I was born, and for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth”(Jn 18:37).

God appeared on earth as a man to testify to the truth—the truth of Who He is, the truth of who we are, the truth that we are rebels, the truth that He is righteous, the truth that our fall was not final because of His grace, and the truth that He would give all because of His love.

To testify to this truth took a perfect life lived according to God’s righteous Law, showing God’s absolute and shocking holiness, and making Him the only qualified candidate to be our sacrifice.

To testify to this truth took thirty-three years of connection with family, friends, foes, detractors, and disciples.  It took touching the leper, walking on water, asking for a drink by a Samaritan well, crying in grief at Lazarus’ tomb.  It took days of teaching, nights of praying, and the reality of betrayal and denial by the ones He held most dear.

To testify to this truth took six hours of anguish on a cross—physical pain too harsh for us to fathom and too hard for us to face.  It took three hours of separation from His Father—spiritual torture we cannot comprehend, the absolute agony of His soul being ripped away from all that is God and all that is good—a hell with no hope and only horror.  Never think for a moment that our sin must not be that big of a deal if Jesus could pay its price in just part of a day, for the eternal God is not bound by the limits of earthly time and the judgment Jesus faced during the darkness was your guilty forever—and mine too.

Why did Jesus come?  To testify to the truth.
And it took His very life to tell us.

“Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”  2 Corinthians 9:15

Between Sundays

One Sunday Jesus was met with applause as He came into Jerusalem.  On the next, He was met with amazement after He came out of the tomb.  But what did He do in between? 

On Monday through Wednesday, Jesus taught in the temple.  He talked on the Mount of Olives.  He answered questions meant to trap Him—“Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”  He answered questions meant to test Him—“What is the greatest commandment?”  He spoke parables.  He spoke plainly.  He watched the wealthy throw large amounts into the offering plate; He saw a poor widow drop in two small coins and noted that her meager gift was worth the most.  He dined with friends, He discussed the last days, and He reminded His disciples that He was coming back. 

He slammed pride and arrogance, and scathingly indicted those who follow rules to make themselves look good. He told us that loving God with all we are is what He really wants, and He followed up the first command with the second—to love others like we love ourselves.

He was busy. He was bold. He wasn’t discouraged by those against Him.  He was encouraging to those for Him.  He was passionate and personal.  And He did it all on purpose.  So should we.

Worshipping on the weekend is great, but what we do the other days shows Jesus most.  Live well between Sundays.

Out Loud

“If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”  Luke 19:40

It began with the applause and parade of Palm Sunday as Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey.  Though He had often admonished those He healed to keep quiet about who He was, this time Jesus allowed the crowd to cheer.  They shouted the phrase of a familiar psalm and echoed the angel’s song from His birth.  “Hosanna to the Son of David!”  “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

Their praise moved past mere talk.  “Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields”(Mk 11:8).   Cloaks were important possessions in those days, providing comfort and security, and yet gladly, willingly, and without reservation, the people shed them and spread them—not wanting even the feet of the colt carrying the King to touch the common dirt.

The unbelieving detractors didn’t think Jesus deserved the acclaim and wanted Him to hush His disciples and silence the crowd, but this divine moment would not be missed. “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out,” Jesus replied, and so the exultant procession moved toward town.

Holy Week has arrived.  If ever there was a time for followers of Christ to find their voices, such would be now.  Some might want us to be silent, but open your mouth and offer your praise.  We should shout with passion the words of an 80’s praise song (even if its poor grammar makes us cringe.)  “Ain’t no rock gonna cry in my place!  As long as I’m alive, I’ll glorify His holy name!”

Be gentle.  Be kind.  Be loving.
But don’t be quiet.