Acts 22:30-23:35: God's Perfect Purposes

Acts 22:30-23:35: God’s Perfect Purposes

  We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of Acts, and today the next passage we come to is Acts 22:30-23:35, so I’ll be reading a selection of verses from that passage. It says,

³⁰ But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them…. ⁶ Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” ⁷ And when he had said this, a dissension arose between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. ⁸ For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all. ⁹ Then a great clamor arose, and some of the scribes of the Pharisees’ party stood up and contended sharply, “We find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him?” ¹⁰ And when the dissension became violent, the tribune, afraid that Paul would be torn to pieces by them, commanded the soldiers to go down and take him away from among them by force and bring him into the barracks. ¹¹ The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” ¹² When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. ¹³ There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. ¹⁴ They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune 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 Now the son of Paul’s sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul called one of the centurions and said, “Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him.” ¹⁸ So he took him 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.” ¹⁹ The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, “What is it that you have to tell me?” ²⁰ And 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 him. ²¹ But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent.” ²² So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, “Tell no one that you have informed me of these things.” ²³ Then he called two of the centurions and said, “Get ready two hundred soldiers, with seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen to go as far as Caesarea at the third hour of the night. ²⁴ Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix the governor.”…

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, every word we find written in this passage is a priceless treasure because it’s your self-revelation. Thank you that we don’t have to guess about who you are or how we can know you or live in the realm of your blessing. You’ve already told us in your Word. So help us to understand everything we need to understand and be changed in every way we need to be changed through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Many of us begin our adult lives with a basic idea of what we want our lives to look like. We envision ourselves doing certain things, achieving certain things, and enjoying certain things. Yet, life often has a way of turning out a lot different than what we think or even what we’d like. Sometimes, life isn’t at all what we’d like it to be.

Several years ago, there was a couple that Becky and I knew from the church we were attending named Scott and Julie. And Scott and Julie had a wonderful life. Great jobs, great kids, plenty of money, both of them were pretty attractive, Scott had played college football, Julie was a frequent soloist in the church—so pretty much the all-American family. And they were very godly as well. But then, tragedy struck. Out of nowhere, Julie collapsed and was taken to a nearby hospital, which then sent her by helicopter to a larger hospital. But before she could get to that larger hospital, Julie died. They later determined that a certain form of meningitis caused her death. And just like that, Julie’s husband Scott was without a wife, and her five kids—the youngest of whom was still under one year old, I believe—were without a mom.

Now, of course, that’s a very dramatic example of life not turning out the way we think or the way we want, but those things do happen at times. There are also many other extremely difficult things we can face such as a serious injury that leaves us permanently impaired or not meeting that special someone whom we desire to marry or meeting a person we think is that special someone but then experiencing the pain of divorce or not being able to have kids even though we deeply desire them or having our heart set on a certain career that doesn’t work out. These are all extremely difficult things.

And then, of course, there are many other kinds of difficulties that aren’t quite on that level but are still hard to get through. Maybe you don’t get into a college you were hoping to get into or a romantic relationship with a particular person doesn’t work out or you lose your job unexpectedly or you encounter financial difficulties or a health issue comes up that’s tough to get through. There are so many ways in which life can bring unexpected hardship, heartache, and disappointment—often times seemingly out of nowhere.

So how can we respond to these trials in a healthy and biblical way? How do we get through them without falling apart? That’s what we’ll discover this morning from this passage of Scripture—Acts 22:30-23:35.

Now, to remind you of the context here, the Apostle Paul has been falsely accused by certain malicious Jews of conduct that violated the Old Testament Law. And these Jews managed to stir up the crowds that were at the temple in Jerusalem and lead them to begin savagely beating Paul. And they would have killed him, but, thankfully, the commander of the Roman soldiers in Jerusalem—called a tribune—hears about what’s happening and puts a stop to it. He then arrests Paul and starts to take him into custody in the barracks. But, as Paul’s being led away, he asks for the tribune’s permission to speak to the crowd that just tried to kill him. So, the tribune agrees, and Paul tries to explain to the Jewish crowd about how Jesus had changed his life and commissioned him as a herald of the gospel to the world. But, in the middle of Paul’s defense, he’s shouted down by the hostile crowd and has to be brought by the Roman soldiers into the barracks.

The story then picks up in Acts 22:30, where it says, “But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he [the tribune] unbound him [Paul] and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.” Now, this Jewish council was known as the Sanhedrin and was allowed a certain measure of governing authority by the Romans. And the tribune doesn’t know what in the world is going on with Paul or why the Jews are so upset with him, so the tribune brings Paul before the Sanhedrin so they can try to sort things out.

 And in verses 1-5 of the next chapter, chapter 23, Paul has some pretty tense interactions with the Sanhedrin, and things seem to be going rather poorly. But then, he gets an idea. Verse 6: Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” You see, there was an intense debate between these two Jewish sects—the Pharisees and Sadducees—about whether to expect a resurrection of the dead in the future and an afterlife. So Paul, being the clever guy that he is, decides to try to pit these two groups against each other. Today, it would be kind of like being called into a congressional hearing before the United States Congress with both Democrats and Republicans and telling them something like “It’s with respect to gun control that I’m on trial” or maybe “It’s with respect to immigration policy that I’m on trial.” Chaos would ensue, right? And that’s kind of what Paul does when he declares, “It is with respect to…the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.” That was a hot-button issue of the day. And Paul’s claim is technically true since it is indeed because of the resurrection of the dead that he’s on trial—specifically the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

And Paul’s attempt at pitting the Pharisees and Sadducees against each other works wonderfully. The two groups start arguing with each other, and violence even begins to break out—physical violence—with the result that the tribune has to carry Paul away again back into the barracks. And you thought American politics was wild, right? This was something else. And it actually intensifies even further. Verse 12-15 tell us, ¹² When it was day, the Jews made a plot and bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. ¹³ There were more than forty who made this conspiracy. ¹⁴ They went to the chief priests and elders and said, “We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul. ¹⁵ Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune 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.”  

So, when forty people take an oath not to eat or drink until they kill you, that’s a pretty good indicator that things are rather serious. Fortunately, in God’s providence, Paul’s nephew hears about the plot and warns the tribune. The tribune is then able to send Paul off in the middle of the night under heavy guard sixty-five miles away to the city of Caesarea, which was the regional capital, where Paul was transferred into the custody of Felix, the governor of the region.

So, needless to say, things weren’t at all going the way Paul had planned. Paul’s plans were turned upside down. Because, remember that Paul had travelled a long way in order to engage in ministry in Jerusalem. And he hoped, after that, to minister in other areas, especially Rome. Back in Acts 19:21, we read as follows: Now after these events [the things that were taking place in Ephesus] Paul resolved in the Spirit to pass through Macedonia and Achaia and go to Jerusalem, saying, “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” Also, in Paul’s letter to the Roman church, which he wrote a few months before his imprisonment, he tells them in Romans 15:23-24 how he’s longed for many years to come to them and hopes to do so after he visits Jerusalem. So Paul has a deep desire for ministry in both Jerusalem and especially in Rome, and yet here he is sitting in a jail cell. Imagine how you’d feel in that situation. Imagine the frustration that must have been building up within Paul. 

Yet, tucked away in Acts 23, we find a verse that changes everything. Look with me at verse 11, which records what God says to Paul as he’s sitting in Roman custody: The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” When God said that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul was like, “Wait…did you just say ‘Rome’? Did you say that I’m going to testify in Rome?” So, the very place Paul yearned to go and the very place God was calling him to go is exactly where this unjust imprisonment was going to take him. And that’s really what the rest of the book of Acts is about. Paul continues to be imprisoned unjustly and is bounced from one governing authority to another. But the whole time, he’s actually on his way to Rome. Because, eventually, as a Roman citizen, he’s able to appeal his case to Caesar himself—and his appeal is granted. So, he’s able to travel to Rome courtesy of the Roman government. And you better believe that Paul engages in ministry the whole time, including the two years that he spends in Rome under house arrest waiting to stand before Caesar. We’re told in Acts 28:30-31 that ³⁰ He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, ³¹ proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.

Isn’t that just like God—to work in ways we’d never expect and to allow circumstances that confuse us to no end and yet be accomplishing his will the whole time? And that’s really the main idea of this entire passage—and probably even of the whole rest of the book of Acts: God sovereignly orchestrates every detail of our lives to accomplish his perfect purposes. God sovereignly orchestrates every detail of our lives to accomplish his perfect purposes. Brothers and sisters, God has a purpose for every trial in our lives. He has a purpose for every disappointment. He has a purpose for every situation in which our lives don’t go as we’ve planned or as we desire. And that purpose, as we see throughout Scripture, is his glory and our good. And our main passage in Acts 23 is a perfect example of that. So, in light of what we see here in Acts 23, let me highlight five essential habits for responding to difficulties and disappointments in a biblical way. Five essential habits for responding to difficulties and disappointments in a biblical way. 

Rest in God’s Power

First, rest in God’s power. Recognize that God’s in complete control of our circumstances no matter how chaotic those circumstances might seem to be from our limited perspective. Notice in verse 11 the matter-of-fact way in which God tells Paul he’s going to bear witness in Rome: The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.” It’s like he’s saying, “There’s no question that you’re going to Rome. Just make sure you faithfully testify about me when you get there.” It’s presented as a done deal—Paul’s going to Rome.

We also see God’s power in the way he sovereignly orchestrates Paul’s nephew gaining knowledge about the plot against Paul. It was no accident that Paul’s nephew came upon that information. God brought that about. He’s the one who caused Paul’s nephew to be at just the right place at just the right time in order to discover the plot and who then worked things out for him to get that information to the tribune. So there wasn’t any aspect of this entire situation that was outside of God’s sovereign control.

You see, God has the power not only to make plans but also to see them accomplished without fail 100% of the time. He has all power. As he says in Isaiah 46:9-10: “I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.’” Also, Ephesians 1:11 describes God as “him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” Not some things or even most things but “all things.”

So, regardless of what we’re going through, we can rest in God’s power with the confidence that he’s in control. And get this: because God’s in control, we don’t have to be. And that idea’s difficult for a lot of us to embrace because we have what we might call “control issues.” I’ll be the first to admit that I personally have some control issues that extend well beyond my relationship with God. For example, I don’t particularly enjoy riding in a vehicle with someone else driving. I’d much rather be the one to drive vehicle so that I can be in control. The other person may even be a much more experienced and cautious driver than I am, but I still feel better when I’m in control. It’s not rational, I know, but that’s the way I am. And it seems that most of us—if not all of us—have similar control issues with God. It’s often really tough to let God be God over our lives. Yet the Bible teaches that we can trust God and rest in his power with the confidence that, because God’s in control, we don’t have to be.

Trust in God’s Wisdom

In addition, not only can we rest in God’s power, we can also trust in God’s wisdom. That’s the second essential habit for responding to difficulties and disappointments in our lives. Trust in God’s wisdom. You see, Paul had plans, but God had better ones. Paul’s plan was to go to Rome in order to bear witness about Jesus to the general population. And God’s like, “Yeah, you’re going to do that, but in addition to bearing witness to the general population, I’m going to put you in front of the most powerful and influential people in the entire empire so that you bear witness to them as well. I’m going to put you in front of this governor and that governor and even Caesar himself so that they can hear the gospel.” 

And even though we don’t have any indication that Caesar ever embraced the gospel, we do know that many of those in his household did. In Philippians 4:22, Paul writes to the church in Philippi while he’s imprisoned in Rome, “All the saints greet you, especially those of Caesar’s household.” So there were apparently people in Caesar’s own household who embraced the gospel and who were presumably able to use their considerable influence to do wonderful things for the Kingdom of God. God knew exactly what he was doing through Paul’s imprisonment. I’m reminded of Romans 11:33-34, where Paul exclaims, ³³ Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! ³⁴ “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 

So, no matter what you’re going through or what situation you’re in, remember that God is infinitely wise. I appreciate the way J. I. Packer defines God’s wisdom. He says that for God to be wise means that he’s always able to determine both the best ends and the best means to those ends. In other words, God has a perfect understanding of the absolute best goals to pursue and the absolute best ways of achieving those goals. He’s perfectly and infinitely wise.

So, in Acts 23, God could have broken Paul out of jail. He’d done so in the past and could have easily done that again. Yet God had a better plan. And guys, it’s the same in our lives. Regardless of what we’re going through, God has a plan. And his plans are always better than our plans.

Now, one thing that often makes things especially difficult for us is that we don’t know the details of God’s plans or how they all fit together. God usually doesn’t do for us what he does for Paul in verse 11 and clue us in on what he’s doing. And that’s often difficult for us because we often desperately want to know what he’s doing. J. I. Packer uses a great illustration in his book Knowing God. He says that, if you stand at the end of a platform at York Station (in England), you can watch a constant succession of train movements that, if you’re a railway enthusiast, will greatly fascinate you. But you’ll only be able to form a very rough and general idea of the overall plan and system according to which all of these movements are happening. However, if you’re privileged enough to be taken by one of the railway administrators to the highly complex electrical signal-box located between platforms seven and eight, you’ll see on the longest wall a diagram of the entire track layout for five miles on either side of the station. Now, a sidenote here: today, I’m sure it’s a computer system, but understand that Packer wrote this about 50 years ago, alright? So, he says that you’ll see this diagram of the entire track layout for that area with little glowing lights that are either moving or stationary on the different tracks to represent, at a glance, exactly where each train is located at that moment in time. You can see some trains stopping in order to let other trains through and this training doing this so that another train can do that and basically the total picture of how everything’s working together. And the purposes of all the individual train movements that normal passengers on the trains would have no way of understanding now become very plain as you’re standing there in that room.

And that’s what we want in our lives, isn’t yet? We want to see that signal-box. Yet, that’s not something God usually allows. In his infinite wisdom, God tests and refines our faith by not letting us into that room so that we’ll learn to trust him. And that’s what we have to do. We have to trust his wisdom.

Recognize God’s Involvement

Then, the third habit we need to develop is to recognize God’s involvement. We have to recognize God’s involvement in whatever situation we’re going through. So often, we have a tendency to think like function deists, as if things are just kind of happening without God necessarily causing them or being involved with them. Of course, we’d never say that out loud, but that can be our unspoken assumption at times. Yet, the Bible’s very clear that God’s intimately involved in every aspect of every situation we’ll ever face. Here in Acts 23, verse 11 is like God’s reminder to Paul of that reality. It’s like God’s saying, “Hey Paul, don’t forget that I’m doing things here. I’m at work. I have a purpose that I’m accomplishing.”

And that’s a reality that we have to grow to recognize more and more. Part of growing in our knowledge of God consists in growing to see God’s hand in every detail of every event of our lives. I appreciate the way John Piper describes this in his book entitled Providence. He talks about living in a God-entranced world and seeing reality differently and recognizing that God’s at work everywhere. For example, he says, “I used to look at sunrises when I was jogging and think that God has created a beautiful world. Then it became less general and more specific, more personal. I said, “Every morning God paints a different sunrise.” He never gets tired of doing it again and again. But then it struck me. No, he doesn’t do it again and again. He never stops doing it. The sun is always rising somewhere in the world. God guides the sun twenty-four hours every day and paints sunrises at every moment, century after century without one second of respite, and never grows weary or less thrilled with the work of his hands. Even when cloud cover keeps man from seeing it, God is painting spectacular sunrises above the clouds.”

And just as God never stops or takes a break from creating beautiful sunrises, he never stops or takes a break from orchestrating every detail of every event of our lives. He’s intimately involved in it all.

Surrender to God’s Purposes

Then a fourth habit for us to develop is to surrender to God’s purposes. Perhaps one reason why we often have such a difficult time with our circumstances is because our will for our lives is, to some degree, different than God’s will for our lives. We want lives that are stress-free, trouble-free, and pain-free—lives of ease and comfort. Yet God’s will for us is bigger than that—and better. In a manner of speaking, we might say that God’s more concerned about our holiness than he is about our temporal happiness…because he knows that real and eternal happiness is attained through holiness. And holiness, in turn, is attained through trials. So trials lead to holiness, and holiness leads to true happiness. That’s God’s plan.

In addition to that, God also desires to use us in a meaningful way for the sake of the gospel. And being involved in the spread of the gospel usually doesn’t translate into a life of ease and comfort. Just look at the Apostle Paul sitting in that jail cell in Acts 23 as “Exhibit A.”

So, responding to trials in our lives in a biblical way means surrendering to God’s purposes rather than our own. What we need is for our will to be conformed to his will and our agenda to be altered to fit his agenda. Until we surrender to God in that way, the things we face in life will be twice as difficult as they’d otherwise be.

Remember God’s Goodness

Then a final habit for us to develop is to remember God’s goodness. So, we need to rest in God’s power, trust in God’s wisdom, recognize God’s involvement, surrender to God’s purposes, and now remember God’s goodness. Ever since Satan convinced Eve to eat the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, we’ve been doubting the goodness of God. And that’s particularly problematic because none of the rest of the things we’ve talked about this morning matter if God isn’t good. It doesn’t matter if God’s powerful, wise, involved, or purposeful if he’s not also good and if we can’t trust his intentions. In fact, a god who has all of these other qualities without goodness would be our worst nightmare. He’d be the worst tyrant who’s ever existed—and there’d be no end to his tyranny.

Yet, thankfully, we have every indication we could ever ask for that God isn’t just good but abundantly good. We see his goodness in creating this world, which, even in its fallen condition, is exquisitely beautiful and contains so many enjoyments. For example, God gave us taste buds to taste delicious foods and a nose to smell wonderful fragrances and on and on we could go—literally for hours if we wanted.

Yet, the ultimate example of God’s goodness is seen not in the creation of the world but rather in the redemption of the world. In his goodness, God sent his own Son Jesus to redeem all of creation from its brokenness and us, in particular, from our sin. Jesus died on the cross on order to purchase our redemption. Our sins deserved and, yes, even demanded God’s judgment. But Jesus voluntarily took that judgment on himself as he died on that cross. He suffered and died in our place, thereby satisfying the requirements of God the Father’s justice. So, any time we doubt God’s goodness, the only thing we really need to do is look at the cross. It’s at the cross where all the doubts we might otherwise have about God’s goodness melt away and we see undeniable evidence that God loves us and that he’s for us, not against us.

Conclusion

And this gospel message of who Jesus is and what he’s done is also the greatest example there is of God sovereignly working in the most unexpected ways to accomplish his purposes. You know, we’ve said that the main thrust of Acts 23 is that God sovereignly orchestrates every detail of our lives to accomplish his perfect purposes—and that he often does so in the ways we’d least expect. Well, the ultimate example of that is the gospel itself. Nobody expected God to work in the way he did to rescue his people. The Jews certainly didn’t expect it—even though it had been prophesied throughout the Old Testament. They simply didn’t have a mental category for a suffering Messiah. That’s why most of them rejected Jesus. And even Jesus’s own disciples didn’t “get it” until after his resurrection. Jesus even spelled it out for them on several occasions during the time he spent with them before going to the cross, but they just couldn’t wrap their minds around it. That’s why, during the three days between Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection, his disciples were absolutely devasted—because, in their minds, all hope had just been lost. They thought that it was all basically over.

Yet God knew exactly what he was doing in sending Jesus to the cross. As we now understand, what initially appeared to be the ultimate defeat was actually the ultimate victory, and what initially appeared to be the worst thing that could ever happen actually turned out to be the best thing that could ever happen. That’s the way God works. He works in the ways we’d least expect to accomplish his perfect purposes. We see it in the gospel, we see it with Paul in Acts 23, and we’re also called to believe it in the midst of all the difficulties and disappointments of our own lives as well.