Well, as God may be with us and
help us tonight, we'll just continue our meditation on the Acts of
the Apostles in the 23rd chapter from the 24th verse down to the
end of this chapter. Now you will remember that we
left the reading last week where the Apostle Paul was to be taken to Caesarea and then to,
with the army really, that the chief captain was to put together
a number of foot soldiers and a number of horsemen. And we
read and provide them beasts that they may set Paul on and
bring him safe under Felix the governor. And then he wrote a
letter after this manor, Claudius Lysias. We now know who the name
was of the chief captain, Claudius Lysias. And to the most excellent
governor, Felix, sendeth greeting. Perhaps we might just realise
that, as we look at the life of the Apostle Paul, and we think,
well, the Apostle was preaching in the temple, And then he was
taken and captured really from that place because he was preaching
the gospel and the Jews and the Sadducees couldn't tolerate it.
And he was about to lose his life and the chief captain realized
there was a problem and sent down soldiers to recover him
and to bring him to the castle. He was able to speak on the steps
of the castle to the people that had gathered together. And of
course then also we know that he was then brought before the
Sanhedrin and he was able to give a good testimony before
them of what the Lord had done for him and how the Lord had
directed him. And now we see that again, once
more, the Lord is leading and directing him in a strange path,
because there were those who rose up to try and kill him,
those 40 people. They had a conspiracy to kill
Paul, and they laid the trap, and yet you see in God's providence,
Paul's nephew was there to hear what had been said, or at least
to gain the knowledge of what had been said, and was able to
come and tell the centurion who then told the chief captain and
therefore this way was made for Paul then to be taken away to
Caesarea and then of course he was able to speak as we will
know soon in 24th chapter how he was able to speak there before
Felix and the king and to realize that all these things were ordained
by God Because if Paul hadn't been in this place, if he hadn't
been taken captive, if these 40 men hadn't conspired to kill
him, then these amazing opportunities which arose, wherein he was able
to declare the great truth of the gospel to many people, would
not have occurred. And so we should think also in
our lives today, when perhaps things enter into our lives which
we didn't expect and we might think are really strange and
we wonder what's the reason for them? Well we can compare our
lives in measure with the Apostle Paul's life because these things
came into the Apostle's life which no doubt he didn't expect,
he no doubt didn't understand but yet as they were brought
to pass and worked out he could rejoice and bless God for the
opportunities that God presented him with in order to display
the great truths of the gospel. And surely in our lives today,
we should be concerned that we may have opportunities presented
to us to be able to speak of the great things of God and to
not hide our light and indeed to pray for them. I've told you
before, I'm sure that when John Broome was a teacher, And he
used to pray that God would give him opportunities to speak to
the students, then so often those opportunities presented themselves. And we know that through his
witness at the schools, a number of children who were total unbelievers
came to be converted and were made a blessing to the Church
of God. So we should not think that our
lives are just of no purpose. We should be concerned that our
lives are for a good purpose and that we are able to speak
of the things that God has done for us and to declare, as the
Apostle did so very clearly, the way of salvation. We live
in a desperately wicked world at the present time. We live
in a terrible time when the world is getting worse and worse and
If possible, the devil is trying to eradicate Christianity from
the face of the world in so very many, many ways. I read only
today when they had the opening of this new 37 mile tunnel from
or under the Alps and the Swiss gave a great opening ceremony
and the ceremony was totally satanic. How terrible to think
that the devil got right in to a situation like that. It was
a momentous event. It had been going on for many
years, and a time, surely, to thank God, but not at all. There
was the devil. My friend, you see how the devil
has come in powerfully. And of course, also, we face
the great opposition of secularists today, who go under the banner
making everything nice and peaceful in actual fact they're just Satan's
agents. So we must be very much on our
guard and desire the Lord might, and pray earnestly, the Lord
might give us opportunities to speak well of him and to be able
to declare the way of salvation. We're thankful we are, we have
such a wonderful example in the Acts of the Apostles and other
parts of the Bible, there were those who were able to declare
plainly the great truths. And so was the Apostle Paul. And we see how the Lord watched
over him and how the Lord directed him and brought him from one
place to another. And the Lord is the same today.
We perhaps think we're in the last times, which we probably
are. The signs of the times indicate
that we are in the last times. That doesn't mean to say the
Lord cannot still bless and we should still pray. The Lord will
bless because as we see the thousands and millions of people hurtling
along through this vain world into a lost eternity. What a
terrible consideration. And so here then we see this
chief captain writing a letter to this governor Felix and he
tells him he says this man was taken of the Jews and should
have been killed of them then came I with an army and rescued
him having understood that he was a Roman but of course he
didn't understand at that time he was a Roman It was only when
he told the centurion he was a Roman and the centurion in
turn told this chief captain Claudius Lysias that he was a
Roman. And you may remember that of
course the chief captain told him that he'd bought his freedom
with a great price. And Paul was able to declare,
but I am free born. And he then says, and when I
would have known the cause whereof they accused me I brought him
forth into their counsel." You see, God was there. When I perceived to be accused
of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge
worthy of death or of bonds, and when it was told me how the
Jews laid weight for the man, I sent straightway to thee and
gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what
they had against him. Farewell.' So he'd written to
Felix and told him that he could expect his accusers to come and
to lay their charges before him. Well then the soldiers, as it
was commanded them, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipateris. And there was a large company,
as you know, all those foot soldiers and all those soldiers on horses,
really quite a small army so that it would have been virtually
impossible for those Jews who were intent on killing him to
have been able to fulfil their desire. And so they brought Paul
to this place and then the foot soldiers then went back. And
on the morrow, They left the horsemen, just the horsemen,
to go with him and returned to the castle. And when they came
to Caesarea, that's the horsemen, not of course the foot soldiers,
they came to Caesarea and delivered the epistle to the governor,
presented Paul also before him. Now it's good to realize that
this chief captain appeared to be a very fair man, a very honest
man. Doesn't mean to say he didn't
obviously understand the great truths that the Apostle was proclaiming,
but nonetheless he was able to speak as he felt, he didn't think
there was anything worthy of death or of bonds, and was prepared
to communicate that statement to Felix, who, when they came
to Caesarea and delivered the epistle, that's a letter of course,
to the governor, presented Paul also before him. And when the
governor had read the letter, he asked what province he was.
And when he understood that he was of Silesia, which was, of
course, under the Roman jurisdiction, he said, I will hear thee, said
he, when thine accusers are also come, those whom Lysaeus had
said would come. And he commanded him to be kept
in Herod's judgment hall. And that was an amazing thing
as well. Herod's judgment hall was an
important place in those days and many important people would
come to Caesarea and they would be found in Caesar's judgment
hall and Paul had liberty you see in this judgment hall and
no doubt he was able to speak to very many important people
as they came to that place while he was waiting for the accusers
to come. So surely we must observe, and
it is good that we do observe, God's amazing providence in going
before Paul in all these journeys. It didn't just happen by chance.
The Lord ordained these things so that many people might hear
the great truth of the gospel And there might be indeed, and
there were, those who fell under it and were converted under the
powerful word of the Lord. Well, may God instruct us and
bless us indeed. We ask it for Jesus' sake. Amen.