This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
In your life and mine, the things that we've done or
situations where we shared our faith that it's just been a
complete bust is never in vain because the Lord promises His
Word won't return void if people laugh at you or scoff at you or
reject you or ridicule you because of what it is you
believe and what you're committed to in your life.
We should just trust God in that.
Even though it didn't work out, we wish it would work out
better, right? But sometimes it doesn't, and
that's the mystery of life. If you ever woken up and thought
to yourself, today is going to be a great day, and then
everything went wrong, what a disappointment.
When you start your day feeling like you're on top of the world
and then experience Murphy's Law, whatever can go wrong will
go wrong. Pastor Clark relates to you in
his message today that even when sharing Jesus with others seems
to go wrong, God is still pleased.
You may not start a revival, but when you're faithful to plant
that seed of faith, God will use it.
Now. Here's Pastor Clark in Acts
Chapter 23 with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Paul says to him, God will strike you, you whitewashed wall
for you sit to judge me according to the law and do not
command me to be struck contrary to the law.
So that wasn't a good way to start out when friends and
influence people in a conversation before the
authorities, right? He's antagonizing this high
priest and everything he said is obviously true.
But Paul responded out of an emotion that made him angry.
Now, Jesus, whenever he was hit on the mouth, he didn't respond
this way. Matter of fact, Jesus didn't
open his mouth most of the time whenever he was being harassed,
something we can learn from. But Paul not being God,
obviously, and neither are we. When we get in a situation we
don't like and we think it's unfair, we're going to fight to
the end to prove that we're innocent.
And Paul wasn't going to take any guff from these people or
from this high priest. And so he basically says
something to him that he's a hypocrite.
Now, when I was in Israel and I saw the tombs and I was on the
Mount of Olives and looking down, I remember Jesus talking
about the Pharisees being like whitewashed sefolickers.
In other words, the tombs, they look really clean and beautiful
on the outside, but inside they were full of dead man's bones
and corruption. And I'll never forget that.
When I looked down and saw that, it just, you know, resonated and
reminded me of that because they look beautiful, but inside they
were just full of nothing but broken lives and dust and souls
that will unfortunately be on their way to a Christ less
eternity in hell because they never believed that Jesus was a
Christ. But what's happening here is
that Paul is tying him into this dead religion and this false
leadership he had that he's contrary and he's judging
unrighteously now. This guy eventually was caught
up couple years later before Rome was sacked and the Jewish
people had to scatter. But the Jewish people did find
this guy and eventually assassinate him.
So eventually he was judged for his crime of godless leadership
in government. And it says in verse 4, and
those who stood by said, do you revile God's high priest?
So first of all, this was an impromptu meeting.
And so there wasn't any kind of regalia and robes and all that
kind of stuff. And him sitting on a throne like
some big shot, he came in, sat there talking and listening and
Paul wasn't even aware that the high priest was there.
And this is interesting. In verse 5, Paul says, I did not
know, brethren, that he was the high priest.
For it is written, you should not speak evil of a ruler of
your people. So regardless of what Paul
thought about this man's leadership and his call and his
ability to lead the people at this time, then like him,
hypocrite, scoundrel, Pagan, all the different names you could
put on him, he knew the scripture said you're not to
speak evil of a ruler of your people.
Now, I wonder how many pleasant things you or I have thought or
said about Joe Biden lately. He's making a lot of crazy
moves, isn't he? Yet he's the president of our
country. He was elected.
Whether you think he was elected fairly or unfairly, it's not the
point. The point is God has appointed
him to be the president right now, and I don't like it any
more than anybody else, but he's our president, so I'm convicted.
Like, do I pray for him? I'm commanded to pray for those
who are in authority that the Lord would work in his heart,
that he would cause him to come to some kind of reasoning in his
mind to realize that the legislation that he's making is
causing us not to be 1 nation under God anymore, but one
nation under humanism and this immorality and this disgusting
agendas. Every time we turn around some
kind of new things coming down. So we're not.
We have to be real careful, all of us.
And I'm telling you about myself, doesn't matter who's in
office or who you like, who you don't like, you need to pray for
those who are in office. That's our responsibility as
Christians and we need to do that.
And maybe if we began to do that, maybe there would be some
changes in our nation because that man needs God's mercy, just
like you and I do. And there was times in our lives
that we probably were worse than the way Joe Biden acts or lives
perhaps. But this is a very clear
statement that Paul said you shall not speak evil of the
ruler of your people. In verse 6 it says, but when
Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and other
Pharisees, he cried out in the council of men and brethren, I'm
a Pharisee. He was proud to say that he was
a Pharisee. He was a son of a Pharisee.
Concerning the hope of the resurrection and dead, I'm being
judged. So all Paul's wanting people to
know is that Christ rose again from the dead.
Amen. But Paul's whole focus was to
let these people know the good news that there's life after
death, there's forgiveness of our sins, and that we can
believe on Christ as our Messiah and have the promise of
everlasting life and never die. That's good news, right?
And they're wanting to silence Him.
Now what's interesting here is that when He said that the
dissension began to occur in verse 7.
And when He said this, the dissension arose between the
Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
Now He wasn't intentionally trying to cause some kind of
uproar, but He was just stating a case relating to what His past
was and the need for them to understand that there is a
resurrection. Well, the Pharisees were wow,
Amen. That's what we believe that too.
But the Sadducees in verse 8 say there is no resurrection and no
Angel or spirit, but the Pharisees confess or believe
both. Then there arose a lot outcry
and the scribes in the Pharisees party arose in protest and
saying we find no evil in this man.
So now the Pharisees are supporting Paul.
There's really no crime he's committed.
There's no reason for him to be in chains or to be smacked
around or to be persecuted right now.
Absolutely none. And they're admitting there is
no evil in him, and so let's let it go.
If an Angel or spirit had spoken to him and gave him this other
revelation, they're saying let us not fight against God.
So now when there arose of great dissension, the commander,
fearing lest Paul might be pulled to pieces by them,
commanded the soldiers to go down and take him by force from
among them and bring him into the barracks.
So this was getting dangerous. I mean, there was a big outroar
here. There was a potential here of
murder upon Paul, and so they had to get him out of there.
It was this mass confusion. So here's Paul.
Now think about this. It's like your greatest
opportunity to share your faith with your family, maybe on a
holiday or someone you work with and and you think the timing's
perfect and it's all set up and you're just praying it's going
to go well. And you got all the verses lined
up and you got your testimony ready, and you begin to tell the
people about what Jesus has done for you, and it falls on deaf
ears. They begin to yell at you or
complain, or they don't want to hear it.
They bring up all your flaws and faults that you've had in your
life and saying, who are you to say that you're a Christian when
you did this or you acted this way or you said that and you
know what it's like. And you would be deflated,
right? You would be discouraged.
You had the chance to tell them and it seemed like it didn't
work out. Like Lord, why?
I really practice, I was really prepared and my intention and my
desire was to really be a blessing.
And this is a mess. I've made a complete mess out of
all this. Now if Paul would have listened
to the people in regards to not going up to Jerusalem right now,
all this wouldn't have gone down this way.
But keep in mind that the Lord says all things work together
for good to those who love Him and are called according to His
purpose. So in your life and mine, the
things that we've done or situations where we shared our
faith that it's just been a complete bust is never in vain
because the Lord promises His word won't return void if people
laugh at you or scoff at you or reject you or ridicule you
because of what it is you believe and what you're
committed to in your life. We should just trust God in
that. Even though it didn't work out,
we wish it would work out better, right?
But sometimes it doesn't. And that's the mystery of life.
God causes all things to work out according to the counsel of
His own will, not my will or your will.
His will be done right. So we're to be obedient to do
what He tells us to do, regardless of the potential
consequences, especially in regard to sharing our faith or
standing up for our faith. But Paul is, I'm sure,
discouraged. Now he's in this prison.
It's not a pleasant place to be. And this isn't verse 11.
But the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, now
the Lord is faithful to be with us and our failings.
He's not like people who will reject us and tell us we're
worthless or we're disqualified. Or, you know, the Lord is the
God of the second chance, the third chance, the fifth chance,
the hundred chance. He never gives up on us.
He always comes to us to assure us and to encourage us and to
love on us. He doesn't come to revile us or
to condemn us or to to judge us as his kids.
He's a loving father and he knows how to minister to us.
He knew Paul felt like a failure.
He knew Paul had the heads up not to go.
And Jesus didn't say, well, the reason this has happened is
because you didn't listen, right?
Like I would as a parent, I'd say to my kids, if you wouldn't
have done that, like I told you, you shouldn't, this wouldn't
have happened. That's not the best way to
minister to your kids. You should try to figure out a
different way to get to them, right?
But we're all the same way. That's how we all act.
And it's just, you know, self righteousness or being judges or
whatever. But this is the Lord here.
He says to him, be of good cheer.
Paul's down in the dumps, be of good cheer.
You got to be kidding me. This is how God loves us.
And he says Paul, for as you have testified for me in
Jerusalem and he didn't give an attitude of how well it went or
how bad it went. He just said you testified for
me in Jerusalem. That meant something.
So you must also bear witness at Rome, and Paul's greatest desire
was to eventually get the room before he died to share.
Paul loved being in the big cities and seeing the
architecture and reading about the artwork and meeting all the
interesting people. He loved to sightsee and he was
a Taurus, but he was also an apostle and whenever he went
into a city he wanted to become all things to all men that he
might win some. He tried to have start up
conversations to be able to find a place of relating with people
on their term as opposed to speaking down to him.
He was just that way and something we can learn by his
methodology and evangelism. He didn't pound people on the
head like many of us have done at times.
And so he's encouraging Paul and I pray today, wherever you're at
and spiritual and walking and life and circumstances and
things that don't seem to be working out right the way you'd
like him to, but the Lord's coming alongside of you telling
you to be a good sheer, Don't be discouraged.
Don't be dismayed for your Lord, your God is with you wherever
you go. He promises He'll never leave us
or forsake us. People will leave you, People
will forsake you. But Jesus will never leave you,
will He? He promises He won't.
And when you're alone in your house or in your bed crying or
going through some tough time or some situation because of life
that happened that you weren't anticipating and people, maybe
you're telling you you brought things upon yourself and you
deserve or whatever, God won't minister to you that way.
When you're his kid, he'll come and he'll tenderly restore you
and build you up and strengthen you so you have the courage to
go on. Be of good cheer means be of
good courage. Don't give up.
And so, and when it was day, some of the Jews in verse 12
banded together and bound themselves under an oath,
saying, and this is the insurrection group here, the
people that really hate Paul, that they would neither eat nor
drink until they had killed Paul.
So they're fasting, preparing to do something they think is going
to be a righteous act. Get rid of Paul.
Now, there were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy, not
a few people. It's a big group.
They came to the chief priests and elders and said, and what's
interesting here, they're not going to the Pharisees.
The chief priests and elders are representing the Sadducees, and
these people that want to kill him are the group of the
Sadducees. We've bound ourselves under a
great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed
Paul. Now you therefore, together with
the council, suggest to the commander that he'd be brought
down to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further
inquires concerning him. But we are ready to kill him
before he comes near. So this is a setup against the
Apostle Paul. Paul's in a prison, no one to
help him except the one who said of good cheer.
He controls everything. He controls all the
circumstances of all people and all places at this time in this
next verse, only God could cause this to happen.
So when Paul's sister son heard of their ambush, then we never
heard of Paul's sister before, let alone his family.
His nephew's there in this area. He happens to be walking by.
Maybe he's out playing with his buddies.
He goes down one of those alleys and he hears these guys talking
about what it is they're going to do to Uncle Paul.
So he goes and he went and he enters the barracks and told
Paul what he had heard. He tells Paul everything that's
going to go down. And then Paul called 1 of the
centurions to him and said, take this young man to the commander
for he has something to tell him.
So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, Paul,
the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young
man to you. He has something to say to you.
Now this is interesting. Most commanders wouldn't have
any time for some young kid. Hey, get away from me kid, you
bother me. You know I don't want to.
But this commander was compelled by God, the sovereign God, to
listen to what this kid had to say.
And he asked him privately, what is it that you have to tell me?
And he said, the Jews have agreed to ask that you bring
Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were
going to inquire more fully about him.
But do not yield to them, for more than 40 of them lie and
wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they
would neither eat nor drink until they have killed him.
And now they are ready waiting for the promise from you.
So he gives them the whole skinny of what's going down
here. And the commander in verse 22,
let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that
you've revealed these things to me.
And he called in verse 23 for two centurion saying, prepare
200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spear men to go to Caesarea
at the third hour of the night and provide Mons to set Paul on
and bring him safely to Phoenix. The governor and he wrote a
letter in the following manner. So this is a setup.
This is half the Garrison army that the high priest was working
with. And this other guy here now is
involved with getting Paul safely out of the city so he
won't be assassinated. And this is a big entourage here
of a lot of people. They were going to walk about 47
miles to the first city, stay overnight.
The next morning they were going to be on horseback and get Paul
safely into Caesarea, a Roman province, and he would now be
under the jurisdiction of the Roman government.
And so Claudius Lyceus writes the letter that they're going to
give to Felix whenever Paul's delivered their greetings.
This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by
them coming with the troops. I rescued him, having learned
that he was a Roman. Now, of course, he was involved
with wanting Paul to be beaten as well until he found out he
was a Roman citizen. But he learned a lot about the
issue that Paul wasn't really guilty of any crime.
And so in verse 28, and when I wanted to know the reason,
reason they accuse him, I brought him before the council.
I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their
law, but had nothing charged against him deserving of death
or change. And when it was told me the Jews
lay in wait for the man, I sent him immediately to you and also
commanded his accusers to state before you the charges against
him. So what a beautiful letter.
I mean, Paul's guiltless. There's no reason for him to be
treated like this, and he's passing them off to the next
government leader in the province of Rome.
Farewell then the soldiers in verse 31, as they were
commanded, they took Paul and brought him by night at TI
Pytis. That was the place 47 miles
away. And the next day they let the
horsemen to go with him and return to the barracks.
And when they came to Caesarea and had delivered the letter to
the governor, they also presented Paul to him.
And when the governor had read it, he asked what province he
was from. And when he understood that he
was from Cilicia, he said that's a region of Syria.
Paul came out of Tarsus and the all these regions are all part
of this Roman area. He says I will hear you when
your accusers have also come. And he commanded him to be kept
in Herod's Praetorian. So what's beautiful here is that
he is in. He's got it made.
Now. This isn't like any kind of
jail. He's in the palace of the
leader. This is really nice place to be.
Paul probably got there. I can't.
The Lord really is with me, isn't he?
It's my best life now, right? I got prosperity now.
This is good. It goes from doom and gloom.
To joy and excitement and that's how the Lord is many times we
get in situations that seems all Hell's broken loose, we're in
doom and gloom. We think there's no hope, right?
We get there sometimes and then the Lord reminds us and in his
time he changes the circumstances of our lives and
they become completely different, don't they?
And we can all give testimony of how good God's been to us, all
of us in times of challenge of life.
And I think the take away from this, at least for me, you know,
sometimes you read a chapter and you say, like, how is this going
to connect with anybody here? That's history, It's the Bible.
It's true, we need to hear it. But like, where are you guys
going to find some place to dig your heels in and say, hey, this
is helping me. I can stand on this and be
reminded of what I learned today.
And it's going to help me realize that the Lord's with me
and he's not going to forsake me or abandoned me.
And so that's one thing I pray that you take away today, no
matter what you're going through right now or what the challenges
are, how difficult life might be.
At times it is. Sometimes it's wonderful and
everything's going great. Other times it isn't.
But when you go to those times, it isn't wonderful and it's
hard. Remember the promise of the
Lord. He'll never leave you or forsake
you. And he says be of good cheer,
have courage. He said that to Joshua, Be
strong, be not dismayed, neither be thou afraid, for the Lord thy
God is with you wherever you go. Have not I commanded you, Be
strong and of a good courage? Be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with you wherever you go.
And he says that to you and I every day.
You're getting up for work, getting up to raise a kid,
you're getting up to go to the doctor, you're getting up to pay
the bills or whatever it is you got to do.
You're in a maybe a hard marriage, maybe your kids are
going crazy. Whatever he's saying, I'm with
you. I'll help you, depend on me,
trust in me, rely upon me. And he's faithful.
If he wasn't faithful, none of us would be here today, but
we're here because we know his promises are true.
He's not a liar and he'll be with you to the very end.
One be with you to the very end. And whenever you have a decision
to make, and sometimes you make the wrong decision, don't beat
yourself up because of the decision you've made.
Learn from waiting on the Lord. Wait on the Lord for the
decisions that you need to make in your life.
Let's praise the Lord, Father. God, we thank you for the joy,
Lord, your presence, your peace, Father, all the good things,
God, that you give to us every day.
And Lord, we're so thankful for your frankness and your reality
and the simplicity of the Bible and how you teach us because we
can relate to it as people, Lord, human beings failed,
flawed people that you're perfecting and changing and
making more like Jesus a little bit every day.
And Lord, we thank you for that. We thank you for the Apostle
Paul and his willingness, Lord, to serve you the way he did.
And he never looked backwards. He just kept going forward.
He kept depending on you until his eventual martyrdom, Lord,
when you did take him home to be with you.
We look forward to meeting him one day as we obviously looking
forward to meeting you. But all these people that served
you, boy, we could talk to them for hundreds of years about what
they experienced, what they went through, what it must have been
like, and share our stories as well, Lord, because they're just
as powerful. The testimonies.
Have your faith on us, love. Thank you for listening to this
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
Pastor Clark is teaching us about the book of Acts in this
series. Acts is a powerful and unique
part of Scripture, not just because it records the spread of
the gospel geographically from Jerusalem to the ends of the
earth, but also culturally. Acts shows us how the message of
Jesus moved beyond its Jewish roots and began to reach the
Gentile world. What started with Peter leading
a small group in the Upper Room became a global movement with
Paul taking the gospel to cities, synagogues, and
marketplaces across the Roman Empire.
Acts captures this vital transition and reminds us that
the good news of Jesus is for all people in every place.
May we be inspired to carry that same gospel boldly into our
world today. Living Waters of Grace comes to
you from Calvary Chapel, Westmoreland.
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