Let us pray. Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning, grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and the comfort of your holy word We may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Savior, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. Today, we'll continue forward in the book of Acts, chapter 21, verses 26 through 36 will be our verses of focus, the title of the sermon being Suffering for Doing Good. Let's stand together for the reading of God's word. I'll read from verse 17 through to the end of the chapter, verse 40. Please listen carefully, brothers and sisters, because this is God's holy and infallible word. And when he had come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly. On the following day, Paul went in with us to James and all the elders were present. When he had greeted them, he told in detail those things which God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord. And they said to him, you see, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are who have believed and they are all zealous for the law. But they have been informed about you that you teach all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses. saying that they ought not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs. What then? The assembly must certainly meet, for they will hear that you have come. Therefore do what we tell you. We have four men who have taken a vow. Take them and be purified with them and pay their expenses so that they may shave their heads and that all may know that those things of which they were informed concerning you are nothing, but that you yourself also walk orderly and keep the law. But concerning the Gentiles who believe, we have written and decided that they should observe no such thing except that they should keep themselves from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality. Then Paul took them in, and the next day, having been purified with them, entered the temple to announce the expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them. Now when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, help! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place. And furthermore, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. And all the city was disturbed. And the people ran together, seized Paul, and dragged him out of the temple. And immediately the doors were shut. Now, as they were seeking to kill him, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. Then the commander came near and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains. And he asked who he was and what he had done. And some among the multitude cried one thing and some another. So when he could not ascertain the truth because of the tumult, he commanded him to be taken into the barracks. When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, away with him. Then as Paul was about to be led into the barracks, he said to the commander, may I speak to you? He replied, can you speak Greek? Are you not the Egyptian who some time ago stirred up a rebellion and led the 4,000 assassins out into the wilderness? But Paul said, I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city. And I implore you, permit me to speak to the people. So when he had given him permission, Paul stood on the stairs and motioned with his hand to the people. And when there was a great silence, he spoke to them in the Hebrew language saying. And thus ends the reading of God's word. Amen, amen. Please be seated. In his first epistle, chapter two, Peter wrote these words, For what credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in his steps. Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously." So in today's text, what do we see? We see that Paul is doing good. As we looked at last week, he is seeking to live at peace with all men as much as he can, so far as it depends on him. You recall the disappointment he certainly felt arriving there in Jerusalem. having an opportunity to bring the good tidings of God's work amongst the Gentiles in this large Gentile contingency of believers with him and this large sum of money to ease the suffering for the Jerusalem church. The James and the elders there, they listen and they hear him, but they launch right into their concerns, demonstrating their own myopic approach to leadership at that time. He'd been very disappointed, we have to believe. And yet he followed their instructions in order to seek peace as much as he could with those Jewish Christians, those Jews who had become Christians and who were listening to false reports about him. It was a sad scene. Instead of defending himself, he follows their instructions to go with these four men who had taken a vow and to demonstrate to them that he's not teaching against the Jewish customs or the ceremonial law. And that the time frame there while the old covenant was still in place, it was perfectly lawful for Jews to keep the ceremonial law at that time. So he goes and he's doing this. What we see today is there because he's seeking peace with other believers. So that's why he's in the temple and he's exposing himself to significant jeopardy. He knows this. And as we will see, he takes this suffering patiently. We're going to see it through the coming chapters, continuing to imitate Christ's patient suffering, following in the steps of his and our Lord. He committed himself to the father who always judges righteously. And remember, over and over again, we've said he he said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And here he is again. demonstrating for us the path that we are to follow. The question comes to us today, will we like Jesus and like Paul, will we love peace and righteousness enough to venture into places where we know we are hated? Outnumbered, outmatched, will we be intrepid? Or will we give way and shrink back using justifications of pragmatism? or even worse, will become misled religionists like these Asian Jews who hate and attack Christ and his church. Or another place we see in today's text, are you sometimes a part of a stirred up mob being deceived away from Christ to have enmity toward him and his church? Are you buying into the false reports that call you to choose one side or the other instead of just focusing on Christ and His kingdom. Polarization. The deceptions that lead to polarization are the devil's forever tactic and strategy. Leading to causing Christians to separate from one another. Red or blue. Black or white. So we're gonna look at today's text, suffering for doing good. We're gonna see Paul going into the temple. We're gonna see the Jews from Asia strike again, and they come forth with the same thing we've seen over and over again, their lies. We see the dangers of speculation, and they are successful in stirring up this mob that becomes violent. And we see Roman power being put to use by God in his kindness and providence to save Paul once again, even though he's arrested. And even in the midst of his arrest, The mob violence is escalating so much that they had to carry him to safety. And we'll see how God uses this to grant Paul a place to speak to this large crowd that's there that day. Look at that next week and in subsequent weeks. And then as usual, some questions to look at ourselves and see where we are in our own lives. Verse 26, then Paul took the men, and the next day, having been purified with them, entered the temple to announce the expiration of the days of purification, at which time an offering should be made for each one of them. So we see Paul also takes on a purification vow for himself. It's probably not an Azorite vow, even though we've seen him cut his hair once before. And when he takes on this purification for himself, he then enters into the temple with these four men in order to set the appointed time frame for their completion of what is probably a Nazarite vow that they've taken, which includes offerings, and as we discussed, another point of disappointment for Paul is that he's asked to pay for all four of their offerings out of his own pocket. Commentary says he entered into the temple, as other devout Jews that came upon such errands did, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification to the priests. Desiring the priest would appoint a time when the offering should be offered for every one of them, one for each. So Paul did here. He contributed what he vowed to the offerings of these Nazarites. And some think bound himself to the law of Nazarite ship and to an attendance at the temple with fastings and prayers for seven days, not designing that the offering should be offered till then, which was what he signified to the priest. So they set up the seven day timeframe to be present there in the temple, worshiping and fasting. We should also recall that this is during the Passover feast timeframe. So Paul knew Jerusalem would be filled with Jews from all over the world, probably to include Jews who hated him and wanted him dead. He surely would have known that they likely would have been there. So it's worth seeing here that Paul was not ignorant. He knew the risks of this path and he embraced it as obedience to God and trusting the outcome to Christ instead of giving way to pragmatism The word here that I want you to learn today, we'll have a new vocabulary word, is intrepid. Intrepid, Webster's 1828, literally, not trembling or shaking with fear, that's what it literally means, but hence, therefore, it's fearless, it is bold, it is brave, it is undaunted as an intrepid soldier. Surely Paul knew he was outmatched, outnumbered, and could not defend himself. We see this in verse 27, when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews from Asia, seeing him in the temple, stirred up the whole crowd and laid hands on him. Now, one thing that's suggested here is that Paul didn't really try to hide himself. He was there. He was not ashamed to be there in that place. It took up to day seven for them to spot him and be sure that it was him. Now let's go back and recall his first interaction with these Jews when he was at Ephesus. He went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months. I think this is in chapter 18 of the book of Acts, verses 8 through 10. Reasoning and persuading concerning the things of the kingdom of God. So where is he? He's in the synagogue at Ephesus. That's in Asia. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the way before the multitude. So there they are. They're hardened. They refuse to believe in Jesus as the Messiah. And instead, they went on to speak evil of Jesus and his kingdom. before the entire people, before the multitude going on. He departed from them and withdrew the disciples reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. And this continued for two years so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. That's our background. So what we have here, these are hard hearted Jews. They're refusing to believe the gospel. They're refusing to accept Jesus Christ as the foretold Messiah and to trust in him. And they go on to speak evil of Jesus, to speak evil of His way before all the people of Ephesus. So this is similar to what we see going on. This is the same thing they've always done. So they're successful in stirring up the whole crowd. And this, of course, should be a message to us. Are you vulnerable to the tactics of the devil to stir you up and to get you on a side that you have no business being involved in? This has been the tactic of the hard-hearted Jews throughout Paul's ministry. We see the same tactic used by the greedy Gentiles as well to stir up the crowds. And the specific tool that the Jews use is deception. The Gentiles often use greed. The Jews use deception. Jesus told them, the devil is your father. And we know what the devil is. He's the father of lies. So let me ask you this. Do you think we live in a world where similar tactics and tools are put to use to stir up the multitudes? Do you think there's widespread propagation of deception for the purpose of stirring you up to anger, to get you to choose sides, even moving you into dehumanizing thoughts towards other fellow human beings? And so what are you doing to avoid this polarization and remain focused upon Christ and His kingdom? And to remember that the only polarization that will ever matter is Who is Jesus Christ? And that you will see to it that your efforts and your focus and your loves and your affections remain there in that battle, the only battle that matters. They laid hands on Paul. And you know, this is what always happens when the deception and the reputation threat, the property threat, maybe the imprisonment threat is not sufficient to silence the gospel and prevent the growth of the gospel in the culture and in the church, violence will ensue. Violence will ensue. We've seen this in mobs. In our day, have we not? You can think of a particular pastor at the University of Idaho and how he was treated when he went there to present the gospel to them. So the Jews from Asia take it upon themselves to arrest Paul instead of getting the temple security officers. There was a defined process for this. There was a defined process for this. So they are the lawless ones. In the way they're handling this, they're demonstrating they are the ones who are lawless. And so they take hold of Paul. So first you see it's the Asian Jews who take hold of Paul. And there he is. And they want to turn him over to an irrational, outraged mob to kill him. That's their plan. In the temple where he should have been protected as in a sanctuary, he was most violently set upon by those who did what they could to have his blood mingled with the sacrifices. In the temple where he should have been welcomed as one of the greatest ornaments of it that ever had been there since the Lord of the temple left it. The temple which they themselves pretended such a mighty zeal for, yet did they themselves thus profane. We saw them and how they mistreated Peter and John All those who came in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ were mistreated by those who claim to be true Jews. And we'll see later, Paul says, I am a Jew. Paul demonstrates what a true Jew is, as do all Christians. So we go on now and we see the lies that they used and the speculation, and hopefully it'll serve a warning to us against our own prejudices. So they had a hold of Paul, and they're crying out to the multitude. Men of Israel, help. This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against the people, the law, and this place. And furthermore, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with them in the city, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. Now, it may not appear obvious to you how serious a criminal act this is that these Jews have. They're guilty of a very serious criminal act here. So first of all, note how they use alarmism. Breaking news, right? Isn't that what's always going on? Breaking news. Well, that's what they want to do here. They want to startle people into action. Men of Israel, how? As if Paul is the momentous threat to Israel. Why is Israel, why is Jerusalem, why is the temple destroyed and raised to the ground with not one stone remaining? Because of these very Jews and others like them. We see where the alarm deserved to be raised. And so we should note here that satanic deceivers accuse others of the very evil they are doing as they spew out their lies. The very evil they're accusing others of, they are doing it themselves as they are making their false accusations. It is a timeless tool, excuse me, tactic of the devil. That's why he's the father of lies. He will just, with just such a high moral position, say, how dare you behave in such a fashion as he is carrying out the same vile act. OK, that is what it means to be the father of lies. And all those who are with him and follow him will do the exact same thing. So note here the enemies of Christianity, since they could never prove it to be all to prove it to be an ill thing, have been always very industrious, right or wrong, to put it into an ill name and so run it down by outrage and outcry. It had become men of Israel. to help Paul, who preached up him who was so much the glory of his people Israel. Yet here the popular fury will not allow them to be men of Israel unless they will help against him. So first of all, they use alarmism to get people's attention, to clamor about a great threat. I don't feel safe. I need a safe space, right? I mean, it is the starting spot so often in so many false ways and tactics to shut down Christian speech. You need a safe zone. They need a safe space. I don't feel safe around you. It's your hate speech that's the threat. So we see this same tactic over and over again. And in that setting comes the lies, the obvious lies. The first is that Paul teaches all men everywhere against the people. The people here, that's the Jews. So he's accused of teaching against the Jews, running them down with his words, speaking ill of them. Commentary says, he had taught that Jews and Gentiles stand on the same level before God and neither circumcision avails anything nor uncircumcision. Nay, he had taught against the unbelieving Jews that they were rejected and therefore had separated from them and their synagogues. And this is interpreted to be speaking against the whole nation as if no doubt, but they were the people and wisdom must die with them. That's Job 12. Or as God, though he had cast them off yet had not cast away his people, Romans 11, they were loamy, not a people, and yet pretended to be the only people. Those commonly seem most jealous for the church's name that belonged to it in name only. So. Note here, really, it is the hard-hearted Jews who spread lies about Jesus Christ, and those lies are truly acting against the people, truly acting against the Jewish nation, against the good of the Jews. The second lie is that Paul teaches all men everywhere against the law, not just against the Jewish people, but against God's law. His teaching men to believe the gospel is the end of the law and the perfection of it was interpreted is preaching against the law, whereas it was so far from making void the law that it established it. We see that in Romans 3.31. The gospel establishes the law, where we understand God's law and we love God's law. Now, this might be an accurate accusation brought against much of modern evangelicalism, throwing out God's law and treating the Old Testament as if it's just mere history. But note here that it's the deceived Jews themselves who by refusing Jesus Christ as the holy law giver, they are the ones who are teaching against the law and turning the Jews to lawlessness. What's their third lie? Their third lie is that Paul teaches men everywhere against this place. So not only is he preaching against the people, the Jewish nation, and the law of Moses, but he's preaching against the temple. He's speaking ill of the temple of God that the Lord commanded us to build. Because he taught men to pray everywhere, he was reproached as an enemy to the temple. And perhaps because he sometimes mentioned the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and of the Jewish nation, which his master, that is Jesus, had foretold. Note again, it's the hard-hearted Jews whose behavior shall lead to the destruction of the temple, leading the nation into utter calamity. They are the ones who teach against the Jews and the Jewish nation. They are the lawless ones who teach against the law of God. They are the ones, through their behavior and their teachings, teach against Jerusalem and the temple. They are the ones who will bring this great calamity upon the nation. And they are the ones doing it as they are accusing Paul falsely of doing these things. What's their fourth lie? They say, he also brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. And in verse 29, we're told that they may have actually believed it to be true. And it says, for they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple. So they're just lying. They're just lying on him in the first three. Now, maybe there's some misunderstandings. They could have worked through things better, but these are false accusations the first three. And the final one, they actually have a piece of evidence in their mind. And so the question should come to you. How often do you reach false conclusions based upon preexisting prejudices about someone that you don't like. All right, so they saw Trophimus, he is a Greek. They saw him with Paul. So surely Paul must have brought this Greek into the areas where he's not allowed. And they seem pretty convinced of it. Maybe they weren't actually in their minds speaking what they knew to be untrue, maybe not. We don't know. Commentary says, He has brought Gentiles also into the temple, into the inner court of the temple, which none that were uncircumcised were admitted under any pretense to come into. There was written upon the wall that enclosed this inner court in Greek and Latin. It is a capital crime for strangers to enter. And that's from Josephus. Paul was himself a Jew and had a right to enter into the court of the Jews. And they seeing some with him there that joined with him in his devotions, concluded that Trophimus, an Ephesian who was a Gentile, was one of them. Why? Did they really see Trophimus there? Truly, no, they did not. So these hard-hearted Jews, they are accusing Paul of a capital crime, a crime that he could have been put to death for, and that probably demonstrates why the crowd is prepared to kill Paul on the spot. but it turns out they're the ones who are committing the capital offense because as you know from God's law, if you carry out a false testimony and you bear false witness against someone, you are liable to the punishment that would have been brought upon them if they'd been convicted based upon your false testimony. So these hard-hearted Jews from Asia are so deceived or so malicious are so brazen because they think they hold the power that they're willing to carry out a capital offense in their attack on Paul. That's the kind of thing you better make sure Trophimus was there. You better make sure Paul actually did that, because if you speak falsely in that case, you're in big, big trouble. Commentary gives us some helpful insights on this and three points from Matthew Henry. First of all, innocency is no fence against Columbian false accusation. So just because you're innocent doesn't mean you won't be attacked. In fact, it's the opposite. It is no new thing for those that mean honestly and act regularly to have things laid to their charge, which they know not nor ever thought of. I mean, think about what Paul's been through, stepping back from the commentary. First of all, his beloved friends and close companions are like, you should not go to Jerusalem. He had to resist them and had a pretty significant disagreement with them. Smoothed it over, continued traveling together, gets to Jerusalem, as I've already mentioned there, with James and the elders, and they don't really listen to him so much, it seems, and instead they send him off on this errand to make peace with the Jews who'd been, you know, gossiping about him and saying false things about him instead of shutting that down like good church leaders. And here he is now, and his life is being threatened. Going on number two. Not only is innocency no fence against Columbian false accusation, but also evil men dig up mischief. Expect this. And go far to seek proofs of their false accusations as they did here, who because they saw a Gentile with Paul in the city, will thence infer that he was with him in the temple. This is a strained innuendo indeed, yet by such unjust and groundless suggestions have wicked men thought to justify themselves in the most barbarous outrages committed upon the excellent ones of the earth. So look, as Christians, we need to be wise and understand that those who are outside of Christ, they go down the path far enough, they will just lie. They will just lie. They will take some little nugget of what might be kind of true, and they will stretch it into a lie. OK, we should not be surprised about this. And in fact, we should be on guard against it and know that this is the way the devil works. Next, number three, it is common for malicious people to improve that against those that are wise and good, with which they thought to have obliged them and ingratiated themselves with. You see, Paul thought to recommend himself to their good opinion by going into the temple. He had not been so maligned by them. This is the genius of ill nature. So Paul's love here is not just for those Christians who are Jews, but also for those Jews who have yet to become Christians, to demonstrate to them that they didn't have to lay aside all of the ceremonial law that was beloved to them in their culture, to smooth out for them a path into the gospel, just as long as they understood the right place of the ceremonial law at that time. It's like what we see from Psalm 109 and 69. For my love, they are my adversaries. Both of those Psalms, as you know, reference Jesus and how he was mistreated, how he was betrayed by Judas. And so, so often our love for others will be received as hatred. And so what does this mean? This means we should give thanks to God and rejoice any time anyone receives any act of love from us as an act of love. Because when we have goodwill, you know it's true that you also don't have a heart of goodwill at the same time. Your flesh is there, your sin is there. You may want to try to get something through your good behavior. So when anyone receives your friendship acts as friendship acts, receive it as an act of God's grace, not something that you've earned, okay? So here come the violent mobs, they're striking again, as always. We're told the city was disturbed, all the city was disturbed. The people ran together, seized Paul, dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. Now, as they were seeking to kill him. So the goal here is Paul's death, and it wasn't like an accidental thing. It was on purpose. They were gonna kill him, that was their plan. So what happens is deceptions that take root in a mob lead to violence. So the mob seizes Paul, they drag him out of the temple, and they're trying to kill him. They were beating him, we're told, in verse 32. And they had resolved to beat him to death by blows without number, a punishment which the Jewish doctors did allow in some cases, not at all to the credit of their nation. and called the beating of the rebels. Now was Paul like a lamb thrown into a den of lions and made an easy prey to them, and no doubt he was still of the same mind as when he had said earlier, remember what he said? I am ready not only to be bound, but to die at Jerusalem, to die so great a death. So he was prepared there to die in that scene. Paul is an intrepid man. Paul is moving ahead to do the will of the Lord, outnumbered, outmatched, with no hope of earthly deliverance. Had he failed to sit and count the cost? Did he not consider whether he had enough to build the tower of the gospel there in Jerusalem and beyond? Oh, he knew. He had seen the resources available to him with the eyes of faith. And he went forward into that place of danger, doing God's will. Now, when he's thrown out, the temple doors were shut by these hard-hearted Jews. And perhaps there was some thought that he may run in and grab onto the horns of the altar, which, you know, it would be a call for mercy and you would never strike someone down in that situation. In either case, we can say this, those who wrongly shut out true seekers of Christ shall themselves be shut out from God's presence. And this is a particularly influential scripture should be and concept for church leaders. who are tasked with a very important duty, and that is putting names on the church rolls and taking names off of the church rolls. And the path to getting your name on the church rolls shouldn't be no more difficult, no different than the path to your name being written in heaven. So it's a very serious thing to shut the door wrongly to those who are seeking Christ. and seeking God's presence. Commentary says we have Paul in danger of being pulled in pieces by the rabble. They will not be at the pains to have him before the high priest or the Sanhedrin. You see that they're not looking for a trial. That is a roundabout way. The execution shall be of a piece with the prosecution, all unjust and irregular. The whole thing being undue process, no due process here. They cannot prove the crime upon him and therefore dare not bring him up upon a fair trial, nay, So greedily do they thirst after his blood that they have not patience to proceed against him by a due course of law, though they were ever so sure to gain their point. And therefore, as those who neither feared God nor regarded man, they resolved to knock him on the head immediately." Knock him on the head immediately. You know, there was a fellow who was shot in the face as he was ministering in public the last year or so. And there are Christians that are being killed all over the world. And really this is a great example of the devil's way of doing business. And you can count on violence from those who have stirred up in their sin if they cannot get their way through deception. Now here we have a beautiful example of the purpose of civil governance coming into play. Roman power saves Paul again. We've seen it in prior places. where the civil magistrates shut down the mob. Now, not because they love God, not because they love God's people, but because they're afraid. Text says, news came to the commander of the garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar. He immediately took soldiers and centurions and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, they stopped beating Paul. So they were just giving it to him. They were giving him the ungodly hard-hearted business, all about his head and shoulders. and his life was in danger. So note here that we should give thanks even for pagan unbelieving political rulers. Okay, we should give thanks for civil magistrates because they are often used of God to protect his church. And we do see this happening even in our day and age where our courts and our political positions are filled up with so many unbelieving pagans, so many God haters, Even there, we see from time to time, Christians being protected. So even an irrational mob, so what stopped them? This irrational mob, apparently completely out of control, nothing could stop them. But we see at the end of this text, they were brought to stillness and silence. And you'll see that what Paul has to say is fairly lengthy, and they listened for a long time. What brought them to heal? The Roman sword. They fear the Roman sword more than they hate Paul. And this is exactly what God says about the civil magistrate. The central purpose of the central magistrate is to strike terror in the hearts of evildoers. That is the singular purpose of the civil magistrate. There are other secondary purposes that are related to it, but it all tracks back to that. For rulers are not a terror to good works. This is Paul writing a few years earlier to the church at Rome. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid for he does not bear the sword in vain for he is God's minister and avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. And right here we see this Roman authority demonstrating being a good magistrate because the Jews are doing evil and they're evil doers and the terror of justice is brought upon them. And we pray, we should pray for our elected officials, our political leaders to focus upon this task. are bringing fear into the hearts of evildoers. And if you don't want to be afraid of such good political rulers, then don't do evil. Of course, we know what's happened in today's world. The power of the sword is being put to use for evil, and many who do good are threatened because of evil magistrates. You should pray against that as well. Commentary says, note, God often makes the earth to help the woman. That's Revelation 12, 16. And those to be a protection to his people who have yet no affection for his people. They have only a compassion for sufferers and are zealous for the public peace. The shepherd makes use even of his dogs for the defense of his sheep. So we should rejoice in this and know that our father in heaven loves his church and he has given the civil magistrate for the protection of his church. And there's meant to be a meaningful relationship between the church and the state. And one of the key duties of the state is to protect the church from evildoers. Protect the church from those who would seek to silence the going forth of the gospel. Protect the church from the going forth of righteousness and ethical behavior according to God's law in the earth. So that the bride may go forth in her beauty and beautify the home of her heavenly husband that is the entire globe. Next, Paul is arrested. Sometimes being arrested is a gift from God. The commander came near and took him and commanded him to be bound with two chains. And he asked who he was and what he had done. So in rushes the Roman ruler, and we're going to see him later where he's actually a part of the trial that comes up later in Acts. So he takes action, securing Paul's safety by taking him into custody. Then the Roman authority attempts to find out what's going on and he can't, but he's trying to. Now again, it's not because he loves Paul and the church so much. It's really because he loves his own neck because he knows that if the emperor gets wind of what's going on and things are out of order there, he's going to be held personally responsible for it. Okay. So order was really important to Rome. Why? Commerce, wealth, money, prosperity. They understood what fed the goose and that was peace and prosperity. So the governor takes him into custody, we're told. He rescued him, not out of a concern for him, because he thought him innocent, but out of a concern for justice, because he ought not to be put to death without trial, and because he knew not how dangerous the consequent might be to the Roman government if such tumultuous proceedings were not timely suppressed. So he rushes in to do his job, and as I've said, we've seen it elsewhere. It's a recurring pattern. Yet, even in this setting, The mob violence escalates. So there's this kind of back and forth between the hatred for Paul and the fear of the Romans that's in place here. And some among the multitude cried one thing and some another. This is in response to him trying to find out what happened. So when he could not ascertain the truth because of the tumult, he commanded him to be taken into the barracks. When he reached the stairs, he had to be carried by the soldiers because of the violence of the mob. For the multitude of the people followed after, crying out, away with him. Should certainly remind you of how Jesus was treated, right? Crucify him, crucify him. So the mob's irrationality becomes evident as they cry out different stories about Paul contradicting themselves. Their affections are like a tumultuous storm. Do they hate Paul more or do they fear the Romans more? And here in the end, we see that they're willing to even deal with the Roman sword because they're still trying to kill Paul and take him out of the Roman soldiers' hands. It crescendos at this point. The Romans, the soldiers think that they have to pick him up. They have to take him out of the situation. And even as they're trying to do that, they have to pick him up and carry him. I don't know if they had him on his shoulders or... I mean, Paul gets picked up by Roman soldiers and carried up these stairs as they're crying out away with him. Commentary says, see how the most excellent persons and things are often run down by a popular clamor. You know, it's not quite true, but it's mostly true that in today's world, if something's unpopular, it's probably a good thing. And this whole attack, this whole cancel culture that we're a part of, may God deliver you from it and me from it. May we be intrepid. Christ himself was so, in terms of how he was mistreated by popular clamor. They said, crucify him, crucify him, though they could also not say what evil he had done. Take him out of the land of the living, chase him out of the world. So here we see Paul again, imitating Christ, showing us how to imitate Christ, demonstrating his courage his commitment to his Lord, to do the will of the Lord. We live in a time where we are also outnumbered and outmatched in the battles that we seek to achieve. What are your battles where you feel outmatched and outnumbered? Maybe it'll even cause you to question your calling. Well, the Lord certainly wouldn't want me to try to see the Killing of every innocent baby in South Carolina, outlawed. I mean, the forces are too great. The odds are too great against us. He would never have us to have that as our goal. True justice, equal protection for every baby in South Carolina, beginning at conception, without exception. That's the battle I'm in. Tempted to give in, tempted to not be intrepid, There are others, you know, I dream and pray of a day where we'll see Edgefield County come together in this square and proclaim the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and worship Him and praise Him, singing together, praying together and proclaiming Him as our Lord, repenting of our sin. But the odds are too great, right? Something even simpler, I would love, would you not also love to see God's law applied in a way to where property tax was abolished? Property tax is godless. Well, that's never gonna happen. Where are we gonna get the revenues from? You wanna go and speak to the city council, the county council about that and ring that bell, you go right ahead. They will laugh you out. 10 years later, they'll still be laughing you out. Oh, what if God puts that calling on your life? to go and ring that bell at the county council or the city council meeting and call them to stop blaspheming God by putting property taxes on people. So these are things that are that are near and dear to me that I feel like shrinking back from sometimes parenting. You might feel like shrinking back from parenting because the world is so filled with all of these efforts to pollute our Children. So where are you in your life tempted to not be intrepid? And you know, attached to that, especially young men, what is your calling? In what ways has God shown you that you are to kick against the darkness until it bleeds light and to spend your efforts? Another way of saying this is every family should have a ministry. Every family should have a ministry. Not just raising your children up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord, but in what, again, same with the church, right? Not just training all of us up in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord together, but what are we doing to minister and to serve and to make a difference in this world for the gospel as a family and as a church? And if there's not something like that in your life, why not? Is it because of these types of threats or maybe because you haven't considered that before? So may the Lord bless us, his people, to see Paul imitating Christ and to learn how to imitate Christ also in our day. May he bless us with such eyes and such hearts and such courage to go forth undaunted, no matter what we face, to do the Lord's will. Let us pray. Almighty and gracious Heavenly Father, We thank you that Jesus Christ, the captain of our salvation, went to the cross with no hope of rescue and took upon himself all the sin of your people and all of your wrath upon them. And in his suffering, we are delivered. We thank you, Lord Jesus Christ, that at the end you said it is finished and all of our sins were crushed down in your body and soul. We praise you, Father, for raising Jesus from the dead and demonstrating to us that as we walk in your ways and do your will, there's no power or threat that can come against us to undo your plan. Bless us. We pray, O God, to walk in the light of the death and the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus, our Lord, who now lives and reigns at your right hand forever and ever. Bless us to go forth in faith and to do your will is the courageous ones that you call us to be in Jesus, our Lord. In whose name we pray, amen.