Let us stand together for the reading of God's Word. I'll be reading from verse 11 of chapter 23 through until verse 1 of chapter 24. The title of today's sermon is, Through the Lord's Mercies, Paul Was Not Consumed. And we'll be focusing primarily on verses 23 through 35. Brothers and sisters, please listen carefully because this is God's holy and infallible Word. But the following night, the Lord stood by him and said, be of good cheer, Paul, for as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness at Rome. And when it was day, some of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under an oath, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Now, there were more than 40 who had formed this conspiracy. They came to the chief priests and elders and said, We have 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 be brought down to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further inquiries concerning him. but we are ready to kill him before he comes near. So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one 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. Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside and asked 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 will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him. and now they are ready waiting for the promise from you. So the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. And he called for two centurions saying, prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night and provide mounts to set Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor. He wrote a letter in the following manner. Claudius Lysias to the most excellent governor Felix, 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. And when I wanted to know the reason they accused him, I brought him before their council. I found out that he was accused concerning questions of their law, but had nothing charged against him deserving of death or chains. And when it was told me that 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. Farewell. Then the soldiers, as they were commanded, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris. The next day they left the horsemen to go on with him and return to the barracks. 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, I will hear you when your accusers also have come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's Praetorium. Now, after five days, Ananias, the high priest, came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. And thus ends the reading of God's word. Amen. Amen. Please be seated. Our gracious Heavenly Father planned and provides a constant flow of mercies to us, His children. Because we are united with God in Christ, the eternal fountain of God's steadfast love fills us and surrounds us at all times, in all places, in every circumstance, seeing us through to the very end Brothers and sisters, to the last breath, the last heartbeat, the last thought on this side of glory. Even during the vast tragedy and suffering of Jerusalem under the Babylonian siege and destruction, the mercies and sure compassion of God sustained Jeremiah and all the faithful. In his lamentations, Jeremiah wrote, Remember my affliction and roaming the wormwood in the gall. My soul still remembers and sinks within me. This I recall to my mind. Therefore, I have hope through the Lord's mercies. We are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. Today's text will see Paul sustained. And the threat of being consumed amidst this consumption threat, he is sustained by God's mercies, experiencing God's compassion. And brothers and sisters, we today also face many consuming threats. And we too are the recipients and participants with Paul and Jeremiah and all the faithful throughout history. God's daily, unending, limitless mercies. This should be of great encouragement to us today. So last week, we looked at the plot uncovered and Lysias choosing to believe Paul's nephew, and we'll look at that again today. And we'll see each of these things. I hope you'll see through the lens of God's mercies to Paul. Each of these is a providential mercy to Paul coming forth from God's perfect plan and his compassion for Paul. We see Lysias being clever, living in secrecy, Being quick, moving Paul immediately. Being decisive, employing overwhelming force. Being protective, providing horses and a letter. Being just, handing down an initial not guilty verdict. Being bold, giving command to the Jews to appear before Felix. And we see the soldiers being obedient and competent as well to complete the mission they were given. We see Felix, compliant, ready to hear Paul's case. a great providence of God that leads to many good things to come. We see Felix also being protective and compassionate in some regard towards Paul, keeping him in Herod's palace, a very comfortable place to be. And along the way, as usual, some questions for each of us to consider, to know and to love and to obey God more fully in our own lives. So as you're listening today, you will consider God's mercies to you Do you have eyes to see all of the endless, daily, novel mercies that God brings to you? So last week, I want you to recall that we looked at the plot uncovered and Lysias receiving and believing Paul's nephew. Verse 16 says, So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul, Commentary says, note God has many ways of bringing to light the hidden works of darkness. Though the contrivers of them dig deep to hide them from the Lord, he can make a bird of the air to carry the voice or the conspirators own tongues to betray them. Brothers and sisters, the plottings of evil men against the people of God throughout history are not hidden from God. And he, in his perfect timing, if he so chooses, may unveil it. expose it and even bring it to full righteous justice before the eyes of the world, if he so chooses. This is a great mercy. Then the commander took him by the hand and went aside. Later in that same text, it says the commander let the young man depart and commanded him, tell no one that you've revealed these things. We see this commander's tenderness and his kindness and his heart being inclined towards this young man and towards Paul's case. Commentary says he took the young man by the hand as a friend or a father to encourage him that he might not be put out of a countenance, but might be assured of a favorable audience. Not only does the Lord God uncover the plots of evil as he sees fit, these wicked men who set themselves against God and his kingdom, but in addition, he works through the hearts of the places you would be most surprised to find him working. The heart of a pagan leader turned to have compassion and help towards the cause of Paul. We should expect no less in our time today. Let us move in faith as we consider the days that we live in and the elected officials that we may engage with. Do you think this way? The Lord has moved to uncover the assassination plot and Lysias decides to receive and believe Paul's nephew. There are so many other ways this could have gone, but the King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. like the rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wishes. The Lord God is the one who controls the hearts of leaders. And as we look around us in today's world and we see and listen to many wicked plans and actions underway, fret not. In fact, we're commanded three times in Psalm 37. Fret not. We consider God and His great love and His great power for His people. And we rest in Him. We rejoice in Him. And remember that there's nothing anywhere that He does not control. It's obvious that Lysias did have other options. He could have released Paul. But the Lord's mercy kept Paul in Roman protection. And that option being available all along the way here is worth considering as we go through the remainder of Paul's imprisonment, Paul's being kept safe, however you want to look at it, by the Romans throughout this time frame. He could have been released. He was not guilty by Lysias. Lysias could have released him. He's not guilty there in front of Felix. Felix could have released him. But they chose not to. And probably in the background is they didn't want to infuriate the Jews. And they didn't also want to be guilty of allowing a Roman citizen to be murdered. So they're kind of caught there in that situation is probably what's going on. Commentary says, I see not but the chief captain might, without any unfaithfulness to the duty of his place, have set Paul at liberty and given him leave to shift for his own safety. For he was never legally committed to his custody as a criminal. He himself owns that nothing was laid to his charge worthy of bonds. And he ought to have had the same tenderness for his liberty that he had for his life. But he feared that this would have incensed the Jews too much against him, or perhaps Finding Paul to be a very extraordinary man, he was proud to have him his prisoner and under his protection. And the mighty parade with which he sent him off intimates as such. And it is a mighty parade that he sends Paul off with. It is a resounding, thunderous response to the Jewish conspirators. He says, oh yeah, watch this. Now, he's also clever. Not all leaders who are necessarily going to be thinking wisely like this are also clever to be able to understand the need of the moment and to be decisive in a moment. And he understood that, and he understood the importance of secrecy. Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me. He wanted the Jews happily plotting, and let them be hungry and thirsty as long as they want to be. Fine, let them die of hunger and thirst. Go ahead, you do that, because I've got another plan. Not only is Lysias moved by God to believe Paul's nephew, but also we see that Lysias is clever and he employs a secret plan in order to thwart the Jews and protect Paul. So all the while here, you see the Jews are the ones who are the bad guys. They're the ones who are out of control. They're the ones who are the threat that needs to be managed. Commentary says, if it should be known that the chief captain had this information brought to him, Perhaps they would compass and imagine the death of Paul some other way. Therefore, keep it private. And I speculate that if I were in this man's shoes, I would also be assuming that as I'm preparing 470 soldiers to march away, that the word might even be getting out then. Because there's spies everywhere. The Jews have spies everywhere. And so he's moving quickly and he's moving with a decisive force to be able to accomplish his plan. He called for two centurions saying, prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Provide mounts to set Paul on and bring him safely to Felix the governor. So night is approaching. He moves quickly to transport Paul before the conspirators are able to know and respond to his plan. So this is another mercy, another compassion that is provided in this situation to thwart the plan to kill Paul and to continue to unfold God's plan for him to be at Caesarea for a couple of years, which it looks as though it's most likely he wrote a number of his prison epistles, not from Rome, but from Caesarea, and that when he engaged with Caesar's household, as we read in Philippians, that it may well have been there in Caesarea, because Caesar's household would often come through visiting, and Felix was connected with Caesar's household as well. So there's this grand plan that God is unfolding. And later we get pictures of this fruitfulness from the preaching and from the connections that he makes along the way. Lysias in his decisiveness and his cleverness is a part of God bringing that about. Now, he is not only moving quick, not only moving quietly, but he is moving in a way that is decisive for the situation. There are 200 soldiers. 70 cavalry and 200 spearmen. In listening to and reading Pastor Kaiser's sermon on this, looking at the full picture, it's around half, probably around half of the Roman soldiers that would have typically been stationed there at that time. And you think of it, he chooses to put together a force 10 times larger than the estimate of the conspirator band that he had heard about. And he was told it was at least 40, right? So he says, well, all right, let's multiply that by 10. And let's do cavalry, and let's do spearmen, and let's do soldiers. Now, the spearmen, some postulate that maybe they were actually the special secret guard of the commander, the special secret guard who would have been even more trained in martial ways. See how justly God brought the Jewish nation under the Roman yoke when such a party of the Roman army was necessary to restrain them from the most execrable villainies. There needed not all this force. There needed not any of it to keep Paul from being rescued by his friends. Ten times this fourth force would not have kept him from being rescued by an angel if it had pleased God to work his deliverance that way, as he had sometimes done. And I think it's good now at this point to just remember, let's think about Paul. Because, you know, we don't really hear anything other than Paul is being acted upon. He's like he's like a piece on a chessboard throughout this whole section. He's passive. He's a passive recipient of God's mercies. Now, think about what a great encouragement this would have been to him. The power of Rome enacted by God for him. Jesus had said, be of good cheer, Paul. You testified well before me in Jerusalem, and you will testify for me in Rome as well. And so at this point, Paul, if you're in that situation, wouldn't you be thinking, I wonder how he's going to do it? I wonder what's going to happen next? And maybe he was thinking he was going to have to escape and run and flee to Rome. He didn't necessarily know how he was going to get there. Well, now he's discovering that the Romans will escort him there in comfort and take him there in safety on his way to get to Rome. Now, Elysius is also protective of Paul, providing horses and a letter. Now, there's multiple mounts, we're told. It says, provide mounts to set Paul on. And he sends a letter along with Paul. Now, sure, the letter's covering his self and trying to make sure that he doesn't get himself in trouble. But the letter is also very protective for Paul. commands the soldiers to ensure Paul's safety during the journey. He doesn't want Paul being treated roughly. He wants Paul to be taken to the destination in safety and care. Now, we know also Paul's recently been beaten almost near his death in the first encounter at the temple. And in the second encounter, they were going to tear him to pieces in the Sanhedrin. So he's probably not at his physical best at this point either. Now, there were a number of soldiers that walked this path, and there's a lot of speculation. Did they go out in two bands and the cavalry went ahead and the soldiers walked behind to guard the way as the cavalry took them to Antipatris, and then the soldiers made their way to Antipatris, confirmed all was well, and then the cavalry left, or were they all together the whole way? We don't know. But we do know that Paul did not walk. Many soldiers did, but Paul did not. Listen to the commentary. This is good. I really appreciate Matthew Henry. Had his Jewish persecutors ordered his removal by habeas corpus to Caesarea, they would have made him run on foot or dragged him fither in a cart or on a sledge or have horsed him behind one of the troopers. But the chief captain treats him like a gentleman, though he was his prisoner and orders him a good horse to ride upon, not at all afraid that he should ride away. Nay, The order being that they should provide not a beast, but beasts to set Paul upon. We must either suppose that he was allowed so great a piece of state as to have led a horse or more than if he did not like one, he might take the other or as some conjecture that he had mounts assigned him for his friends and companions. As many as pleased to go along with him, to divert him in his journey and to minister to him. So horses were a great sign of wealth during that time. And Paul is given multiple mounts for his journey. Maybe one of them was for his gear. Who knows? Lysias provides also a letter. And in this letter, as we're going to see, He identifies, he gives some basic protections for Paul when he puts him into Felix's hands. Lysias provides a letter identifying him as a Roman citizen, and that is a great shield of protection around him, and that he is under threat by the Jews, and that he is innocent. And so he sets the stage. You know how it is. A lot of times once the process is underway and a perspective is in place, that perspective is going to be have the advantage against other perspectives. So Lisius does this for Paul. Lisius clearly believes that Paul is an innocent Roman citizen needing protection. and also at the same time, yet he's threatened by the Jews, probably, so he doesn't just release Paul. Now, it's important to note that Lysias is a judge in this situation. This is another mercy of God, and that he has passed his initial verdict. There has been an initial verdict, and he says in the letter, nothing charged against him deserving of death or change. And he says that he went and listened to the charges that were brought against Paul, and that he has gone through some degree of due process, and obviously he has been required to reach this decision sooner than he planned to. But that's his current state of thinking when he has to rush Paul off. So his working diagnosis, if you will, is that Paul is innocent. So as the court of origin, Lysias provides his verdict in his written form. And we have it now in writing as well, likely as a result of its inclusion in Paul's court evidence, which Paul, as the defendant, would have had access to. And so the way it's phrased in the Greek there, it looks as though it's pretty convincing that this is a quote, a direct quote from the letter, not just a best remembrance. So Lysias presents Paul to Felix as an innocent Roman citizen being accused and mistreated by the Jews. I remember where all this started. Paul's doing his Christian duty to the James and the elders there at the church in Jerusalem because of the rumors that are against him. And now because the Jews hate him, try to kill him, he's rescued by the Romans and he's brought into this spot. And now he's on his journey to Rome. Commentary says that thus far he understood that there was nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds, much less proved or made out against him. The Jews had, by their wickedness, made themselves odious to the world, had polluted their own honor and profaned their own crown, had brought disgrace upon their church, their law and their holy place. And then they cry out against Paul as having diminished the reputation of them. And was this a crime worthy of death or bonds? And as we've said before, and as is typical for the wicked conspirators, they always can. They always accuse others of doing what they themselves are actually doing. Lisius is also bold in his, in this situation and he commands the Jews. Now, Obviously, we've already talked about he doesn't want to upset them or incense them, but he's willing to risk that by commanding them to appear before Felix and commanding them to come before him and state the charges. And clearly, this is a Roman court. This is not a Jewish court. What had happened before in the Sanhedrin when they met with Paul, that was a Jewish court. And in that situation, Lysias found no charges that would bring death according to Roman law. Now the Jews are going to have an opportunity to bring charges in a Roman court, and not just an opportunity, but they are required to. Lysias, now he hasn't done it yet at this point when he's writing this letter, obviously, He will give command to the Jews to appear in Caesarea to state their charges against Paul. So they're going to have to get their own mounts and they're going to have to take themselves there. Lysias is not going to transport him. They've got to transport themselves on their own dime. And so he interprets the Jews conspiracy, if you will, as an appeal to his judgment that Paul is innocent. Solisius refers the case to the appellate jurisdiction, creating another reason for Paul to be in Caesarea under Felix jurisdiction. There were likely other steps of due process. He would have been required to take Paul through there locally. But because of this plot, because of the violence that was threatened against him, he goes ahead and he advances it to the next court. All of these things, mercies to Paul in this situation. Now, you've got 470 soldiers here. And many of us have been around military folks before or in the military and really any organization. It's hard to find 470 faithful people, right? And we have to think that it's possible that Jews knew about this by the time they left with all their connections. And maybe they tried to pay off one of these 470 to do the Sicario deal and, you know, give Paul a couple of really important holes in his body that would end his life while he was sleeping that night. No, the soldiers are obedient and they are competent. And they're not always like that. A night journey, think of this also, a night journey on horseback has its own hazards. So not only do they apparently pose a threat to Paul, but they actually do get him there safely. So the Lord saw Paul safely through in their care. This is another mercy to Paul in the midst of this danger that threatened him. Now we arrive at Felix and it's an interesting thing we see here because in general he's got a negative reputation amongst the historians of that time. He was a servant, so a slave, who had been freed and ultimately had risen in power and had married someone close to Caesar, and then initially, and then finally, Drusilla, his second wife named Drusilla, is the daughter of, related with Herod. And so he's tied in with all these royals, and he's very influential, and his brother is on the team back in Rome that makes decisions about who the governors are. So he's really tied in with power, and he is very aggressive in putting down any kind of disorder. He is known to have a short fuse when it comes to implementing Roman power. So his compliance and his willingness to receive Paul is worth noting. When the governor had read it, he asked what province he was from. And when he understood that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will hear you when your accusers also have come. So when we look at this situation, another mercy here, and of course, we know it looking back because we see what God did through the process of taking him to Caesarea and then ultimately on to Rome. Because Felix had multiple options. Like Lysias, he could have released Paul. Or as the appellate court, he could have refused to hear it and sent Paul back to Lysias and said, no, you keep him safe there and you judge him there. He could have sent Paul to a different jurisdiction when he learned that he was from Cilicia. He could have sent him there. And all of these things that we're looking at, each one of them could have led to Paul being released. But instead, Felix chooses to hear Paul's case and he chooses to keep him there in the Praetorian. And when we look at the way he was kept there and the kind of ways that he was able to engage with people for that two years, it was a very friendly imprisonment for Paul while he was there. So it sets the stage for Paul to be there for around two years, affording him the opportunity to preach the gospel to Roman soldiers and Roman leaders. And even Gentiles were allowed to come and to receive his instruction and his encouragement. And I am one of those who believe that the many of Paul's epistles, what we call the prison epistles, not all of them, but most of them were written while in Caesarea during this time. I think when you look at Timothy, the later writings, first and second Timothy, they were probably from Rome. And that's helpful to think about that these epistles come from this location. But in any case, About Felix, he was a man of mean extraction. Mean extraction, according to the Roman historians. But he raised himself by his shifts to be governor of Judea, in the execution of which office Tacitus, the Roman historian, says this of him. He used royal power with a servile genius, and in connection with all the varieties of cruelty and lust. The judgment of such a man as this is poor Paul turned over and yet better so than in the hands of Ananias, the high priest, now a prisoner, thus upon his deliverance by course of law ought to be protected as well as a prince. And so Felix, not really a trustworthy, righteous, reliable man is a better option than the Jewish high priest. And this is a mercy to Paul. And Felix had many options with how he could have helped him. But Felix, whether he's feeling protective, we don't know. But he ends up being protective. And he keeps Paul there in Herod's Palace. And you can read about it. It's multiple stories. It's this sprawling, gorgeous palace with this big courtyard inside and this astounding view. It's a beautiful, beautiful location that Paul is in. And it's a palace that Herod had built, and it was the dwelling place of Roman governors who would be the ones governing the Judean province. So if you were the governor, that's where you lived. And it looks as though Paul was relatively free to roam and receive visitors while confined to the palace. He had guards that were with him, but it doesn't appear as though he was in shackles and chains in a dark dungeon. Felix ordered him into custody that he should be kept a prisoner in Herod's judgment hall in some apartment belonging to that palace, which was denominated from Herod, the great who built it. There he had opportunity of acquainting himself with great men that attended the governor's court, and no doubt he improved what acquaintance he got there to the best purposes. So, brothers and sisters, in today's text, we see a consuming monster coming after Paul in the apostate Jewish hatred towards him and this conspiracy. And we see more, don't we, of God's laughter, as we discussed last week. The Lord God in heaven, the Father laughs with derision towards those who would express their futile fury against Him in such ways. And we see the way the Lord works in this situation to bring His mercies to Paul. And Jeremiah went through such great suffering in his experience with the downfall and destruction and death and suffering that he observed in Jerusalem. And yet he wrote in his Lamentations of such great hope because of the Lord's never ending daily mercies. Brothers and sisters, I want each one of us today to remember that we too in Christ are the recipients of these same mercies that flow to us from the same God who has the same heart of compassion towards us. as He did towards Jeremiah, as He did towards Paul, as He has towards all the faithful throughout time, and as He will towards us and all of His people every day, nay, every moment, until the end of the world. Amen. Let us pray. Almighty and gracious Heavenly Father, we indeed, Lord, today, by the power of your spirit and through the work of your word, do once again express our faith to you that you are the faithful one and that in Christ you have chosen to bestow us with your great love and favor. You have chosen to encompass us round about and all through within with your love and your favor. and that your mercies and compassion towards us are new every day. Your infinite wisdom and great love are constantly expressing through your providential plan the ways in which you bring forth your steadfast love, your enduring faithfulness, your mercy to us each day. And though our enemies compass us round about, you indeed set before us the bread and the wine once again. And we will eat and drink in this day as your beloved children, knowing that surely the goodness and mercy of the Lord shall follow us all the days of our lives. We worship you, we praise you, and with one heart and mind, we say before your throne again, great is thy faithfulness, O God. In Jesus' name.