The Daily Devo with Steve

Well, here we are, at the end of Acts.  Reading it through this way, it is pretty easy to see the point that many authors make, that this writing must have been halted while Paul was under house arrest and before Nero runs the Christians out of Rome.  It just wouldn’t make any sense not to mention that in these writings, unless those events had NOT taken place yet.  Further, and more immediate to this moment in chapter 28, we never get anything on Paul’s appeal to Caesar as to his innocence.  That places all of this into a time context that is at the latest in the early 60s AD.

Looking back at Acts, as a whole, I think that the biggest idea that I come away with, given my nature as a believer who came to faith later in life and who rebelled much of the ‘systematic’ Christian living (ie, all of the traditions without the relationship elements), is how the early church fought hard against the church becoming a system of a rules and practices.  The early church fought against the notion that the church, as an institution, should be a place where people rejected and pushed away for their sin.  To the contrary, the church was all about reaching those people who lived in recognition that they aren’t perfect, that they need a Savior, and that had been rejected or marginalized by society.

Acts teaches us that our greatest offering as Christians is our influence and our relationship.  Paul states it in other texts, but he clearly teaches it in Acts, along with James, that essentially all things are fine and acceptable as Christians, but not all things are useful.  All things are ‘fine’ in that it isn’t our actions but our heart that determine our relationship with God.  I love that.  God clearly wants a relationship with us.  Jesus came to restore that.  Everything that we do that makes relationship with God harder is an undue burden.  Everything we do that makes relationship with God more difficult for others is an undue burden.  This is a huge idea.  It is a personal idea.  The only way to get to the exact application of this idea in my own life is to enter into relationship with God personally.  ...and I think that is the point.

In the reading this morning we see Paul setting sail from Palestine to Italy.  It was a heck of a journey!

Further, today is another one of those days where I think there isn’t a ton in the text, and where I find that the study Bible may be missing something that seems obvious to me.  There is a lot of discussion in my notes about why Paul was able to exert some kind of leadership authority, and how this would have worked between the Centurion and Paul and everyone else.  It seems obvious to me - when things get dicey and scary, and when peoples’ lives hang in the balance, the real leaders are thrust into a position of influence by default.  I think these people were scared, and they were confused, and Paul has the authority that wasn’t really his by design because Paul was the real leader in the group.  The way Luke writes this, which is in keeping with what we know Paul has experienced to this point, Paul was ready for the crazy.  Paul had anticipated it.  And think about this - how do you feel when you see someone move through a crazy and scary situation in life with confidence and with grace?  You feel a little inspired...I know I do.  I feel like that person knows something.  I tell you what else happens, that person gains some influence with me.

Sometimes it is the subtle things in life where we signal big things.  Paul’s handling of this situation was a ministry opportunity.  We aren’t told that Paul leverages it that way, and I am guessing Luke details this journey for a particular reason in this particular way, but I am going to guess based on Paul’s personality that there were some ministry conversations had.

In short, today reminds me that it is often who we are being that speaks louder than what we are saying.  And, who we are being can gain us the influence that people will listen to what we are saying.  Today, I pray that I am being someone who is worthy of influence, who is worthy of attention, that I might gain an opportunity to further God’s kingdom in that way, as Paul does in the reading today.

Today, as yesterday, is really nothing major in my mind.  It just continues Paul’s sudo-trial before king Agrippa before Paul moves on to see the emperor of Rome, to whom he has appealed.  Agrippa says that Paul really has not reason to be imprisoned and held against his will based on the testimony that he’s seen, which we all kind of knew already.

In the grand scheme of things, there are one of two things, or both, that Paul is likely trying to work out here.  The first is the idea that the further he gets from the local authority making the decision about his guilt against these Jewish accusations, the more simple Paul knew that this case was going to get.  At the local level, the civil leaders would have had in mind to curry favor with the Jews in order to keep peace and control, and to maintain their status as rule by keeping taxes flowing.  The further we get from the local level, the further away from that tainted desire and the closer we get to a decision based on the merits of the case...and the reality that we can easily see is that Paul is not guilty of anything legally-speaking.  So, Paul may be simply playing the game of getting into a setting where the case is tried on the merits of the arguments and not the motivations of the accusers.  On the other hand, secondly, perhaps Paul has in mind something more grand.  Perhaps Paul is working his way towards Rome in a similar way that some people work their way up to the Supreme Court in the US, to create law.  If Paul can be tried in Rome, in front of Caesar, perhaps Paul can essentially acquit Christians in general of any crime against Rome, which would render most of the attempts of the Jews to twist the local legal rule to work against them.  This would render the Jews’ defense of the Christians to a purely religious defense, which would mean the Jews could only argue against the spread of Christianity based on the merits of their faith.  This would be the end of the Jews oppressing Christians via the legal system if it were to work out.  Perhaps Paul was shooting for something more grand, like that.

In that same vein, today my prayer is that I would be more courageous for my faith, as Paul clearly illustrates and demonstrates in his life.  I don’t have the same scale in terms of a stage on which I am presenting my faith, but I can certainly be courageous in how I conduct my life, in how I present myself, in how I work to push myself to grow and combat sin in my life, and in how I speak of my faith.  Though I am not Paul and am not being tried for my faith as Paul, and I thank Jesus for that!, I can certainly be courageous.

Today we see Paul’s ‘case’, which had done nothing for 2 years as Felix was succeeded by Festus, taken to King Agrippa of Rome.  Paul has obviously done nothing deserving of death, or any kind of punishment, and the case for that is so clear when this new ‘trial’ is put on display for us here in this chapter.   Now, tomorrow we will hear from Paul and we’ll see where this trial goes, but for today, just a thought that comes to mind as I am reading this.

Have you ever had that moment where you thought, right in the middle of what you were doing, “This is kind of stupid.”  Or, “This doesn’t really make any sense.”...ever had that thought?  I surely have.  And, when we have that thought, there are typically 2 ways in which we can respond.  One is with humility and  with the realization that I had gotten swept up in what was going on, I had lost control to some extent, and now I need to step back and clear this thing up.  The other is to dig my heels in.  Usually, when I get the urge to dig my heels in,  the motivation for that is to ‘be right’ or to ‘win’ ...which is an emotion that is intoxicating, exciting, and also very dangerous.

Luke isn’t presenting this case to us to make this point, but this illustrates this idea, nonetheless.  When we find ourselves working against God in a matter, as did these Jews, and when we sense that the course of action we are taking is against God’s will, or simply against the ‘right’ course of action, I just pray that I would have the maturity, the clarity, and the courage to pause and consider the alternatives.  These Jews were smart people.  They were some of the most well-spoken and well-educated folks.  They knew where this was going...no where.  They were taking a Hail Mary shot at trying to get rid of Paul.  I am guessing many realized that there was some to what Paul was teaching and preaching.  I am guessing that many were just fearful of being pushed out of the social circle, the ring of influence, and the wealth that was a part of their lives.  I pray that I don’t illustrate that same fault in my own life.  That’s my prayer for today.

There really isn’t anything major that jumps out at me in this chapter, right until the end.  Right at the end, after Felix has heard the case and essentially has decided that he can’t justify killing Paul or the Jews, and can’t even seem to justify convicting Paul of any sort of crime, he leave Paul is a sort of sudo-prison; seemingly like a house-arrest type of thing.  But here is what I really honed in on this morning.  Felix comes to see Paul and to get more information from Paul about what he is teaching.  Paul gives him an account of his Christian testimony.  This puts Felix into an interesting position.  It is presumed that Felix actually came to see Paul because he has a sense that Paul was a well-to-do man, which we believe is true, and to see if he could extract a bride of some sort from him.  Instead, he got an invitation to faith.  Felix is staring into the face of a big decision.

We have talked about this idea that we never know what hangs in the balance of a decision regarding our faith...that God uses those decisions and those moments of faithfulness in ways that we would probably never have imagined.  Well, here is Felix, staring at the opportunity to try to extract a bride and some money from Paul, or he could actually accept Paul’s testimony.  The way this is written, it seems like Luke might be telling us that Felix at least paused in the face of this decision to consider both options.  Let’s just imagine he did for a moment, putting aside whether or not Luke actually eludes to that.

Imagine how different history might be if Felix had placed his faith in Christ right then and there, and freed Paul.  How different would history be?  This was a big moment.  The greatest evangelist in the history of the Christian faith is sitting there, a decision away from being sent back out into the world to continue teaching.  That’s amazing.  Of course, Felix decided not to decide...he didn’t want to put Paul back out on the streets for fear that there would be a real public uproar, for fear that the Jews would really turn against him, and he didn’t want to place his faith in Jesus and follow Paul’s teaching because it would cost him an opportunity at that bride money, along with all of the same issues relating to the Jews, and yet he knew he couldn’t kill Paul because there was no crime.  So he just left him there, and that’s how the chapter ends.

Today I am reminded of how much impact a single decision of faith can have on me, on the people around me, and on the world around me.  Felix had a choice, he had a chance to write himself into history on a positive note, and to have a HUGE impact on the world, for good.  He passed it by.  Today I pray that I would spot opportunities that come across my life, and that I would see them as opportunities since they are often felt as challenges.  I pray that I would have the faith to think bigger and to remember that my decisions of faith are often not nearly as private and personal as they feel in the moment.

Today we see Paul standing before the Sadducees and the Pharisees before being put away so they can decide his fate.  About 40 of the Pharisees (if I am reading this right) came together as a group and made a vow not to eat or drink until Paul is killed.   Then Paul is taken to Rome to be processed through the Roman system and is delivered the Felix, the governor at the time.

Looking at this chapter, 2 things kind of jump out at me.  First is the vow adopted by these Pharisees.  Talk about being hypocritical, for which the head Priest is called out by Paul.  Where in scripture was murder a reasonable punishment for a man like Paul?  How was murder the correct punishment for Stephen, whom Paul oversaw being stoned to death?  The answer is, “Nowhere, it isn’t condoned.”  Here is an idea that is being reinforced here, though I don’t think it is intentionally being made my Luke; that once we set our minds on something, we often become fixed to it.  We become intoxicated by ‘winning’, by getting our way.  We get so focused on the outcome, so set on the strategy by which we’ll get there, that we completely shut ourselves off from reality.  These Pharisees knew better.  In fact, it is clear from Luke’s phrasing that not all of the Pharisees had this blood lust for Paul - many didn’t agree.  But we are all prone to this kind of foolishness, where we get fixed on an idea and we won’t let it go.  In our faith, we often see this come up as something like this,; “God, I waiting for you to do X, and if you don’t do X, then I know you aren’t with me on this.”  In reality though, It isn’t up to us how God is going to do what He is going to do.  We must stay devoted to Him and trust that He has a plan.  His track record is so good, it really shouldn’t be so hard to maintain that state of mind.

Then, second, my study guide tries really hard in today’s reading to understand the number of troops that were used to transport Paul to Rome; Luke says it was upwards of 470 personnel.  The authors point out that this is complete overkill, even given the circumstances.  But, perhaps I am just dumb enough that it doesn’t seem that hard to understand to me.  Looking at verse 11, here is what we read, the only words directly FROM GOD in this chapter:

11 The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”

What if God was going out of his way to make the point to Paul, “I am with you.  I have your back brother!”.  To me, that’s more of a plausible explanation than trying to navigate exactly how Luke got to 470, and figure out who was counted or double counted or any of that nonsense.  The simple explanation may be the best in this case.  God just wanted to make a point to Paul.

Sometimes God does that - He just wants to make a point to you, or to me.  I think that illustrates His compassion, in that He wanted to make sure Paul knew, even when staring into the face of death, that He was with him.  That’s good enough for me.

Today is a fascinating bit of reading!

This is my favorite part - probably because I am a bit of a nerd on this stuff.  Paul is arrested under charges of stirring up trouble by the Jews, same story, different day, and then he is brought in front of this tribune to be charged.  What’s funny is that none of these officers who were holding him really knew anything about who he was.  When we hear someone try to identify him, the tribune  wondered whether he was an Egyptian brigand who had recently stirred up a revolt in the desert. According to Josephus, per my study Bible, there had been an Egyptian false prophet who had led 30,000 men to the Mount of Olives in order to take Jerusalem; he promised that they would see the walls of the city fall down. The governor, Felix, killed or captured his followers, while the prophet himself managed to escape.  They wondered if Paul was this guy.  That’s funny!  AND, I love that this is just another corroborating piece of evidence that places this narrative in a time and place that could easily be identified and discredited IF there were reason to do so.

Then we see Paul request to speak to the people as he is being hauled off to be beaten, and he tells them the story of his conversion, illuminating the fact that he was just like them until he met Jesus - he points out that he was there over-looking the beating of Stephen.  But, again we see what is so common in these New Testament narratives, and what is unfortunately so true in our lives as well - that these people aren’t seeking truth, they are seeking to maintain their power, their order, the status quo.  Paul was a threat to them in this way.

And, in a dramatic fashion, we see Paul wrangle out of the beating, at least for now, by throwing in the fact that he is a Roman citizen, which stops the tribune in its tracks, because is means that there my be Roman legal process to take place before one of her citizens can be beaten like this.  So, Paul is safe, for now.

Today, I am reminded again of how important it is for us to remain truth-centered.  Even as Christians we can lose our curiosity and begin to ignore truth.  We fall pray to what is known as confirmation bias.  This occurs when, everywhere we look, we notice the things that confirm our opinions on a matter and we reject (consciously or subconsciously) everything that interferes with our opinion on that matter.  Here is the deal - as Christians, if we truly believe that God is Who He says He is, and that Jesus is our Savior, then we have nothing to fear.  We can be better than that - our faith is stronger than that.  We don’t have to fear science.  We don’t have to fear philosophy.  My favorite phrase, when I hear something that is a new discovery or a new idea, is simply, “Oh, so that’s how God did that.”.  At any rate, for today, I am going to pray that God would ground my faith in curiosity, that I would be assured of Jesus and comfortable enough with my faith to be open to ideas, and to learning.  In the end, God will ultimately connect the dots, and when that day comes, and all of our questions are answered, I am sure we’ll be very happy to have been on the side of faith rather than not.

In this short section today, we see a really important teaching, and I made me want to stop and reflect on it this morning.  This is a key teaching that is reiterated in several places throughout scripture, and in several places in this writing as well (in Acts).  We see Paul and Luke, who is writing, talking to James (the brother of Jesus, and a major player and leader in the church at this point) discussing all of the people who’ve come to know Jesus through Paul’s and his associates ministry.  It is a celebratory moment for God, for sure.  Then, notice the dilemma that they pose to James - they are trying to figure out how to handle this situation where there is a clash between Jews who are following the Law and Gentiles who don’t live by the law, both of whom are coming to Jesus , and they are trying to figure out how to live together in harmony while seeing their commitments to the church in a different light.  It was common for the Jews coming to Jesus to have been practicing the Law of Moses, or at least they were trying, and so they lived under a strict code of conduct and often felt, in some ways, ‘deserving’ of Jesus.  After all, they had lived a certain way, depriving themselves of certain bodily pleasures, in order that they may one day receive this promised Messiah.  So, once Jesus came, for those who believed that He was the one for which they were waiting, it was a moment of “Well, here you are...great, we’ve been expecting you, and we’ve been preparing for you.”

For the Gentiles, they weren’t waiting for Jesus.  They weren’t preparing for Jesus.  They were just living their lives, and then Jesus showed up.  Their mindset was a little more of the “Oh, man, I didn’t even know about any of this...of course I need saving, now that I understand just how lost I was, I definitely welcome a savior!”.

These 2 groups were coming to Jesus from completely different places.  One group put in all of the work and endured years of the Law and the other showed up in the last second.  I think this is precisely the point of God’s including the story about the criminal on the cross next to Jesus the day Jesus died, who was saved and promised an eternity in heaven as he was about to breathe his last breath, having nothing to give to God other than his trust...it was the drive this point home.  None of us can earn our salvation.  All of us are broken.

All of that said...today reminds us that we should constantly monitor how we practice our faith outwardly, as the purpose of our outward actions should be focused on gaining influence with others.  James (and the elders) are reminding Paul that these folks interacting in the Jewish world should act Jewish, adopting their customs to maintain influence with them, while the folks interacting with the Gentiles should avoid the customs of the Jewish law; after all, now we know the customs aren’t requirements for salvation, so don’t muddy the water with the Gentiles, keep the message on-point and focused on Jesus.  That’s a great reminder!

Paul is about to enter into Jerusalem, where we know he is going to have a  rough time (to put it lightly).  It certainly appears that Paul is aware of this as well - he is essentially telling his disciples that he knows what’s coming.  Here is what jumped out at me this morning though - Luke (who is writing this for us to read) and the other disciples are said to have felt led by God to pray for Paul, that he would not go.  Paul is clearly called by God to go.  And I think this sets up an interesting idea that is worth camping out on for a moment this morning.  And that is this - “How can God be calling Paul to go and the disciples to beg him NOT to go at the same time?”.

I think we sometimes get confused on trivial things like this...I think ideas like this can potentially trip people up in their faith.  Is God going crazy here?  What’s the deal - He is seemingly telling two sets of people 2 different things at the same time.

As I am reading this, I can’t help but to think about the personal nature of our relationship with God.  I can’t help but think about the fact that God is playing more of a 3-dimensional game of chess than what we often can appreciate.  God isn’t crazy at all - God is equipping everyone for his own calling.  Think about how encouraging it would be to a head-strong, stubborn, God-fearing man like Paul to hear the pleas of these disciples, to have them weeping for him.  I am almost certain that this gave Paul courage.  I am almost certain that this gave Paul a sense of purpose.  I am almost certain that this gave Paul something to focus on, their comfort and well-being, and kept him distracted in a small way from what was coming; what he knew was coming.  The disciples were setting Paul up for success while they were doing exactly what they were being asked to do by God...even when they probably felt unsuccessful.  Their success wasn’t related to the result that they’d envisioned, which was calling Paul off of this trip, but in simply doing what God had asked.

On the other hand, Paul was going to Jerusalem.  He knew that was his calling.  He was resolute in that.  He certainly wasn’t going to be called off, and in the midst of the cries of these disciples, I am sure Paul would have had moments where he knelt down and asked God, “God, am I getting this right?  These men, whom I know you know and know you, are telling me NOT to go.  God, what am I to do?”  You know that Paul had to have this internal battle.  In the end though, he got enough re-assurance to press on as God had called him to do.

So, again, it is the personal nature of the calling that we each receive from God that jumps out at me.  The fact that sometimes we are the only ones who understand our calling.  The idea that we should be MOST confident in what God is telling us, and that we should lean into that, and trust that, above all else.  That’s my take away from today’s reading.

In today’s reading we see, in v. 7, the first allusion to the church meeting regularly on the  first day of the week, which was probably a Saturday evening - so, if you have ever wondered where that came from, here you go.  Then we see what I think is really a hilarious scene - this young guy, Eutychus, who is probably somewhere between 8 and 14, who is in a packed room with other Christians, leaning into what Paul has to say, after listening to him speak for hours (which wasn’t uncommon at this time - which is shocking, because most Christians I know complain when service goes past an hour!),  is overcome by the heat and the oil from the lamps and actually falls asleep.   The problem is, he is next to a window and falls out the second floor window.  Upon seeing this, Paul goes down and picks him up and revives him.  For whatever reason, this just looks like a scene out of a slapstick comedy movie to me!

Then we see the chapter take a turn - Paul is speaking to this church in Ephesus, and he is awaiting his trip to Jerusalem, and he is imparting 2 thoughts on these people.  First is a plea to cling to God’s word.  He has taught for them, he has fought for them,  and he has worked himself ragged to bring the message of Jesus to this church, and to plant a church that can thrive.  He knows what will happen when he leave this time, which is his last time - he knows that false teachers will rise up, he knows that turmoil will pop up, he knows that there will be a twisting of God’s word and his teaching...he knows all of these things, but he begs them to remember the truth, and to cling to the truth.  He pleads that they will remember.  As I was reading this, I couldn’t help but think about my kids, and their eventual journey out of the house, and out from under my veil of protection.  This has to be a glimpse of what that feels like.  And yet, it is part of the journey.  That has to be what God feels like with us.  He wants to let us get out and spread out wings, and chaos and turmoil are just part of that journey.  I can feel Paul’s emotion here...I can relate to it.

Then he turns to the pending trip to Jerusalem...where he knows what is going to happen; he is going to be imprisoned, or worse, probably killed.  So, he begins begging them in a similar manner to remember the teaching, but instead of just for the sake of the church in Ephesus, he wants them to remember the bigger story; the bigger picture.  He sums up is entire ministry in quoting from Jesus himself, from Matthew 10:8, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  Those are profound words coming from a man who is marching right into his own imprisonment...doing so because he knows it is his calling, and because he knows that there are people there that need the message of Jesus.

What a great example for us this morning.  Today, even just for the day, I am reminded and encouraged to look for an opportunity to live out that mantra, to find an opportunity to give of myself in even just a small way.  It is a great way to live life in general, but it is hard to really embody that way of living for most of us if we are being honest.  So, just for the day...I am looking for an opportunity to do my part.