Acts 23:12-24
[The audio/video for this sermon is available here.]
Prayer: Father, we live in a land that has hated young men, despising their strength and energy and refusing to train it, and so we are reaping a great whirlwind of despair and anger and destruction. Please use this text to teach us to love the glory of young men like You do, and grant us a great Reformation through the conversion of many young men to Jesus Christ, in His name, Amen.
Introduction
This episode contrasts two kinds of young men. You have a mob of angry young men and you have the wise courage of Paul’s nephew.
We live in a world inundated with manipulations and lies, and the inevitable result of this is bitterness and wrath, particularly among young men. This is what has come to be called “red-pilling” and “black-pilling.” Red-pilling is the realization you’ve been lied to, and black-pilling is the anger and despair that often follows.
The glory of young men is their strength (Prov. 20:29). Think physical strength, but also energy, courage, boldness – the ability to concentrate on a particular goal or mission and do whatever it takes to get there.
God created men to lead and build, using their strength sacrificially for the good of those around them. But when they despair and give up hope in that potential, their strength is often twisted to destruction and evil (e.g. this Jewish mob’s vow). This is why young men must know Christ and place their hope in the power of His resurrection. God rules all the plots of men and turns them to His will. Young men who know Christ and God’s sovereignty are learning to use their strength like God does, imitating Him.
Summary of the Text
Certain Jews took a vow to kill Paul – promising not to eat or drink until he was dead, and the chief priests and elders apparently agreed to the plot (Acts 23:12-15). However, Paul’s nephew got wind of the conspiracy and told Paul, who instructed him to tell the chief captain (Acts 23:16-19). After the young man told the chief captain about the plot, the captain ordered two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spear men to escort Paul on horseback through the night to Governor Felix in Caesarea (Acts 23:20-24).
King Jesus Overrules
Just imagine how many Christians thought Paul had really blown it by going to Jerusalem and maybe even made it worse by his sermons to the Jews and Jewish leaders. But St. Chrysostom (347-407) says, “Like some king whom his bodyguards escort, so did these escort Paul.” Another commentator suggests Paul is like a Mordecai who was plotted against by these Hamans but he ends up honored publicly (Esth. 6:7-11). Despite what it might look like to some, Jesus is saying to Paul, “well done.”
God repeatedly uses the pagan empire to protect his people. The pagan politicians have their own motivations, but they are all being used by the risen Jesus to direct events to His ends. “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will” (Prov. 21:1). “A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps” (Prov. 16:9). God’s sovereignty overrules: “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good…” (Gen. 50:20)
Just as Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and Jews intended to put an end to Jesus, they only did what God’s counsel had determined beforehand would be done (Acts 4:27-28). This is the wisdom and power of God which ordained before the world for our glory, which if the princes of this world had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:7-8). And this is the key to young men using their strength for good. It is strength trained for battle. It is strength governed by wisdom.
It is common to identify the “regime” in our day as the Deep State, One World Gov’t schemes, Big Pharma, Mass Media, and there is truth to all of it, but God laughs at the schemes of men (Ps. 2). He will break them with a rod of iron, but He isn’t worried. He uses their evil schemes to accomplish His good goals or else destroys their schemes. We have to hold both of those realities together. No apathy; by no despair. Clear-eyed courage taught Paul to tell the captain of the guard about the plot.
A Powder Keg
Like the first century, we are living in a powder keg of a culture, with the primary flammable material being angry young men. Statistics of suicide, crime, drug and alcohol abuse are all led by young men. God made the world for the blessing of young men, a world where ambitious young men might explore, hunt, discover, build, invent, and use their energy and strength for the good of the world (Gen. 1-2). Men were made to sacrifice their strength for the good of others (Eph. 5, 1 Pet. 3:7, 1 Tim. 2:13). But many of our leaders in the public square and the church have rejected the goodness of masculine strength. Many have lied and manipulated young men, whether with demands of effeminacy, or lies about history, politics, or religion. (How often has Christianity been blamed for the evils of the West? And how often Christian men?) And even many Christian leaders have insisted that “sacrificial strength” simply means becoming a limp rug for everyone to walk over. As in this text, many Christian leaders have compromised with the world and evil.
But Jesus came into this world to start the great counter-insurgency. He is the Light of the World come to break the back of all darkness. He came down into our darkness, into the darkness of death itself, and He broke the power of darkness: Satan’s power of death over guilty sinners. Christian men cannot duplicate that heroic act, but all Christian men are required to imitate it. Husbands imitate it in their love for their wives. Soldiers imitate it in their selfless defense of their country. Judges imitate it by ruling fairly and in accord with God’s law. Scientists and doctors imitate it by loving the truth and doing good. Politicians do this by hating covetousness and fearing God.
Conclusion
In addition to the courage of Paul, here we have a young man (Paul’s nephew) who used his strength for good, to undermine the machinations of evil men.
The center of this strength is Christ Himself, who used His strength to undermine the machinations of evil men. God generally gives men more physical strength, but Christ is the strength of Christian men. And by His strength they lead in obedience in every circumstance: “for I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Phil. 4:11-13).
Parents, think of your sons like guns. You want them to be lethal. You want them to be dangerous. Think of their strength, their sense of justice, their energy, their concentration as good things that need to be honed, trained, disciplined, but don’t despise them, don’t mock them, don’t crush them. Praise the good; respect strength. Wives, the same goes for your husbands.
The temptation for men is often to choose the wrong sacrifice, but our duty is to embrace the one Christ assigns to us. Most men want to be heroes, but they often resent the Cross they are assigned. But since they still want to be heroes, they try to die on different crosses – which is just elaborate excuse making, and soccer flopping. It was the woman you gave me, I was tired, I was sick, I had to work on my car, and work was really hard.
But Jesus was obedient to His death, and all who follow Him must embrace the Cross He assigns. And in the face of the doubts and fears, look to the One who raised Him from the dead, the one who thwarts the plots of men and uses even pagans to exalt His saints.
Prayer: Father, teach us to be strong like you: strong in body, mind, and spirit. Teach us to train and govern our strength in your wisdom so that we might be used by You to do great good in this dark world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Photo by Fortune Vieyra on Unsplash
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