Ebb and Flow – Acts 25:1-3

At the end of the Lewis and Clark trail, between Seaside and Canon Beach, Oregon is the Tillamook Light House.

It was built in 1880 and was one of the great engineering feats of its day.

It stands on a tiny island about a mile off the edge of Ecola State Park; both are outstandingly beautiful.

I suppose that it’s open to debate, but one web-site said that it is the third-most weather beaten lighthouse in the world.

For 125 years that building has been attacked by winter storms, tsunamis, and twice-daily tides, but it still stands.

I understand that in an effort to save it and have money enough to maintain it, the Tillamook has been turned into a columbarium, a kind of cemetery

Like the waters around the Tillamook Light house, these verses teach us a little about the tides and stability.

They remind us of the ebb and flow of humanity, but the permanence and dependability of Truth of God.

“Heaven and earth,” and islands and lighthouses, “may pass away but my word shall not pass away,” saith the Lord.

So Governor Felix was replaced by Governor Festus.

It sounds like some sort of old TV or radio show – Amos and Andy, Felix and Festus.

As I said last week, this Festus appears to be a much better Governor than his predecessor.

But as someone has said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Who knows what sort of person Festus might have become if had the same opportunity as Felix.

He sailed from Rome and eventually arrived to Caesarea.

I wonder how long the average trip like that took.

It could have been wonderful.

There were two major ports for Israel at that time, and Joppa was nearer to Jerusalem,

but Caesarea was the seat of the Roman Government, and it had the improved harbor,

so that was Festus’ obvious destination.

Right away, he began to show what sort of person and Governor he really was.

Rather than settling into his new house and Roman high society in his Capital,

he basically dropped his luggage, shook a few hands, took a quick cat nap,

and rode up the road to the Jewish Capital.

At least initially, he appears to have put his responsibilities before his personal pleasure.

When he got to Jerusalem he introduced himself to the Jewish leadership, and then very quickly heard about Paul.

Let’s briefly notice four things this evening:

The stubbornness of sin, the influence of the Truth,

the dangers of the ministry and the providence of God.

First, the STUBBORNNESS of SIN.

Let’s do a little experiment: Think back and tell me about the foremost thoughts of your heart two years ago.

Two years ago, two years ago…. The first week in November, 2003………..

I have a hard time recalling what I was doing two weeks ago,

and two months ago is almost impossible to remember.

Weren’t we making plans for a Labor Day picnic or something like that two months ago?

That seems like nearly an eternity.

Two years ago?

For about two years Paul had been incarcerated, immured – jailed – in Herod’s Judgment Hall in Caesarea.

It had been two years since Paul had been walking the streets or the temple grounds of Jerusalem.

It had been at least 24 months since he had preached a public sermon.

In fact it may have been a couple of years before that he had actually preached the gospel in Israel.

AND for two years the hatred of the Jews toward him had not abated.

I have to think that when Festus arrived in the city and met with the new high Priest, that there must have been many important topics to consider.

If Paul wasn’t at the top of the list, then he must have been very close to it.

The word “informed” – “the Jews INFORMED Festus about Paul” is the Greek word “emphanizo.”

They expressed and emphasized their continuing problems with Paul.

But if they had been honest, they would have emphasized their continued hatred of Paul.

The lesson in this is that sin doesn’t decline, go into remission, or abate.

Man’s emotional relationship to sin can potentially moderate and lessen, but the sin itself doesn’t.

And that doesn’t necessarily mean that our emotional attachment to sin will automatically change.

For example, while in Deming I met a long-distance truck-driver who was married to a beautiful woman.

That man had a propensity toward jealousy, and with each successive two week trip away from home, his concern over his wife’s faithfulness intensified.

There was absolutely nothing for him to fear, because she had love for no one but him,

but he couldn’t free his mind from the possibility of her infidelity.

(Probably all the wicked country-western music that he listened to, contributed to his problems.)

It didn’t matter how much counseling he received, and how strongly she pleaded her faithfulness and love, he refused to believe the truth.

And he actually caused what he feared the most: his wife eventually divorced him out of fear for her life.

Have you ever been hurt by someone, and looking back on it, your anger over that hurt, grew and grew?

Is there someone from your past, whom you have essentially forgotten, but if someone mentioned his name, your blood would immediately begin to boil?

Sin might be likened to a disease, like a skin cancer, which is not going to go away of it’s own accord.

It’s either going to grow and grow until it consumes and kills you, or it will so mark your body that only surgery will be able to improve your appearance.

The hatred that these Jews had for Paul was just as intense two years later as it had been on the day that they tried to kill him on the temple grounds.

Even though the leadership of Israel had changed, the heart of Israel was just the same.

The problem was that, actually, their hatred was against the Lord, and not just his servant.

In the midst of this I am just a little curious about the relationship of the Sanhedrin to the Jerusalem church.

Was their hatred as strong toward them as it was toward Paul?

Were James and others causing as much consternation as the Apostle Paul,

or had there been some sort of compromise reached and truce put into place?

And if that was the case, what do you suppose the Lord thought about that?

Or was it that during the preceding two months, the church in Jerusalem had been ground to powder, and there was more time and energy to vent upon Paul?

I simply don’t know.

But getting back to the point: that the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed Festus of Paul, reminds us that sin does not disappear of its own accord.

Of course a corollary to that was the ONGOING INFLUENCE of PAUL.

Those priests must have seen Paul as a particularly uncommon threat.

The ministry of Paul in Israel, in Nineveh and throughout the Mediterranean was apparently still having it’s effects on Jewish society.

Maybe the mouths of most the other apostles had been stopped,

and the church in Jerusalem was a silent minority,

but the very existence of Paul was a threat to their theology, their positions, and their very way of life.

Who knows what power a Spirit-filled Christian might have over the wicked lives of others.

Who can say today what influence you might have on someone else years after your departure?

But whether those Jews understood it or not, it wasn’t Paul who was their problem.

He was a just a man, perhaps the best man for the day and hour, but he was just an human instrument.

It was the Lord who was whittling away at the power-base of the High Priest.

It was the Truth of God which was eating away at the heresies of the unorthodox Jews.

And that Truth wasn’t going to die with the murder of the Apostle Paul.

The Sanhedrin had bigger problems than the life of this incarcerated Gospel preacher.

Remember the plot that had been laid against Paul, which brought about his quick journey to Caesarea?

There had been above 40 men who had vowed together not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul.

They then approached the priests and almost ordered them to make arrangements to expose Paul to their knives and swords.

But God, through a young man and the chief captain in Jersualem, delivered Paul from their wicked plot.

On this new occasion, however, the plot came from within the Sanhedrin and the priesthood.

It makes me wonder about a couple of things:

Do you suppose that those 4 dozen assassins were still plotting and stirring up the wrath of the Jews?

Again, who is it that is the pestilent fellow and the mover of sedition among the Jews?

And what roll do you suppose that this new high priest might have had in that earlier plot?

Could he have even been among the original forty or more?

Just as the sinfulness of sin isn’t going away without the grace and power of God,

the second lesson of this passage is that neither is the positive influence of the Truth of God.

A third lesson is that the DANGERS of the CHRISTIAN MINISTRY are not going away either.

One part of the equation which we don’t have is about what sort of ministry Paul had during those 24 months.

Over the last few weeks, I have made several suggestions about how Paul spent his time.

But how many Christian visitors did he have during that time, whom he taught and strengthened?

And how many of the Romans – his guards, some of the family of Felix, aides to the Governor – did Paul introduce to Christ Jesus?

And how many unbelieving Jews grew curious, visited Paul, and became believing Jews in the process?

Was this the reason that the hatred of this High Priest hadn’t subsided?

Was Paul still stirring up the Jews around the world through his on-going, but limited, ministry?

Or, let’s say that Paul’s ministry was nearly snuffed out for those two years.

That being true, he was still considered to be a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

He was a non-roving ambassador; a hero; and even though not yet dead – a kind of martyr.

And whether he was a ring-leader or not, he was at the very least a member of the hated sect of the Nazarenes.

There are hundreds of places in our world today, where to be baptized is to sign your own death certificate.

There are hundreds of places in the world, so Satanically possessed, that to be child of God, means the threat of death.

I read an article just the other day which said that in the State of Jalisco, Mexico, Huichol Indian mobs are attacking, murdering and burning members of Baptist churches.

In the State of Chiapas, Mexico, where my friend Darwin Robinson worked for many years,

Tzotzil Indian villages are requiring the practice of their hybrid native/Catholic religion, because so many are turning to Christ,

and if people don’t comply and bow to their idol gods, those people are killed with machetes.

Bert Craft, a ring-leader of the sect of the Baptists in Southern Mexico, is in fear for the safety of his family.

In Honduras, the property of one of the churches of Brother Ted Tweet has been attacked.

And what could we say about Africa, South East Asia and the lands of the Muslims and Hindus?

In many places in our word it is a dangerous thing to believe the Truth.

And it’s even more dangerous to be a “ring-leader” in the spreading of that Truth.

The dangers of the ministry are not going to go away.

They are going to intensify until the Lord returns at the close of the Tribulation.

But in the midst of it all, we see the PROVIDENTIAL HAND of the LORD.

Felix arrived in Israel and almost immediately traveled up to Jerusalem to meet with the Jewish leaders.

He laid aside his own personal needs to show the High Priest that he was there to serve the nation.

He had sweeping powers, and other than doing things which would endanger the Empire or brake her laws, he had plenty of options.

So when the Priests said that they wanted Paul to stand trial before their council once again, Festus could have complied, but he didn’t…..

Why did Festus refuse to bring Paul to Jerusalem?

It might be argued that it was because Felix had informed him about Paul before he left.

Or it might be argued that Festus was particularly wise and could see through the plot.

It might be said that Paul just got lucky when Felix made his of-the-cuff refusal.

But the fact of the matter is that the Lord was out to protect one of His own.

The Lord still had a work for Paul to perform; He wasn’t finished with him as yet.

Furthermore the Lord doesn’t delight in the pain and slaughter of any of His people.

“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations [their trials], and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.”

Now returning to my opening illustration:

The will of God is the island rock standing in the midst of the ocean.

And the light house is the Truth and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The hatred of the enemy may dash against them with all its might, but they are not going to come down.

And the tides of humanity may rush back and forth, coming and going twice a day, or twice a minute, but they aren’t going to wear down the resolve or the will of the Lord.

God is going to have His way – ALWAYS.

And it doesn’t matter what the hatred of His enemies or the foolishness of His friends might try or do.

The will of the Lord standeth sure.

“The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.”