Acts 23 - God's plan and not my own

Paul starts Acts 23 with a statement that I’ve really never sat and thought much about before, it’s something that has always sort of blended into the passage before. “I have lived my life before God in all good conscience until this day.” Really? Can he really say that? This is the same guy that approved of the death of Stephen and imprisoned and killed early Christians, and yet he makes a statement this big, how can that be? To me, for him to be able to make that statement means a couple things. First of all, the concept of having a good conscience before God doesn’t imply or insinuate that Paul never did anything wrong. He didn’t say he was sinless before God, it says he has a good conscience. He has been honest, truthful, and forthright before God. Paul knew he was a sinner, he knew he wasn’t perfect, but he could stand there and make that statement because he knew he had repented of that sin and had been forgiven. The other part of a statement like that is that he knew in his heart that once he made the decision to follow Christ he didn’t turn back and he never wavered and it was all incredibly authentic. There have been times in my life where I have gone through the motions, when I have been in church because I was supposed to or I have prayed at dinner time because that’s what Christians do, and it couldn’t have been more fake. On the outside things looked great, and others had a positive view of what I was doing, but my conscience was a whole different story. We can lie to our friends and our family and to the people around us, but we can’t lie to the Holy Spirit, and if we are a follower of Christ the Holy Spirit greatly affects our conscience, the Holy Spirit becomes our conscience. Paul was able to say his conscience was good before God, can I? I can right now about this moment in time, but how about 3 years ago, or far more importantly how about 3 years from now?

For Paul’s incredibly bold and profound statement he gets smacked in the mouth, and sometimes that’s life. I always laugh when I read verse 3 as it seems like this reaction from Paul is one that is bottled up inside of him that he does a great job controlling, but just doesn’t hold back in this situation. I am sure there were so many times in his ministry as the Jews were denying the truth and passing judgment on him that he wanted to spout something off, and he does so here. Paul’s reference to Ananias being a whitewashed wall takes me back to Jesus’ statement to the teachers of the law that they were whitewashed tombs, nice and clean on the outside but full of death on the inside. I think it’s easy to laugh at that very accurate assessment of the Pharisees but I need to consider whether or not there are times where I am “whitewashed”. There have been times in my life, and I pray those times don’t return, where I was very white on the outside but very dark and dirty on the inside.

Paul is told Ananias was the high priest and he backs off from his statement. He shows incredible restraint and incredible resolve to obey Scripture, and he knows he is not to speak evil of a ruler. Paul knows this guy is wrong and he knows this guy is unfairly punishing him, but that is no excuse to break the law or to sin, so Paul stops in his tracks. That example is a tough one to follow. When being wronged, when enduring wrong suffering, it is so difficult to remain pure and not to sin. Everyone expects you to react, everyone justifies and excuses sinful behavior in that situation, and the easy thing to do is just give in and abandon what Scripture says. Paul didn’t though; Christ didn’t though, I shouldn’t either.

A dispute breaks out between the people and Paul is taken into custody for safety reasons and gets put into jail. What a wild time and ride this must have been, yet Paul all along is trusting that God has got it all under control.

The next section is intriguing to me as I see an example of how God can work in and through nonbelievers to accomplish his purposes. We as believers are seemingly always trying to figure out God’s will or God’s plan and how that plan is being accomplished, but it’s awesome to think about that whether or not we are seeking it out God can and will still accomplish his purposes. In fact, often he uses people that are not believers and aren’t looking for His will at all. I think of a nonbeliever that recently gave a large sum of money to go towards the plant of New Heights church, someone God is using to further his work here in Indianola who doesn’t even believe in the message of Jesus. If God can use nonbelievers, we as believers should have an incredible boldness and confidence in knowing that God will use us as well! God used this commander to get Paul out of town and to help accomplish the plan of getting him to Rome, as Paul was told would happen in verse 11. I wonder if that commander ever came to become a believer in Jesus, and if he ever understood the magnitude of his decision to get Paul to Rome, which enabled him to spread the message of the cross to even more of the world.

The Jews’ attempt to get Paul killed was foiled and he went to be held by Felix until the Pharisees would come down and present their case against him. Who would have thought that being escorted by the military and being stuck in prison would be God’s provision? If I were in Paul’s shoes I would have had a hard time being real excited about the situation and I probably would have struggled with why God was doing what he was doing. We know that’s not the case with Paul as we read the many letters he wrote, but that’s how I would have been. It is so easy to see the here and now and get caught up in whether the situation is good or bad in the short term, and not have our perspective remind us that God is fulfilling His purposes, not ours. Paul was put in prison, was beaten and stoned, all for the spread of the gospel.

What struggles have I gone through in the past or am going through right now or will go through in a few months that will serve to spread the gospel? Will I see it for what God sees it or will I whine and complain?

What joys have I experienced in the past or am experiencing right now or will experience in a few months and will I see those as God’s doing, His provision and His blessing? Or, will I take the glory and the credit and see it as having a streak of luck?

God’s plan and His purposes are far more complex and more far-reaching than my mind can handle, and I have to trust in that. Paul did, even Jesus did. So should I.