Chaos doesn't discriminate. Whether Bedlam erupts on the international stage or heartache strikes through a midnight phone call. None of us escapes these unsettling moments of mayhem. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl presents a calming message about God's unseen hand. orchestrating our peace and protection.
It's part of our in-depth biographical study on the life of Paul.
So for anyone whose world, whether global or personal, has been shattered overnight, Chuck describes the pathway to unshakable peace. Picking up the message in Acts 22, Chuck titled his message, Thinking as Paul Thought. Jesus said to me. Go, for I will send you far away. To the nations.
Ethne is the word translated here, Gentiles. He uses the G word, boom! I mean, the lid blows off. That's all they needed to hear. This man is now messing around with Gentiles.
Notice verse 22, they listened to him up to this statement, and then they raised their voices and said, Away with such a fellow. From the earth, and he should not be allowed to live.
So the commander goes back out and gets Paul and brings him in. He thinks this is going to get out of hand. And the commander says, if they can't find out the facts, I'm going to find them out for myself. Dear guy, the commander ordered verse 24, ordered him to be brought to the barracks, stating that he should be examined by scourging. Scourging so that he might find out the reason why they were shouting against him this way when they stretched him out with thongs.
So he's on the stretcher, literally. And Paul says to the man who's standing by, is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman and uncondemned? Wait, wait. He didn't know he was a Roman.
So, well, the centurion heard this. He went to the commander and says, what in the world are we doing? This man is a Roman. Verse 27, commander came and said, you are a Roman? And Paul says, yes.
Remember, Paul's straightened. Yes. Yes, I'm a Roman. And the commander answered, I acquired this citizenship with a large sum of money. Paul says, I was born a citizen.
Born a citizen? Loose this man. Therefore, those who were about to examine him immediately let go of him. What's the big deal?
Well, under Roman law, citizens were not to be tortured without a trial. Verse 30, on the next day, wishing to know for certain why he had been accused by the Jews, he, the commander, released him, Paul, and ordered the chief priests and all the council to assemble and brought Paul down and set him before them.
Now, the second trial begins. I want you to notice the very first thing that's said in this second setting. Paul looking intently. at the council. I do that sometime when I'm invited to some place to speak, and I haven't been there for a long time.
Sometimes I'll scan the audience to see if I know somebody. I'll sort of a tenidzo. And oh, I see someone there and Oh Somebody I owe money to. Right. And I will take note of who the audience is.
I think Paul wants to shape his words to fit. Whoever may be there. And he begins like Stephen began brethren. I've lived my life with a perfectly good conscience before God up to this day. He gets hit right in the mouth.
Look at the next verse: the high priest Ananias, who is a real rascal. That's a little addition there that's no extra charge. The high priest commanded those standing beside him to strike him on the mouth. He is in a court proceeding that is against even Jewish law, and somebody walks over and punches him right in the mouth. And look at Paul, he loses it.
This is so encouraging to see Paul on occasion lose it. God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall. You sit and try me according to the law, and in violation of the law, you order me to be struck.
Well, he unloads the truck. Go for it. The problem is He's wrong. And so the bystanders said, Do you realize you're talking to the high priest? And he didn't realize it.
That's why I'm thinking his eyesight is not as good as it used to be. And maybe the high priest was dressed in a garb that he didn't recognize. And um For whatever reason, Paul said, I wasn't aware, brethren, that he was a high priest. And then he quotes a statement from Exodus saying, You're not supposed to do that, it's against the law. It's his way of saying, I'm sorry I did that.
But. Please observe, straight-thinking man that he is, he perceived that one of the group were Sadducees. and others of the group. were Pharisees. This is great.
Sadducees were rationalists and they did not believe in angels or supernatural things or the resurrection or miracles. Pharisees believed in all the above. He could turn them against one another. And so look at what he does with one sentence. It's masterful.
Paul began crying out in the council, Brethren, I'm a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees. And the Pharisees are thinking, Yeah, yeah, it's good. Sadducees are going, uh-oh. I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead. Sadducees are thinking, we don't believe in that kind of stuff.
That's why they were sad, you see. Verse 7 states. Why do I do that? He said this. There occurred a dissension among the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.
I love this. He's got, you see, these guys all over each other. Sadducees say there's no resurrection or an angel or spirit, and the Pharisees acknowledge them all. And Paul is kind of, hmm. Just letting them battle it out.
Well, guess who's going crazy? The Roman commander, who isn't allowed to come inside, is waiting out there. Here's this uproar in there. He's got to go get Paul, and he brings Paul out. Nothing is working for this guy.
So he thinks, I'm going to put him behind bars. He's going to soak back there until I can find out more.
So he gets him, brings him back, and on that night, something wonderful happens. And this is the message for all of us, by the way. Sitting alone in the barracks, Having had his lights punched out by a mob, Having been in the middle of a kangaroo court in the Supreme Court of the Jews, the Sanhedrin, all of a sudden, Verse 11. The Lord stood at his side. And he said.
Take courage. For I have solemnly witnessed, just as you have solemnly witnessed to my cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome. Also. Ha ha ha. You know what that is?
That's a promise. Hey, you're safe. Plus, Rome will buy your ticket. Won't even cost you. They're going to take you to Rome.
And you're going to get to tell Nero the same thing. You're telling these people. What comfort that must have been. Out of nowhere, there is this serendipitous moment, and haven't we all had those moments? When it looks like the bottom has dropped out, there is no way we're going to make it.
Survival seems the next thing to impossible, and the Lord intervenes in one of a half dozen ways. And we realize We're exactly where he wants us. Even though it's nothing like we expected. Surprising, maybe disappointing, perhaps even disturbing. Maybe even painful.
And in the midst of it, the Lord appears in His word through His Spirit. In a sense of peace that sort of swarms all over you and says, I got everything under control. You're right where you're supposed to be. Just as you've witnessed here. You're going to go there too.
I think Paul slept like a baby. But the problems don't stop.
Soon as the next morning came, 40 of those people conspired together to take his life. The Jews, verse 12, formed a conspiracy, bound themselves under an oath, saying they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed Paul. There were more than 40 who formed this plot. Not one assassin, but 40 of them. Forty terrorists.
And they were determined, we will not eat or drink until we've killed him.
Now, therefore, verse 15, you and the council notify the commander to bring him down to you as though you were going to determine his case by a more thorough investigation. And we, for our part, are ready to slay him before he comes near the place. It's called an ambush. And it's all set. Verse 16.
But the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush. Who's he? I don't have a clue. Neither does any other section of scripture, Old or New Testament, never mention by name and never seen again. And how did he know about the ambush?
You've got to ask the Lord that. Proverbs 16, verse 7 says: When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. The Lord is at work, and he pulls a nephew from the middle of the ambush plot. Could he have been one of them? Could he have been hanging out behind the wall where the 40 met to talk about the plan?
Could he have an informant friend who told him of it and then he would be led to Paul? This is the only time, by the way, that any immediate relative of Paul is mentioned anywhere in the Bible. Here it is. Paul's sister's son. Heard of their ambush, and he came.
Talk about stepping into harm's way. He entered the barracks and he told Paul. Paul's sitting there, remember, he's just had the vision from the Lord who says, Everything's okay. You're going to get to Rome.
So he knows he's not going to be ambushed. But he thinks, I got to follow up on this.
So he says, you go. Lead this young man to the commander who has something to report to him, our commander friend. He's sitting over here having a smoke, thinking things are going to be okay. I finally got this thing under control. Look at verse 18.
I mean, it's enough to give him diarrhea.
So he took him and led him to the commander and said, Paul, the prisoner, called to me and asked me to lead this young man to you since he has something to tell you. And the commander says, Oh, yeah? What do you have to tell me?
Well, actually, there are 40 people that are going to kill Paul. What? What? He says, what? And he tells him all about it, and he describes all of it in verses 20 and 21.
Look at 22. Talk about an overkill. I love verses like this and follow. The one that follows.
So the commander let the young man go, instructing him: Don't open your mouth, don't say anything to anybody. Verse 23. He called to him, let's count them, two centurions. And he says to them, get 200 soldiers.
So each of them was to get his company, so that's 202. Get them ready by the third hour of the night, that's nine o'clock that night. To proceed to Caesarea, at Caesarea by the sea, about 40 miles away, with 70 cavalry.
So now we've got 272. And by the way, 200 spearmen. 400, yeah, 472 to 40. Yep, that ought to do it. I think so.
And they were also to provide mounts, plural, to put Paul on. He can't ride several horses at once, but he's going to ride one, and one will be brought behind in case something happens to his horse. This is, I mean, they got backup systems with backup systems. 472 armed individuals trained for battle, Paul in the middle of them. You know, the Lord said, you're going to get to Rome?
Hey. It's just part of the plan. I'm going to escort you down to Caesarea by the sea because I know what I'm doing. You are in my hand. Listen to me.
You are never out of God's hand as God's child. You feel alone, you are mistreated, you are misunderstood, your life is disrupted, things turn south when you thought they were going to go north. Stop. The Lord is in our midst. He has a plan, he is working it out, and he doesn't feel obliged to explain it.
He just on occasion brings a nephew out of nowhere. Who talks to a commander who isn't expecting him? Who connects with 472 soldiers and mounts? And puts Paul in the middle, and they bring him down. And I forgot to mention, verse 25, he writes a letter to Felix.
Here's our man, Claudius Lysius. Oh, Lysias is the first time we've had him mentioned. By the way, Felix is Pilate's successor. Remember Pilate? The one who did thumbs down on Jesus.
When he leaves, Felix has taken his place. And Felix is cut from the same rotten piece of cloth. We'll see that next time. But this commander wrote a letter to this governor, who was really called the procurator, and he says, Listen to what has happened. I'm going to tell you the whole scoop.
By the way, he never mentions putting him on the rack and almost torturing him. Of course not. He wants to live. And so he doesn't mention that to the governor. But he does say, I'm going to send Paul to you.
You've got to be aware that there are problems brewing. And the last thing Felix wanted was problems brewing.
So the soldiers, in accordance with their orders, took Paul. Isn't this great? Verse 31. Paul gets on the horse. He's relaxed.
Why? Because the Lord said you're going to go to Rome.
Well, Caesarea is in Rome. I know that. It's on the way to Rome. He is in Jerusalem, 40 miles away is Caesarea by the sea. You get a little sea breeze, enjoy the cooler weather.
You'll be able to go there with an escort. And they brought him by night to Antipatris. That's halfway. When the hills were past him, the next day, the horsemen, the cavalry, went on, and the others returned to the barracks. And when they came to Caesarea, they delivered the letter to the governor and presented Paul to him.
It's great. I just love it. You know why? Because. The Lord.
is in charge of this man's life. But you wouldn't know it. If you just look around for the evidence. Because Paul knew it, and by the way, from the time the Lord visits him until the last trial, you do not see Paul in any way upset or uneasy. He is relaxed.
He knows he has the Lord's word to count on. After five days, another trial happens. We'll get to that next time. But I do need to introduce you to a real klutz named Tertullus. Look at verse 1.
Five days after the high priest Ananias, who's a loser, came down with some elders with a loser of an attorney named Tertullus, and they brought charges to the governor against Paul, and they're all trumped-up charges. Look at them. Verse 5: A real pest this guy has become who stirs dissension up among the Jews. He didn't. He's a ringleader of a group of heresy, a heretical sect of the Nazarenes.
He wasn't. It wasn't heretical. And he even tried to desecrate the temple. He never did that. And Paul, we're going to find out next time, stood toe-to-toe with Tertullus.
and shredded all of that nonsensical presentation. As the Lord took care of him in his deepest need. What does it have to say to us? Hey, it has everything to say. You feel things a little bit out of control these days?
Nothing they can throw at us. will erase the promises of God. Nothing. Our home is not Rome. Our future is promised to us.
is heaven. Just didn't plan to get there like this, but If that's his plan?
So be it.
Now, does that mean I conduct myself irresponsibly and stupidly? Of course not. Of course, we're to be careful. Of course, we're to set up a system that's going to uh work with our Commander in chief and the plan that's laid before us. But ladies and gentlemen, Uh, nothing is out of control.
Unless you don't know the Lord, and if I didn't know the Lord, I don't know how many sleeping pills it would take for me to go to sleep at night. I don't know how I could ever be comfortable working in any building more than two stories tall. Or how I could do any kind of real secretive, serious work. If I didn't know the Lord. I mean, this is his moment to bring us.
to our knees. Finally, he's got Americans. Not feeling so In charge. Finally, We're going to have to wait on him. We're going to have to follow orders.
And we're going to have to teach our children about that. Perfect. Paul was told, You've done this here, you're going to be doing that in Rome. And He put a shield around him and took care of him and getting him all the way to Rome. The wonderful message in all of this is: in the end, God wins.
And if you're in his family So do you.
So do I. We're nowhere through the trials, but we're at a good stopping place, and so let's. Let's bow our heads. That's a good that's a good way to end this. When you look back over the journey, the path of your life.
And you take account of Your journey. Spiritually. Before the Lord God. You see a cross in there, anywhere? You see that man hanging on that cross?
Saying, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. You know the message of that cross? If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. He that has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
It all boils down to you and the cross. You in Christ. There is no promise of long life if you come to Christ. There's no promise of protection from hardship or difficulty. Or pain, or bombing, or loss, or Whatever.
No promise of that. The promise is forgiveness of sins in eternity. with God. The promise of the Word of God. And we rely on it.
We lean on it. We believe in it. If you don't find a cross somewhere in your past, then you're not in the family of God. I'm not judging you, I'm just talking straight. We'd like to help you find him.
I'd like to help you know what to do about that. You may want to write us. You may want to talk to us after this service. May want to meet with one of us in this prayer room down here. Over here to your right.
We've got counselors there. our soul care ministry. to meet with you. We'll try to answer your questions and we'll we'd like to Help you find peace in the midst of your panic. Which, by the way, is impossible without Christ.
You want to continue to live your life without Christ? I don't have any hope for you. I don't have any peace to offer. I don't have any rest. I don't even have sleep at night that I could promise you.
I know this, if I weren't in Christ, I could not sleep and I would never rest. I'd run as fast as I could somewhere. I don't know where. You wish to know Christ, now's the moment. If you do know Christ, On him you lean.
And you trust. Father, today it is a time of real trauma. We admit. Humanly speaking, it can get pretty bleak. before too many hours of the day.
uh have passed.
So we need the kind of peace that you gave this Good man, we need the kind of straight thinking confidence. And faith that rests in the promises of your word. We pray that we will return to them often. and confidently. And rely on you to get us through.
The tough times. If it is of all things in your plan to take us or one of our loved ones. We rest in you again. You are the potter. We are the clay.
You are the master. We are the servant. You're the director. We simply carry out your orders. To be where you lead us and to do what you would have us to do.
Deepen our confidence in you, dear Lord. and our trust. Even when we cannot see. where this is going. And now to him who is able to guard us from stumbling and to present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
to the only wise God. The only one. Our Saviour be glory and majesty. Dominion? and authority.
Now. and forevermore. We pray in His name. And all of his people said, Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Shuckswindahl is presenting a biography on the life of Paul. in which we're noting the amazing ways the Apostle allowed God's Word to shape His attitudes. Chuck has prepared a closing comment for today's Insight for Living in just a moment, so please stay with us.
By the way, Chuck wrote a book on this topic. It's called Life is 10% What Happens to You and 90 Percent How You React. And it's our featured resource here at Insight for Living. The title of the book comes from Chuck's long-held conviction that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. But learning to react to adversity with a biblical mindset isn't something that comes naturally to us.
In his book, Chuck describes how to let Scripture infiltrate our minds so we're prepared to handle anything life throws at us. In addition to Chuck's book, we've also created an exclusive spiral-bound 90-day reflective journal so you can put your biblical mindset into practice. Reading Chuck's book on attitudes is a great start. But there's nothing quite like sitting down with a pen and a journal to record what you might be hearing God say to you. Again, it's called Cultivating Joy in Life's Circumstances.
To purchase the Attitudes bundle, which includes both Chuck's book on attitudes and the Ninety Day Reflective Journal, call us at 800-772-8888, or go to insight. org slash offer. From our first broadcast in 1979 until this very day, Insight for Living has become a treasured companion, even a mentor, to millions of listeners around the world. Here's Chuck. There's a word I want to introduce to all of you today that you may not have used in recent days.
It's the word mentor. or mentoring. This is when one life touches another life. deeply I'm involved in mentoring two of my grandsons currently, and it's. one of the most fulfilling of all experiences I've ever had.
And as I think about how much this means to them and also to me, I want you to realize that Insight for Living is such a ministry that we believe our style of teaching touches people where they live. and it becomes a guide for mentoring others. We want to mentor you in the process of strengthening you. In your walk with Christ. helping you deal with issues that seem overwhelming.
And impossible. They are neither. Nothing is impossible with our God of all grace.
So, as you give your gifts, think of giving to those who are lost. Those who are in great need of an encouraging arm around their shoulder. And think of our outreach as that encouraging arm which will help you give generously at this time in our history when we need your gift so much. Thank you in advance for investing in a mentoring ministry. through the broadcasting work of Insight for Living.
Your gift toward the June 30th deadline will mentor others as they learn to apply the timeless wisdom of the Bible to their lives. To send a contribution in the mail, address your envelope to InsightForLiving. Post Office Box 5000. Frisco, Texas 75034. That's Post Office Box 5000.
Frisco, Texas, 75034. You can also call us at 800-772-8888 or give a donation online at insight.org/slash donate. Are you the target of unfair criticism? I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindahl describes how to respond to false charges with dignity.
Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Thinking as Paul Thought, was copyrighted in 2001, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindahl, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
