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If you haven’t been with us we have deconstructed these gatherings down to the essentials:
We begin with prayer
Sing the Word of God set to music (as a means to get it into our heads) and then we sit for a moment in silence here at the Church/Studio.
When we come back we pick up where we left off last week in our verse by verse study.
And that takes us to Acts chapter 23 verse 12.
Prayer
Song
Silence
Okay we left off last week with Paul speaking before Felix the Roman procurator in Caesarea.
In his speech he has defended himself, and said:
“14 But this I confess unto thee, that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets:
15 And have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.”
We ended covering the Resurrection with one whirlwind tour of the subject.
At verse 17 Paul continues his speech, saying:
Acts 24.17-27
Milk
August 13th 2017
17 Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings.
18 Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult.
19 Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.
20 Or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while I stood before the council,
21 Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.
22 And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.
23 And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.
24 And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
25 And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
26 He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him.
27 But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.
All right, let’s bounce back to verse 17 and pick up where we left off last week. Paul says:
17 Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings.
After many years’ absence from this place – where I was out and about in Asia minor – I came back to bring “alms to my nation, and offerings.”
We know from our previous chapters in Acts the following:
To become a believer in Jerusalem was a death sentence in many ways – but especially to physical survival.
We could liken it to a person traveling out to Utah with Brigham Young and after the community was established turning against Young and the faith.
A similar fate would have resulted.
So Paul, when he went out and about to other established churches in areas not so restricted by the Jewish culture that thrived in Judaea so therefore where believers were blessed materially with more, he would take up collections to deliver back to what he says were “alms to his nation,” meaning alms to followers of Christ where were of and dwelling in the Nation Paul came from.
We cannot help but take notice of a few principles here that are applicable in our day and age.
First, collections were taken. They were open and without obligation and they were from those who had.
Notice that Paul did not take up a collection of the believers in Jerusalem.
From this we know that the collection was needs based and not a law among believers. We also know it ONLY was done among those who MIGHT have had something to give.
I say this because many churches will take up universally applied collections from all parts of the world, regardless of the material status of the people being taxes.
This is neither good or of God – but it does make churches rich.
The second thing we notice is that the alms collected were given to believers.
Why is this? Why wouldn’t Paul establish centers to feed all the poor, regardless of beliefs.
I am going to share my opinion with you – I’ve given it some long hard though but take it for what it is worth.
When Jesus walked the earth, there were poor that were not supported by Him. We know this because even He said,
“You will always have the poor with you.”
Had He been the Messiah the Jews expected He would have, like Joseph, established stores of grain to save the Nation materially.
But instead Joseph was a type for Christ and the living water and bread He would give the world.
Humanitarian aid is good, and when possible and required should extend to all people.
But when it comes to material aid the alms gathered in the church ought to first go to helping believers – as evidenced by what Paul did here in the case of Jerusalem.
But again, why would this be?
I suggest that until a person has come to receive and believe Jesus as the savior and solution to life that God uses the conditions of the Fall – hunger, discomfort, disease, addiction and sin – to bring them TO him.
We have evidentiary support for this position in the story of the Prodigal Son, who wasting all he had, “found himself eating the husks reserved for pigs and”, as scripture says, “came to himself, rose up, and returned to his father who THEN received him with open arms.”
In other words, and this is tough medicine of which I am not opposed, until a person actually wakes up and decides to change their minds about things, supporting them materially will do more to enable them than to help them.
Mary and I have lived among the homeless for nearly a year now. We are actually in the closest proximity to their housing of all non-homeless residences in Salt Lake.
And generally speaking giving to the majority of them is equivalent to enabling them in their ways.
This is not to say there are exceptions – there are – but a police officer who runs the precinct assigned to the homeless specifically told me that for every five people who are really out to escape from their circumstances there are 95 who will say and do almost anything to be able to continue their lifestyle.
Paul took alms gathered and gave them to believers.
First, they really needed it – and the reason the needed it was their receiving Christ as Lord and Savior amidst a citizenship that put Him to death.
We also notice that God Himself did not provide the Christian citizens of Jerusalem manna from heaven. He allowed them to suffer and to have to rely on the benevolence of other believers.
This is important to see as we shift from the Old Covenant and New – because in the new, where everything moves into the unshakable, material sustenance for believers falls upon other believers who, for some reason or another, have been blessed with much.
We cannot ignore the fact that as a result of choosing God the poor (who are poor because they have chosen God) are sustained by others who have also chosen God, but have been blessed with much.
But when believers who are materially blessed assist unbelievers the effects are often counter-effective and only serve to keep them from Him rather than bring them to Him.
I know this sounds sort of cold and insular and kind of Mormon-like, but in all our years of ministry to some of the most lost in and on the streets we rarely – maybe once out of a hundred – see a person draw closer to God.
Typically they only dig deeper into their failing ways and our benevolence only serve to enable this.
The challenges are multi-fold for Christians when they refuse to help those who ask.
First, Christians have to figure out how to avoid feeling guilty for rejecting those who ask (and are in obvious need) for help,
Second, Christians need a way to qualify or vet people to see if giving to them will help or hinder them in their lives, and finally
The Christian’s need a biblical justification that enables them to effectively implement a giving policy in their lives.
In response to the first issue, where Christians have to figure out how to avoid feeling guilty for rejecting those who ask (and are in obvious need) for material help I think we have to understand the contextual nature of giving in the Bible and not just read the words POOR and GIVE and assume they always work together.
They do not.
I think it is also wise that when consulting those who are in the business of helping the indigent – like Christ Crosswhite of the Salt Lake Mission – that they will tell you straight up:
“DO NOT GIVE THEM MONEY.”
Think of it this way:
In Jellystone, there are signs all over warning people not to feed the bears. Is this mean? Is it cold and calculated?
No. Its loving and ultimately what is best for them. You see, Yogi and the other bears, when they learn that all they have to do is ask for food to get it, Yogi loses the innate desire to hunt for himself.
Before long all the other bears invade the part of Jellystone where the people feed the bears, and all involved begin to feel a loss.
Well what about the bears that can’t feed themselves, due to nature and nuture?
There are plenty of resources in place to help and assist such. Give to them. But free yourselves from feeling guilty for refusing to enable a bear who wants you to fund his choice of lifestyle.
This leads us directly to the second problem Christians have:
How to qualify or vet people to see if giving to them will help or hinder them in their lives.
You want to help the suffering wisely and not feel guilty for refusing requests on the street or from strangers?
Support our local food banks, our local missions, and our local shelters.
Give them your money. They are in the business of deciding and vetting and know far better than we do who and how to help.
If you want a short stop you can bring your clothes or food here and those who need them here can take them first and after a while the rest will be taken to the shelters.
Perhaps most importantly, we come to our third problem:
That most Christian’s need a biblical justification that will enable them to effectively implement a sound giving policy in their lives.
First, we have the fact that Jesus said that we will always have the poor with us and that He justified the using of a woman’s most prized possession ON HIM.
This is one biblical directive all Christians have when it comes to how to appropriate funds – look to what promotes Him as the solution, not just on bread that corrupts.
Also, remember this example given by Paul, that the alms were distributed to believers in need.
Then also remember the story of the Prodigal son, and that God uses the pain and suffering of life to bring many people to their senses.
But there is more biblical support that I think is often overlooked that should give every Christian an idea on how to give and relate to the poor of this world. It’s located in the story when Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath.
We read in Luke 4:16 where it says:
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he (God) hath anointed me (Jesus, Lord and Savior and Messiah) to
preach the gospel to the poor;
he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Jesus was citing the Old Testament prophesies of Him as the promised Messiah. And there, right off the bat, it says that God sent Jesus to
PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR.
When John the Baptist was in jail and losing faith he sent some of his followers to ask Jesus if He was really the one or if he should look for another.
We read in Matthew 11:4
“Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: the blind receive their sight (this was literal when he walked the earth spiritual since He ascended), and the lame walk (again literal in His day as a sign of the principle), the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up (and literal in His day and spiritually figurative in ours – and listen to what Jesus ends with) “and the poor have the gospel preached to them.”
Finally, when Peter went to the temple in Acts chapter 3 he met a man who was lame from birth and scripture says he looked up to Peter as if to receive alms and Peter said to him:
“Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.”
Was Peter without any money at all? I doubt it. I think he was saying, Silver and Gold I have none that I can give to you, but what I can give you is the gift of mobility – and he healed him, with material miracles, again, being the mode in which Christ and His apostles were known in that day.
But we, in Jesus name and as His followers, have every right to say to all who ask,
Silver and gold I have none that I can or should give to you but to my most valuable possession you are welcome – and share the Good News.
In other words, Christians, and the churches that represent Christ, use their resources to feed the poor the Gospel!
That is what Jesus gave the poor, this is what Peter gave them, and this is what we give them, in his name and as His disciples.
If you want to feel guilty, don’t feel so bad for refusing to enable the impoverished in their preferred lifestyles – that is a good thing – but perhaps we could feel a greater need to give them the thing that will truly make a difference in their lives – the Good News.
In the Spirit of this I have prepared a pamphlet that you might carry in your wallet or purse for those who solicit you for your financial help.
HAND OUT- WORK THROUGH
Okay, sorry – a tangent – but the whole thing has been wearing me down and I personally think this approach will help achieve some good toward the problem.
Okay so Paul’s total speech here is
17 Now after many years I came to bring alms to my nation, and offerings.
18 Whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude, nor with tumult.
In other words the men who were from Asia minor found me in the temple and I was not gathering a multitude neither was I creating an uproar or a tumult.
Then speaking of these men Paul adds:
19 Who ought to have been here before thee, and object, if they had ought against me.
In other words, the guys who started all of this and were accusing me of polluting the temple with the presence of a Greek ought to be here as witnesses against me.
Then he adds (at verse 20)
20 Or else let these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me, while I stood before the council,
Meaning, “since they are not here to witness against me in regard to what occurred “then let these who are here bear witness against me, if they can, in regard to any other part of my conduct while I stood before their council.”
At this point we are presented with a decision as verse 21 is not easily understood.
Paul has claimed innocence to causing any problems while in Jerusalem for his twelve days.
He says that those who have a witness otherwise either should be there to charge him or those who were there should speak up and prove it.
But at verse 21 he offers an exception of some sort and says:
21 Except it be for this one voice, that I cried standing among them, “Touching the resurrection of the dead I am called in question by you this day.”
Was Paul saying that it was only on this occasion that he instigated an uproar or was he admitting to purposely misleading the group as to why he was apprehended which lead to an uproar?
I personally believe that all Paul was saying was, I kept the peace through all my time in Jerusalem except the one time I cried out before the Sanhedrim that, “touching the resurrection of the dead he was called into question.”
There are those who believe that Paul was actually repenting before Felix and admitting that he did, in fact, stir things up before the Sanhedrim that he shouldn’t have stirred up.
It’s a personal decision on how you see it. May the Spirit guide. (verse 22)
22 And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way (Christianity), he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.
There is division on the interpretation of this passage.
Erasmus, Martin Luther, Michaelis, Morus, translate it as,
“Although he had a more perfect knowledge of the Christian doctrine than Paul’s accusers had, yet he deferred the hearing of the cause till Lysias had come down.”
They observe, that he might have obtained this knowledge, not only from the letter of Lysias, but from public rumour, as there were doubtless Christians at Caesarea. They suppose that he deferred the cause, either with the hope of receiving a bribe from Paul, (comp. Ac 24:26,) or to gratify the Jews with his being longer detained as a prisoner.
Others, among them men like Beza, Rosenmuller, Grotius, and Doddridge, believe that it should be rendered,
“He deferred them, and said, After I have been more accurately informed concerning this way, when Lysias has come down, I will hear the cause.”
When the experts disagree we sometimes just have to sit back and form a view and be settled with it in our hearts.
23 And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.
It seems apparent that Felix saw Paul as a persecuted person but he was also disposed to satisfy the Jews so he detained Paul but gave him great liberties.
There is also the idea that Felix was waiting on a donation from Paul’s friends that would expedite his release.
24 And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.
Drusilla was the daughter of Herod Agrippa the elder, and was engaged to be married to Epiphanes, the son of king Antiochus, on condition that he would embrace the Jewish religion; but when he backed out the marriage proposal was broken.
Afterwards she was given in marriage, by her brother Agrippa the younger, to Azizus king of Emesa, upon his consent to be circumcised.
Apparently he was because the wed. But when Felix was governor of Judea, he saw Drusilla, desired her, and sent a man named Simon (one of his friends, a Jew, who was said to be a magician) to convince her to forsake her husband and marry him.
Felix. Josephus says that she was “prevailed on, to transgress the laws of her forefathers, and married Felix.”
(Josephus, Antiq. b. xx. chap. vii. 1, 2.)
She was, therefore, living in adultery with him when she and Felix came to Paul.
It is believed that this was the reason that when Luke reports on what Paul said to Felix and Drusilla he is cut off, saying nothing more about any other topic, when he mentions temperance and the judgment to come as temperance is a general term for tempered living, including chastity. So verse 25
25 And as he (Paul) reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.
Listen again to this first line of verse 25 because it seems that Felix and Drusilla were having an audience with Paul out of sheer entertainment.
But instead of a casual conversation with the somewhat notorious figure that came out of Judaism, Luke writes that Paul
Reasoned of righteousness, temperance AND judgment to come.
As Spirit filled believers, we are at liberty to say what the Spirit moves us to say.
Sometimes it is not the most articulate, sometimes it is not what we would naturally say.
In years of live television with live telephone calls there were times when a caller would launch into one thing but the Spirit moved us toward something else.
Occasionally people would ask, “Why did you go down that road,” and all I could say was I have no idea.
It seems that this was how Paul was led before Felix and his unlawful wife – perhaps he delivered the ONLY message that might break through their calloused hearts.
We will later see that Felix did not have ears to hear.
In any case, Paul readily obeyed their summons and
“Reasoned of righteousness, temperance AND judgment to come.”
Now Paul is the one who said that he only preaches Christ crucified – so we must believe that this was a preamble to doing just that.
His approach in speaking of righteousness and temperance AND the judgment to come was similar to Jesus approach to the Jews that we read about in the Gospels.
They had the law, they were guilty under it, they were not righteous by it which would all lead to their need for Him.
This is the method of the way of the Master – prove to people that they are guilty before God before preaching Jesus as the solution they need to receive.
To Felix and His Jewish wife this would have been highly convicting.
The word translated, of righteousness better means, of justice, not necessarily from God but between men.
This was Felix’s job – to mete out justice between men – and being accustomed to bribes and other deviancies he was guilty.
The term, temperance, in our day – due to things like the temperance movement – means moderation and/or restraint in regard to eating and drinking – especially of alcohol.
But the original word means the restraint of all the passions and evil inclinations; and may be applied to prudence, chastity, and moderation in general.
This, of course, would have hit both of them right between the eyes.
And then Luke says that Paul also speaks of “judgment to come.”
Interestingly enough, the Greek word for of judgements TO COME is mello – and it means the judgments that were about to come upon those of that age.
Here Paul could have cited Jesus words to describe the approaching horrific end of all who were not right with God.
What was the response to Paul’s message?
“And as he (Paul) reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.”
The Greek word for trembled means he was agitated or alarmed, not necessarily that he was physically shaking.
He was alarmed and terrified, perhaps envisioning the coming judgment and his fate if left unchanged.
It seems that Felix was unaccustomed to being shaken by others and we might suppose that the Spirit of God by the words Paul spoke reached his heart.
So he says to Paul
“Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.”
All people have the choice in life when they are presented with the truth. In Acts chapter 16 we read about a jailer who when presented with the truth asked:
“What must I do to be saved?”
According to Luke Felix was troubled but instead of asking what he should do, he sent Paul as a messenger of God away.
Why?
Bottom line he was evidently not prepared to break off with his sins and to
Turn (another word for repent or change his mind).
So instead of obtaining the inner peace he obtained peace by removing the source of his discomfort.
We do that. We distance ourselves from the sources of things that make us uncomfortable and surround ourselves by people and things that comfort us and our ways.
Simple, obvious human nature.
Too much Jesus in there. Not enough Jesus in here.
We seek out and relish in the things that make us feel secure and at peace and at home with ourselves.
Felix has been confronted with the truth. He was living a lie, in darkness – and Paul shined a light into he and his unlawful wife’s life.
It was too much for the powerful man to take and his solution was to send Paul away.
More next week.
Q and A
ON BOARD ANNOUNCEMENTS:
August 20th Open Water Baptism and Hot Dog BBQ 11:30 to 1:30 All are welcome.
October 1st Adam’s Road with the McCraney Sisters opening.
Monday Night Recovery Group 6PM
Tuesday Night HOTM 8-9PM
Thursday Night Bible Study 6PM
PRAYER
