Evil Plots Can’t Stop God’s Plan
Acts 23-24
When have you felt like evil was closing in on you?
Drowning financially
Family feels challenging
Marriage is struggling
Weighed down by guilt
Health is in crisis
Workplace is full of drama
A combination of complexity is mounting
Paul the apostle, after escaping an angry mob and narrowly escaping the corrupt Jerusalem council that wanted him dead, now had 40 violent conspirators committed to not touching food until they killed Paul.
They planned to tell the Roman Tribune, Lysias, in charge of Paul, that the council needed to revisit Paul’s case and then secretly kill him on the way.
Evil was closing in around Paul.
But then Jesus speaks to Paul.
JESUS SPEAKS TO PAUL
Acts 23:11
“The following night the Lord stood by him and said, ‘Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.’”
EVIL PLOTS CAN’T STOP GOD’S PLAN
WHY?
01. JESUS STANDS BY YOU.
02. JESUS SOVEREIGNLY SAVES.
03. JESUS SILENCES THE ACCUSER.
04. JESUS SENDS YOU TO CONTEND.
01. JESUS STANDS BY YOU
THE LORD IS WITH US
“The Lord stood by him.”
Paul had to have felt alone.
But when we are alone, Christ is ever with us!
I was with some of the Garden Students serving at kids camp this week.
Two boys shared that they suffer from anxiety but they know Jesus brings peace.
Two girls said they often feel lonely but they know that with Jesus they are never alone.
We truly have a friend in Jesus!
Even in the darkest seasons…
THE LORD KNOWS US
“You have testified…”
Everyone Paul shared the Gospel with in these last few chapters tries to kill him.
He must have felt as though no one saw the work he was doing and those who did hated him for it.
But Jesus saw it all.
He affirmed the work!
A Quaker went to visit the Puritan leader John Bunyan in prison to encourage him.
When he finally found him he said:
“Jesus sent me to find you and I searched half of the prisons in England!”
Bunyan replied:
“That cannot be, for if the Lord had sent you, you would have been here at once for He knows I have been here for years!”
→ The Lord sees all our working and suffering for Him.
Paul had bravely stood for Christ as murderous mobs surrounded—but he was too humble to console himself with that fact—until Jesus stood by him affirming his work.
The sound must have felt so sweet to his ears to hear his Lord and hero say:
“You have testified the facts about me in Jerusalem.”
Maybe you feel unseen or unappreciated, wondering if your service of God is vain.
The Lord sees it and knows it full well.
THE LORD ISN’T FINISHED WITH US
“So you must testify…”
Paul must have been battle-weary by this point.
He’s been hated, chased, thrown out of town, stoned half to death, and now plotted against in the holy city by his own people.
I’d be ready to call it quits.
But Jesus isn’t done with Paul.
He is pushing Paul all the way to Rome to preach before kings.
Jesus is still using you too.
Some of us feel tired, beaten down by life, or ready to throw in the towel.
But as long as you're still breathing, God has work for you to do.
02. JESUS SOVEREIGNLY SAVES
Paul’s nephew hears of a new plot to kill him and Paul has him tell the Tribune.
Acts 23:19–21
“The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, ‘What is it that you have to tell me?’ …more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him.”
It’s unclear how old Paul’s nephew was.
The phrase “took him by the hand” probably implies a small boy.
The point?
→ God uses Paul’s small nephew to save him from a murderous conspiracy.
Later Lysias the Tribune sends 70 Roman soldiers to guide Paul safely to Felix.
→ God uses a Roman army to transport Paul.
These soldiers think they’re EXTRADITING a PRISONER.
They don’t know they’re being used by God to safely ESCORT His PREACHER.
Jesus can save using any means He wants.
He uses a no-name little nephew to intercept the plot, or He can use 70 soldiers from the official Roman army.
There is nothing in all creation that is off-limits from God to use to bring about His redemptive purposes in the world.
Romans 8:28
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
03. JESUS SILENCES THE ACCUSER
Acts 24:5
“For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.”
PLAGUE
The point is that like plagues, Paul’s Gospel is infectious.
This Gospel idea is spreading rapidly and is constantly stirring up riots.
We should be spiritually infectious.
Some of us are not spiritually contagious at all.
We’re too safe.
No one will catch what we have inside because the way we live for Jesus is not attractive at all.
SECT
Sect = Αἵρεσις → “Heresis”
“A body of men following their own tenets (sect or party).”
The original meaning is faction or distinction, like a religious sect, but it began to take on a negative doctrinal connotation very early.
2 Peter 2:1
“They will secretly bring in destructive heresies…”
THE ENEMY DOESN’T GET TO NAME YOU
Accuse = Κατηγορέω → “Categoreo”
To accuse.
This is only the human manifestation of a spiritual reality:
The accusation of the Enemy.
In The Passion of the Christ, Mel Gibson depicted Satan as a terrifying, genderless hooded figure watching from the background as Jesus was falsely tried, flogged and crucified.
Why?
Because that is what happened.
Revelation 12:1–5
“And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun…pregnant…crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth….And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations…”
The enemy is real.
He often works through human actors.
Don’t be confused, we are involved in a real spiritual war.
When the enemy tries to categorize you, remember what the Lord calls you.
DOCTRINE: IDENTITY IN CHRIST
The trouble is, Paul is innocent but often we are not.
What should we do?
→ Cling to Christ!
Charles Spurgeon:
“When he died, the arch-enemy received his death-stroke. That death was the bruising of Christ’s heel; but in that death he bruised the old serpent’s head. Now there is hope for the world.”
I met a pastor from Mexico City recently who went to prison for drugs.
He said they call you by a long number.
He rattled it off to me.
He still had it memorized more than a decade later.
He’s a new man, but he can recall the number he was referred to as on command.
Why?
He said you are made inhuman.
They call you by a number to make you like a number and demoralize you as nothing more.
It breaks you down to feel as though you are nothing.
That’s the point.
But when he got out, he was called by his real name.
In the same way we have a new name in Jesus!
Revelation 2:17
“To the one who conquers…I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”
In Jesus, you can be set free from the shame and condemnation for your sin.
You can receive a new identity and new name.
04. JESUS SENDS YOU TO CONTEND
Acts 24:22–26
“But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, ‘When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.’ [23] Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.
[24] After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. [25] And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, ‘Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.’ [26] At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him.”
Paul Before Felix, 1752 by William Hogarth
Felix was notoriously corrupt—a freed slave—and a worthless leader.
His personal life was sordid.
He went through three wives, the third is Drusilla who was known for legendary beauty.
DRUSILLA
Drusilla is significant:
She is the daughter of Herod Agrippa I.
This is a demonic family.
Herod the Great — tried to kill Jesus by slaughtering Bethlehem’s boys.
Herod Antipas — beheaded John the Baptist for calling out sin.
Herod Agrippa I — killed James, imprisoned Peter, then died under judgment.
Herod Agrippa II — later heard Paul’s defense.
Herod Agrippa I was her dad.
FELIX
Interested in the Way — knew much (likely) because of his wife.
Convicted by the Way — righteousness, self-control, judgment.
Exploited the Way — hoped Paul would pay him.
Offended by the Way — “Go away.”
This was Felix’s opportunity.
But instead of receiving it humbly—he rejected it pridefully.
We have the opportunity to do the opposite:
Does it feel like falling in love?
Paul was SENT.
This is not a coincidence.
It had God’s fingerprints all over it.
All these details are too uncanny to be merely coincidence.
Brother showed up.
Paul CONTENDED despite the opposition.
Look at the truth he was teaching this man.
All of them confront his sin!