Read Acts 23:12-27 and Acts 24:22-26.

Prayer - Sovereign God, fill our eyes with a vision of Jesus Christ, that no matter who we are, even an anonymous nephew, or a dedicated civil servant, or a great missionary like Paul, we may find our place in the greater story of Your Salvation on earth. In the Name of Christ we pray, amen.

If there is any one message of Scripture, it is that God loves the world from its beginning to its end. Despite how it sometimes seems, God has not abandoned the world He made. That includes empires, nations, and even their political systems. God is still present to redeem even in the parts of your world that frighten you the most.

We are now in the midst of those long chapters of Acts on Paul’s imprisonment. This is usually where we tune out, where we get bored with Acts. But, they are dramatic moments in the life of Paul, and in the life of the first church. Three times he almost lost his life to an angry mob, and three times he was saved by a Roman tribune named Claudius Lysias. The first time, when the crowd found Paul in the temple and dragged him outside to tear him apart, Lysias rushed into the fray and arrested Paul to save his life. The second time, Paul stood on the steps of the Fortress Antonio, and armed with only the Gospel gave his defense to the crowd who again went after him. The tribune Lysias saved his life again. The third time, Paul was being tried by the chief priest and elders. His words resulted in a violent brawl with Paul in the center, and again Claudius rushed in to pull Paul from the violence and secure him inside the fortress.

Today’s text begins with a controversy. Forty devout men make a religious vow to kill Paul before they eat or drink again. They convince the chief priest and elders to ask the Tribune to send Paul to them, planning to capture him along the way and take his life. But Paul’s nephew hears about the plot, and he rushes to Paul and then to the tribune to warn them of the conspiracy.

We really don’t know a thing about Paul’s nephew, his sister's son. In a text filled with important public figures, Luke tells us about an anonymous nephew who comes to Paul’s aid as a private investigator. This private eye shows up in this sacred drama only long enough to do something wonderful. Just like us. In the grand scheme of things, most of us are not public figures. We’re just anonymous people who once or twice in our lives have the opportunity to do something heroic, and this is our moment. The nephew isn’t named because the story really isn’t about him, or even about Paul. The story is about the Salvation of God, of which the nephew, the tribune and even Paul only have supporting roles. That is what our life is about too – the story is really not ours. We are a continuation of God’s story.

You cannot enjoy the story of your life if you set out to make yourself Paul or Felix, the star of the show. That is an incredible burden to bear, and an unrealistic expectation. If that is how you view your life, your story will be too short, too painful, too uncertain, or too inadequate. Remember that even Paul could not see his life the way we see it. To him, he was just an apostle traveling around starting some struggling churches. We cannot be guaranteed a starring role – the most we can ask is the opportunity to make a difference. Paul’s joy in life, and ours, comes from realizing that we are part of a greater story of salvation that began before we arrived and will continue after our little heroic act is over. In the story God is writing, there is so much mystery. Nothing is more mysterious than the way He uses strange and anonymous people to bring about His salvation.

Hearing the nephew’s news, the Roman tribune again sneaks Paul out of town and sends him away to the provincial governor, Felix, in Caesarea. To keep Paul safe, he also sends him with the protection of 470 soldiers. Now that is great security detail! Not even the president has such a force. So, for a fourth time, the tribune has saved Paul’s life.

Remember, this tribune is not a believer, that we know. He can’t seem to figure out Paul’s message, or what he has done wrong. When he sends Paul to the Roman governor in Caesarea, he also sends a letter that says Paul has not broken any Roman laws. Whatever this is about, it is not some internal religious matter. The tribune respects the religious leaders of Jerusalem, but he prohibits them from killing Paul because it would be unjust. His job is to uphold the law, not to just satisfy the crowds. Unlike Pilate who gave in to the crowd, this Roman servant upholds the law and does the humane and just thing. So Paul’s salvation comes not from the religious leaders, where you would expect it, but from a Roman bureaucrat who is used by God, even though he is not part of any religion.

Now don’t miss Luke’s point: Paul’s life was being saved by an agent of the Roman government. There are other texts in the New Testament, namely I Peter and Revelation, that speak to the later evils of the Roman Empire and its conspiracies against Christians. That is certainly one biblical view of empire – that governments are evil; that Rome is the enemy of Christianity. But that is not Luke’s view of Rome, and not the only biblical view of government and politics. Luke has a vision for how God can even use the servants of the government to further The Kingdom and support God’s servant. For Luke, the Gospel was no threat to the Roman Empire, and one of the empire’s servants over and over again demonstrated how Rome could come to the aid and protection of God’s servant. I’m not suggesting that Luke is an advocate of big government or bureaucracies; I am simply suggesting that Luke does not see Rome as incompatible with Christianity, and sometimes it can even be its friend.

Even in the midst of a great persecution, Paul called the Roman government “God’s servant for your good.” (Romans 13:4) and he called upon suffering Christians to pray for their rulers. Why? Because even as the church was persecuted, it also spread The Gospel message on roads built by Rome. They enjoyed Roman peace, which made it possible to travel and preach. The Roman language gave the people all a common language by which they could hear and understand The Gospel. As we see in this text, Roman justice even protected the church and its people. When the church started to build church buildings, they modeled them on the Roman Basilica. But most of all, they were thankful for Roman law. Their Jewish heritage taught them that law is a grace from God to order our life together and to bring justice where there is injustice. Whether it was the ten commandments of Moses or the twelve tablets of Rome, the law was always perceived by the church as a blessing. Writing in the second century, an early church leader, Irenaeus, praised Rome, saying, “The world is at peace. We walk the highways without fear. We sail where we will.” In using Rome, Irenaeus said, God has illustrated that “the whole world is His possession.”

That same affirmation was central to what Paul was preaching. In his letter to the Colossians he reminds the church, “In Christ, all things in heaven and in earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers – all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is Himself before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-20)

Now folks, that doesn’t leave out much. In fact, it doesn’t leave out a thing. You can’t say, “Well, yes, but not my workplace. I’m the only believer there.” Or “Not Hollywood. They are determined to destroy Christianity.” Or “Not our schools. They all are set against religion.” Or “Not politics. Politicians are all just self-interested, power hungry people.” Or “Not my marriage. It is too far gone.” Or “Not my ex-spouse.” Or “Not France.” No, none of these. They may at times seem like the enemies of the church, or the enemy of what you believe is best for you. It may seem that God has abandoned those places. But the Bible could not be more clear – all things have been created through and for Jesus Christ, and they all are coming together in Him.

All things, including governments and politicians, may not act as if they belong to God. But they do. All things are under His power. He may have leased it out, but He holds the title. Rome belonged to God. So does your government. So does the president. So does the courts, even the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. So does Hollywood. So does your boss, your parents, your children, your marriage, your ex-spouse, and even the things that most cause you alarm.

It won’t always appear that way, but God’s prophets always have declared that we choose to affirm, not the world’s rebellion, but the reign of God over it all, even to this day. To announce The Gospel is to tell people everywhere that it may look broken now, but it is all coming together, reconciled by God! The world and everything in it was made by, through and for Jesus Christ and He will not abandon it.

I want to propose today that we stop using the word “Christian” as an adjective. The Bible never uses the word as an adjective. It only uses the word three times, and in every case, it refers to people, and never to things or to a religion. It doesn’t call a college a “Christian college.” Or a radio station, or a song, or a non-profit organization. There are now even Christian Yellow Pages, and it really gives me the heebie jeebies. Now come on, how can the Yellow Pages be “Christian”? Those who advertise there may be Christian, but the yellow pages are not Christian. I am not suggesting that there are not good reasons for colleges that are Christian, or for music that is Christian.

However, the term was first used in Antioch to refer to people who were Christian-ian, to people who looked like Jesus Christ. To live in Christ is to discover that all things were created through Him and for Him. It is our mission and message to announce that Great News to all the places where evil still reigns – that we know why things exist and where they are going. As soon as we designate only a certain part of our world as Christian, we imply that the rest is un-Christian and headed for hell in the proverbial hand basket. Nothing could be further from the truth. All things belong to God.

That means then, that within biblical boundaries, everyone and everything can become an opportunity to serve the Kingdom of God.

We tell a lot of lawyer jokes, and I suppose some of them are merited. But the problem with lawyer jokes are that sometimes they nearly imply that you can’t be a lawyer and be a Christian. Or a politician. I was once asked at a preacher's luncheon how I could have possibly combined ministry and law into one career, and I reminded the person that Martin Luther and John Calvin were lawyers too, and so were many of the church’s greatest thinkers and leaders. Law and politics, when given to God by people who are living in Christ, can become vocations to the extent that they seek to bring order and justice, and in so doing, approximate qualities of the Kingdom of God. They do not approximate the Kingdom of God in any way when they become the tool of greed and ambition.

Other times, as we have seen today in Acts, governments and their servants may not believe but they can be used by God for His purposes. That is not a statement about the goodness of government so much as it is about The Sovereignty of God. And maybe that is Luke’s real point.

It’s true in all the professions and jobs where you find yourself. Your professions can become another form of worship when they begin to approximate some quality of the Kingdom of God – peace, justice, order, compassion – it is not so much that your jobs are to usher in the Kingdom of God as that they can begin to in some small way represent the qualities of The Kingdom as you give yourself over to the life and character of Jesus Christ. Karl Barth called these places and professions 'pockets of The Kingdom.' When doctors work tirelessly for the healing of patients, they in some way approximate the Healing Hand of God. When teachers knock themselves out to guide their students into truth, they are leading their young people to truth and thus to Christ who is Truth. When parents take time to love their children, they are implanting in young souls a thirst for the love of their heavenly Father.

Regardless of where you are called, you can be used by God for The Mission of God.

One of the dangers I see in the church today is a movement by some to characterize all of culture and politics as evil. If this were true, Christians should just withdraw themselves from these evil institutions such as our museums, public schools, movies and government service! I believe that this view could not be more unbiblical, dangerous and wrong.

It is true that the Bible tells us that governments can be evil roaring lions ready to devour God’s people. But Romans 13 and this text today tell us that governments also can be the servants of God for good in the world. So it is with all the places you fear God has abandoned. Perhaps it is not the calling of the church to withdraw from these places so much as it is to first love them and then be used to transform them.

Christians should be the last people to defame government and politicians, artists, actors or public school teachers. I have a serious issue with our people who give in to the same slander of political figures as those on talk radio. I have an issue with so called Christian radio hosts who tell us that the devil is hiding under every rock in Washington, Hollywood and New York. The problem is not their criticisms of government or politicians, which are sometimes valid, but that a layer of hate and anger seems to be hiding somewhere beneath the surface of it all. And that is a far cry from The Spirit of Christ.

God is at work in all of the places you fear He has absented Himself. If you don’t believe me, I’ll take you to the rooms on Capitol Hill where congressmen and their staffers across party lines pray every morning before they begin work. I will take you to the offices of Hollywood executives where Bible studies are taking place and where spiritual values are being represented in film. I will show you Christians on Wall Street who are devoted to corporate ethics and good business. I will show you public school teachers who demonstrate the character of Christ in their classrooms every day.

I do not believe that the church is called to hide in a subculture where we all agree and share the same values. I believe the church is called to follow Christ back into Rome, where God always is at work, bringing about His Kingdom both there and everywhere for His eternal purposes. God has not abandoned Rome, or Washington, or Hollywood, or Paris. God is at work everywhere to reconcile everything to Himself. 

The earth and all that is in it belong to God. There is no place where Jesus is not. "All things were created by Him and for Him. And in Him all things hold together." Even you and me.

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