#1,297 7/9/17 Pentecost 5/L. Baumann Installation Acts 23:1-11

Fellow Ministers in the Lord’s Work,

Harry Houdini, the great escape artist, was born in 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. His given name was Erik Weisz. His claim to fame was getting out of seemingly impossible, even life-threatening, situations. His first big escape was from special handcuffs that a professional locksmith took 5 years to make in 1904. In 1908 was his great Milk Can escape when he was sealed in an oversize milk can filled with water. There was the Chinese Water Torture Cell escape in 1912 when he was lowered with his feet in stocks upside down into a water tank. He barely escaped his Buried Alive stunt in 1915. But he ended up dying on October 31, 1926 at the age of 52 in Detroit, MI from a burst appendix. Apparently, he even thought he could somehow escape death. He arranged secret code words that he would relay to his wife Bess after he died. For 10 years after his death she held a yearly séance on Halloween, the anniversary of his death, but gave it up in 1936. (www.en.wikipedia.org)

The Apostle Paul was a bit of an “escape artist” himself. We remember his escape from jail in Philippi when an earthquake caused all the prison doors and chains to come open. There was another time when he was trapped in the city of Damascus and escaped by being let over the city wall in a basket. Again and again, Paul, like Houdini, escaped from seemingly impossible, life-threatening, situations and was victorious. Paul, of course, recognized that it was the Lord God who caused him to escape and be victorious every time. In our sermon reading Paul was trapped and imprisoned and in need of escape again. And again we see that SERVANTS OF CHRIST ARE VICTORIOUS in the life they lead, in the trials they face, and in the testimony they give. What reassuring promises our God gives for our new teacher, Mrs. Linda Baumann, and for all of us servants of Christ.

I. In the Life They Lead. A. Paul’s ordeal here in Jerusalem covers three chapters in the book of Acts. When he arrived, he was received warmly by James and the elders of the Jerusalem Christian church. The Bible says: “Paul greeted them and reported in detail what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. When they heard this, they praised God.” (21:19,20) But unbelieving Jewish outsiders came in and accused Paul before the Romans of being a troublemaker. When he was taken into Roman custody, the commander even said, “Aren’t you the Egyptian who started a revolt and led four thousand terrorists out into the desert some time ago?” (21:38) “The next day” (22:30) the Roman commander brought Paul before the Jewish chief priests and leaders in the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, to clear up the matter. Our sermon reading begins: “Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, ‘My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day.’”

B. Really? Paul said that he did not have a guilty conscience. His conscience was clean!? What about what he confessed in the chapter before: “I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison”? (22:4) What about earlier in Acts when Stephen was unjustly stoned to death, and it records: “And (P)aul was there, giving approval to his death”? (8:1) Paul was a sinner, just like everyone else. In fact, he admitted to his younger co-worker Timothy that he was “the worst of sinners.” (1 Timothy 1:15) So where did he get this “good conscience”? Paul met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. This Savior, true God Himself, promised that all of Paul’s horrible sins had been paid for with His blood, His life, and that Paul, the “worst of sinners,” was a forgiven saint in God’s sight. That’s how Paul escaped a guilty conscience and was victorious in the life he led.

C. Escaping a guilty conscience and having a clean, forgiven conscience through faith in Jesus makes quite a difference. It makes for a victorious life for a servant of Christ. Do you know people who are still living in their past – people who are still haunted by sinful mistakes and failures, a guilty conscience from bygone days? They “kick” themselves, at least verbally, for messing up years ago and think they can never escape the wrong they’ve done. Do you ever feel that way? Better than Houdini, we sinners can and do escape all the guilt and punishment for our sin because of Christ. It’s all forgiven and forgotten in His book. The Apostle Paul wrote about what the victorious life meant for him: “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14) Whether you are a new teacher who recently accepted a call to a new school, or a new parent, or newly-married, or new to your job, or newly moved, or not, a clean conscience and a new victorious, motivated life is yours when, like Paul, you focus on Christ and the heavenly home He has reserved for you.

II. In the Trials They Face. A. Even though Paul’s conscience was clean and his sins washed clean because of Christ, Paul’s life still was in danger. Try putting yourself in Paul’s shoes. Listen to the terrifying words from the Bible describing Paul’s current predicament. “The whole city was aroused, and the people came running from all directions. Seizing Paul, they dragged him from the temple…While they were trying to kill him, news reached the commander of the Roman troops that the whole city of Jerusalem was in an uproar. He at once took some officers and soldiers and ran down to the crowd. When the rioters saw the commander and his soldiers, they stopped beating Paul.” (21:30-32) And in our reading when Paul stood trial before the Sanhedrin and criticized the high priest Ananias for his unfair trial, it says that “the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth.” Paul was in the hands of thugs and needed to escape.

B. That doesn’t sound like the victorious life for Paul, this servant of Christ. It sound more like defeat than victory. But wait! When the Roman commander realized that Paul was a Roman citizen himself, he released Paul from the chains. When Paul testifies at the trial, different Jewish leading groups, the Pharisees and Sadducees, start arguing among themselves and leave Paul alone. Years later this high priest Ananias who ordered Paul to be struck on the mouth and who had a reputation as an arrogant and violent person was assassinated by his own people. But, most important of all, we are told at the end of this episode that Paul was kept in the Roman barracks that night for his own protection and it says, “The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, ‘Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.’” Paul’s life and ministry weren’t over. Christ the Lord “stood near” Paul and promised that Paul would escape these trials he faced and live to serve Christ more.

C. Just to know that Christ “stood near” him was tremendous in itself for Paul. At the international LWMS convention in Florida in June a young woman who formerly worked with our WELS Friends of China and has married an Asian man reported that she is part of an underground school of 3-year-olds through 12th grade with about 10 students in each grade. They have had to relocate to 4 different places in the school’s 4 years of existence and face constant threat from the East Asian government in the country where they’re working, but East Asian people are hungry for Christian Education for their children, and the Lord Christ is blessing the service of WELS workers with victory in spite of the trials they face. That same Lord Christ stands near our new teacher and you and me and His servants today too to give us victory in the trials that we face. As the choir sang, He is the immortal, invisible, awesome Alpha and Omega. With Him standing at our side, like Paul, we need not fear any trial, but are assured of victory.

III. In the Testimony They Give. A. The reason given for Paul’s trial to fall apart and cause the Pharisees and Sadducees to start arguing against each other was because he believed and gave testimony about the resurrection from the dead. Paul testified: “’I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead.’ When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.” Paul believed, as the Bible taught, that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead on Easter Sunday. And Paul believed, as the Bible taught, that all who trust in Christ as their Savior also will bodily rise from the dead to live eternally with Him in heaven. Paul proclaimed this miraculous Scripture truth in the testimony he gave before the Jewish and Roman leaders at his trial.

B. The Sadducees were the Rationalists of their day. It says: “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection and that there are neither angels nor spirits.” Rationalists don’t believe in miracles. Miracles, by definition contradict the laws of nature and science. Rationalists don’t believe in what can’t be scientifically and experimentally proven. Of course, God is invisible and His existence is not provable by human science. Heaven is invisible and unprovable to the human eye and reason. Christian rationalists won’t believe that Christ’s body and blood are present in Holy Communion. There are many people, including those who call themselves Christian, who have the mind of the rationalist and disregard clear teachings of the Bible simply because they don’t agree with their human reason.

C. Paul and servants of Christ today recognize that, as the Bible says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him – but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:9- 10) There is much we would never know about God or His truth if His Holy Spirit hadn’t revealed it to us humans in the pages of the Bible. When we and the testimony we give are founded on the Bible, then we will always be victorious. Rationalists today will laugh and belittle Christians and Christian school teachers for the biblical testimony we give. But only fools base their lives and beliefs on mere human wisdom instead of on the wisdom of God’s Word. Servants of Christ are victorious in the life they lead, in the trials they face, and in the testimony they give. Christ has won the victory for us. Amen.