You're listening to audio from Faith Church, located on the North Side Of Indianapolis. If you'd like to check out more information about our church and ministry, you can find us at faithchurchindi.com. Now, here's the teaching. Hey, good morning. Quick show of hands, any of you who were, oh, roughly preschool to, you know, junior high within the last four or five years, or had kids in those ages, or grandkids in those ages?

So, if that was any of you, you may be familiar with or heard or at least know the film Encanto. And if that doesn't ring a bell, you probably remember being asked incessantly to listen to Surface Pressure or We Don't Talk About Bruno, the most mistitled song ever because that's all the song is, is talking about Bruno. I do not understand the, I think Disney hires, like, chemists or something to figure out the brain wiring to get these brain worms in our heads that we just keep having to listen to over and over. Encanto is a story of an extraordinary family, the Madrigals, who live in, the mountains of Colombia in in a magical house in a in a vibrant town, a charmed place called an Encanto. And the magic of the Encanto itself has blessed all the members of the family with unique gifts, superhuman strength, or the ability to make plants grow, or super hearing, or, being able to heal people with the food that they provide, even controlling the weather, seeing the future.

Everyone in the family has a special gift except Mirabel, the protagonist of the story. And as a result, Mirabel is often overlooked, looked down on by her more important seeming relatives. But then the members of the family that have gifts start to see their gifts weaken, and and the house itself actually starts to crumble. And nobody seems to be able to do anything to reverse this or solve the problem. And even though Mirabel discovers a prophecy that she might actually be the cause of everything falling apart, who end up saving the day.

It's Mirabel, the girl with no powers, the one who just seems ordinary, who becomes the hero. In this story, deliverance comes as a surprise through an ordinary person and some unexpected circumstances. It's it's a common theme in literature. Right? Like the the hobbits from the Shire and Lord of the Rings become the the ones that save Middle Earth.

The the unknown boy is the one who pulls the sword out of the stone and becomes King of England. And in a sense, that's kind of a picture of what today's story in Acts chapter 23 is about. About God fulfilling his promises in unexpected ways. Now the setting is the Apostle Paul is being held in the Roman barracks in Jerusalem, and he doesn't realize how at risk he is. There's this group of 40 would be assassins who take an oath to commit themselves to not eat or drink anything before they have gotten rid of Paul, and they go to the chief priests and elders, the religious leaders, to get them in on this plot.

And the entire group, says, you call Paul to come back in under the pretense of giving an explanation and examining his case, and we'll take care of the rest. Paul in danger, but ultimately the Sanhedrin, the temple, all of Jerusalem, because the Romans will almost certainly retaliate to a provocation like this. This is a really delicate dire situation. Paul is at risk. It seems like the the gospel is at risk.

The Jesus movement is in danger. The city is at risk. God has promised Paul, just before this passage, the end of the reading from last week, in verse 11 and says, take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, you will testify in Rome. How is God going to deliver Paul in the face of these threats? How is he going to fulfill this?

As we go through today's story, I hope it'll be an opportunity for you to maybe be encouraged to look on your own life and see some of the ways that God has provided unexpected deliverance, surprising help. Maybe you're in a place right now where you feel like you need God to show up and do something surprising because it's hard to anticipate something good coming out of where you are right now. It's hard to see how God could fulfill his promises in what you are facing. But God fulfills his promises, just often in unexpected ways. That's what this passage is about, I think.

God fulfills his promises mobs threatening him to kill him three times now, and he's in custody in a Roman garrison when the Lord tells him. This isn't the end of the story. You will be my witness. And, and, I can imagine that it would be hard for Paul to envision how in the world this is going to take. And he's in a prison in to be just increasing threats and danger and opposition to him.

And, yeah, he's also seen God do amazing, unexpected, miraculous, and, yeah, it's given Paul this encouragement. Take promise that problems will disappear. It's an assurance that the Lord will give us what we need and will ultimately fulfill all that he's promised to do. Acts chapter 23 in your Bible. If you're in your Acts, study journals, it's page one thirty six.

And we're gonna look together at how God fulfills his promises in unexpected ways in this passage, and I think what it might mean for our lives as well. So first of all, one of the things we see is that God is fulfilling his promises through unexpected people. God's fulfilling his promise through unexpected people. I mean, first of all, we learn about the existence in verse 16 of Paul having a sister and a nephew apparently. Like, where did these people come from?

I didn't know Paul had a family. And it raises all kinds of questions for us. Where are they? Does he have other family members? How did we not know about them?

Are they also followers of Jesus? We don't know. It it could be any of those things. It could just be that they happen to hear the story from some of the talk going around Jerusalem. But he overhears these ambush plans, and he goes to Paul in prison to give him a warning.

And Paul describes in verse 17, when he calls one of the centurions, he says, take this young man to the tribune. And the word he uses there for young man is the same word used for that young guy Eutychus, if you remember his name. He's the one that, when Paul was preaching too long, as pastors are won't to do sometimes, preaching past midnight in this case, and he fell out of a window to his death, and then God raised him from there. He was called a young man. It's in fact actually the same word used to Paul, back when he was holding the garments of the religious leaders as they were stoning Stephen to death earlier in the story.

It can generally mean anyone from a teenager up to about age 30. Telling us you're not too young for God to use. I mean, this is a young, maybe 20, but it doesn't just strictly mean that for us. You're not too young, you're not too old, you're not too anything, you're not too unknown for God to use you. This guy just shows up on the scene, and he steps in to do what needs to be done.

Maybe God works through you in an amazing way that thousands and thousands of people are gonna hear about. But maybe not. In our story, the commander, at the end in verse 22, hears the young man's report and dismisses him saying, don't tell anyone about what you've told me. Which if you think about it as kind of odd, like how do we know that he told him that if he told him not to tell up? I guess he told him after the fact, like when the when the danger was.

-And then, yeah. -And then, yeah. -And then, yeah. -And then, yeah. -And then, yeah.

-And then, what's in this We don't know any more about then what's in this past Right. It's an otherwise unknown young person who simply followed God's leading that God worked through in a surprising way. But there's another surprising, unexpected person that God works through in the through in the story, the the Roman commander. In verse 17, as when the nephew comes to visit him, Paul calls one of the centurions and says, take this young man to the tribune for he has something to tell him. Young man to the tribune and said, you know, relates the story.

And then look in verse 19. The tribune takes him by the hand and brings him aside privately and asks what's going on. And then again, takes this very seriously and tells the young man, okay, make make sure you don't tell anyone about this. I mean, for one thing, this tribune is the commander of the Roman Garrison who was like on the verge of having Paul flawed illegally in the last chapter. It's a bit unexpected that the guy who was about ready to beat Paul senseless is now stepping up to protect him.

Now he's concerned about Paul's well-being. His oppressor has become his defender in this passage. I mean, partially because he knows how much trouble he's gonna be in if it comes out that he almost flogged an unconvicted Roman citizen, but also because now the responsibility for this uncondemned Roman citizen is his, and his protection of Paul is this thing that he takes seriously. God is fulfilling this promise to Paul through some unexpected people. I grew up in a church going home, but didn't really come to faith and become a follower of Jesus until my early twenties.

But, coming to know Jesus, my story was not like most people's. I didn't have a friend who, you know, reached out to me and, introduced me to Jesus. I didn't have someone who kind of, you know, I had a relationship with, who explained what it meant to know and follow the Lord. I was flipping channels on my TV one night in grad school and found some hillbilly Arkansas preacher with an accent so thick, you know, it sound like I could hardly even understand him. And I started watching him for the entertainment value, because I had never heard anything like this before, especially growing up in a liturgical, Episcopal church environment.

Talking about Jesus and how God sent his son to die for us so that I could be forgiven for my sins. God used an incredibly unexpected person in my life to do an amazing thing. And, you know, even beyond that, after I started growing in my faith and studying more, I found out this guy actually has some really bad theology on some secondary level doctrinal issues, and I'm actually kind of embarrassed, and I don't want to tell you who it is because I don't want you following the guy. The churches may be facing in this cultural moment, to want more people to know about to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to and people coming to faith in Jesus simply because someone reached out and thought, you know what? I'm just going to take a step of faith.

Maybe I have a hard time expecting that God's going to do something with them. And an everyday missionary where God first doubted or even opposed us as we tried to talk to them about our faith and about who Jesus is. Maybe God will give you an opportunity even to be an advocate for someone you wouldn't have expected, having an opportunity to speak up on behalf of. God fulfills his promises through unexpected people. Three chapters in Acts in detail, which, you know, is our common habit.

But all this drama and violence that that is kind of coming to a culmination has essentially happened in three days. The temple to worship, which leads to an angry crowd accusing him of defiling the temple, and then he has to be rescued, and then he goes back in and says, let me go try and talk to him and calm him down, which of course, you know, just made everything worse, so he has to be rescued again. And then, Paul has to be dragged away by force, and he's almost flogged. He's put in Roman prison. That's all on day one.

The next day, he speaks to the Sanhedrin, the religious leaders, where he's slapped in the face, and then the dissension that erupts there, almost causes another riot where he has to be rescued by and then now on the start of this third day, a group of Jewish zealots have come up with this plot to assassinate and we if it was the same day that Paul's nephew heard about the plot, but but we kind of get the sense from Paul that things are moving very quickly. This is like an urgent, you know, sirens, eleventh hour emergency thing going on. And and right away, Paul goes to the, Paul's nephew goes to see him in prison, and Paul tells the centurion, and they go to the tribune. And and then suddenly, as we see as we're gonna see next week, the tribune organizes this military escort to take him to a more secure location. So, okay, just three riots requiring the officials to step in, a physical assault, imprisonment, almost wrongly beaten as an innocent man, and now a serious plot to assassinate.

Right. Like, for some of you, maybe your week has felt like that. Maybe your month, maybe this year has felt like that. Like, what in the world is going on? This is not how I thought things were gonna, like, work out.

It's just all crazy all the time. Right? And can God be in the middle of that? A dozen huge, scary, unpredictable, unexpected things happening all at once. Divorce.

And sometimes our lives are like that too. Of seasons of mundane, ordinary, doing laundry, and taking kids places, and doing homework, and filling out reports, and going through life. We're tempted to think like, on And we're tempted to think like, on the one hand, maybe because it's just been a long season of a lot of the same ordinariness that God's not doing anything there. Or in the middle of all the craziness and a million things happening at once, it can be hard to think that God's present and working here because everything's chaotic and out of control. And you're thankful for boring ordinary days and seasons like that.

Unexpected the problem is not God's timing. It's just sort of, I think, honestly, our expectation of God's timing. Expect and when it's gonna happen, and so I can plan in advance and not be taken by surprise. And I want enough excitement that it doesn't get boring and mundane, but not too much all at once. And God has any has God done that for anyone here?

Like it just it never goes according to our plan. And can I believe that that God is working out his plans, that he's fulfilling his promises in unexpected timing? Something behind the scenes, like is happening in this passage. Paul doesn't know about this plot. Paul doesn't know about his nephew.

He just suddenly becomes aware. God's doing something in the middle of all that. And it doesn't mean he's not at work in the middle of all the craziness and all the stress and all the unplanned, unexpected things. God's going to deliver Paul because he's promised to, and he's going to ultimately deliver us and bring us home to himself, either when we die or when he returns. And that will be unexpected.

God has promised that Paul will be his witness in Rome, and he's going to fulfill that promise in unexpected timing, and that's true in our lives too. But the third thing is God also fulfills his promise through some unexpected results. Unexpected results. One of the things that we wonder about as a result of this is, did the forty conspirators here die of starvation? Did did they die, like, they didn't get to carry out their plan?

Did they did they die of thirst on the way? We don't know what happened to them. But, there there was a Jewish commentary on the law at the time that said, in the event that a vow becomes impossible to fulfill, those under it are released from its terms. That's a handy little, you know, exit clause. So they probably didn't starve to death or or die of dehydration.

But what's unusual what's unexpected here is a couple of reversals terms of results. For one thing, these 40 guys who plot to kill Paul, at least nominally devout Jews, worshipers of Yahweh. They would call themselves followers of the law. The people who are here supposed to be shaped by God's law, by God's standards, by God's standards, by God's commitments, and commandments, and commitments and commandments, promise themselves to violate God's commandments in order to do something that they think God would really be pleased with. Maybe that makes us pause and think.

Are there things that, you know, it seems like it's so important that this needs to happen? That that maybe I'm tempted to cut corners on some of the things that God has made pretty clear in his word are supposed to define what followers of Jesus look like. It doesn't matter if I think I'm accomplishing some good thing for God if the fruit of it is not the fruit of his spirit, if it's not love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and gentleness and faithfulness and self control, Paul goes on to say, then then there's something else at work. There's an unexpected reversal here, an unexpected result of people who say they're following God end up committing themselves to do something that's an absolute rejection of everything they say to the brain. And even more so, the priests and the elders who are supposed to be the shepherds, the leaders, the models to God's people, are apparently willing to go along with this assassination plot.

I mean, they they demonstrate they are exactly what Paul called them back in verse three, whitewashed walls, people who are looking good on the outside, And at the other side, the Romans, you know, the the gentiles that the Jews looked down on, the hated oppressors, the foreigners turned out to be the only ones apparently interested in law and justice. The people who don't have the law of God are the ones who are actually trying to do the right thing and reflect God's standards. The response of the tribune is unexpected. Again, remember, right, he's not a friend of Paul or the gospel or Jesus. He probably even know who Jesus is.

Couldn't care less. But he ends up becoming the unexpected outcome of him hearing about this is not like, well good, one less problem for me to worry about. No. We've got to stand up and do the right thing here and this is an outrage. And and the unexpected result is because of God fulfilling his promise.

I mean, not just in verse 11, but remember back when Jesus first appears to Paul on the road to Damascus, and then and then Jesus also appears to Ananias, this believer, and says to him, this man, Paul, is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. Ultimately, Caesar, and officials in Rome. Paul writes about this later, in the book of Philippians, writing to them from prison in Rome, where he ends up. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become known to the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. Paul's able to see in the middle of an unexpected reality, an unexpected result, being thrown in prison, being caught in this Roman justice system, and all these plots and threats against his life have ended up putting him in a place where now he has an opportunity to share the good news of Jesus with people that he might not have had an opportunity to otherwise.

People in positions of power and authority are hearing about Jesus because of Paul's imprisonment and these threats against his life. That is an amazing unexpected result of what God is doing here. Many of you, I think, heard the news. My mother-in-law, Judy, passed away recently after an extended illness and months in the hospital and rehab and assisted living. And it was definitely not the timing she wanted.

It was not the outcome that she wanted. It was not necessarily even being around the people that she wanted to be around. But at her memorial service, we heard story after story of how my mother-in-law, Judy, just always radiated kindness and compassion and and concern for other people and and encouragement. I mean, think about being in a place you don't wanna be around, people that you wouldn't have chosen to be around in physical limitation and decline and difficulty and pain, and to see that God could bring an unexpected, wonderful result out of that. That that God could produce something amazing as we believe that he's actually with us and can work through us in what we're experiencing.

How might God use what you're going through to produce some unexpected results? You're in an unexpected situation, an unwanted difficulty, an undesired struggle. I think I've covered everyone here, that all of us at some point. Do you believe that God could actually fulfill his promise that he will bring good out of it, that he could be working for the good in that unwanted unexpected difficulty? Because that's his promise.

And he's working for the good in those things. Not that those things are good, but that God can take what is unexpected, unwanted, maybe even ungood, just to carry the parallelism, and actually bring an unexpected good out of it. Think about the reality that you're living in, whether it's good, bad, neutral, where you're living, what's going on in your life. Do you believe that that God's promise that he can use that to be an opportunity for you to reflect his truth and his beauty and his goodness to people around you? Because that's what he's promised.

Not just that Paul will be a witness, but that we will be witnesses. You are witnesses. We get to be the everyday missionaries and everyday evangelists, witnesses to Jesus, in all the unexpected places that he takes us that that produce unexpected results. Finally, the the center of God's promise is Jesus, the unexpected savior. We we don't wanna leave this passage before we remember that.

I mean, there's so many ironies to these stories, but but one of the great ones here is in verse 12 where these 40 would be assassins make a plot and bind themselves by an oath to neither eat or drink until they have killed Paul. And it ends up being that oath that is what leads to Paul's rescue. Right? Like, we swear before God that we're gonna die or in the process or kill Paul, and that becomes the very thing that brings him forth. It's the the word there is literally to call down a curse on oneself, to anathematize oneself.

May I be cursed before God if I don't do this thing? And ironically, they are the ones who end up becoming cursed. In the ultimate great irony of all this, these 40 assassins in their unknown way are mirror images of Jesus. They brought a curse on themselves so that Paul might live, but not intentionally, unintentionally. Jesus willingly goes to the cross undeserving of death and curse and takes our curse on himself.

Not as a as a powerful conquering impressive hero, but as a meek, humble, willing to the slaughter, to be sacrificed, to to pay the penalty for our sins, so that taking our curse on himself willingly in love, we would be freed from the curse. Unexpected savior, because our world values power, and strength and conquest, and Jesus lays down his life in order to bring us life and shows us what true life looks like in that way. I think what Luke wants us to see here is more than anything, God's promise cannot be overruled by humans opposed to him. God's promises are never gonna be thwarted by anything that anyone says or does, and that gives us hope and confidence in the trials and the difficulties and the unexpected realities that we all are facing or we all will face. We can trust God's promises to us.

He doesn't promise to protect us from trials, but to protect us through the trials. God fulfills all his promises in unexpected ways. He hasn't told Paul how he's going to get him to roam. He hasn't told Paul when he's going to get him to roam. He's just told him he's going to do it, and to trust him.

And the Lord hasn't told you how he's going to bring you home to himself, or when he's going to do it. He hasn't told you how he's going to make all things work for your good. He hasn't told you how he's going to complete the work that he's begun in you. He hasn't told you all the steps, or what the process will look like, or all the difficulties you'll face, but he fulfills all his promises to his children. In Jesus Christ, often an unexpected way.

So you can trust him for the things that he's promised, but you haven't yet seen him do. He assures us he will give us what we need, and that he'll be at work, and he'll be with us. And it all Have you trusted that savior? Are you trusting him? You can trust him.

He wants you to trust him. He wants you to know his grace, his forgiveness, his hope, his presence, his promise. Because God works to fulfill his promise in unexpected ways, but he has the power to do all that he has promised to do, and he will do it. So trust him. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you. You are the God who is always working on our behalf according to your promises. You're at work in ways we don't see before us, and in us, and around us, and through us. And that doesn't always make life easy, but it gives us hope and perspective like nothing else. Oh, Father, you tell us that you do all things well, even when you don't do things the way we wish.

Through joys and sorrows, when your love is real and obvious to it, and when your ways just are so confusing, you are worthy of worship and trust. Father, I pray for us. I I pray for all who are living with more mystery than clarity, who know more fragility than security, who have more unrest than peace. By your spirit, by your word, by your providence and through our friendship and encouragement, bring your presence and kindness and hope and trust. And father put on our hearts those whom we can touch and encourage, and give us the grace to welcome the touch and the help of those you send to us.

We all need you. We all thank you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.