From time to time I drive with my headlights on during the day, e.g., when it is raining. Once in a while, when I get where I am going, I forget that my lights are on. I turn off the engine, open the door, and a high-pitched warning sound reminds me that the lights are on. If for some reason the warning buzzer failed and I left the lights on, another system would automatically turn the lights off after a short while to protect my battery.

We call these devices conveniences, and our life is full of them. Everything from garage door openers to self-regulating thermostats and answering machines conveniently makes routine events easier and safer. We Americans are almost childlike in our delight at these clever tools. And I say, good for us. I hope we never stop inventing ways to make life easier and more fun by removing drudgery from our experience.

Also like children we are liable to fantasize that our latest tool of convenience means that our lives will be free of inconvenience and personal distress. Somehow, life doesn’t cooperate. Other inconveniences take the place of the old ones. If anything, the new ones seem more troublesome, because we don’t expect them.

We expect life to be less troublesome. By gradual steps of unexamined ideas we come to the conclusion that we have a right for life to be less troublesome. When it continues to be troublesome, we then have to cope not only with these new inconveniences but also with feelings of having been treated unjustly by their irritating intrusion into our peace and tranquility.

We sometimes complain about the entitlement programs that congress has voted into law. But the reality is that we who complain also have a very deep sense that we are entitled to a life that is as free of inconvenience and personal distress as we can possibly have. This entitlement mindset does not prepare us well for actual life, and it may rob us of one of life’s richest and most profound possibilities.

It is somewhat jarring to read what I am about to read without much warning. But it is not nearly as jarring as experiencing what I am about to read without much warning. The Apostle Paul wrote this in Romans 5:3. We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance.

Thinking that we are entitled to a life that is as free of inconvenience and personal distress as we can possibly have is to live in a different world from someone who rejoices in sufferings. The proposal I would like to make to you is this: our sense of entitlement is misbegotten. Not only do we not escape inconvenience and personal distress, we don’t escape suffering. Our real challenge is to embrace inescapable suffering and learn what it means. That’s where the Apostle Paul across the years becomes our teacher.

Remembering the Context
Last Sunday, we saw how Paul’s good faith effort to help James and the elders of the Jewish Church to put down rumors led not only to a worse rumor about Paul, but it led to a mob scene in which impassioned men were trying to beat Paul to death. He was rescued by the Romans only to be put in chains and suspected of being a terrorist. His attempt to tell his story to the furious crowd ended in even greater mayhem, and he came within an inch of being flogged. A second attempt at reasoned discourse ended in complete mayhem and the danger of being torn to pieces.

And how did Paul later assess this dangerous and unending series of events in his life? He wrote in Philippians 1:12: Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.

Luke recorded that series of dangerous and painful events, and his record occupies Acts 21-23. But the record doesn’t stop there. Paul’s sufferings continued, and I want to see if we can follow them to the end of Acts today. But what really matters is the meaning Paul came to see in his unrelenting sufferings.

Paul tells us what that meaning was in Philippians 1. Paul wrote this short letter while he was in prison in Rome. It was in Philippians 1:12 that Paul said of his sufferings, Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. He wasn’t blaming his enemies, and he wasn’t consumed with self-pity. He saw them as a means to advancing Christianity in the Roman Empire. But he makes another statement in chapter one that is equally important.

Verses 15-16 contain that statement. It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry (that had to be difficult and disappointing), but others out of good will. The latter do so in love knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

“I am put here,” said the Apostle – here in this Roman prison. But who put him there for the defense of the gospel? God put him there for the defense of the gospel. Now, we have to listen to Luke’s story of the human process that put Paul in a Roman prison, and all along the way, remember his conviction that God was at work within the human process. Let’s go back to Acts 23:12.

Seeing Suffering in God’s Plan
The next morning the Jews formed a conspiracy and bound themselves with an oath not to eat or drink until they had killed Paul. More than forty men were involved in the plot. They had a plan for getting him in their clutches. They were foiled in the most unexpected way. Verse 16: But when the son of Paul’s sister heard of this plot, he went into the barracks and told Paul.

Paul persuaded one of the centurions guarding him to take his nephew to the commander. He told him of the plot, and the commander did two things. He wrote a note to the provincial governor, Felix, in the beautiful seacoast city of Caesarea, and he assembled a detachment of two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen (v. 23), who escorted Paul to Caesarea by night.

Verse 29 sheds light on the official Roman attitude toward Paul. Claudias Lysias, the Roman commander wrote to Governor Felix, “I found that the accusation had to do with questions about their law, but there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment.” Innocent or not, Paul was still in custody and still at risk.

Chapter 24 records the hearing before Governor Felix. Paul’s accusers, including Ananias, the High Priest, made their case. Paul made his. Verse 22 is interesting. Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way (with Christianity), adjourned the proceedings. “When Lysias the commander comes,” he said, “I will decide your case.” Whatever sympathies Felix had toward Christians, he was still a cynical man.

Verse 26 illustrates his cynicism. At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him. Verse 27 dismisses a matter of enormous injustice as if it were a small inconvenience. When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

Where was Lysias, the commander? Did he not come to Caesarea for two years? Why didn’t Felix just let Paul go? And how did Paul view this terrible injustice. I am put here for the defense of the gospel. What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. But what about the cynical treatment? What about your innocence? What about two lost years of your life and ministry? I am put here for the defense of the gospel.

The new governor, Porcius Festus, was no better, and even after two years, the old passions still ran high. Acts 25:3 says that Jerusalem urgently requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. Some things don’t change in the Middle East.

Festus tried to make it happen legally. In a hearing in which Paul protested his innocence, verse nine says that Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?” Paul knew nothing of the plot to ambush him, but he knew his life wouldn’t be worth much in Jerusalem.

According to verses 10-11, he answered, “I am now standing before Caesar’s court where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar.”

Roman citizens, such as Paul, had the legal right to appeal to a higher authority than a provincial magistrate of any rank. “The right was confirmed by Augustus in” a document, “which protected Roman citizens throughout the empire from high-handed decisions of provincial governors, summary punishment, execution, or torture” (Acts, Fitzmyer, 746). Festus could no longer dispose of Paul’s case, and so verse twelve reports that after Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!"

 By the way, do you remember what Jesus said to His followers in Mark 13:9-10? “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.”

Before Festus sends Paul to Rome to be tried in the Roman court system, an old friend, a provincial king, Agrippa, and his wife, Bernice, paid him a visit of state. Festus told him about Paul’s case, and Agrippa asked to hear Paul for himself. Verse 23 sets the stage. The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high ranking officers and the leading men of the city.

Festus opens with a hypocritical speech in which he declares Paul’s innocence but had remanded him to custody to be sent to trial in Rome, only because Paul had appealed to Caesar. Agrippa took over the meeting and gave Paul permission to speak. Acts 26 records Paul’s speech, and for the third time in the book of Acts, we hear the story of his conversion to Christianity on the Road to Damascus and his call to preach the gospel to the Gentile world. He made a direct appeal to King Agrippa in verse 27. “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do?”

Agrippa’s answer is famous. “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul responded, but the interview was over, and the irony of verse 32 is very bitter. Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free, if he had not appealed to Caesar.” He could have been set free, if Festus had not been cynical and greedy and playing both sides of the street.

Acts 27 is simply a great sea story. Paul sails in a prison ship for Rome. Some days into their voyage, the ran into a wind of hurricane force (v. 14) Verse 20 says, When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.

And yet, somehow, after 14 nightmarish, rudderless days at sea, they drew near to land and safety. With safety in sight, the ship ran aground, and the sea broke the ship to pieces. Verse 42 says, The soldiers planned to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. The centurion who had taken a liking to Paul narrowly prevented that catastrophe.

They all reached shore safely on the island of Malta. It was still raining. They were soaked and cold, and they built a fire. Acts 28:3: Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put in on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. The islanders saw it as a sign that Paul was a murderer and had gotten what was coming to him. But, says verse 6, Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. Another close call.

Three months later, on another ship they set sail for Rome. The book of Acts closes with this personal note in verse 30. For two whole years Paul (still a prisoner) stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.

The Pastoral Center of Gravity
Step back with me for a moment and survey what we have read for two Sundays. Paul’s good faith effort to help James and the elders of the Jewish Church to put down rumors led not only to a worse rumor about Paul, but it led to a mob scene in which impassioned men were trying to beat Paul to death. He was rescued by the Romans only to be put in chains and suspected of being a terrorist. His attempt to tell his story to the furious crowd ended in even greater mayhem, and he came within an inch of being flogged. A second attempt at reasoned discourse ended in complete mayhem and the danger of being torn to pieces.

A Jewish plot against his life is discovered, and he is sent under heavy guard to Caesarea, the province of Governor Felix. Out of the desire for a bribe from Paul and on the other hand currying favor with Jewish sentiment Felix left Paul in jail for two years. His successor, Festus, also wanting to make a good impression on powerful Jewish interests, suggested that Paul go to Jerusalem for a trial. Another ambush to kill Paul had been planned. It was thwarted by Paul’s decision to appeal his case to Caesar. A provincial king, Agrippa, confirmed what Festus knew: that Paul was innocent. But on the technicality of his appeal, they sent him to Rome on a prison ship.

Hurricane force winds disabled their boat, and near land the pounding surf destroyed it. Soldiers wanted to kill all the prisoners, lest any should escape. The centurion prevents it. They make land, where a poisonous snake bites Paul, yet he survives. They make it to Rome, where Paul spent what was his third and fourth years of an imprisonment that lasted even longer.

And how did Paul view those lost years of his life and ministry? I am put here for the defense of the gospel. What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. I said earlier that our sense of entitlement is misbegotten. Not only do we not escape inconvenience and personal distress, we don’t escape suffering. Our real challenge is to embrace inescapable suffering and learn what it means.

When conveniences fail, when health fails, when dreams die, when we are treated unjustly, when we suffer embarrassment or harassment or worse for our faith, can we learn to say, I am put here for the defense of the gospel. What has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel?

I quoted earlier Romans 5:3. Hear all of Romans 5:3-5. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.