Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - How to Have Courage | New Testament | Acts 23

Episode Date: August 14, 2023

What does it take to have peace in the midst of uncertainty and scary situations? What makes you feel calm? How do you battle anxiety? In today's episode, Keithshares a glimpse of how Paul looks to Jesus for confidence in Acts 23. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Acts 23

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. When my kids were young, there was this expectation that families would put up Christmas lights. But there was one big problem with that expectation. I didn't want to put up Christmas lights, and I was way too cheap to pay someone else to do it. There were several reasons I didn't want to put up the lights. First, it was always cold when people put lights on their house, and I don't like cold.

Second, you have to be kind of handy and have the right tools to do that job, and I am definitely not handy, which is why I don't have any tools at all. Finally, spending a weekend in the winter, putting up lights instead of watching football, well, that didn't seem like a good trade to me. But the problem was that my kids, friends, dads weren't as pathetic as me, so when we'd visit people's houses, we'd find them all decked out in lights. And I had to explain to my kids why we didn't have lights on our house. I mean, you can hear their questions now, can't you? Dad, why can't we have lights like Johnny's house does? Are you ready for the answer I gave them? I told my kids that Christmas lights could cause fires,

which, of course, made them scared to go into the house, which I should have anticipated, but hadn't. So then I made up another story to fix my first story. I told them that if they held my hand as we walked through the bushes with Christmas lights all over them and into the front door, that they'd be safe because they would be with me. They either believed me or pretended to believe me because we finally made it inside.

When you're a kid, you often feel safe because of who you're with. That's one of those things that doesn't change as you become an adult. We've been reading in Acts how the Apostle Paul is in fear for his life. He's been arrested by the Roman authorities because what he was saying about Jesus was deeply offensive to the Jewish leaders. Specifically, they were upset that Paul claimed that he was a Jesus follower and yet at the same time remained a loyal Jew. He said he hadn't broken away from the faith to pursue a new one, but instead stood in continuity of what it meant to be Jewish.

They were also mad because Paul said that the Old Testament foresaw Jesus as the Messiah and also foresaw that all these Gentiles would start coming into this new faith. The leaders got the crowd all riled up and they responded by trying to kill Paul. The commander of the Roman army saved Paul's life by taking him to the barracks and giving him to the barracks and giving him a good flogging so they could figure out what he had done wrong that made everyone so mad. Right before this terrible flogging, which probably would have ended his life, Paul revealed that he'd been born a Roman citizen. Roman citizens were exempted from that kind of treatment. The commander responded by sending Paul to Rome. So eventually Paul finds himself being interrogated by Ananias, the high priest, and the Sanhedron, which was the Jewish ruling council. Sensing that it

wasn't going well for him, Paul stood up and announced that he was a Pharisee. Here's Acts 23, verse 6. Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedron, my brothers, I am a Pharisee, descended from Pharisees. I stand on trial because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead. When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the assembly was divided. The division inside the Sanhedron was over the resurrection, because the Sadducees didn't believe in it, but the Pharisees did. The Book of Acts tells us that this caused a great uproar, and some of the Pharisees said,

We find nothing wrong with this man. Verse 10. The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. So he ordered the Roman troops to rescue him and take him back to the barracks where they were keeping him. This is the second time that the Roman commander had to save Paul's life. But at this point, Paul was super discouraged. He had hoped to return to Jerusalem and tell his fellow Jews about Jesus, but when he arrived, he found people against him because of his ministry with Gentiles.

Now the religious leaders had turned against him. Oh, and did I mention that Paul was under house arrest by the Roman authorities? How will God respond to Paul's discouragement? We find out in verse 11. This is a really important verse. 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. When it says that Jesus stood near Paul, what does that mean? Well, sometimes Luke tells us that Paul had a vision, but he doesn't do that here. He seems to say that Jesus physically stood near Paul to show him that he was with him whatever he went through. Maybe Paul recalled Psalm 234. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. your rod in your staff they comfort me or maybe paul thought about the great commission that jesus gave all of his followers in matthew 28 jesus told them to go out into the world and make disciples and then he promised that he would be with them always in both psalm 23 and matthew 28 god promises to be with his people that little word with has a lot of power in it it means that you are never alone it means that god always has your back

Paul was obeying Jesus' command in that great commission to go make disciples of the world. And now he's found himself in the valley of the shadow of death. That's when Jesus comes and stands beside him. Jesus wants Paul to know that he's not alone. Jesus tells him to take courage. Jesus is the only person in the New Testament to use that phrase, take courage, and in all five instances it brought peace to the person he was talking to. To the paralytic man that he healed, he said,

Take courage, son, your sins are forgiven. To the woman with a 12-year hemorrhage, Jesus said, Take courage, daughter. Your faith has healed you. To the frightened disciples on a boat in the middle of a storm, Jesus said, take courage, it is I. Don't be afraid. On the night before he was crucified, he said,

Take courage, I have overcome the world. But Jesus said to Paul even more than that. He told him not only to take courage, but that Paul was going to go to Rome to testify about him there. Now we know from other sources that people in the Roman military that protected Caesar and even members of Caesar's household became followers of Jesus. That happened because Paul persevered in the face of mounting opposition. But of course, Paul didn't know all that was going to happen.

All he knew was that Jesus was with him. And that was enough for Paul. Do you know that Jesus is with him? you wherever you go. If you reach out to a friend to try to resolve a longstanding conflict, Jesus goes with you. If you talk to a friend about your relationship with Christ and invite that friend to church with you, Jesus goes with you. If you find yourself walking into a hospital for an important surgery, just know this. You're not alone. Jesus is with you. If you're pregnant and getting ready to have a child and feel a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of being a

Mom, know this, you're not alone. Jesus is with you. Paul's courage did not come because he somehow knew that everything was going to turn out okay. In fact, it didn't for Paul. He is eventually beheaded in Rome. No, Paul was courageous because he knew that Jesus was with him. The same Jesus that was with Paul is with you. The same Jesus that said to him to take courage says the same thing to you. let us take courage in whatever God has called us to do because we know that he is with us. Amen.