Life Is Not Always Fair, but God Is Always Faithful
Acts Series
Chuck Sligh
February 25, 2018
NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com.
Adapted from Michael McCartney's sermon "Fly High Acts part 24" on SermonCentral.com.
TEXT: Acts 25:1-3 - "Now when Festus was come into the province, after three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem. 2 Then the high priest and the chief of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him, 3 And desired favour against him, that he would send for him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him."
INTRODUCTION
The rest of chapter 25 details the various legal maneuverings of the Jewish religious authorities to get custody of Paul to attempt to kill him, and Paul's attempts to be tried in the fairer Roman courts where he, as a Roman citizen, had certain rights.
There's no real value for us in the details, so, let me quickly summarize chapter 25, and then we'll get to the central thesis of my sermon, which is summed up in the title of my sermon. In chapter 24, we saw that Paul had given his defense before Felix, the Roman procurator, or governor, of Judea, who had jurisdiction over Jerusalem where Paul's supposed crimes were alleged to have been committed. Felix kept Paul in custody in hopes of extracting a bribe, but Paul refused, so he languished in legal limbo for two years until Felix retired and was succeeded by Festus.
]Festus travelled to Jerusalem to meet the Jewish authorities, who immediately sought to have Paul transferred back to Jerusalem so they could put him to death if possible. But Festus refused, saying that they would have to come to Caesarea for a proper trial.
A few days later, the Jews again aired their grievances, none substantiated with real evidence or witnesses, which is why their trial before Felix got nowhere in chapter 24. Then Paul argued (again) in his defense, insisting that the Jews had no witnesses or proofs for their charges Festus realized right away that the complaints of the Jewish authorities had nothing to do with Roman crimes, but were religious issues, so he suggests that maybe Paul should just go down to Jerusalem and let the Jews deal with him. Paul knew that he would never get a fair trial there, so in verse 10 he appealed to Caesar in Rome, a right every Roman citizen had. Festus said in verse 12, "If you have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you will go!"
Later in chapter 24, the Jewish King Herod Agrippa and his wife made a visit to Festus as the new procurator, and Festus consulted with Agrippa about Paul's case. Agrippa and his wife Bernice, being Jewish and knowing of Paul, were interested in hearing from him and their encounter is recorded in the rest of chapter 25 and 26.
Now everything we see in this chapter is a gross injustice; it simply was NOT FAIR!
The fact is, life is not always fair in this fallen, sinful world. The Bible is filled with stories of unfair things that happened to good people. Johannes Jonsson said, "The life as a Christian is not always a dance on roses. We live in an evil world with lots of misery and problems. Sooner or later things happen, when we wonder, why is this happening, and why is it happening to me?" [http://www.metalforjesus.org/sermon1.htm]
What can we learn from Paul's unfair and unjust situation?
I. FIRST, ACCEPT REALITY-LIFE IS NOT FAIR!
Life is just NOT fair sometimes, so we need to accept and even EMBRACE it! God never promised us a bed of roses in this evil world.
In Matthew 10:22, Jesus said, "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake…"
James 1:2 warns "…count it all joy when ye fall into [divers temptations…i.e, many kinds of trials]."
In 2 Timothy 2:3, Paul exhorts Timothy to "endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
Paul considered unfairness as part and parcel of the cost for following the Gospel. To Paul this is what he expected from a lost and sin-filled world.
But there is a flip side to the unfairness of our world.-What if God had been fair with us? If God had been fair, He would have struck Paul dead on the road to Damascus, but when describing his former life as a persecutor of the church in 1 Timothy 1:13, Paul describes himself this way: "Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: BUT I OBTAINED MERCY."
Was it fair that Paul, a blaspheming, dangerous persecutor, should receive mercy after all the devastation, pain and sorrow he had wreaked on the early church? When Christians first heard about it, they might have reasonably thought, No! That is not fair! He killed my husband! He confiscated our house! It's not fair that he should be forgiven and get off scot free!
But God is not fair; He is just, but He is also merciful and gracious.
It was not fair that Jesus had to die for OUR sins! If life were fair, we all would be dead-stuck down by the holiness of God. Paul realized that life is not fair, and I wonder if he was glad about it because that meant he got a second chance!
We live a society that values fairness, which is a good thing; but in a fallen world, there will never be perfect fairness. Because people are sinful, there will always be judges who will judge unfairly; we will have unfair, capricious bosses; some parents who will favor one child and unfairly treat another; and just about every TV pundit will unfairly paint the positions of their opponents. Because we are not yet in heaven, even accidents and natural disasters are unfair!
We could go on and on, and despite all attempts to achieve a more fair and just society, we can never eliminate it from this earth. Christians, in particular, have been warned many times in scripture to expect to be maligned, marginalized, scoffed at, ostracized and persecuted. In fact, Jesus, Paul, Peter, James and John all say that unfair treatment should be expected as the cost of discipleship!
But it's not just Christians who face unfairness.
Illus. - Charles Sykes, in his book, Dumbing Down Our Kids, talks about how our educational system is creating kids with no concept of reality and setting them up for failure in the real world. - He lists 11 rules they will not learn in school:
Rule 1: Life is not fair-get used to it!
Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.
Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes; learn from them.
Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the own bedroom closet.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.
Folks, here is a reality check: The real world in which we live is not a fair place. We must accept this as fact and learn how to deal with it in a healthy way.
II. THE SECOND TRUTH TO SEE IS THAT DESPITE THE UNFAIRNESS IN OUR WORLD, GOD IS GOOD ANF FAITHFUL ALL THE TIME.
Paul understood that, despite the unfairness of this sinful world, God is perfectly just.
Psalm 9:16 tells us that God is known by his justice.
In Revelation 16:7, an angel loudly declares, "…Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments."
Throughout scripture, God is said to always be just, and perfectly so.
But just as surely as it declares God's perfect justice, it also declares that God is always good.
David cries in Psalm 86:5 - "For thou, Lord, art good…"
Psalm 119:68 says, "Thou art good, and doest good…"
Despite the unfairness of this world, we can always know that God never acts inconsistent with his character. He is always just and always good in EVERYTHING He does. He will never treat us wrongly or without regard to what is best for us.
It was Paul himself who confidently declared these words "And we know that all things work together for GOOD to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Rom. 8:28)
This is why Paul was able to deal with the constant injustices and unfairness in his life. He expected these things, for Jesus had warned they would come. So, when he faced situations that were unjust and unfair, he accepted them, and he pressed through them. Paul put his faith in God whom he knew to always be just and good, and this act of surrender helped him to be able to deal with the injustices he experienced.
I love this Our Daily Bread entry for December 2006:
So many situations in life shout, "Not fair!" I observe Christian couples who struggle to have babies while others are blessed with children and then abuse them. I look at families whose children are all alive and well, while I go through life without one of mine. I see friends who long to serve God but can't because of health issues. It's then that I must go back to a basic truth. We are not the arbiters of fairness. God is, and He knows far more than we do about His plans and purposes. The question isn't about fairness. In the end, it's about trust in a faithful God who knows what He is doing. "He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are justice" (Deut. 32:4). Life will never look fair. But when we trust God, we always know that He is faithful. POEM: If you feel that blessings pass you by / and for your life seems a bit unfair / just remember, Christ was born to die / And in His great salvation you can share.
The message from Paul and from the New Testament church in Acts is "Life is not always fair, but God is always faithful!" The Lord promises to never leave us or forsake us in times of injustice. He promises that He will be there with us through the whole ordeal. Our part is to rest our faith in the God who is always good and always faithful.
III. LAST, LET'S CONSIDER WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE UNFAIRLY TREATED.
So how did Paul react to these injustices and unfair circumstances?
Based on what we read in Acts 24 through the end of Acts, and things he shared in his "prison letters"- Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon-those letters written from Rome, and some scholars believe one or two may have been written from Caesarea, here are some ways I see that he responded to his unfair circumstances:
1. First, he kept his integrity.
Felix kept waiting for that bribe from Paul for two solid years, time after time meeting with Paul, hoping to break Paul down to get that bribe.
He never got one; Paul never succumbed. He didn't stoop to save his neck.
Paul modeled his commands to three of the churches he wrote from prison:
Colossians 1:10 - "That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing…"
Ephesians 4:1 - "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation [calling] wherewith ye are called."
Philippians - "…let your conversation [manner of life] be as it becometh [be worthy of] the gospel of Christ"
2. Next, all we read of this period of Paul's life reveals a sense of contentment.
Later, at the end of his journey, writing to the Philippians from a Roman prison shortly before his beheading, he wrote these remarkable words…"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content….13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Phil. 4:13)
He could only do this by learning to trust in His God, knowing that God would always be good to him.
3. Third, he prayed a lot.
We know this because in his prison letters he often mentions his prayers for the churches and for particular people and situations within those churches.
He said in Philippians 1:3-4 - "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy"
In Colossians, another of his prison letters, Paul says, "We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you." (Col. 1:3)
In Philemon 4, he says, "I thank my God, making mention of thee always in my prayers."
Oddly, he never talks of praying for his own release or for justice or fairness.
In fact, in another of his prison letters, Ephesians, after mentioning prayer as part of the armor of God, he does ask for prayer for himself.
Does he ask the Ephesians to pray for fairness or justice, for retribution for those who have wronged him, for deliverance from prison?-No!
Listen to what he asks them to pray for him about: "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." (Eph. 6:19-20)
Paul's prayers were intercessory in nature, that is, prayer on behalf of OTHERS, not himself; and the only prayer he asks for himself is to be a good witness in prison, even calling himself "an ambassador in chains."
4. Fourth, Paul refused to have the "woe is me" syndrome.
He didn't go on Facebook and complain about how much his life sucked!
In Philippians, he had every reason to complain, yet his letter is filled with joy and rejoicing and a positive, uplifting, victorious spirit.
He commands the believers in Philippi in Philippians 4:4 - "Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice."
Variations of the words joy and rejoice are found SEVENTEEN times in the four short chapters of Philippians, and NOT ONCE does he complain about anything.
Therefore, he could tell the Philippians in Philippians 2:14 - "Do all things without murmurings [grumbling] and disputings [arguing]."
Who in the church of Philippi could grumble and complain when Paul himself refused to grumble or complain, even though he was holed up in prison, deprived of his liberty, and experiencing severe deprivation and want?
5. Fifth, Paul did what he could, and left the rest to God.
In Philippians 1:12-14, he says, "the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel. 13 So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; 14 And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear."
He was in prison in Rome, and what does he do?-He witnesses to everyone he comes into contact with so that even in Caesar's own palace where his prison cell was, a group of bold believers was being won and nurtured.
Paul couldn't preach in the streets and byways of Rome, but he could do what he could, and he did.
6. Last, Paul let God produce the fruit of the Spirit in his life, instead of stewing with resentment, anger and bitterness.
He had written the Galatians a few years earlier to allow the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of the Spirit in their lives: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness and self-control.
In prison, Paul LIVED OUT what he had taught the Galatians earlier.
Listen to this profound unattributed quote:
Recently I was talking with a person who had given years of service to her local church and had suddenly been removed from her position. The hurt was obvious and deep as she shared with me how unfairly she felt she had been treated. The advice I gave her is the same I give to myself when I feel another has done wrong to me: What happens in me is more important than what happens to me. There are many things which happen to us in life that we do not like. But we are really powerless, most of the time, to change our external circumstances. We cannot rearrange someone else's behavior toward us, nor can we undo moments which have brought us harm.…Our best recourse is to ask the Lord to change our inner life.
The key sentence in this quotation is this, "What happens IN me is more important than what happens TO me."
If we grasp and apply this to our lives, we're on the road to spiritual maturity!
CONCLUSION
A. Let's face it: we will experience many unfair and unjust things in this life.
B. What should be our response?
C. The same as Paul's response, which was based on the response of Jesus:
1. First, hold on to your integrity. - Don't succumb to unethical means to escape your situation.
2. Be content.
3. Pray more, especially for others.
4. Refuse to have the "woe is me" syndrome.
5. Do what you can, and leave the rest to God.
6. Finally, let God produce the fruit of the spirit in your life by staying close to God.
