Once the Holy Spirit is in you, you become a holy and spiritual person. What do holy and spiritual people do?
God gets three nods in this text. This is fitting in many ways, not the least of which is that our one true and living God is a triune supreme being, being all at once Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We pray, “God save us,” and we should. We preach, “Jesus saves,” and we must. But practically, it is the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who delivers the goods in salvation.
A beautiful picture of the Holy Trinity emerges from the upper room discourse in John’s Gospel (ref. John 16:5-15). There the one true and living God speaks to His disciples of the mystery of the Trinity. Each person of the Godhead is identified.
Times have changed. God has not. Immutability is one of His key attributes. “I the LORD do not change” (ref. Malachi 3:6). This and other theological truths matter immensely. We must get God right, or everything else will ultimately go wrong.
My early years in Christianity were spent in a church heavily influenced by fundamentalism and revivalism. Plenty of false piety and guilt were dished out every Sunday, followed by a lengthy “altar call.”
When we are chained to God’s sovereignty, we are free to enjoy His grace and providence. “The Lord reigns; let the peoples tremble!” (Psalm 99:1). Yet, they do not (ref. Psalm 36:1; Romans 3:18).
While the five trials certainly had their suspense, and the sea journey has its perils, there should be no doubt that Paul will reach Rome. God promised he would go there. And God, the good Father, never breaks a promise.
For the fifth text in a row in Acts, we have a man, the Apostle Paul, being put on the spot and forced to give a defense against accusations that could cost him his very life.
The three men judging Paul’s third, fourth, and fifth trials are the middle men. They stand between Jerusalem and Rome, in Caesarea. They stand between imprisonment and freedom, for the Apostle Paul. And, they stand between belief and unbelief, in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
