Passage of the Day - February 1, 2011

Acts 23:6-11

⁶But perceiving that one group were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, Paul began crying out in the Council, "Brethren, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees; I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!"

 ⁷As he said this, there occurred a dissension between the Pharisees and Sadducees, and the assembly was divided.

 ⁸For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor an angel, nor a spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.

 ⁹And there occurred a great uproar; and some of the scribes of the Pharisaic party stood up and began to argue heatedly, saying, "We find nothing wrong with this man; suppose a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"

 ¹⁰And as a great dissension was developing, the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them and ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force, and bring him into the barracks.

 ¹¹But on the night immediately following, the Lord stood at his side and said, "Take courage; for as you have solemnly witnessed to My cause at Jerusalem, so you must witness at Rome also."

God sometimes lays out tasks for us in order for us to become fully grafted into His Son.  Paul was to witness to Christ’s cause at Jerusalem, and that was all.  He was not asked to win them to Christ.  Now that Paul completed his task, he is now being sent to fulfill his purpose in Rome.

In addition, through this episode, the Pharisees and the Sadducees showed that they were, just like the Jewish nation, were more concerned about their status than their purpose.  Paul threw in a simple distraction that irritated how they defined themselves to take attention away from himself.  The council was there to examine Paul and his standing under the law.  They put their status above their purpose.  How often do we do that?  Let us strive to NEVER put our status above our purpose for it is our purpose that God gave us our status.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)