In the sermon 'Telling the King, No!', Peter Allison explores the biblical passage from Acts 16, focusing on Paul's refusal to quietly leave the prison after being unjustly beaten and imprisoned. The sermon outlines four pillars to evaluate Paul's actions: the requirements of the law, the goal of glorifying God, the situational context, and the motive behind actions. It discusses the application of biblical principles like 'eye for an eye' and how they relate to personal retaliation, emphasizing that Christians should not seek vengeance but rather act with love and wisdom. Paul's Roman citizenship allowed him to demand a public apology from the magistrates, highlighting the importance of understanding and asserting one's rights within a godly framework. The sermon concludes by encouraging Christians to use their God-given authority responsibly and to act in ways that promote the Gospel and the well-being of others.

Acts chapter 16, we begin reading at verse 35. And when it was day, the magistrates sent the officers saying, Let these men go. So the keeper of the prison reported these words to Paul, saying, The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now therefore depart and go in peace." But Paul said to them, they have beaten us openly, uncontemned Romans, and have thrown us into prison, and now do they put us out secretly? No indeed.

Let them come themselves and get us out." And the officers told these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans. And then they came and they pleaded with them and brought them out and asked them to depart the city. So they went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia. And when they had seen the brethren, they encouraged them and departed. May the Lord revive our hearts according to His loving kindness.

Almighty Father in Heaven, Your Word is pure and refined seven times. We ask that you would give us understanding of it. We ask that you would bless us in obeying it and enable us to do so. I ask that you would sanctify my sinful lips, that they may proclaim the truth and and your gospel of grace. I pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. Well, the relationship of the civil magistrate, the relationship that the civil magistrate should have with the church and Christians, it can be a difficult question, especially when the civil magistrate is opposing ecclesiastical ministers. And this is the situation that we have in this narrative, in this historical passage. Now the Bible records the actions of all types of people. It even records seances in one place.

And so we know that just because the Bible records some historical action doesn't mean that it is a good action. Many sinful acts are recorded, even of saints. And so. I would like to take some time this morning, looking at the propriety of Paul's actions. And to do that, we need to examine four things in regard to this account.

If we want to understand better the propriety of Paul's actions in this passage. First, we need to evaluate it with respect to the requirements of the law. What does the law command us to do or forbid us from from doing? Isaiah 820 says to the law and to the testimony if they do not speak according to this word it is because there is no light in them. But secondly we need to evaluate it with respect to the goal or the trajectory of those actions.

Where would those actions lead? 1 Corinthians 1031 says, Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Ephesians 4, 29, Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good, for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. So all that we say and all that we do right down to the most mundane task of eating should result in God being glorified. It should result in ourselves and others being edified.

You see just because the law allows something doesn't mean it is edifying or good to do. Thirdly we need to evaluate it with respect to the situation. Proverbs 1523 says a word spoken in due season, how good it is. You can speak a good word in the wrong time and it's not a helpful thing. The Bible speaks about somebody praising God real loud in the morning isn't a help to others around him.

Ecclesiastes 8 5 says a wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. Time and it discerns what is the truth, but it also discerns the time. Because for every matter there is a time, Ecclesiastes says, there is a time and a judgment. We can say the right thing at the wrong time. And that's neither godly nor helpful.

I'm sure we've all heard people say, I just speak the truth, I don't sugarcoat it. Yes, but is it the truth spoken at the right time and with the right motive, spoken in love. And so to properly assess the situation, we need to account for physical and spiritual realities such as demons, gravity, the following condition of mankind, the physical state of our body. We need to account for all those who are around us. You see these and a host of other factors, a countless host of other factors, make up what Ecclesiastes 8.5 calls the time.

And fourth and finally, we need to evaluate it with respect to the motive of those actions. 1 Corinthians 16, 14 says that all that you do be done with love. If we do the right thing but we don't do it from the right motive, then it's wrong. And see, that's why the Bible says that the plowing of the wicked is a sin. It's not because plowing in and of itself is sinful, it's because they're doing it with the wrong motive.

Romans 14, 23 tells us that for whatever is not from faith is sin. If we do something believing it to be wrong even if it's not wrong, you know we we sin against our conscience. And so this is the framework then. These four pillars are the framework we will use to evaluate this account of Paul's refusal to do the bidding of the civil magistrate and quietly leave the prison. To review this situation, Paul and Silas, you remember, from two weeks ago were stripped naked, publicly caned, and thrown into stocks in the inner prison.

An earthquake at midnight led to the salvation of the jailer, and last week we looked at in detail that salvation, and that gospel message, which is the foundation. Then in the morning the civil magistrates sent officers to the prison with directions for Paul and Silas to be released. The officers. That word officer or a lictor is is literally a rod bearer lictors were those roman security guards that carried the facies of the rods over their shoulders that were used for the caning And while facies for caning people seems far, far removed from our culture, they are actually on the obverse of the Mercury Dime, which was printed, which was our currency in the first part of the 20th century. And those facies are also on opposite sides of the speaker of the house in the US Congress so they're not so far removed from us in that sense these officers these lictors these rod-bearers that were sent were probably the same people who came to Paul and Silas.

They're now being sent a few hours later with a message for them to be released. And so despite having been recently humiliated and beaten by them, Paul is not in the least intimidated. And he flatly refuses to comply with their directive. And Paul's assessment of the situation is to point out that they were Roman citizens who were publicly beaten. That they were not convicted by a competent court of law.

In fact, they were not given a trial of any sort, or even a chance to defend themselves. And they were put into stocks, something that is reserved for the worst criminals. And so Paul demands that those magistrates come down to the prison and personally escort them out of jail. In essence, he is demanding a public apology, a public acknowledgement of their unjust treatment. We might say he is asserting his rights here.

When the officers or lictors brought this word back to the magistrates and the magistrates found out that they had cain dromans citizens without a trial Luke says that they became very afraid You see the portion and Valerian laws which were enacted in Rome beginning around 500 BC guaranteed to Roman citizens the right to appeal death sentences to the people. A civil magistrate in Rome could not condemn a Roman citizen to death without granting them the right to appeal that sentence to the people. And those laws provided for severe penalties for magistrates who ignored the rights of Roman citizens. In 184 BC, the second Alex Portia was passed which granted the right of appeal to the people to any case involving a flogging. Paul's case involved a flogging.

He was not only given no right of appeal to the people, he wasn't even given a trial of any sort. That crime of the magistrates made them liable for capital punishment. They could be punished. It was a capital crime for a civil magistrate. It could be for a civil magistrate to deny that right of appeal to a Roman citizen.

It'd be even more egregious to deny them even a trial or to publicly beat them, cane them. So you can see now why these magistrates are all of a sudden very afraid. The question before us is, how do we understand Paul's response? Is this a good example that we should emulate? Or was this right for Paul but maybe not for us?

Or is this maybe not the best example of Christian piety? For him to assert this right. You see, these are difficult questions. How far should the law be pressed when we have been wronged? Well, to return to our four criteria, the four pillars by which we want to evaluate this, we must first ask what does the law require?

There are a number of relevant passages that we could look at. I've assembled, I've picked six representative passages that I think represent the full range of the requirements of the Word of God applicable to this situation. The first is Romans 13.1. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. Peter has a similar command, to be subject to every ordinance of man, to the king and the governor sent by him.

Now some understand this command in Romans 13 one to mean that Christians must obey whatever the civil magistrate requires. The civil magistrate tells us to do something, and we need to do it. And some might add the exception that we obey as long as it doesn't require us to break God's law. So if that's the understanding, then when the magistrates gave orders for them to be released, Paul should have complied and left the prison. But we have seen before that this is not what this text says at all.

The scripture provides numerous examples where even Jesus teaches his disciples to do things forbidden by the civil magistrate. You see, let every soul, the let every soul of Romans 13, 1, also includes civil magistrates. He is a soul as well. And he is to be in submission to the governing authorities. All kings are under the authority of the reigning King of Kings, Jesus Christ.

As Christ told Pilate, you would have no authority except what has been given to you by God, by himself. And so if someone has no authority to command something, then there is no obligation to obey it. There is only a requirement to obey where there is a proper authority to compel. That should be obvious, right? If Canada legislature passes some law, there's no authority for us to be compelled to obey that.

So there's only a requirement to obey where there's authority to compel. However, there may be times where it's expedient or simply wise to comply even when there is no authority to compel as long as complying does not require us to either do something contrary to the law of God or not do something that God commands us to do Either do something that God's forbidden or not do something he's commanded. And so did the Philippine authorities have power to compel Paul to leave the prison? Well, no. Paul was a Roman citizen.

There was no law that forbids him from leaving, from visiting a prison if he so desired. If the jailer was willing to grant him entrance, Paul was free to go into the prison or stay at prison. Now we can visit prisons, you know, Maybe you've gone to visit somebody in prison. If the jailers admit you, there's nothing wrong with being there. So this jailer would have been happy to let them stay in the prison.

They had been the instrument of his salvation. Remember, he had already taken them into his home and nursed their wounds and fed them. And I'm sure he would have gladly continued attending to their wounds until they were healed and feeding them in his home. After all, they had been God's instrument to bring life to him and his family. And so Paul had not done anything wrong.

He had certainly not been convicted of any crime. The magistrates were simply now recognizing this fact and wanted him out of the jail a few hours after wanting him put into the jail. We don't know what changed their mind. They probably had acted out of cowardice to please the mob. You have a mob.

It's out of control. You do what's expedient in the moment to quell the mob. That's probably what happened. And now they are trying to fix the injustice caused by their cowardice in the face of the crowd. The earthquake may have also been a factor.

Romans, as many pagans are, were very superstitious. And earthquakes were often interpreted as a negative sign of the from the gods this pleasure of the gods remember even Pilate's wife was terrified of something she saw visions he saw so they're very superstitious people and that may have had a factor. They may have, that earthquake right that night may have had a factor, we don't really know. Or Lydia maybe had intervened in some way to request clemency for them. We don't know.

All we know is it wasn't because they found out they were Romans. They didn't find that out until after they decided for them to be released. And the Lictors, the officers, came back with the message that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens. So by whatever means or maybe through no means, God changed their heart, and now they wanted Paul and Silas released. But as a free Roman citizen, they have no authority to compel him to leave the jail or the city.

So Paul replied that he would only leave on one condition, that they would come down to the jail and publicly apologize and acknowledge their error. So the second passage we want to look at this morning relevant to this situation is Jesus instruction in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, Matthew 5 39, but I tell you not to resist an evil person but whoever slaps you on your right cheek turn the other to him also If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. This also is the scripture. Do not resist an evil person.

But while this may seem a little contrary to what Paul does, that's only because this passage is so often torn from its proper context. You see, the verse before that in Matthew 538 says, you have heard it was said, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but I say to you, do not resist an evil person. The phrase, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, that Jesus was quoting that they had heard, something they had heard, is actually, this phrase, is actually the principle of justice given in the scriptures that the civil magistrates are to apply in sentencing those who have been convicted of a crime. It comes from Exodus 21 and Leviticus 24. Exodus 21 and 22 says, If men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows.

He shall surely be punished according as the woman's husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judge is determined. But if harm follows, then you shall give life for life. If he kills, he is to be executed. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. The proper sentence for these magistrates who have egregiously, knowingly, and deliberately came to people unjustly is for them to receive the same treatment they unjustly administered.

And so Jesus is not contradicting this scriptural principle in Matthew 5. He's not changing the law here. Jesus came to uphold the law, He said. The law of God is eternal. God's standard of justice never changes.

Remember that catechism question about what is God. God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. And what is unchangeable? His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth. So the standard of justice given in Exodus 21 and Leviticus 24 is still the standard of justice, and Jesus didn't change that.

Today we simply express this principle of justice with the phrase the punishment must fit the crime. What Jesus is addressing in Matthew 5 is how we are to respond if we do not have authority or standing to stop abuse or injustice, abuse of power or injustice. How do we respond in those conditions? And Jesus is saying we are not to engage in retaliation. We are not to take personal vengeance.

We are not to do back to others what they just did to us. And isn't this so often the response of the flesh? Isn't this so often the response of the flesh? Children, particularly siblings, right? They demonstrate this sinful human tendency to do back to others what was just done to them.

And they need to be instructed out of this passage. And as adults, we might be more restrained, but we still are tempted and pulled in that direction. That's often our first inclination. We want to do back to others what they've done to us. And Jesus is not only instructing us not to take vengeance or retaliate, He tells us further that we are to turn the other cheek and go the second mile.

He's telling us that we should be prepared to suffer again, the exact same thing, with the same patience and the same restraint on personal vengeance and retaliation. Jesus is teaching that we should not become bitter and resentful when we are mistreated. We should learn how to put the wrongs done to us under the blood of the cross and forgive the debts against us. Remember Betsy Ten Boom, the sister of Cory Ten Boom. She exemplified this in so many ways.

She gave thanks for the lice of their prison quarters because it kept the guards away and allowed her to leave Bible studies in the prison. And there are a host of other injustices that we face today. The TSA screening process egregiously violates citizens' rights if people want to board planes. This is an abuse that the civil magistrate propagates and refuses to remedy. And so we must patiently and graciously bear this abuse until it can be changed.

But Jesus is not forbidding here non retaliatory responses nor is he forbidding the proper wrath of God from being administered by those whom God is ordained to be as instruments of vengeance. Jesus is not forbidding the proper wrath of God from being administered by those whom God has ordained to be the instruments of his vengeance. Because you see, God promises to take vengeance on evildoers. Romans 12, 19, Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. You see, civil magistrates are his ministers of wrath and we can bring these matters to their attention and leave the disposition in their hands.

Once we have forgiven the offender and are not pursuing the matter for our own personal vengeance, we are free to bring the matter to a civil magistrate or not to bring it. We don't have to, other than first degree murder, premeditated murder. We are free to bring it or not to bring it, depending on what the situation requires. And this is what Paul does. He brings the matter to the civil magistrates and asks them to acknowledge this error.

He doesn't seek to retaliate against the people who so unjustly beat him. He doesn't attack them. He doesn't seek to undermine their reign or their authority. He doesn't become anti-government or bitter about them. There's no shred of bitterness.

There's no shred of discontent in Paul's response. We see this approach in many places in the Psalms. Psalm 35-24, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation, O deliver me from the deceitful and the unjust man. Or Psalm 43-1, Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation, O deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man." The fourth passage is Romans 12-21, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. You see, it was the magistrates that had done something profoundly wrong, something profoundly unjust, egregiously wrong.

And letting them know that they had done something wrong is a good thing to do. Paul had their best interest in mind. He could legitimately have complained to higher magistrates and sought to have them properly punished, what they justly deserved. Under Roman laws, we said they would be liable for the death penalty, for denying a citizen the right to appeal, for denying him even a trial. But he didn't do that.

He had mercy on them. He forgave their transgression and only sought to have them learn from it. He replied with a soft answer that sought to make them better magistrates. And I suspect they were somewhat grateful, whether they admitted it or not, at Paul's response. The fact that they came down and so quickly complied with his request, I think is evidence that they were probably inwardly glad for his gracious response.

And you know that a soft answer turns away wrath. The next passage's principle is that we are to be free if possible. 1 Corinthians 7, 21, Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it, but if you can be made free, rather use it. You were bought with a price.

Do not become slaves of men. So where there's the ability to gain our freedom, it's good. It's right to be free. If you're unjustly held in prison, especially by those who have no authority to hold you, it's not wrong to break free if the opportunity affords itself. The sixth scriptural passage is Romans 14 six therefore do not let your good be evil spoken be spoken of as evil and I think this command is especially relevant in this situation.

If Paul had quietly gone to the next city, there is the potential for people that hated him in Philippi to go to the next city and say, Oh, you know this Paul guy, he was, he's a rabble rouser. He was canopy caned back in in Philippi. Don't you know? Better check into him. He's a troublemaker.

He's a breaker of the law. He's not anybody you want to follow. But see by this action, Paul ensures that his reputation is restored. His name has been slandered. His reputation has been marred by what happened here The truth does need to come out The ninth commandment teaches us to truthfully defend our name or the cause requires it and this action of Paul does that because he requires the civil magistrates to come and publicly acknowledge by publicly bringing him out of the prison themselves, they are in essence apologizing to him and publicly restoring or acknowledging their error and restoring Paul's reputation.

And so now when he goes to the next city, now there's this public record of the magistrates acknowledging their error. And so I think it is important that Paul did this so that his good is not evil spoken of. This also will put the church in a better position. The civil magistrates will hopefully have learned that they need to be more careful in who they cane, especially regarding those around the practice of the faith. So it will help to ensure the rights of Christians.

And so we see then that Paul's motives, I believe, were good. He's concerned about the church's future. He's concerned about his own name as he ought to be. He's concerned that the civil magistrates learn from their mistake, but he's not seeking their revenge. He's not seeking the maximum penalty of the law that he could have sought against them.

And he has a proper goal in all that he's doing here. The magistrates will hopefully learn to be better, more careful in the future. This passage is a good example of the biblical principle of rites. Now we might think that what does this have to do with the Gospel? Isn't the Church supposed to be about the Gospel?

And getting people saved? Well, yes it is. But what is the promise of salvation that Romans 8 says we are eagerly waiting for? It's saying we're eagerly waiting for the redemption of our bodies. Because we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope.

For Why does one hope for what he yet sees? In other words, we don't have the full redemption of our bodies yet. We pray in the Lord's Prayer for thy will to be done on earth, for thy kingdom to come. You see, the point of the gospel is not just so that people get saved barely. The point, the gospel, is that God is redeeming this world and he is restoring it to what it was and even a greater glory than when it was first made.

He is reigning until he puts all his enemies under his feet and and he is saved his people so that they would be a people who are zealous for good works a holy people. Hebrews tells us you know Paul chides or the writer there chides them because they had not progressed beyond these basic elementary things. They hadn't moved on to the greater meat of the Word, that there is more in the scriptures. God's plan of redemption is far more grand than just the start of it. The start of it is grand and glorious and you have to start there, but it's not the end there.

And so we need to, this is a good example of the biblical principle of rights. We hear a lot about rights today. In the Bible, the word for rights is exousia. If you remember, if you were here last week, we heard that word. That word is the word authority.

And remember, all authority comes from Jesus Christ. The only authority we have is the authority that Christ has given to us. And that's why all rights are God-given rights. We have the authority to live. We call that the right to life.

We have the authority to own property of all sorts from land, real property to chattel. That is the right to private property, sometimes called the right to privacy. And of course the right to privacy doesn't give you a right to kill people. There's no authority to kill people. But we do have a right to private property.

It's probably a better word than privacy. We have the authority to own property. We have, men have the authority to take a wife, and women have the authority to choose who they will be given to or who they won't be given to. See, we have these authorities, They're from God. And it is our responsibility as mature Christians to exercise these authorities as they've been given to us.

Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 9, and I'm just going to read this passage because it deals with this principle of authority. Now the translations use the word right, but remember every time it's using the word right, it's authority. We've been given authority. My defense to those who examine me is this, do we have no right, do we have no authority to eat and drink? We have that authority because we have an authority to live.

And eating and drinking is necessary to life. And so in giving us authority to live, we have authority to eat and drink. We have authority to raise food. We have authority to sell food, to buy food, because it's necessary for life. And that's an authority that God has given us and and nobody can take that away.

No man can take that away. No law can take that away that authority that God has given us. Do we have no right to take along a believing wife as do other apostles, the brothers of the Lord or Cephas? Men have a right to take a wife. Women have a right to choose who they will or will not be taken by.

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working? Whoever goes to war at his own expense, who plants a vineyard and does not eat its fruit, who tends a flock and does not drink of the milk of the flock? Does not the law say this also? For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain. Is it oxen God is concerned about or does he say it all together for our sakes?

For our sakes no doubt this is written, that he who plows should plow in hope, and he who threshes in hope should be a partaker of this hope. If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it a great thing if we reap your material things? If others are partakers of this right, this authority over you, are we not even more? Nevertheless, we have not used this authority, but endure all things lest we should hinder the Gospel. You see, if we have authority, we have discretion on how we use it and so Paul can say I have authority to take a wife but I don't have to do that if God has given the gift not to I have authority to buy this piece of property but I don't have to do that and so not all things that are lawful are necessary or are edifying.

And so even where we have been given authority to do something, we still need to ask whether it is lawful, whether it is edifying, whether it is necessary or wise to exercise that. 1 Corinthians 6, 12. All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any." 1 Corinthians 10, 22. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?

Are we stronger than He? All things are lawful for me, but not all things edify. Let each one seek his own. Let no one seek his own, but each one the other's well-being." And that is what Paul was doing in this passage. He asserted the authority that was given to him for the well-being of the Christians in Philippi, for the well-being and the furtherance of the gospel, and for the well-being of his own name.

May the Lord give us similar wisdom to rightly exercise the authority, the rights that have been given to us as believers and as saints in Christ. Almighty Father in heaven, we thank you for your Word that is so thorough and sufficient for every circumstance in which we find ourselves. It is sufficient so that we are thoroughly equipped for every good work. It is sufficient to make the simple wise, and to give understanding and wisdom, and to make us wise unto salvation. And Father, we ask that we may more and more love Your Word, that we may more and more seek its wisdom, that we may walk more and more, conform to the image of Your Son, the Word, The life-giving word.

Father, may Your word dwell richly in us. May your word be hidden in our heart. May your word be upon our mind and upon our lips. Not with mindless, endless repetitions, but with understanding. May you give us a zeal that is according to knowledge.

And may you give us grace to know when to exercise the authority that you have given to us. We ask this through Jesus Christ. Amen.