His Pleasure

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

HIS PLEASURE

Acts 23:1-11

23:1 Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." 2 At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" 4 Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest?" 5 Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people.'" 6 Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and the others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, "My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead." 7 When he said this, a dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. 8(The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.) 9 There was a great uproar, and some of the teachers of the law who were Pharisees stood up and argued vigorously. "We find nothing wrong with this man," they said. "What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?" 10 The dispute became so violent that the commander was afraid Paul would be torn to pieces by them. He ordered the troops to go down and take him away from them by force and bring him into the barracks. 11 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." 

NIV

Because there are many truths within this narrative and we only touched on fulfilling our duty to God, we wanted to focus for just a moment on not speaking evil about the ruler of the people. Paul should not have spoken to the High Priest, and he recognized he was in error, so he stepped back, then went on about the resurrection. Interestingly, the Greek word translated as ruler has a direct meaning of a first in rank or power, such as a king, prince, chief, president, etc. If we attempt to apply this truth to our lives, then as believers, we will never speak evil about anyone who is first in rank, such as the president, still more importantly, God, because there is no one more first in rank than Him, but within the context, it refers to a human ruler or leader of people. When Paul mentioned that he was a Pharisee, a son of a Pharisee, and that he was on trial because of his hope in the resurrection of the dead, it sparked a dispute. We know, as Paul did, that the Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees did not. How is it that there can be that much of a difference in beliefs among the same people whom God delivered their forefather out of Egypt, bringing them into this land of milk and honey? How can there be such a significant dispute over the resurrection of the dead? What did the Sadducees think happened after they died? Were they just dead, end-of-life dead, with nothing after death? If there are no angels or spirits, did they believe in God? All believers in Jesus also believe in the resurrection of the dead because Jesus told us it would happen. That brings us to ask, what is the purpose of our lives? If there is no resurrection, why do believers bother to try to live according to the truth of God? But there is a resurrection; however, the point of our lives is for the pleasure of God. He is pre-existent, before he created anything, he is. Jesus did not say that he was the I AM, or that he is, I AM, always was and will always be. He decided to create all that is created for his own pleasure, not that he needed to, but it just pleased him to create, and he made a man, a human in their image, and breathed life into Adam, or man, for his own pleasure. Have we lost sight of that truth, trying to live for our pleasure when the meaning of our lives is for the pleasure of God? His pleasure is to resurrect those of us who accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, to live with him forever in the place Jesus prepared for us. That is His pleasure.