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Acts 24 "Accusation"
Now after five days Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. And when he was called upon, Tertullus began his accusation, saying: “Seeing that through you we enjoy great peace, and prosperity is being brought to this nation by your foresight, we accetp it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear, by your courtesy, a few words from us. for we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazareneds. He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him, and wanted to judge him according to our law. But the commander Lysias came by and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you. By examining him yourself you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him.” And the Jews also assented, maintaining that these things were so. (Acts 24:1-9)
Today I would like to focus our study down to one word,
“Accusation”. The scene that we find Paul in is similar
to a modern day court of law. Paul is on trial and the Jews brought
in a fancy lawyer to accuse Paul before the Roman judge Felix. The task
of this prosecutor was to point out Paul’s crimes . To show clearly
to the judge what wrong Paul has done.
Now turn with me to Proverbs (Shingen) 30:10 “Do not malign a
servant to his master, Lest he curse you, and you be found guilty.”
Accusation means to point out a person’s faults to their superior.
God’s word says, do not be an accuser. Because most likely you
will only get trouble out of it.
But isn’t there a time when we need to point out people’s
sin? For example, if somebody in the leadership of the church is teaching
false doctrine, shouldn’t you come and tell the pastor? If a member
of the church has a problem with anger or gossiping, shouldn’t
you come and point out this destructive behaviour? Maybe. But please
consider your action very carefully. Let me give you two reasons why.
Turn with me to 2 Timothy 3:3 Here Paul is listing various
sins and in that list is the word “slander”. Slander means
"false accusation". What interests me is that this word in
Greek is "Diabolos". My friend Jose from Peru could tell me
that Diabolo is the Devil in Spanish. And the most devilish of sins
is that of slander. To falsely accuse is the most Satan-like thing that
we can do.
Do you remember Satan in the garden of Eden? What did he do? He falsely
accused God. He tempted Eve by saying that God was really trying to
hold something good back from her.
How about the book of Job. Satan comes before God to falsely accuse
Job. "God, the only reason Job worships you is because you bless
him. If you took away your blessing Job would curse you."
In fact we find that this is the full time job of Satan, Revelation
12:10 shows us that the Accuser of the brethren, Satan, accuses them
before God day and night.
So, the first reason why I should hesitate before accusing
someone of sin, is because if my accusation is false, I am guilty of
an even greater sin than the one I am accusing. If false accusation
is the most diabolical sin, that is the one I want to guard the most
against.
Let me give you some practical tips for avoiding this sin.
• Never accuse anyone on secondhand information -- If you were
not an eyewitness, then leave it alone.
• Never accuse anyone out of anger. -- The American president
Abraham Lincoln once told the story of a frontier women who was constantly
beaten by her husband. One day a bear charged into the house and attacked
the husband and the woman in the corner shouted “Go to it husband!”
but on second thought changed it to “Go to it bear!” --
Check your heart carefully. Are your motives mixed? Is the reason why
you are accusing because you are hoping to see this person suffer. Is
there a secret desire to get even, or pay them back. Is revenge sneaking
in? When our emotions are involved, it becomes very easy to exagerate
the other person's sin. So that even though it is true that they sinned,
the sin that we are accusing them of, is much more than the real truth.
We want to avoid false accusation because it is the most
devilish of sins. We also want to avoid it because it is the most unlike
our Lord Jesus Christ. Because you see as Satan constantly accuses us
before the Father, Jesus Christ constantly defends us. He is our defense
attorney! Jesus promised his disciples that He would not accuse them
before the Father (John 5:45) But what if the accusation is true? What
if it is no gossip, no exageration, but blatant sin? What should we
do then? Follow the lead of our savior! Do you remember when a case
like this was brought to Jesus Christ. The pharisees dragged a woman
before Jesus who had been caught in adultery. There was no doubt about
her guilt. But they asked Jesus what should be done about her, hoping
to find something about which to accuse Him. And as the crowd gathered
around picking up stones to throw at her, Jesus said to them, "He
who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first."
And then as the crowd departed, Jesus asked the woman, "Where are
those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?" And she said,
"No one, Lord" And Jesus said to her, "Neither do I condemn
you: go and sin no more." (John 8:9-12)
Our Lord Jesus did not accuse. Instead, sinners came willingly and confessed
their sins to Him. Why? Because He offered them forgiveness. When you
are tempted to bring accusation against someone. Be careful. Consider
first, in doing this am I being more like Satan or more like Christ?
We want to love as Jesus loves. Second, see if perhaps the more effective
cure for the heart would be forgiveness rather than accusation.
Let us go back to that heavenly scene before the throne
of God. With Satan accusing the brethren day and night. And Jesus Christ
at the right hand of God constantly making intercession for us. As each
of us approaches the judgement seat of God, the prosecutor prepares
his case. Back in his chambers Satan has a huge videotape, containing
candid footage of every sin we ever commited. He has cataloged every
shameful thing we ever did and is ready to show it all to God. He has
the remote control set to show just the really bad parts, it will skip
over the times when we served God humbly and go right to our weakest,
most selfish moments. God calls us forward, and Satan suddenly appears
at our side clutching the videotape. "Wait!" he cries, "I
have evidence against this man." "He doesn't deserve to go
to heaven." "He looks good but inside he is desperately wicked."
Satan slips the cassette into the heavenly VCR before the throne and
presses the button on the remote. But instead of our shame, on the screen
is the face of Jesus Christ. Satan frantically pushes the button again,
skipping forward to an even worse sin. But there again is the face of
Jesus, except if you look closely there is blood trickling down His
face. As Satan tries to accuse us of each and every sin, the screen
only shows Jesus again and again, as he bears the guilt for our sin,
hanging on the cross of Calvary. No matter how hard Satan tries to accuse
us, the verdict is the same. Father God, justly looking at the evidence
presented before Him, pronounces us "Not Guilty", "Blameless",
"Above Reproach" and opens for us the gates of heaven.
And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death,
to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight
(Col 1:21-22) Satan will try to accuse you, deceive you. He will try
to convince you beforehand that you don't stand a chance before God.
He will show you that big videotape, all the evidence that he has against
you and say that if you think you are going to heaven you are only fooling
yourself. But remember Satan is a liar. The truth is that you have been
washed clean in the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ and you are blameless,
above reproach in the sight of God.
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