Through The Bible - Acts 26 - Part 3

Brett Meador: Paul appealed to Caesar not because he's tried to defend himself. He appealed to Caesar because he wants to go to Rome.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Metter notes beyond his circumstances, Paul sees an open door to spread the gospel.
Brett Meador: He knows that if he can get to Rome and talk to Caesar Nero as it was, that the gospel would be spread to the uttermost parts of the world, which was a fulfillment of Acts chapter 1 where the Holy Spirit would come upon the church that the gospel of Jesus Christ might be presented in Jerusalem, Judea, even to the uttermost parts of the world, and Paul knew that.
Guest (Male): Acts chapter 26 finds Paul standing before King Agrippa, boldly telling his story and sharing what Jesus has done in his life. Pastor Brett Metter notes that even before powerful people, Paul wasn't intimidated to speak openly of scriptural truth. In today's word, we're reminded that our mission is simply to be faithful to our call and leave the results in God's hands.
Brett Meador: Acts chapter 26. King Agrippa and Bernice and Festus are all sitting in the big theater in Caesarea, and Paul's going to sort of give a sermon here. Paul, he's got the floor now. Paul's sermon kind of goes into five key statements that Paul makes, and it's going to be part of his defense. So, let's look at these five defenses. Number one, he's going to start in verses 4 through 11 where he's going to declare, I lived as a Pharisee. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning. If they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. What does he say? The most straightest sect of Jewish religion. They were the most pious, most holy, most righteous. And Paul said, I was a Pharisee. Verse 6, and now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God to our fathers. Unto the promise our 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I'm accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? Now, what's he saying here? Of course, the raising of the dead is the one of the things that got him in trouble when he said, I believe in the resurrection. Now, the reason Paul goes to this is the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, but the Pharisees too, and all of Judaism believes in that. Paul's appealing to his own scriptures. I'm just doing what the Old Testament Paul would say. I'm just doing what what our Jewish Bible says is going to happen and what I believe. He says, I was a Jew from my youth. I was a Pharisee of all the Pharisees, but other Jews are angry because I share the hope of Jesus Christ. This is what he's saying, but the Jews didn't believe and that 's why they hated Paul. They didn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. So, we see here verses 4 through 11 Paul saying, man, I lived as a Pharisee. But now we go to the second point. Paul will say, I saw the light verses 12 and 13. Let's take a look verse 12. It says, whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, oh king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining roundabout me and them which journeyed with me. How bright was the light? Brighter than the sun. That's pretty bright. No wonder Paul couldn't see after this incident and was blind. But Paul says, I saw the light. This is where Paul falls down and is blinded now for several days. So, I lived as a Pharisee, number one. I saw the light, number two. And number three, I heard a voice. Let's see what it says there in verse 14. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. So, this is really how we all came to Christ is we we saw the light. Remember the old I saw the light him, you know? It's like that's what happened. We saw the light. Paul literally sees the light. We moved from, you know, darkness into his marvelous light, the Bible says. You know, it is something that I think we have to be careful to be drawn to the light and not to the darkness. There is a a thing in us, in our human flesh that wants to be drawn into darkness. That's just human nature. And when you become a Christian, you should be able to start to discern, am I going in the direction of light or am I going in the direction of dark? And sadly, there's people who don't really use that discernment. But we as a church should all be about how can we bring the light of Christ into our workplace, neighborhood, school. Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed, but turn on the light. Paul first saw the light and it changed him and then he became part of that light as he was the great light, a beacon of light. So, Paul's just saying, man, I was called out of that being a Pharisee, killing people and prisoning them to being part of the light and reaching even Gentile people. And then verse 18, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. And then what if you do all these things? Number four on this list, you receive the forgiveness of sins. There's a lot of people that live with that guilt. That's the burden that you cannot carry. You are not created to carry the burden of your own sin. That's why Jesus said, come unto me all you are weary and heavy laden, you know, and take my burden, my load. It's easy. It's light. And that's the forgiveness of sin, which is really important. Now, back to our main outline. We're on now number four. He says, you know, first I lived as a Pharisee. Number two, I saw the light. Number three, I heard a voice. And now he says I was not disobedient. Double negative here kind of interesting. He says it in verse 19. He says, whereupon, oh King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. That's, you know, the road to Damascus and his calling. But showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. For these causes, the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. Here's where Paul gets to the reason why he's in trouble. He says, here's what I did that got me in trouble with the Jews. Now, I want to point out what Paul didn't get in trouble for was saying, awaken the giant within. He didn't get in trouble saying, God loves you the way you are. You're enough. He didn't say that cuz that's all first bag of bolonians. What did Paul get in trouble for? I want you to note this. This is giant and huge and important. What does he say? He says this, that they should repent and turn to God and do works that are meet for repentance. By the way, I love this because it speaks of so much. How is a person saved? You got to repent, turn toward God. That's it. But remember faith without works is dead. Remember Paul and James don't disagree even though Paul said it in Ephesians 2:8, saved by grace through faith. It's gift from God, not of yourselves, lest any man should boast. Paul believes that, but he's also saying, if you're sanctified and you're saved, then works will follow. That's going to be part of the evidence. That's not what saved you. You're saved by faith. He articulated that in verse 18, by faith that is in Christ. Now he's saying, but what did I get in trouble for? Preaching repentance and to turn to God and do the works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me. So, this is what I was guilty of. But I love how he says I was not disobedient. I think the double negative there might sort of imply that there'd be a real temptation to not be obedient to the call that God had on Paul's life. Just like you might be tempted to not share with your neighbors the gospel. There's a temptation there to not do that, but Paul says I was not disobedient, which I would hope we could say we are not going to be disobedient when it comes to sharing of the good news. So, you know, he says repent. That means to turn 180, change your mind, change your direction. And so why kill Paul? Because he was preaching salvation through the Jewish Messiah Jesus. And that's what got him into trouble. So, number one, I lived as a Pharisee. I saw the light. I heard a voice. I was not disobedient. But number five on the list, I continue to this day. What day? That very day. What is he doing? He 's preaching repentance and faith before Agrippa and Festus and the whole theater there in Bernice. They're all there. Let's see verse 22. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue to this day witnessing both to small and great implication, King Agrippa and Festus and Bernice. I'm I'm preaching right now. I 'm doing it right now. This kind of cracks me up. What am I in trouble for? The thing I 'm doing right here and right now. This is what I 'm guilty of. And he says both the small and great saying none other things than those things which the prophets and Moses did say should come. You see Paul's appealing to the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. They're saying, I 'm just preaching with the Hebrew Bible already said, which should line up with the Jews. He's saying, I'm not preaching anything. It's a little bit like in our country when we say, man, I 'm just doing what the Constitution of the United States says we can do. And there's some people say, you can't do that. Well, that's what was going with Paul, except it's not the Constitution. It's the word of God. Paul says, I'm just speaking the word of God. The Jews should have been the ones championing the word of God, but they were the ones fighting Paul about the word of God and they were dead wrong. Kind of interesting. So, this was a fulfillment of Jewish prophecy is what Paul's saying. So important. By the way, on this whole thing of replacement theology and the Jews, don't forget the Jews are not perfect people. They're gathered in Israel today in unbelief. They're not a godly nation. God's still obviously working with the Jews if you even look for half a second, it's incredible what God is doing right now with the Jews. But they are in unbelief. There's sort of two gatherings, if you would, maybe more, but officially two big gatherings of Jews. The first gathering is their gathering in unbelief. And the second gathering is going to be during the tribulation and the day of the Lord when the Lord's going to reveal himself, take the blinders off the eyes of the Jews and they'll all be saved. You need to understand that's why they're persecuting Paul cuz they're in unbelief with their eyes blinded. That's kind of important. Well, verse 23, he goes on. He says, you know, I'm just what the law of Moses was telling us verse 23, that Christ should suffer and that he should be first that should rise from the dead and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. See, this is what Paul is saying and the Jews hate him for it. So, he's just telling them, here's what I was saying. But now Paul gets interrupted again. Remember how many times in previous times he's gets interrupted? He gets interrupted in verse 24. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. You see what I said about them kind of thinking Paul was a little wacko? Like much learning has made you mad. By the way, I do think that even though Festus was a loser and a bad guy, he's kind of right about this. He's saying something that actually has some truth in it. Not with Paul. Paul was not mad, but have you ever noticed that much learning can cause madness? Some of the smartest people in the world are some of the craziest. And that's an interesting thing to see. Just go to the colleges like Berkeley or Harvard or Columbia or, you know, institutions of higher learning. They've made us mad, I think, in a lot of ways. So, that's not untrue really. Paul is one of the most learned guys around that whole maybe in the world. Like he was super academic. We know that by the way mostly by his use of the Greek language. There's nobody that even comes close to Paul's use of the Greek language in the world. Like I've said before, Homer is like next on the rung of being a great Greek writer of epics and poems and stuff. But Homer had like a kindergarten level use of the Greek compared to Paul the Apostle. So, that's why they know he's a learned guy, just the way he's speaking and also with his writings. Well, but verse 25, he said, I am not mad for most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. I like that it says, you know, by the way, I 'm not mad. You think I 'm mad, but I 'm not. He doesn't freak out. He says, I 'm not mad, but I 'm just speaking the words of truth and soberness. And then he goes on to verse 26, for the king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely. For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest. Paul says, King Agrippa, you know all this stuff. You already know this and you know it to be true. I wonder if this is Paul either just mathematically knowing King Agrippa the Second. Maybe he did. Maybe it was well known that Agrippa already knew all this stuff. Or maybe the Holy Spirit gave what I like to call a word of knowledge. What's a word of knowledge? It's when you're talking and the Holy Spirit comes upon you and one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, and this is a wonderful one. I hope you can employ this. When the Holy Spirit just gives you something that kind of tells you, okay, here's what's really going on here. This will happen to you if you're filled with the spirit, open to the Everybody talks about tongues which Paul calls the least of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. What's some of the better ones? I think that's one of them, the word of knowledge or word of prophecy which is a word of edification, exhortation or comfort from the Holy Spirit through you. There's so many wonderful manifestations of the Holy Spirit. But we even saw it says, King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know you believe. And then verse 28, Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. I love that. He said, man, I would that everybody, not only you, Agrippa, and Festus and and Bernice, but all the soldiers here and everybody sitting here in this giant theater, I would that you all be like me. Oh wait, except for the chains. I love that. I 'd like you to be just like me, a Christian is what he's saying. I love this. You almost persuade me to be a Christian. And then we saw the sad part of the story. And when verse 30 he had thus spoken, the king rose up uh and the governor and Bernice and they that sat with them. They all got up and left. Bummer. We talked about how the problem here is he need to release Bernice, King Agrippa did, and should have left that dark, sinful, gross situation for the light of Christ. So, now Paul, you know, he's he where is he going to go from here? Well, he knows he 's on a mission eventually to get to Rome. Interesting note by the way, how this kind of wraps up here in this chapter. Let's listen to the last couple verses. Verse 31, it says, and when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves saying, this man doth nothing worthy of death nor of bonds. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar. They're like, we would have let him go if he didn't appeal to Caesar. But remember Paul appealed to Caesar not because he's tried to defend himself. He appealed to Caesar because he wants to go to Rome. And he knows that if he can get to Rome and talk to Caesar Nero as it was in the situation, that the gospel would be spread to the uttermost parts of the world which was a fulfillment of Acts chapter 1 verse 8 where the Holy Spirit would come upon the church, not to roll around in the aisles or to speak with tongues Why were they giving the Holy Spirit? That the gospel of Jesus Christ might be presented in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria even to the uttermost parts of the world. And Paul knew that. And so Paul's filled with the spirit and ready to roll. He wants to go to Rome. That's why he appealed to Caesar. But these guys Festus, Agrippa, Bernice are scratching their heads going, why did this guy appeal to Caesar? We would have let him go. Kind of interesting. You know, we don't really see as afraid, but I do wonder if there was a few moments we've seen where Paul's a little sad maybe and the Lord comes and encourages him. But I love his boldness, man. He knows he I'm going. I'm going to go to Rome. I don't know what's going to happen to me there, but I'm going to I'm just going to go. One thing that's also noteworthy is in this particular part of Paul's life, we don't see other believers visiting him or talking to him. He seems to be a little bit alone for the past couple years of his ministry. Maybe it's because it'd be dangerous to sort of hang out with Paul or be seen with him or or a friend of his. But we really don't hear much about that. Hebrews 13:3 says, remember them that are in bonds, that's Paul, as bound with them and them which suffer adversity as yourselves being also in the body. And others when when other Christians are suffering, we are to remember them that are in bonds and bound and as if we were bound with them, we need to be with them in prayer and in caring for our brothers and sisters who are being slaughtered. And the news doesn't even talk about it. You have to hunt for this to find out all this a Christian martyrdom and persecution that's happening in Africa and and other places in the world to come alongside those who are in need. Definitely need to do that. Well, Paul eventually is going to get some visitors who are going to encourage him. We'll see that coming up soon. And then maybe just a reminder for us to encourage one another. By the way, I'm I'm getting saddened more and more to see all the division in the church that is so unnecessary. And we need to remember what are fighting words? What are things that should be divisive? What things that shouldn't be? And I'm really saddened to see people who should know better than to chalk off other Christians because they believe in something. Now, uh what if a church down the street plays a Bethel song in their church? Have they departed from the faith? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Let's remember what are essential doctrines? What should be divisive? You know, Jesus prayed, oh that they'd be one. And I I'm pretty sure that Jesus knows that we're saying, oh yeah, dump that church because of a singer at a crusade. Can I just say one of the problems is the church has made worship leaders theologians. That's a mistake the church has made. Can I just say as a blanket statement, worship leaders, they're not the theologians. And a lot of them bless us. Some of their lyrics are good. Some of their lyrics are just theologically really incorrect, really biblically wrong. But do I say they're going to hell and and any church that plays that song or sings that song is going to hell? No. If they say that Jesus is not the only way to heaven, okay, now they're not a real church. Let's be careful to not I'm pretty sure that when somebody stands before God, they're not going to want to say, well, I I went online and told them how bad that church was because of a singer. Do you see the problem that I 'm saying there? I hope you guys see that. One thing that we've had to do as Atheist Creek cuz we've always kind of been off to our own here, you know, we it's not that I want to be isolated, but we've always been so busy here at Atheist I get asked to speak at conferences and stuff, but I like being here doing, you know, through the Bible. So, I just say no to that 99.9999% of the time I don't go to speak at places. But the perception is that we reject people in churches because we we're just kind of us four and no more. That's kind of the attitude of the But can I just say that's not our heart? We need to not be divisive on some of the things that are kind of up in the air whether or not a church should or shouldn't do that. There's things I feel strongly about. Essential doctrines, those are fighting words. In theology, there are things that have beautifully been sorted out. Are you a church that is a real church or are you a cult? And that's what you have to say. And trust me, there's a lot of good, you know, real churches that I disagree with a lot of stuff they do and believe, but I still know them as brothers in Christ. And we need to love them and embrace them and be happy to be linked with them as brothers and sisters in Christ. There are, however, churches that start to cross essential doctrine lines which by the way I think Bethel does. Yes, and guess what? They are our brothers and sisters in Christ. And we need to love them. I know this almost is like crazy to you have to say this, but what I 'm seeing is, you know, in the last days, you know, the the love of many are going to grow cold and of all people we should be loving one another. You'll know you're my disciples by your love one for another. So, let's be really careful on this whole thing of renouncing and denouncing other churches that because they do this or that. If they don't believe Jesus is the son of God, who God in the flesh, God with us, then yeah, they're not a real church and they should be hammered away. As a pastor, it's not something I love to do, but I get the charge of God to watch and warn the flock about bad teaching. So, that's why I talk about Bethel because their teaching is really bad. So, you need to kind of sort out we're going to always speak the truth. And by the way, I haven't changed a bit. Everything that I 'm saying right now I would have said 30 years ago or 40 years ago. You say, well, Brett, why are you harping on this one? Well, because I see, you know, Paul now is in trouble. In the moments he's in trouble, it seems like the Christians have bailed on him. There's nobody around him. So, if you would keep all that stuff in prayer, I think that's an important part of our Christian faith is know when we say, no, we don't agree with that. But when do we say, no, that's a heretical teaching and we had should have nothing to do with that. There is a different and you need to be wise in those things. Amen.
Guest (Male): Pastor Brett Metter closing our study in today's word offering great insight for remaining consistent to the truth of scripture in every aspect of our witness to the gospel. And Pastor Brett will return with a final word of prayer in just a moment, so I hope you'll stick around for that. But first, Brett Metter is the senior pastor of Atheist Creek Church just outside of Portland, Oregon. Each episode of Today's Word serves to enrich your understanding of God's word and support your ongoing spiritual journey. If you missed any portion of our study, you'll find all of Pastor Brett's messages online at todayswordradio.com. You can also watch full video messages from him by going to todayswordradio.com. I also want to mention that if you'd like to share your story of how God has changed your life through these daily studies, you can email us at [email protected]. That's [email protected]. Well, here again is Pastor Brett Metter to conclude today's message leading us in a brief word of prayer.
Brett Meador: Lord, I pray as we close this chapter, chapter 26, we're thankful for this great story and and we see how Paul was just so bold even when everybody seems to have left him here alone, but we know that there were Christians who still loved him and would come alongside of him eventually. And I pray that we as Christians living in these dark days that we would know how to stand with each other and love one another. Lord, may you forgive us for not really remembering that some issues are not even that big a deal, but give us a sense of righteousness in that to stand our ground what we know is true and what you've called us to do and be. But on the non-essential issues that are debatable, I pray that we'd love that love would abound and that we wouldn't be people that are just just looking for how to not be together or united as your church. So, join us together even as Jesus prayed, Lord, we pray oh that they might be one. May your church join together as we get closer to the end. This we pray and ask in Jesus name. Amen.
Guest (Male): Amen. Pastor Brett Metter closing our time here on Today's Word. And that's all the time we have. Next time, Pastor Brett will share the Apostle Paul's harrowing journey to Rome by ship and what happened when things quickly took a dangerous turn. Today's Word with Pastor Brett Metter is an outreach of Atheist Creek Church in Westlin, Oregon.