- 2 days ago
This week we study Acts 26 as Paul gives his sermon to Agrippa.
https://studies.prophecywatchers.com/
http://www.prophecywatchers.com
https://studies.prophecywatchers.com/
http://www.prophecywatchers.com
Category
đź“š
LearningTranscript
00:00:00Welcome to Studies with Stearman. Join us as we look deeper into the Bible.
00:00:10Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching.
00:00:15And now, here's Gary.
00:00:18Acts 26 today, if you want to open your Bibles.
00:00:21And we've been studying the book of Acts from the perspective of the leading of the Holy Spirit.
00:00:29And we've been following Paul's journeys.
00:00:31You know, we've studied Acts over the years many times, but we've never really approached Acts in the way that we're doing at this time.
00:00:38That is to say, watching the effect of God on people over a period of time.
00:00:46And the fascinating thing is that we are going through perhaps the most tumultuous time in all of history, except for our own today.
00:00:55There's a great deal of similarity between what happened to the Roman Republic from B.C. 19 until A.D. 70.
00:01:04There was a huge set of changes that took place over a very long period of time that involved the devolution of spirituality to the point that men became beasts during that time.
00:01:17And we see that happening again today, and we wonder if we aren't repeating that period in which the apostles did their work.
00:01:25And I think maybe we are in certain ways.
00:01:28Today, we are going to look at what some people have called one of the most decisive moments in all of history, in Acts 26.
00:01:39When Paul gets an opportunity to deliver a sermon to Agrippa.
00:01:45If you want to open your Bibles to Acts 26, we'll set the scene.
00:01:51Now, Herod Agrippa is a fascinating guy.
00:01:55Well, I guess fascinating if you want to put it that way.
00:01:59A repulsive guy, but fascinating in terms of society.
00:02:03If you'll recall, we left off last time with Paul having been kept prisoner for two years.
00:02:13He was innocent of all the charges against him, but he was being treated as a criminal.
00:02:18Kept under house arrest with a Roman centurion, and he has been left as a prisoner.
00:02:24He was opposed by both the Jews and the Romans, but he was also protected by them.
00:02:31Because they wanted to get something out of him.
00:02:33They wanted to keep him alive and make a show out of his ultimate trial so that politically they could get what they wanted.
00:02:40Of course, the Jews wanted to kill him.
00:02:42The Romans wanted to hold him up as an example of what the Jews were.
00:02:47He was tried.
00:02:49No punishable charges resulted, and we have seen that in chapter 25 last week.
00:02:55He was offered a change of venue.
00:02:58Like, Paul, would you like to go to Jerusalem and be tried there by the Sanhedrin?
00:03:03And Paul said, no way, because he knew that the Sanhedrin wanted to kill him.
00:03:07And so he said, I appeal to Caesar.
00:03:11This is the amazing thing, because when Paul was tried before Festus and kept under house arrest for two whole years in Caesarea, he heard things.
00:03:25If you read between the lines, Paul must have heard all kinds of rumors about his case, about what they were planning on doing to him.
00:03:35I'm sure that, you know, the walls have ears, and living with a centurion for two years, Paul got the gossip.
00:03:41He knew exactly what they wanted to do to him.
00:03:44So he said, no, I want to appeal to the royal court, that is, to the emperor.
00:03:51I want to appeal to Caesar.
00:03:53And he did.
00:03:54And he had the right to appeal to Caesar as a Cilician from Tarsus, who was an educated man, an ex-member of the Sanhedrin.
00:04:02He had every right to appeal to Caesar.
00:04:05And today we're going to find out what that means.
00:04:09Because Festus says, have you appealed to Caesar?
00:04:13Well, then unto Caesar you shall go.
00:04:16And you can almost see the smile on his face, because he's going, ah, man, I don't have to deal with this anymore.
00:04:22Get this guy out of my hair, send him off to Rome, and they will do him in, and my hands are clean.
00:04:29Well, that's where we left off last week.
00:04:32Paul, then, is to be tried before Agrippa.
00:04:36Let's read the end of chapter 25.
00:04:38Turn to 25-23.
00:04:41And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice, with great pomp, as it was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains, the principal men of the city, and Festus' commandment, Paul was brought forth.
00:04:57And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, you see this man, about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
00:05:10So get this, you've got this wonderful scene at Caesarea, and you have to put in your mind, almost like a movie scenario, with all the set decorations.
00:05:23Think of something that was filmed by one of the great movie makers in the 50s or 60s, when they did all these biblical-themed movies.
00:05:32They always had the Romans in full costume, and they had the animals, and the carts, and they had the crowds, and they had the backdrops.
00:05:39Antony and Cleopatra, or whoever, everybody's in full dress.
00:05:45Everything is done stylistically, with great pomp.
00:05:49And that's exactly what Caesarea was.
00:05:52Caesarea was the gathering place of the rich and famous.
00:05:55It was where all the very rich Romans went.
00:05:57By the way, at Caesarea, there was a system of concrete docks, where all the Roman ships could come and go and be tied up in absolute safety, regardless of the weather.
00:06:12The transportation in and out of Caesarea was first class.
00:06:17In our day, it's common for businessmen to have Learjets or some other form of jet-type travel.
00:06:24In those days, the high and the mighty among the Romans had their own ships, which plied the Mediterranean.
00:06:32And I mean, those ships were the lap of luxury.
00:06:35They would ply their way up and down the coast of Israel, across southern Asia Minor, to the Aegean Sea, around Athens, around what is now Yugoslavia, and all the way over to Rome.
00:06:49And back and forth they would go, and the nobles traveled this way, in style and in luxury, and they would come to the port of Caesarea.
00:06:59Well, that's exactly what we've got here.
00:07:02Agrippa and Bernice have come and docked at the port of Caesarea.
00:07:08They have wonderful housing, absolutely gorgeous sea-coastal country.
00:07:14Homes are decorated with linens and the finest decor, and servants, and food, and you name it, and they've got it.
00:07:22And so this is the trial of Paul, and there are probably, according to historians, over 100 people who have gathered for this show trial,
00:07:31a word of which has reached all the way back to Rome.
00:07:34Because remember, Paul's been kept under house arrest for two years.
00:07:39And what follows in Acts 26 is thought to be the greatest sermon recorded in the New Testament.
00:07:46And it was delivered before the rich and the famous of Rome.
00:07:50And on the morrow, verse 23, when Agrippa was come, Bernice, with great pomp,
00:07:58and was entered into the place of hearing with chief captains, principal men of the city,
00:08:03all the near-famous, the wannabe-famous, the almost-famous, they were all there.
00:08:09The Cardassians, you know, the whole group, they were all there at this trial.
00:08:14At Festus' commandment, Paul was brought forth.
00:08:17Now, Paul is brought forth in chains.
00:08:21Because that was the way it was done in those days.
00:08:24When you were under house arrest, you would typically be chained to a centurion.
00:08:29This is the way Paul's imprisonment has been described all the way through Acts.
00:08:33Every time he's in custody, he's in chains.
00:08:36Verse 24, Festus says,
00:08:38King Agrippa, not all men which are here present with us see this man,
00:08:41about whom all both to the Jews have dealt with me,
00:08:44both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.
00:08:47But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death,
00:08:50and that he himself had appealed to Augustus,
00:08:53that is, to the imperial house of Rome...
00:08:56By the way, Nero is on the throne.
00:08:59The year is AD 60.
00:09:01Nero has been on the throne for four years now,
00:09:04and he's beginning to feel his power.
00:09:06Appealing to Augustus means appealing to Nero,
00:09:09to Nero, the imperial house of Rome.
00:09:12He said, I'm determined to send him.
00:09:14And by the way, Paul does go to the house of Nero.
00:09:18And we learn about this later on.
00:09:20We learn about it in the book of Romans, for example.
00:09:22If you know how to read certain key passages in Romans,
00:09:25you discover that many of the servants of Nero were converted to Christ.
00:09:32A couple of women, remember Trofina and Trofosa?
00:09:35Two women who were maidservants in the house of Nero,
00:09:39converted to Christ.
00:09:41There are all kinds of interesting backstories like that when you read the Bible.
00:09:46Well, it's appealed to Augustus.
00:09:48I've determined to send him.
00:09:50Of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my Lord.
00:09:54In other words, no specific charges can be made against him.
00:10:00Wherefore, I brought him forth unto you, and especially before thee, O King Agrippa,
00:10:04that after examination I might have somewhat to write.
00:10:09For it seemed to me unreasonable to send a prisoner,
00:10:13and not with all to signify the crimes laid against him.
00:10:17And so, in front of this august group of people, we have here this man, Festus,
00:10:26clearing himself of any responsibility whatsoever.
00:10:29It's now in your hands, King Agrippa.
00:10:32And Festus must have just breathed a huge sigh of relief.
00:10:36And this was done before all the nobles.
00:10:38Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
00:10:43Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.
00:10:47Now, let's talk about Agrippa and Bernice.
00:10:52Agrippa was Agrippa II.
00:10:58And Agrippa II was a rogue.
00:11:03I mean, this guy, to say that he was a rogue actually is to compliment him,
00:11:09because what he was, was a man who delighted in seeing what he could get away with.
00:11:16He had a tremendous history of this.
00:11:20His name is Marcus Julius Agrippa II.
00:11:27He lived from A.D. 27 to A.D. 100.
00:11:32He was the son of Agrippa I and the great-grandson of Herod the Great.
00:11:39And Herod the Great, as you know, essentially built Jerusalem and Israel as it appeared in the first century.
00:11:48Herod, the Herodian dynasty, had more money than you can possibly imagine.
00:11:53I mean, they were, if you look at what Herod built,
00:12:00if you look at all of his palaces and castles and the roads and water projects, sewer projects,
00:12:08I mean, billions.
00:12:12How did he get so rich?
00:12:13How did the Herodian dynasty get so rich?
00:12:16Herod was a good buddy of a fellow by the name of Octavian.
00:12:23And in the Bible, Octavian is described as Caesar Augustus.
00:12:30But when Herod was a young boy, he and Caesar Augustus, then known as Octavian,
00:12:36used to ride horses together across the meadows and the lakes.
00:12:40And they would camp out and they had all kinds of fun.
00:12:42They were both noble sons of noblemen.
00:12:45And they had all kinds of money.
00:12:47And they were just two kids that loved to hang out together.
00:12:50Herod the Great and Octavian later to be known as Caesar Augustus.
00:12:56And the Lord brought those two men together before Christ's birth in order to set the scene for the birth of Christ.
00:13:06Because things had to be exactly right when Christ came into the world.
00:13:11And God saw to all these details around the edges.
00:13:16So Herod the Great gave birth to Agrippa the first.
00:13:23And then Agrippa the second.
00:13:26Brought up in Rome.
00:13:28Spoon fed in the court of Claudius.
00:13:32So this man right here, and we're meeting him here in Acts 25-23.
00:13:40This man Agrippa grew up in the court of Claudius.
00:13:47Herod had money.
00:13:49Claudius had money.
00:13:51Together these guys had more money than you can...
00:13:54I mean, they practically had all the money in the Western world.
00:13:58And all the power in the Western world.
00:14:00And it's important to say this because this is the group Paul's speaking to in Caesarea.
00:14:05The richest people on the face of the earth.
00:14:08The most powerful.
00:14:10They considered themselves to be the high and the mighty.
00:14:13The most noble.
00:14:14The most intelligent.
00:14:15Schooled by Tudors.
00:14:17They ate the finest foods.
00:14:18They traveled.
00:14:19They had nothing to do but display themselves before an admiring public.
00:14:24Except the public really didn't like them all that much.
00:14:29And later in their lives, they had to be protected from the public.
00:14:35But that's another story.
00:14:38Herod Agrippa II was a favorite in the court of Claudius.
00:14:44And he was brought up until Claudius thought that he would be old enough to rule.
00:14:51Now Herod Agrippa II appears here in Acts 25-23 with Bernice.
00:15:03And Bernice was Herod's sister.
00:15:10The interesting twist here is that Agrippa in March 44 AD, according to Josephus, Agrippa
00:15:21was said to be in his 17th year.
00:15:25And his sister Bernice was described as being 16 years old.
00:15:31And in her 17th year, and Josephus goes on to say that Agrippa and Bernice were twins.
00:15:41And so history records that Agrippa and Bernice were brother and sister twins.
00:15:47Who just happened to be married.
00:15:50Except that Bernice had been married twice before.
00:15:56But she decided to go back and remain married to Agrippa II.
00:16:01This produced a great scandal.
00:16:04The whole Roman Empire was scandalized by it.
00:16:07I mean, even they had their limits.
00:16:10Twin brother and sister married.
00:16:12Wow.
00:16:13And that's the couple right here in Acts 25-23,
00:16:18to whom Paul is addressing this magnificent sermon.
00:16:23Bernice.
00:16:28Bernice.
00:16:29Actually, her name was Bernice.
00:16:31Bernice.
00:16:32Bernice.
00:16:33Bernice.
00:16:34That's how you pronounce it in Latin or in Greek.
00:16:38And the diminutive, that is if you really knew somebody by the name of Bernice,
00:16:45and you were close friends with them, you called them Nicky.
00:16:48Or Nicky.
00:16:49And she was known as Nicky.
00:16:51This is Agrippa and Nicky.
00:16:53And we called her Bernice from the King James Bible.
00:16:58And in Agrippa II's private life, he came to be known as a man, as a ruthless man,
00:17:11who had wiped out a number of enemies by surreptitious means.
00:17:16He had an uncle, Herod the king of Calchis, who rose to his kingdom.
00:17:28Calchis was a minor portion of the land of Syria in those days.
00:17:37But the way Herod of Calchis got to be a great ruler was by killing off about 15-20 men that we know about.
00:17:46So this is the Herod dynasty.
00:17:48This is the Herodian dynasty.
00:17:49They are just beastly.
00:17:52They will do anything...
00:17:55Oh, and by the way, one final note.
00:17:57Herod Agrippa II, according to Josephus, was a very weak man.
00:18:04Said to have been a very indecisive and timid character.
00:18:09But his twin sister, Berenice, was flamboyant, was beautiful,
00:18:16loved to show herself off, loved to parade around in costumes.
00:18:20She was a drama queen and is so known in history.
00:18:25And the reason they remained together so successfully is that she was his public face.
00:18:31That is, Bernice gave Agrippa II the courage that he lacked in his private life.
00:18:39He's kind of a timid wallflower character.
00:18:42Raised in the court of Rome, remember, by Claudius.
00:18:45Well, that sort of sets the scene.
00:18:49Festus has said, look, the Jews want to kill you.
00:18:55There are no charges against you that we can make stick under Roman law.
00:19:00I don't know what to do.
00:19:02You've been under house arrest for two years.
00:19:05Agrippa has come from Rome.
00:19:07We're going to let him hear the case.
00:19:12All of this is coming together at this particular time in this particular place
00:19:16so that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ can go to the royal house in Rome.
00:19:21That's the only reason this is happening.
00:19:24God is just arranging events beautifully.
00:19:29chapter 26.
00:19:35Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
00:19:43Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.
00:19:47Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself.
00:19:52Now the stretching forth the hand is a Greek idiom.
00:19:57And if you read Greek history, you discover that this expression stretching forth the hand is an oratorical gesture.
00:20:09It means to begin a formal address.
00:20:14And so Paul begins a formal address.
00:20:18He stretched forth the hand and answered for himself.
00:20:23That is to say, he defended himself.
00:20:28And think of this now as we begin.
00:20:31There are several hundred present.
00:20:34But Paul is addressing his remarks only to King Agrippa.
00:20:40By the way, one thing we should add, and I forgot to add this a minute ago.
00:20:45Like his uncle Herod, king of Calchis, Agrippa II was in control of the temple treasury and the vestments of the high priest in Jerusalem.
00:21:00And so any and every activity that took place in the temple in Jerusalem was controlled by the Herodians.
00:21:08He held the purse strings.
00:21:10They controlled everything.
00:21:11The costuming, the vestments, the temple utensils that are used for sacrifice.
00:21:22It was all under the control of Agrippa II.
00:21:27And this is very important because when Paul is speaking to this man,
00:21:31he is speaking to a man who is intimately familiar with Judaism.
00:21:38Now, Herod is an Idumean.
00:21:45But he's an Idumean who has been a Jewish proselyte.
00:21:50That is to say, he's attended Jewish schools.
00:21:53He understands Hebrew.
00:21:55He understands the rituals of the temple, the Jewish festival cycle.
00:22:00And so he is educated.
00:22:02And Paul indicates that in his defense here, by the way.
00:22:07He is not only educated in the ways of Judaism and in the customs of temple operation,
00:22:17but he was a consultant for the Romans.
00:22:22He was a go-between, if you will.
00:22:24If the royal house of Rome needed to have an interpretation of anything that was taking place in and around Jerusalem,
00:22:33they would go through Herod Agrippa II because he was considered to be, if you will, a Jewish expert.
00:22:39He was an expert on what the Jews do, what they think, how they will react.
00:22:44And so that was Herod Agrippa's role.
00:22:48He was a consultant, if you will, on Jewish religious matters,
00:22:52which, by the way, is one of the reasons why Festus wanted him to hear this case.
00:22:57So having laid that scene out, Agrippa says to Paul, you're permitted to speak for yourself.
00:23:04Then Paul stretched forth his hand.
00:23:06He answered for himself, I think myself happy, King Agrippa,
00:23:10because I shall answer for myself this day before thee,
00:23:13touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews,
00:23:17especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews.
00:23:28Wherefore, I beseech thee to hear me patiently.
00:23:31So now he has addressed Agrippa as a man who knows his onions, if you will.
00:23:38A Jewish expert, a consultant.
00:23:42The guy really is supposed to know it all.
00:23:45And Paul then kind of flatters him a bit by saying,
00:23:49I'm very happy to be speaking here today,
00:23:52because I know that you're really and truly familiar with Judaism,
00:23:56with the customs of the Jews.
00:24:02And he says, hear me patiently.
00:24:05My manner of life from my youth,
00:24:08which was at first among mine own nation in Jerusalem,
00:24:11I know all the Jews.
00:24:15Paul's saying, in effect here,
00:24:18the Jews know me.
00:24:20They have known me.
00:24:22They've known me.
00:24:24I studied at the feet of Gamaliel.
00:24:26I was in the Sanhedrin.
00:24:29I was...
00:24:31Everybody knows who I am.
00:24:33And in fact, I have become famous not only for my fervency as a Jew,
00:24:42but also for my subsequent fervency as a believer in Christ.
00:24:47That's what he's basically trying to get across.
00:24:49I'm well known.
00:24:51He's saying, in effect, I'm famous without saying I'm famous.
00:24:55But he was famous.
00:24:57And an indicator of this is the fact that he's now speaking before the royals
00:25:02from the imperial house of Rome.
00:25:04They've especially assembled this group of the high and the mighty
00:25:09to hear what he has to say.
00:25:10What an opportunity for him.
00:25:12So he says, my manner of life from my youth,
00:25:17which is the first among my own nation at Jerusalem,
00:25:22know all the Jews,
00:25:23which knew me from the beginning,
00:25:25if they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion,
00:25:29I lived a Pharisee.
00:25:31He says, I was a Pharisee, not only a Pharisee,
00:25:34but I was in the strictest sect of Phariseeism, which he was.
00:25:39He was a rigid and zealous Pharisee.
00:25:44And now, verse 6, I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers.
00:25:54What is the hope and the promise made of God unto our fathers?
00:26:03Well, it's the hope that goes all the way back to the beginning of the Bible.
00:26:11Who are the fathers?
00:26:13Well, the fathers, of course, go way, way, way, way back.
00:26:18Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.
00:26:23All the way up through Moses.
00:26:26All the way up through the prophets.
00:26:28And he says, I am judged for the hope of the promise made of God.
00:26:40You know, you and I stand as inheritors of the promise made to Israel.
00:26:44We have inherited eternal life through Christ.
00:26:47And Christ, of course, was the lion of the tribe of Judah.
00:26:51And we call ourselves Judeo-Christians.
00:26:53Our tradition goes all the way back to Abraham.
00:26:56Who, by faith, believed it was counted to him for righteousness.
00:27:02And we come to Christ in the same way that Abraham came to Christ,
00:27:07except that Abraham did it before Christ ever came.
00:27:10And so when Paul's talking about the hope here of the promise made unto God,
00:27:16it really encompasses the entire Old Testament.
00:27:19Genesis 3.15, for example.
00:27:21I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
00:27:24and between thy seed and her seed,
00:27:26and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
00:27:29Speaking of the coming Messiah, the seed of the woman.
00:27:33And Paul in Galatians writes,
00:27:35But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son,
00:27:39made of a woman, made under the law.
00:27:42And Genesis 22, for example.
00:27:45Verse 18.
00:27:46In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
00:27:53This hope runs all the way through the Old Testament.
00:27:56It is the hope of redemption for the human race,
00:28:01which came first to the Jews.
00:28:06Genesis 21.
00:28:08God said to Abraham,
00:28:10Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad,
00:28:15because of thy bondwoman.
00:28:17In all that Sarah hath said unto thee,
00:28:20hearken unto her voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.
00:28:24And so this seed of the woman, going from Genesis 3.15,
00:28:29Genesis chapter 22, Genesis 21 and 22,
00:28:35where you're talking about the seed of a particular redeemed race,
00:28:42which would bring forth the Messiah,
00:28:44is this hope that Paul is referring to in verse 6 when he's talking to Agrippa.
00:28:50And now I stand and have judged for the hope of the promise made unto God,
00:28:56made of God unto our fathers.
00:29:00That's what that hope is.
00:29:03Now, Agrippa, at this point, being an educated man and familiar with Jewish affairs,
00:29:09would be nodding,
00:29:10Yes, I understand, Paul.
00:29:12Uh-huh.
00:29:13Yes, that's absolutely right.
00:29:18He would have to, because the centerpiece of Judaism,
00:29:22Agrippa was an expert in Jewish affairs,
00:29:24the centerpiece of Judaism was the hope of the promise.
00:29:29And then verse 7 says,
00:29:31Unto which promise our twelve tribes,
00:29:33instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.
00:29:36For which hope's sake, King Agrippa,
00:29:39I am accused of the Jews.
00:29:43Here, Paul introduces an ironic twist.
00:29:47He said,
00:29:48The single greatest hope of the house of David is redemption through the seed of the woman,
00:29:56the coming Messiah, the great promise.
00:29:59Which, by the way, is our hope, too.
00:30:02Our hope, which Paul writes about, Titus 2.13, is the blessed hope.
00:30:11The hope of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to lift us up and to glorify us into eternal life.
00:30:21And so, when you talk about this hope, no matter what the context,
00:30:28it's the hope that began in Genesis 3.15, and it moves all the way forward through the Old Testament into the New Testament.
00:30:35And Paul said, ironically, here in verse 6,
00:30:40And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers.
00:30:47That's why I'm being judged.
00:30:50Because all I've been doing, Agrippa, is going out and preaching this particular hope,
00:30:55which all the Jews know about anyway.
00:30:59And at this point, this is a marvelous sermon by Paul because he's speaking to this Jewish expert,
00:31:06this consultant, if you will, this Herodian consultant.
00:31:11And he's reminding him, what is the centerpiece of Jewish preaching?
00:31:15It is the hope of the promise made to God,
00:31:19unto which promise our twelve tribes,
00:31:22instantly serving God day and night, hope to come.
00:31:25For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.
00:31:31Notice all the hoping going on there in verses 6 and 7.
00:31:34Hope, hope, hope, hope.
00:31:35Well, you know what?
00:31:37You and I have the same hope.
00:31:39The blessed hope.
00:31:41We're walking in that hope.
00:31:43The difference between Christians and non-Christians is non-Christians have no hope.
00:31:51Don't tell anybody, but they don't.
00:31:54They're trying their best to find it.
00:31:57But they don't have it.
00:31:59And we do.
00:32:00And that's what we have to offer the world as followers of Christ.
00:32:04And that's what Paul is saying.
00:32:06And you notice the wonderful way he's laying it out to Agrippa here.
00:32:11I got arrested for preaching the hope.
00:32:14And what can Agrippa say?
00:32:16Hmm.
00:32:17Wow.
00:32:18That's interesting.
00:32:23Like I've said many times, I want to see the movie, you know, on this particular get-together.
00:32:29One of these days, I'm sure you can check out of the library in heaven the videos of these historical events.
00:32:38I want to see Paul's sermon before Agrippa.
00:32:40That's got to be incredible.
00:32:43Just got to be wonderful.
00:32:47Now, he says,
00:32:48Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come,
00:32:53for which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I'm accused of the Jews.
00:32:56Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead?
00:33:05A rhetorical question here.
00:33:08Obviously, Paul is leveling this rhetorical question at Agrippa,
00:33:14knowing that Agrippa, as a Jewish proselyte and an expert in the Jews,
00:33:21realizes the central hope of Israel is resurrection from the dead into the kingdom.
00:33:27And so he asks this rhetorical question.
00:33:30Why should it be thought a thing incredible or impossible with you that God should raise the dead?
00:33:40I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
00:33:49Now, Paul jumps from verse 8 to verse 9.
00:33:52He jumps from one thought to another, but not really.
00:33:56Because verse 9 says,
00:33:57I really and truly absolutely thought to myself.
00:34:02That is, at one point, I believed that I ought to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
00:34:14Which thing I also did in Jerusalem.
00:34:19And many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests.
00:34:25See, notice this.
00:34:27Paul says, I got my authority to do this from the chief priests.
00:34:32These are the very people who want to kill me right now for doing the same thing.
00:34:37Except now I'm on the other side.
00:34:41And he's making a remarkable point here.
00:34:46And his point is that as a faithful Jew, before his conversion, he was preaching the hope.
00:35:02After his conversion, he was still preaching the hope.
00:35:09But now from the other side.
00:35:11But the remarkable irony is that the hope of Israel and the hope of the Christians are the same hope.
00:35:18The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:35:21And there's this great schism and Paul finds himself caught right in the middle of the schism.
00:35:26And he is using a very few choice words now before Agrippa to make this very point.
00:35:35That what the Jews are hoping for and what the Christians are hoping for really is built around the same person.
00:35:44The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.
00:35:46And before this is through, that is, before he finishes speaking with Agrippa, there are going to be a lot of spinning heads in that convocation.
00:35:56These people are going to be saying, wait a minute, what's he saying here?
00:36:00Which is exactly what he wants to do.
00:36:05So he says, I was opposed to Jesus of Nazareth.
00:36:12Christianity is referred to as following Jesus of Nazareth is referred to as the way.
00:36:21Later on, we find that Agrippa refers to it as Christianity or being a Christian.
00:36:30Now, those three titles for what we think of as Christianity today are really three different titles.
00:36:41Jesus of Nazareth, the title that Paul uses here in verse 9, is his, if you will, it's the cognomen of the rebel.
00:36:56Jesus of Nazareth was a rebel against the house of David.
00:37:03And so Paul says, at one point, I was opposed to this Jesus of Nazareth.
00:37:09And then verse 10 says, which thing I also did in Jerusalem.
00:37:13Many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests.
00:37:17And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.
00:37:23When these Christians were put to death, he says, wow, think about that.
00:37:34When these Christians were put to death, I gave assent.
00:37:42Kill them.
00:37:43That's what he's saying.
00:37:46Wow, what a thing to live with.
00:37:51Imagine that you're a Christian, and at some point in your earlier life, you were somehow responsible for the death of Christians for what they believed.
00:37:58That would be a hard thing to get over, would it not?
00:38:03But Paul does.
00:38:08And I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme.
00:38:14I tried to do everything I could to twist their language so that they would speak against the God in whom they believe.
00:38:22Even unto foreign cities, he says.
00:38:26I chased them everywhere.
00:38:27And of course, we know about his trip to Damascus, which is what's coming up next.
00:38:32Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,
00:38:37and once again, Paul never misses an opportunity to get this little dig in.
00:38:41I did this with the permission of the chief priests.
00:38:45I was acting on their behalf.
00:38:48At midnight, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining around about me,
00:38:56and them which journeyed with me.
00:38:58And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me saying in the Hebrew tongue,
00:39:04Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
00:39:09It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks or the goads.
00:39:14Pricks or goads are sharp little spikes that are attached to a plow or to an ox cart.
00:39:23So if the ox kicks up his feet, he'll hit those little goads and it'll hurt him.
00:39:33And so he will be less enthusiastic about kicking the next time.
00:39:38And the thing that's always gotten me about this is that when the Lord arrests Paul for the first time on the road to Damascus,
00:39:47and he's referred to as Saul, Shaul in Hebrew means it has been requested.
00:39:54That's a word in Hebrew for it has been asked or it has been requested.
00:39:58It's a very pompous and haughty name.
00:40:02There are two Saul's in the Bible, very noteworthy or notorious, shall I say, Saul's.
00:40:09One in the Old Testament, one in the New, and they're both of the tribe of Benjamin.
00:40:13And they're both nasty guys, nasty guys.
00:40:18And you know what happened to Saul in the Old Testament.
00:40:21And you know what happened to Saul in the New Testament?
00:40:23He was redeemed.
00:40:25And his name became Paul, Paulus or little, diminutive.
00:40:34And the voice says to him in Hebrew, and by the way, the lingua franca was Koine Greek,
00:40:42so that when this voice from heaven spoke, it was speaking to him in Hebrew.
00:40:47And it said, why are you persecuting me?
00:40:49It's hard for you to kick against the goads.
00:40:53And in Ecclesiastes 12.11, Solomon writes, the words of the wise are as goads.
00:41:02And you wonder, since Paul knew Scripture, knew all the Old Testament Scripture, probably by heart,
00:41:08he knew what Solomon had said about goads.
00:41:11The words of the wise are like goads.
00:41:14And so in one fell swoop, the Lord here is accusing Paul of being a haughty,
00:41:23resistant rebel.
00:41:34When Paul, in fact, thinks that he is on God's side, probably above all men on earth.
00:41:42At that point, Paul thought himself to be the most godly man in the world.
00:41:47And then he's struck down, and he discovers he's an ox trying to kick against the goads.
00:41:55The Lord just reduces him to animal status in one fell swoop.
00:42:01And I said, who art thou, Lord?
00:42:03And he said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecutest.
00:42:06But rise, stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose,
00:42:10to make thee a minister and a witness.
00:42:14The word for minister here, by the way, which means a lowly servant, the lowest of low servants.
00:42:27He says, rise, stand upon your feet, for I have appeared unto you for this purpose,
00:42:34to make you a minister, that is a servant, and a witness,
00:42:38both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee.
00:42:45In other words, Paul, you've seen a lot with your eyes up to now, and you have opposed it.
00:42:55Now you're hearing me, and I'm going to make you a servant and a witness,
00:43:01not only for the things that have happened, but those things that are going to happen in the future,
00:43:06when I am going to appear to you.
00:43:09Verse 17, delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee.
00:43:16And so, Paul is sent.
00:43:21Apostolos, he becomes an apostle.
00:43:26I am going to send you to the Gentiles, to open their eyes,
00:43:32and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,
00:43:36that they may receive the forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them,
00:43:40which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
00:43:44That is, they are set apart as servants by faith.
00:43:49And you are to go to preach to the Gentiles and give them that message.
00:43:53Now, Agrippa, this Jewish expert, is listening to all this,
00:43:59and right at this point in time, his ears have got to be perking up a little bit.
00:44:03Uh-oh, this is why Paul is in trouble.
00:44:07It would have been okay if you hadn't mentioned the Gentiles.
00:44:12But you say, Yeshua is going to send you out here to the Goy.
00:44:19That's a problem.
00:44:22It would be okay if we just kept it in-house,
00:44:25but when you went to the Gentiles, you infuriated the Pharisees.
00:44:30But verse 18 then becomes the thrust of this sermon.
00:44:37To open the eyes of the Gentiles, to turn them from darkness to light,
00:44:41from the power of Satan unto God,
00:44:43that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them,
00:44:47which are sanctified, that is, saved or set apart by faith that is in me.
00:44:55Whereupon, O King Agrippa?
00:45:01I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
00:45:05So Paul is now portraying himself as Christ's obedient witness.
00:45:12To convert, and this is the thread of Paul's sermon.
00:45:17To convert, which was, by the way, his ministry.
00:45:23To convert is not just to give one's life a new direction,
00:45:28but it is also in practice to reorient oneself continually to the goal that's in the future,
00:45:44by the radical pushing aside of evil.
00:45:47So Paul is essentially saying, I have become a servant to Jesus, the Messiah.
00:45:56And not just to convert people, but to give their lives new direction.
00:46:02To reorient them away from Satan unto God.
00:46:08More than simple conversion.
00:46:13I want to convert them to a new life.
00:46:17A reoriented life.
00:46:19A redeemed life.
00:46:21A changed life.
00:46:26And he says, I was obedient to this heavenly vision.
00:46:33But showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, throughout all the coasts of Judea,
00:46:39and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God,
00:46:44and do works meet for repentance.
00:46:48And so he's laid out what his event was, a life-changing event,
00:46:55and his servitude and his obedience, and a little brief history.
00:47:01First to Damascus, then Jerusalem, then throughout the coasts of Judea, then to the Gentiles.
00:47:07And of course, that would include his missionary journeys, one, two, and three.
00:47:12And when he came back from the third missionary journey, came to Jerusalem,
00:47:15there he was arrested, and has been languishing in jail ever since.
00:47:22Right up to this point.
00:47:26But get this, get what he's telling Agrippa, because it's kind of subtle.
00:47:31He says, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
00:47:35Verse 20, but showed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea,
00:47:42and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
00:47:50For these causes, the Jews caught me in the temple, and went about to kill me.
00:47:55So in a very brief, descriptive passage, he goes from his Damascus road experience,
00:48:04all the way through all of his missionary journeys, his trip back to Jerusalem,
00:48:09his arrest at the temple, the fortress of Antonia, when the Jews tried to kill him.
00:48:18Verse 22, having therefore obtained the help of God, I continue unto this day,
00:48:22witnessing both to the small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets
00:48:28and Moses did say should come.
00:48:32And again, he goes back to his initial message.
00:48:35Remember?
00:48:36The promise made of God unto our fathers.
00:48:40And he comes back around to it again now, saying,
00:48:43all I've been doing is simply preaching those things which the prophets and Moses said would happen.
00:48:51And what were the things that the prophets and Moses said?
00:48:54Well, they said that the Messiah was coming through the seed of the woman,
00:48:59through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through the tribe of Judah,
00:49:05that Messiah would come at a set time, that he would come through the house of David,
00:49:11that he would be born of a virgin, that he would be born in Bethlehem of Judea,
00:49:16that the great and the small would come to worship and adore him,
00:49:20that he would come to his temple.
00:49:24Haggai said, I will fill this house with glory.
00:49:27The latter shall be greater than the former.
00:49:32And Malachi says, and the Lord shall suddenly come to his temple.
00:49:35And you know all of these prophecies.
00:49:38And that's what Paul's talking about when he's talking to Agrippa.
00:49:41He's just saying, all I was doing was just simply preaching all of these things,
00:49:45and I got arrested.
00:49:49And he's talking now to Herod Agrippa II, who has this long,
00:49:56well, let's put it this way.
00:49:58Herod Agrippa II has one foot in the imperial house of Rome,
00:50:03and the other foot in the temple at Jerusalem.
00:50:07It would be hard to find a more strategically placed human being in the history of the world.
00:50:14Herod Agrippa II had been raised for this moment.
00:50:19And when Paul is...
00:50:21And I would just, again, I'm just trying to visualize this scene with these people dressed in their finery,
00:50:27you know, and servants walking about with jugs of wine and glassware.
00:50:32And Paul is speaking to this king.
00:50:37And this king was raised in the house of Claudius, but he had control over the temple treasury.
00:50:47One man, Herod Agrippa II, had all that power in one person,
00:50:54and now Paul is sermonizing to this guy.
00:50:59Which is, you talk about arranged by God.
00:51:02This is astounding.
00:51:05You know, you look at all the Old Testament prophecies,
00:51:09and I could spend time reading dozens of them,
00:51:12but you know, and Paul knew, and Agrippa knew,
00:51:17that the whole Old Testament is predicting the coming of Messiah.
00:51:23And now, of course, we have the New Testament, which predicts his coming again.
00:51:32So, verse 21,
00:51:38For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me.
00:51:43Oh, you were arrested for preaching the hope.
00:51:48Okay. Hmm, says Agrippa. Whoa.
00:51:53You can't arrest a guy for that. Not really.
00:51:58Having therefore obtained the help of God, I continue unto this day,
00:52:01witnessing both the small and great, saying none other things
00:52:04than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come,
00:52:08that Christ should suffer, that he should be the first,
00:52:11that should rise from the dead.
00:52:13There's the resurrection.
00:52:15Always, Paul works the resurrection into a sermon.
00:52:18Never, ever delivers a sermon without talking about the resurrection from the dead.
00:52:24Which is the central sine qua non.
00:52:28It is the feature of features.
00:52:30It is the central feature in the gospel.
00:52:33The resurrection from the dead.
00:52:38Christ should suffer.
00:52:40He should be the first that should rise from the dead
00:52:42and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.
00:52:49And as he thus spake for himself,
00:52:51Festus said with a loud voice,
00:52:53Ha!
00:52:54And here's Festus over here.
00:52:57Portius Festus.
00:52:59Pagan that he is.
00:53:00And by the way, not nearly as learned a man as Agrippa.
00:53:05He can't stand it anymore.
00:53:06He can't stand it anymore.
00:53:07Festus said, and it says in the Greek, in a booming voice,
00:53:12Paul, thou art beside thyself.
00:53:17Much learning doth make thee mad.
00:53:20Well, in the Greek, what he is shouting in a booming voice is,
00:53:28Paul, you're a maniac.
00:53:33In fact, three times in verses 24 and 25, the word maniac is used.
00:53:43It's translated into English as beside thyself or mad.
00:53:51But it's the Greek word manion, which or in one of its forms, it's mania,
00:53:58which we bring directly into the English language as manic or mad.
00:54:06And so Festus is saying, Paul, you've gone mad.
00:54:11You've been studying.
00:54:12You had your nose in the books your whole life.
00:54:15And you're wound up in your crazy imagination that you met somebody on the road to Damascus,
00:54:20and now you've got to go preach to the Gentiles.
00:54:22Paul, you're crazy.
00:54:24You're a maniac is what the Greek word is.
00:54:28And Paul says, hoda u maniomai.
00:54:33Paul shouts right back at him and says, I'm not a maniac.
00:54:38Just imagine this scene in front of all the nobles.
00:54:42And now it boils down to, you're crazy?
00:54:44No, I'm not crazy.
00:54:46I'm not mad, most noble Festus, he said.
00:54:50What are you going to call this guy?
00:54:52You're in a public gathering.
00:54:53You have to say most noble Festus.
00:54:55But you know what Paul was thinking.
00:54:57This guy is anything but noble.
00:55:00But I speak forth the words of truth and of soberness.
00:55:07And the word soberness could well be rendered sanity.
00:55:11Truth and sanity.
00:55:14He says, that's what I'm speaking.
00:55:16For the king, and at this point he would be gesturing back to Agrippa II.
00:55:23For the king knoweth of these things.
00:55:26He's an expert.
00:55:28King Agrippa is an expert in Jewish matters.
00:55:31For the king knoweth of these things before whom also I speak freely.
00:55:36For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him.
00:55:41For this thing was not done in a corner.
00:55:44This thing was done out in the open is what he's saying.
00:55:48And furthermore, Agrippa II knows very well the functioning of the priesthood, the functioning of the Jewish festivals, the temple festivals, the pilgrimage festivals, the functions and actions, even the budget of the high priests.
00:56:03He knows it all.
00:56:05And furthermore, he knows the scrolls, the sacred scrolls.
00:56:09He's had to study.
00:56:10In fact, what he is, is the designated consultant for the royal house of Rome on Jewish affairs.
00:56:19Boom!
00:56:20He says,
00:56:22For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely.
00:56:27For I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him.
00:56:31For this thing was not done in a corner.
00:56:34And indeed it was not done in a corner.
00:56:36The whole world knew about the crucifixion.
00:56:39Today it's sort of forgotten, but back in those days it was known.
00:56:44And then he points the finger, I think, at King Agrippa one last time and he says,
00:56:49King Agrippa,
00:56:50Believest thou the prophets?
00:56:54Pause, pause, pause.
00:56:58I know that thou believest.
00:57:01Wonderful conclusion to a marvelous sermon.
00:57:05You believe the prophets, Agrippa?
00:57:07I know you believe the prophets.
00:57:10Then Agrippa says to Paul, one of the most famous statements in the whole Bible,
00:57:15Paul, almost thou persuades me to be a Christian.
00:57:21Wow.
00:57:22A couple of things about that.
00:57:25First of all, the way it's written is written in the negative with a negative imperative in Greek language,
00:57:33which shades it so that what he's really saying is,
00:57:38you might be trying to make me a Christian, but it ain't going to happen.
00:57:43That's really the way this language is shaded according to Greek scholars.
00:57:48So it's not as though Agrippa is going to jump up and receive Christ.
00:57:52Sometimes it's been preached that way.
00:57:54Almost you're making me a Christian.
00:57:56The attitude displayed here is cynical.
00:57:59Got a lot on your side, Paul, but I'm not going to be a Christian.
00:58:03And then he uses the word Christian.
00:58:05Christian.
00:58:06Christian and Christos are deprecatory ways of describing messianic belief.
00:58:13That is to say, if you believe in the coming of a Messiah, as the Jews did,
00:58:19and then if you believe in Jesus and his return, as the Christians did,
00:58:24then you are one of these fervent, crazy messianic believers.
00:58:30And that's translated into Greek and into Latin as Christian, Christos.
00:58:37It's almost a deprecatory term.
00:58:40A little Christ.
00:58:42So in two ways, Agrippa is being deprecating to Paul.
00:58:47Like, you're not about to persuade me, number one.
00:58:50And furthermore, your sect is a bunch of little Christs.
00:58:54So they're not worth believing in to begin with.
00:58:58And Paul says, I wish, oh, I wish to God that not only you,
00:59:04but also all that hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am,
00:59:11except for these bonds.
00:59:14I'm sure you had to be there.
00:59:16But Paul is in chains.
00:59:18And he says, I wish you were like I am.
00:59:22I wish you had the faith that I have.
00:59:25I wish you could be just like me, except for these chains.
00:59:28What a rhetorical note.
00:59:30What a way to put it, except for these chains.
00:59:34And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up and the governor and Bernice,
00:59:41and they sat with him.
00:59:43When they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying,
00:59:45this man doeth nothing worthy of death or even of bonds.
00:59:49And said Agrippa unto Festus, this man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed to Caesar.
00:59:57And truer words were never spoken.
01:00:00And by the way, Paul, as a Roman citizen who knew Roman law, I'm convinced,
01:00:06deliberately appealed to Caesar because he wants to go to the top.
01:00:12And he knows he's innocent.
01:00:14And he knows.
01:00:15And by the way, this will historically prove to be the case that when he goes to Rome
01:00:20and appears before the imperial court, he will be freed.
01:00:25And he was.
01:00:26He was under house arrest in Rome.
01:00:29And then he was freed.
01:00:31And he continued his missionary journeys off into places that we have very, very little information about
01:00:37before he came back to Rome and was finally executed years later.
01:00:42But Paul was no dummy.
01:00:44He gave the perfect witness.
01:00:46He set himself up perfectly within the framework of Roman law.
01:00:50And Agrippa of the house of Claudius and Nero turns to Festus, Portius Festus,
01:00:59who, by the way, was a wealthy procurator, very high up in Roman society and said,
01:01:06you know what?
01:01:07This guy should have been set free.
01:01:09And he would have been if he hadn't appealed to Caesar.
01:01:12Except you realize what's hidden in that.
01:01:15If they had set Paul free, the Jews would have gotten him and he would have died.
01:01:19So essentially, Paul is using the Roman legal system to keep himself alive.
01:01:25And this is the story of Paul's missionary activity.
01:01:29And by the way, it really shows the relationship between pagan Gentile law and Christianity.
01:01:37It's a long history there of Christians being protected by Gentile law going all the way back to Paul.
01:01:49Well, the Lord works in mysterious ways and we are out of time.
01:01:54So we'll have to continue this story, which continues, by the way, on a very exciting note from this point onward.
01:02:00?
01:02:01?
01:02:02?
01:02:03?
01:02:08?
01:02:12?
01:02:13?
01:02:14?
Recommended
56:11
|
Up next