Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful
that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either
by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for
us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really,
I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible,
they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will
do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a
non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't
hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the
types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
Let's pray. Father, we confess before you that we do not really know how often we read the book,
your book, the Bible, and we either make the mistake of it applies to somebody else,
or we make the mistake of thinking that it just doesn't apply to us at all. It just seems odd.
Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would bring your Word deep into our heart that it might form us
so that we will live lives both intellectually and emotionally secure in what Jesus has done for us
on the cross and for the eternal weight of glory that you are preparing for your children adopted
by you through grace. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.
I've only had a couple of times where I've prayed, and I think something like a miracle happened.
Some of you have heard this story. It's from quite a few years ago. I was looking after
four little churches in the country. It was my first time as a rector, and it was July or August.
I can't remember which month, but I was at work, and the minister in the town of Renfrew
was on holiday, and I was covering for him. And I lived about half an hour away from Renfrew,
and the other churches that I served were in the opposite direction from Renfrew.
And it was about a half-hour drive to... That morning, I had to drive to Tremor, so it's a bit more than half an hour.
And just a little bit, like five minutes before I was to leave, go out the door, ten minutes maybe,
the phone rings, which is very unusual to have the phone ring at like 20 after 8, quarter after 8 on a Sunday morning,
so I answered the phone. And it was a nurse from the hospital in Renfrew.
And the nurse said, are you George Sinclair? I said, I am. She said, are you the minister who's on call for X?
And I said, I am. And she said, well, I have a man who's been in a coma now for 48 hours or whatever it was.
He is... We think he is maybe just minutes from death. In fact, I feel bad that I didn't call you earlier,
because the family would really like you to be with them before he dies, and he has very little time to live.
So could you come? And I said to the nurse, I said, I'm really sorry.
I cannot come down to the hospital in Renfrew. I can't cancel my service in Tremor.
We're my service in Eganville to drive down and do this.
And she was very insistent that this man was close to death.
It was very important to the family, and she really tried to lay some guilt trips on me.
And I was feeling a bit guilty, to tell you the truth.
But I just said, I'm really, really sorry. I cannot... I have to go to... I can't do my services.
If he's still alive, when I'm done my services, I'll come.
And she said, well, he almost definitely won't be alive, just to give me that final kick of guilt.
I did my services.
As soon as I'd finished my 11 o'clock service in Eganville,
I called the hospital, and the nurse answered, and she said, well, I don't know what.
He's still alive. He's still... I mean, he should have died three or four hours, a couple of hours ago.
He's still alive.
I said, well, I'll come.
And my wife made a sandwich for me and put some coffee in a cup,
and I hopped in the car and I drove to the hospital, found him,
and the man was still alive, still in a coma, and his wife and daughter were with him.
And so I told him who I was.
I put my hand on his shoulder and just said, hi, I'm here.
I'm the minister in charge.
I always speak to the person in the coma in the hope that maybe they can hear.
And I spent a couple of minutes talking to the wife and to his daughter,
and then I prayed for the man.
I put my hand on his shoulder and I prayed for him.
And when I pray in a situation like that, I pray for the wife and the daughter.
I pray for the people who are, you know, mourning and, you know, concerned for him.
I pray for all who are praying for him.
And I pray several things for the man.
And one of the things I always pray for is I always pray that he will be healed or she will be healed.
I always pray for that.
That's in God's hands.
It's the right thing to do.
I pray, Father, if it's your will, that this man would be healed and that he would have more years of life.
And then I go on and pray fundamentally that Jesus, I say something to the effect of Jesus, he's in a coma.
We can't reach him.
We know that Jesus can talk to him even in his coma and make Jesus minister to him and prepare him, Father, to see you face to face.
And then I said, amen.
And the man opened his eyes and said, thank you.
And he lived at least another two years.
He left the hospital the next day.
That's the most dramatic of any of the times where I prayed for somebody and there's been something like a miraculous healing.
Now, I mention this because most people, when they think of how God relates to the world, they either think of miracles like this or they think of things.
And we could all probably have many stories about this, like what we would consider to be dramatic answers to prayer.
But skeptics could say that, you know, maybe it wasn't the prayer that some other type of thing would happen.
But they're pretty dramatic.
We all probably have tales of praying for people.
I have a purse for other people that the healing wasn't dramatic, but they were supposed to die and they lived quite a few years.
The cancer was completely gone, not in remission, but completely gone, died of something else.
We all have stories like that.
And the other way that Christians tend to talk about how God relates to the world is in the doctrine of providence.
And that's where God seems to work through the changes and chances of this fleeting world through events in a way that works out for his people.
And some of us have stories about that.
They wouldn't be a miracle, per se.
Nobody would say it's a miracle.
It would be something along the lines of you're late to have dinner with your friend and you come into your dismay.
It looks like there must be a convention going on or something.
All the parking spots in the street are filled.
And then you're just behind, you know, you're late and then the guy ahead of you, the light hasn't even gone yellow light yet, but he stops.
You miss going through the light and you think, oh, I'm going to be even more late.
You know, what am I going to do?
And then as you pull through, just ahead of you, in front of the restaurant, a car pulls out and you're able to park there.
And so most of the time when we think of providence, we think of something like that.
You know, you wouldn't say that's a miracle.
It's just one of those things.
God just took care of you in providence.
Now, I mention all of this because, you see, if you think that God only relates to you in terms of dramatic answers to prayer,
and if you think that the other way is acts of providence where it's something like the car leaving so you have a parking spot,
you're going to miss out on actually how God works for his children, especially how he works for his children when life is very difficult, when life is exceptionally difficult.
And the story that we're going to look at today is a story that will help us to understand how God deals and is with us even in very, very difficult times.
And it's going to point us in a different direction from the type of advice that we often hear in Christian and in non-Christian circles,
which is to say there must be some reason that this is happening.
There has to be a reason why this is happening.
And that, of course, is very, very frustrating if it's very hard to see the reason or if the only reasons you can guess aren't very good ones.
And when you look around at other people who don't seem to be having those hard times that you're having,
and there must be a reason doesn't really seem like it's true.
And it seems like very thin gruel, something very thin to eat.
So let's look at this story, which talks about something better than there must be a reason for what's going on,
and which helps it open our eyes to providence, especially providence when we are having very difficult times in our lives.
So if you turn with me, it's Acts chapter 25.
And if you're a guest here in the church, one of the things that we do at Church of the Messiah is we generally either preach through books of the Bible
or take big chunks of the Bible and preach through it.
And we're going through the book of Acts, and so this is the next story.
And what's just sort of happened over the last couple of chapters, it's all downstream from this fellow by the name of Paul.
He's come to Jerusalem to bring money for the poor.
He's in the temple.
He gets accused of something he hasn't done.
He's falsely accused.
A mob is formed.
They try to kill him.
He comes into custody.
It's not protective custody, but in a sense a type of criminal custody under Rome.
And now things have happened.
There's been other attempts on his life.
There's been other fights.
And then what's just happened the week before is that Paul is, in a sense, on trial for his life before the Roman governor in Caesarea.
And you hear the legal arguments.
And at the end of it, Paul's left in jail because Felix is hoping for a bribe.
And he doesn't get the bribe.
So Paul spends two years in criminal limbo.
And now our story continues.
Verse 1.
Now, after three days, Festus had arrived in the province.
That's the Roman province.
Sorry.
Now, three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
So Caesarea is the capital of the province.
And Jerusalem, though, is a very important city to the Jewish people.
So he's been a good governor, and he goes up to Jerusalem.
And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jewish elite laid out their case against Paul.
And they urged Festus, asking him as a favor against Paul, that Festus summon Paul to Jerusalem.
Why?
Because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way.
And just sort of pause.
You can see right off the bat that this is a bit of a dark story.
They want Paul dead, dead, dead, dead, dead.
That's what they want.
They are corrupt.
They are not taking their proper function.
Paul has never been actually, he's innocent until proven guilty by Jewish law.
He hasn't been found guilty.
And they are willing to conspire with murderers to have Paul killed.
And another thing about this story, which is very striking, is it's been two years,
over two years since Paul has been in jail.
That means, and there's even been a change in the high priest, and that means despite the change of whoever's in control,
there has been this festering, murderous hatred against Paul.
Two years of festering hatred.
You can see that the Bible here talks about the real world.
Not a hallmark romantic world, but the real world, where this is sometimes what people have to face.
Murderous hatred.
And now there's another thing here.
I've talked about it not for a couple of weeks, but it's really important for you to hear.
If you read this story as there's good guys and bad guys, and Paul is the good guy,
and so you think, okay, all these others are bad, like Festus, and then later on,
oh, and all these people are bad, like the Jewish elite, and oh, these people are bad, like Agrippa and Bernice.
Oh, and here we come to Paul, the good guy.
Here's us Christians.
That's not the way to read the text.
In fact, if you read the text this way, you haven't actually heard the text.
The way to read the text biblically is after every character is introduced to say to God,
is it me, Lord?
Is that me?
Because the fact is there are Christians who labor under over two years of hatred,
and rather than having it lessen over two years, they let it fester.
In fact, not only do they let it fester, they feed it.
We know Christians who feed hatred.
And so when you read the story, in every case, you need to ask yourself,
Lord, is that me?
Is there an area in my life where I am nurturing hatred?
And in the next few characters, you're going to see it.
Ask yourself, is that me?
Don't just jump to, oh, yeah, I'm Paul.
I'm the victim.
Everybody, all the others hate me.
No, no, no, no, no.
You haven't heard the scripture.
Is it I, Lord?
That's the response we should see in a narrative.
See, it's one of the reasons why biblical narrative helps to form nuanced moral reasoning.
And if it's read properly, self-awareness.
That you ask yourself, is it I?
So what happens?
Okay.
Paul, you know, Festus, the Jewish elite have asked that Paul, Festus would bring Paul down,
and the Jewish elite wants to kill.
What's Festus going to say?
Verse 4.
What does it say?
Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he, that is Festus, himself
intended to go there shortly.
So Festus said, let the men of authority, in other words, people who can actually make decisions,
let the men of authority among you go down with me.
Don't send lackeys.
I want the guys who can actually make decisions.
Send these men.
Come down with me.
And if there's anything wrong about the man Paul, let them bring charges against him.
And the first thing that we see about Festus, he seems like a competent person in authority.
Like a, you know, basically a good guy.
But the next few verses reveals that that's actually not true.
There is a competence about him, but there is something else that goes along with power.
That's not good.
Well, what is it?
Look at verse 6.
And after Paul, after Festus stayed among them not more than 8 or 10 days.
By the way, I love that.
That shows how Luke, the writer of this, is really concerned with accuracy.
He doesn't know if it was 8 days or 9 days or 10 days.
So he doesn't try to pretend he knows when he doesn't.
He says what he does know.
It's somewhere between 8 to 10 days.
You know, it shows how Luke has a concern for accuracy.
I'll read that verse again.
After Festus stayed among them not more than 8 or 10 days, he went down to Caesarea.
And the next day, he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.
But when Paul had arrived, those in authority in Judaism who had come down from Jerusalem stood around Paul,
bringing many serious charges against him that they could not prove.
Paul argued.
And by the way, Luke can say this because of what happens later on in the story.
It's not just Luke's opinion.
It's what turns out later on in the story, that they couldn't prove it.
Paul argued, verse 8, in his defense,
neither against the law of the Jewish people nor against the temple nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.
So if some of you are familiar with the sermon from last week, you'll know in the trial last week,
it's very different than this, and there's no summary.
And the reason there's no summary, it's sort of obvious there if you look,
but in the original language, it's very obvious.
What happened the week before is they'd hired a professional.
And so he attacked Paul like a surgeon will do surgery with a scalpel.
Very precise, very fine cuts, a very clear strategy.
This time what the elite has decided is they're not going to go and pay for a high-priced fancy lawyer
that didn't get them anywhere anyway.
They did the full court press, the blitz read,
the I am going to make a list of every possible imaginable thing that Paul has ever done wrong,
and we're all going to make a list of it,
and we're just going to stand there flinging every potential thing he's ever done wrong at him.
Just a full court press, nothing finesse about it, just throwing everything at him.
And that's why they don't summarize it, because it's obviously in the original language.
And Paul just argues in his defense, it just summarizes,
listen, whether it's against the temple, against Jewish people, or against the Roman state,
I've done nothing wrong.
And that's sort of the answer.
I've committed nothing.
Now, it's in this next bit that you start to see the problem with Festus,
and it's a very, very common human problem.
Now, by the way, it's a very common thing that there are bureaucrats who are honest and fair.
That's fortunately common.
Maybe, yeah, it's common.
We don't have to say, oh, there's a bureaucrat, they're probably not doing a good job.
No, that would be a wrong way to look at the world.
But the next thing shows that there's, in fact, beneath that surface competence
is something else going on, and it's seen here in verse 9.
But Festus, wishing to do the Jewish elite a favor,
ah, favors, said to Paul,
do you wish to go up to Jerusalem there and be tried on these charges before me?
Sounds very innocent, sounds very innocuous,
sounds very, like, almost like a wise thing to do,
but it's, in fact, highly problematic.
See, now Festus isn't actually following the rules or doing his job.
He's thinking about the politics,
and he's thinking about what will make him look good,
what will make his life easier.
And I didn't mention it earlier,
but you're going to see throughout the text,
there's constant ways, both in the English and the original language,
that emphasizes that Paul's a nobody.
As I said last week, it's hard for us to think of it in these terms,
because unless you're a real Bible person,
or you happen to study Tacitus or Josephus minutely,
you don't know who Festus is.
But Paul has cities and schools and churches named after him.
So Paul, but in those times, in this story,
Paul is a nobody, absolute nobody.
And all the powerful people are figuring out what to do
with this frankly inconvenient Jew.
Just in the way.
He's just in the way.
And so Festus wants to do a favor,
and he wants to do a favor to the Jewish people,
so he makes his suggestion.
Paul knows he's not a dummy,
so how's Paul going to respond to it?
See, and once again, our response is to say,
is it I?
Do I treat weak people in my organization in this way?
Do I not actually think about what I'm supposed to do,
but do I think of who I can make favor with?
Do I, in fact, in my office,
just act in a way that will make my job comfortable,
and I don't actually care about the people
that I have a responsibility for?
Is it I?
So what does Paul do?
Verse 10.
But Paul said,
I am standing before Caesar's tribunal,
where I ought to be tried.
To the Jewish people, I have done no wrong,
as you yourself know very well.
If then I am a wrongdoer
and have committed anything for which I deserve to die,
I do not seek to escape death.
But if there is nothing to their charges against me,
no one can give me up to them,
I appeal to Caesar.
Now what you have to understand here is in the world at that time,
there were three levels of courts.
You could sort of imagine that the Jewish court was sort of like,
if there was a municipal court,
it's a municipal level.
Where Festus is would be like the Ontario Supreme Court,
and then there's still the Supreme Court of Canada.
And in our day,
if you want to appeal a decision by the Ontario Supreme Court,
you ask the Supreme Court of Canada to consider taking it on,
and they can say no.
But in those days,
if you're a Roman citizen,
tried at this middle level,
the second you appeal to Caesar,
you can go to Caesar.
That's what you can do.
And in fact,
one of the things you see here
is that Paul understood the laws and the rules,
in fact,
probably better than Festus and his opponents did.
You know,
one of the things to do
if you're in trouble in a bureaucracy or in the legal system,
know the rules.
I mean,
one of the reasons that we were able to be
as successful as we were
against our former diocese,
when the diocese sued us,
is we knew the canons in the law
better than the other lawyer did.
Like,
just hands down.
We knew it better.
Like,
we just did.
And that's not boasting.
It was just very obvious.
They kept being surprised,
thinking they could do things,
and it turned out they couldn't.
They didn't have the power to do it.
But,
this really is going to catch Festus by a surprise,
well,
here,
let's read it,
and then I'll tell you why it's going to catch Festus by surprise.
So,
he appeals to Caesar.
Then,
Festus,
verse 12,
when he had conferred with his counsel,
answered,
to Caesar you have appealed,
and to Caesar you shall go.
Now,
why is it
that this probably caught him by surprise?
It's because
when Paul appeals to Caesar,
he has to pay
all of the costs
out of his own pocket.
He has to pay
all of the travel costs
for himself,
whatever his traveling companions are,
and for whatever soldiers
need to accompany him.
He has to pay
all the costs
all the way
until he finally appears
to the emperor.
Paul is unemployed,
and he's not wealthy.
It's a very,
once again,
this is the normal life,
folks.
It's not unusual
for a big corporation
or a government
or something like a diocese
to put into place
legal proceedings
just believing
that the other side,
the small person,
the nobody,
doesn't have the financial resources
to fight back
and will have to cave.
It's in the news
all the time.
It's normal life,
and Festus probably figured
he had a very brilliant solution
to this,
and Paul goes ahead
and says he's going to do this,
and part of the conferring
might have been where it is.
And by the way,
there's an indirect lesson here
about Christian generosity.
We are never told
who paid all of these expenses.
You know,
the Bible says
don't let your left hand
know what your right hand
is giving.
Like,
don't give money
for the furtherance
of the gospel
and the help of the church
to get praise.
We're never told
who paid these bills,
but they would have been
considerable.
Anyway,
Festus goes ahead
and makes a snap decision,
but probably
the very next day
he realizes
he made a really,
really big mistake,
and he's caught
in terms of how he thinks
because he's not thinking
in terms of processes,
but he's thinking
in terms of favor.
Well,
how does that,
well,
let's see.
Verse 13.
Now,
when some days had passed,
Agrippa the king
and Bernice,
sorry,
when some days had passed,
comma,
Agrippa the king
and Bernice
arrived at Caesarea
and greeted Festus.
Now,
just pause here.
Agrippa's another character,
and you need to know
that,
so here's one of the things
that's really neat
about the Bible.
When Luke is writing
the book of Acts,
he doesn't know
that after he's written
the book of Acts,
Josephus will become
a famous historian
who's going to write
about a lot of the same things,
and he doesn't know
that a famous Roman historian
by the name of Tacitus
is going to write
about the same things,
and so historians know
all sorts of things
about Agrippa
and about Bernice
and about Festus
and about the high priest.
They know who the high priest
was then,
but here's the thing
about Agrippa and Bernice.
It's going to be important
to know.
They were brother and sister
and they were married,
and it was a scandalous,
incestuous relationship
that the powerful
would tolerate
even while they,
in secret,
would deride them,
make fun of them,
but he was married
to his half-sister.
There are people
who like the good life
and, you know,
frankly,
what I want,
I want,
and what I want,
I get.
We all know people like that,
and once again,
is it I, Lord?
Am I the type of person
who wants what they want?
I want what I want,
and I get what I want
because I want it.
Am I that person?
Well, what's the problem
that Festus has created
for himself?
Look at verse 14.
As they stayed there
many days,
that's Agrippa and Bernice,
they, you know,
Agrippa is the king
of the neighboring area,
and Agrippa has control
over the temple
in Jerusalem.
Verse 14,
and as they stayed there
many days,
Festus laid Paul's case
before the king,
saying,
um,
there is a man
left prisoner by Felix,
in other words,
not my fault.
By the way,
this whole bit
is a perfect example
of a combination
between bureaucratic
butt covering
and bureaucratic
gas lighting.
Once again,
that doesn't happen
anywhere in the modern world.
Like,
no politician
or bureaucrat,
or for that matter,
pastor,
ever does
things like
cover their butt
and try to make
people think
that their remembrance
of the past
isn't exactly
how it happens.
But that,
I'm not going to go
into all the detail,
but that's what he's
going to do
in this little recounting.
He's going to make
himself look like a hero,
leave out all the bad bits,
blame everybody else
other than himself,
and here's how it goes.
He said,
there is a man,
verse 14,
left prisoner by Felix,
and when I was at Jerusalem,
the chief priests
and the elders
and the Jewish elite
laid out their case
against him,
asking for a sentence
of condemnation.
In other words,
they wanted a capital
they wanted him
to be found guilty
of a capital offense
so that he could be killed.
And verse 16,
I answered them
that it was not
the custom of the Romans
to give up anyone
before the accused
met the accuser
face to face
and had opportunity
to make his defense
concerning the charge
against him.
So when they came
together here,
I made no delay,
but on the next day
took my seat
on the tribunal
and ordered the man
to be brought.
But when the accusers
stood up,
they brought no charge
in the case
of such evils
as I supposed.
Rather,
they had certain points
of dispute
with Paul
about their own religion
and about a certain Jesus
who was dead,
but whom Paul
asserted to be alive.
I'll mention that again
in a moment.
Being at a loss
how to investigate
these questions,
I asked whether he wanted
to go to Jerusalem
and be tried there
regarding them.
But when Paul
had appealed
to be kept in custody
for the decision
of the emperor,
I ordered him
to be held
until I could send him
to Caesar.
And there's the summary
of what he says
to Agrippa.
Now,
you start to get
a bit of a hint
of the problem.
Festus knows
that Paul is not guilty
of any of these
capital offenses.
He's just basically
admitted it
to Agrippa.
And it's a master class
in butt covering
and gaslighting.
And then he has
this little summary
to show you
a little bit
about how Paul
comports himself.
And something very,
it's actually really
powerful evidence
to the truth
of the resurrection.
Festus confesses
to Agrippa,
I don't understand,
I don't really understand
how,
I don't have a place
in my mind for it
because the Jewish elite
says that Jesus is dead
and Paul says
that Jesus died.
Yet somehow
Paul says
that Jesus died
and he's alive.
I'm like,
what?
Doesn't make any sense.
We're going to hear
a little bit about
how Paul describes
it next week.
But you have
this very powerful
evidence
of the truth
of the resurrection.
That there's
a common ground
that he died
by crucifixion,
that he was buried
in a tomb,
and maybe
they don't want
to talk about
the grave being empty,
the tomb being empty
if you're the Jewish elite,
but Paul says
the tomb is empty
and in fact
Jesus has appeared alive.
You know,
by the way,
we're going to talk
about this in a moment.
If the resurrection
is true,
it changes everything.
I was just talking
to somebody
within the last
couple of weeks
and I said,
they were talking
to me about
a whole pile
of Islamic objections
to Christianity
and one of the things
I said is,
if the resurrection
is true,
it changes everything.
It means Islam
is wrong,
is false.
The resurrection
changes everything
and it's not just
the resurrection
but it's the meaning
of the resurrection
and one of the things,
once again,
I've said it many times,
I'll say it again,
we all know people
who die for causes.
Most people
don't die for a fact
and Paul will die
for a fact,
the fact that Jesus
rose from the dead
and what it means
and he will die
for that.
So,
what type of advice
does Agrippa give?
Well,
it's very interesting.
It's a type of advice
that a self-centered,
indulgent person
would give.
Look what he says
in verse 22.
He says,
Agrippa said to Festus,
I would like to hear
the man myself.
Tomorrow,
said Festus,
you will hear him.
Now,
here's the thing
which is very,
very interesting.
Agrippa could have said,
hey,
Festus,
buddy,
puts his arm around him.
He's innocent.
Let him go.
What's the big deal?
Just let him go.
He's innocent.
Let him go.
You see,
and I'm not going
to read the rest of it
because I want to get
to some of the other
applications which are important.
If you go back
and read,
then actually,
we'll read it very closely.
Here's the issue.
Here's where Festus
has painted himself
into a corner.
Next,
verse 23.
So here's the thing.
Agrippa doesn't say,
listen,
acknowledging you made
a mistake
is always an option
in life.
In fact,
in many places,
many times in life,
the best option
is just to acknowledge
you've done something wrong.
Be prepared
to lose face.
The guy's innocent.
Let him go.
Agrippa says,
whoa.
I mean,
what you might not know
is Agrippa's dad
was the one
who killed
the first Christians.
Killed James.
And Agrippa's
great-grandfather
was the one
who wanted to kill
the baby Jesus.
And Agrippa
has probably heard
about these things
that Paul has done
in his travels
and his argument
for the resurrection.
And Agrippa's
just really curious.
He'd just like
to hear Paul.
So he doesn't think
about what's right
or wrong.
He just thinks
about how he would
like to hear Paul.
Well,
here's the problem.
Verse 23.
So on the next day,
Agrippa and Bernice
came with great pomp
and they entered
the audience hall
with the military tribunes
and the prominent
men of the city.
That's both Jewish
and pagan.
Then at the command
of Festus,
Paul was brought in
from jail.
And Festus said,
King Agrippa
and all who are
present with us,
you see,
now here,
this is in the
original language.
It's a dismissive gesture
with a dismissive way
of describing Paul.
Festus,
they're all
in their finals,
their finery.
They're all wearing
the most expensive clothes.
They're all in their robes.
They are the elite.
And Festus brings Paul in,
obviously as a prisoner.
And Festus says,
King Agrippa
and all who are present here,
verse 24,
you see this man,
this nobody,
this little person,
this inconvenient Jew.
You see this man,
this nobody,
about whom the whole
Jewish people petitioned me
both in Jerusalem
and here,
shouting they ought
not to live any longer.
But I found that he had
done nothing
deserving death.
And as he himself
appealed to the emperor,
I decided to go ahead
and send him.
But I have nothing
definite to write
to my lord about him.
He's going to get
in trouble with Nero
if he sends
an innocent guy there.
He has to dream up
some reason
that he's being sent there.
How is he going to
gaslight the emperor
and cover his butt
without doing
the obvious thing
which is just saying
let him go?
None of the important people
think of it
in terms of that
because for important people
you can't lose face
and you can't acknowledge
that you're wrong.
It doesn't go with pride.
Pride and idolatry
will always lead you
to not apologize
and not acknowledge wrong.
It's one of the signs
of your pride
and or of worshipping idols.
Therefore I have brought him
before you all
and especially before you
King Agrippa
so that after we have
examined him
I may have something
to write.
He's not looking for justice.
He just wants something
to help them cover his butt
and gaslight.
For it seems to me
unreasonable in sending
a prisoner to not indicate
the charges against him.
Duh.
Yes it is.
So what's going on here
with this whole text
and how on earth
does this fit
with the idea
of providence?
Well
it begins like this.
The problem that we have
with providence
is that when we think
of providence
we think of examples
of when
we are late for supper
at a restaurant
and a parking space
opens just in front of us
and that parking
another way to talk about it
would be that it was
fortuitous
to use a big word.
It just
it makes our life easier.
It puts a smile
on our face.
It rescues us
from a hard time.
But how is it
that there is
something like providence
when frankly
you are in
a very hard time
right now
and in fact
many people
on the outside
of your life
would agree
if you say
my life
sucks.
How is providence
at work
when you have been
deeply hurt?
How is providence
at work
when you are accused
of things
you didn't do?
How is providence
at work
when powerful people
treat you
like a nobody
and they don't admit
that they are wrong?
How on earth
can you
Christians
say that there is
something like providence?
Well
the resurrection
changes everything.
And the resurrection
is not just a story
of the resurrection
part of what it is all about
is the meaning
of the resurrection.
And in fact
one of the ways
that you can get
a better sense
of the gospel
and how it is
that for many people
the gospel
seems implausible
because what is plausible
for us as human beings
is the way
that powerful people
treat little people
and how powerful people
in the world
often not always
but often treat
the little people
is
well it doesn't
really matter
if they are treated
as guilty
when they are innocent
and it doesn't
really matter
if you drag it out
and maybe they die
or maybe they go away
and their case
is never heard
because powerful people
are about powerful people.
but the gospel
is the complete inverse
of this.
The gospel
is the most powerful
being in the universe
the triune God
seeing nobodies
like you and me
and seeing
not that we are innocent
but that we are guilty
and acting
to make the guilty
innocent
and to be free.
That is the gospel.
gospel.
God shows
that for him
there are no little people
there are no nobodies
in a sense
some Christians
have said
that even if there was
only one sinner
in the entire universe
Jesus would still
have died on the cross
for that one sinner
but we are all sinners
unlike the story
we actually are guilty
but God acts
to save the guilty
and he acts
in a way
which is powerful
and effective
and we know
that this is true
because we can believe Jesus
why can we believe Jesus
because he died
on a cross
as the Lamb of God
who takes away
the sin of the world
and he experienced
all there is
to taste of death
and all of that
the guilt
and the shame
connected with death
and on the third day
the grave
became empty
as Jesus is resurrected
and he appeared
before a people
to prove that he was alive
and if the resurrection
happened
you can absolutely
take as rock solid
what Christ says to you
and what Christ says to you
you can look in
the many promises
precious promises
of his presence
with you
that he will never leave you
or forsake you
the fact that it is
a good thing
that I go away
the fact that you are
beloved of the Father
the fact that he gives
the Holy Spirit
the fact that he will not
abandon you
or leave you
ever
that he will not
cast anybody out
who comes to him
that he will comfort you
all of these things
he has promised
he doesn't tell us
he doesn't tell you and me
that for everything
that we are going through
we will know
in the moment
what the meaning is
the importance
of the doctrine
of God's providence
is that
I mean Festus
is doing what Festus
is going to do
and the elite
are doing what
the elite wants to do
and Agrippa
is doing what
the Agrippa
wants to do
but despite all of it
remember Paul
just a couple
Jesus just a couple
of chapters earlier
said don't worry
Paul I am with you
and you're going
to go to Rome
but that general
specific promise
is a general promise
to us
that Christ
is with you
and so
people are doing
what people do
and you're caught
in it
and it doesn't look
like any parking spots
are opening for you
but it doesn't mean
that Christ
has abandoned you
you see
knowing that Christ
is with you
even in these
really difficult
and lonely times
it means
that we have
to die
to the idea
of providence
as being always
finding the parking
spot
and die
to the idea
as to there must
be some meaning
here
by the way
in heaven
we will discover
these meanings
but those are things
that come when we
see Christ
face to face
and we might know
some meanings
of hard times
while we were here
before we see
Christ face to face
but there's no promise
about it
but what we do know
is this
because of Christ
and because of his providence
it means that we have
a secure
intellectual
and emotional space
to pour out
our hearts
to him
with all of our sorrows
you know there's a song
that earth has no sorrow
that heaven can't heal
and that's part of the doctrines
of providence
Paul says that
these afflictions
that we have
in this life
is preparing us
for an eternal
weight of glory
doesn't say
it's going to give us
the meanings
right here
on this side
of the grave
but we're being prepared
for an eternal
weight of glory
and so in light of that
we can pour out
our heart
to Jesus
and say
you know
Jesus
this is just so hard
and I don't understand
and we can pour out
our hearts
to him
and the other thing
that the doctrine
of providence
here even in hard times
brings to us
is that
it makes us think
about Jesus
is with us
he is with us
he does love us
we just have to think
about the cross
to know that he loves us
even in these hard times
but the question
that we should be asking
you know
as in between
pouring out our heart
and sorrow
to the Lord
the question we ask
is this
how can I bring you
glory
in this hard time
I mean maybe
part of the way
you bring him glory
is by being
a stunning model
of forgiveness
to others
or
that even
when things
are going very hard
you stun people
by being concerned
for them
rather than
being self-centered
I mean I don't know
there's all sorts of ways
but that's the question
those are the two things
that providence
brings home to us
we can pour out
our heart and sorrow
and we ask
how can we bring you
glory
how can we bear witness
to Jesus
even at this season
of my life
which is very
very hard
always remembering
that when Jesus died
from the cross
for us
it shows that
I am not a nobody
to him
I am not inconvenient
to him
I matter to him
and he will bring me
to stand before
the presence of God
the Father
with great joy
he will do
that
for me
he
will
do
that
for you
if
you are
in Christ
invite you to stand
just bow our heads
in prayer
Father
some of us
are having
really good times
we're healthy
we have money
in the bank
we have a good job
or career
we have
our relationships
are good
and Father
we confess
before you
that
often when we
have things
really going
good for us
we aren't as grateful
as we should be
and so Father
we ask that
you remind us
of the deep need
that we have
as human beings
made in your image
to express gratitude
for the simple
but profound
blessings
that we can enjoy
and Father
you know
that there are
some of us
who are maybe
going through
a short season
of really hard times
some of us
maybe have been
going through
quite a long season
and in fact
Father
there might be
some amongst us
who realistically
think that
there's going
to be some
hard times
for the rest
of their life
and we ask
Father
that you would
make us
by your Holy Spirit
a congregation
that would
be prayerful
and supportive
of each other
both in good times
and in bad
and Father
for those of us
who are struggling
with a hard time
that your Holy Spirit
might bring these
truths home to them
that your hand
is upon them
you have not
abandoned them
they matter to you
and help them
to pour out
their heart
and help them
to pray
that they can
bear witness
to you
and bring glory
even in very
very hard times
and we ask
Father
that you deliver
us from
our own
moral blindness
of seeing
specks in other
people's eyes
and not the logs
on our own
and if we have
been nurturing
hatred
if we have
been turning
away from
opportunities
that you give
us to forgive
if we have
been holding
on to hatred
or bitterness
if we have
in fact
been self-indulgent
if we have
in fact
acted in ways
that despise
others
and treat
others poorly
we ask
Father
that your
Holy Spirit
would convict
us of that
so that
thinking of
Jesus
we might
confess our
sins
that we
might try
to make
amendment
of life
that we
might live
lives
that bring
you glory
and we
ask all
these things
in the name
of Jesus
your Son
and our
Savior
Amen