the stage real quick so that you can get caught up and maybe frustrated as well,
along with everyone else. When Paul returned to Jerusalem from his missionary journeys,
his opponents falsely accused him of treason, both against the Jewish state and against the
Roman laws. So he's tried first in the court of public opinion before a mob in Acts chapter 22.
He's then tried before the Jewish council in Acts chapter 23. After a plot to assassinate him is
uncovered, he's moved to Caesarea to be tried by the Roman governor Felix in Acts chapter 24.
Felix finds nothing worth punishing in him, but he's hoping to get a bribe from Paul,
so he keeps him in prison for two years. But after those two years, Felix is recalled to Rome
and is replaced by a new governor, Festus, who in Acts chapter 5 examines Paul.
Festus found Paul innocent in the Roman system, but he has no knowledge of the Hebrew system,
and so he doesn't know how to deal with that one way or the other, those religious charges.
So we're in a quandary here, and to get the ball rolling, Paul appeals to Caesar for justice. He's
been in prison for two years. Caesar's kind of like the Supreme Court in the ancient Roman world,
and so he can get a hearing with him and finally get his case disposed. But Festus can't just send
a prisoner to Caesar without any indication of why the prisoner is coming to him, and since he's not
guilty of anything in the Roman system, he has to give him some sort of religious charge in the local
laws. But again, he doesn't know what to do with that. And so he brings in Agrippa, and that's where
we've come. We've already heard Paul defend himself a few times now. Why another? And we're not just
slogging through another repetition of the same thing over and over again. Today, this passage is kind of a
climax of sorts. You see, Paul defended himself often, but he's never been able to defend himself
fully. Every other time he's defended himself, someone else has set the agenda. Someone else
either directed the flow of the conversation, they interrupted, or they otherwise ran the conversation.
Paul had never got a chance to make his full defense until now. Have you ever had something
important to say in a conversation, but you just can't get it in there? You're bringing it up, you're
leading up to it, and then someone interrupts or changes the topic, or a crowd walks into the room
and completely just tramples over your conversation? That's what's been happening to Paul. He keeps
getting interrupted. The crowd shouted him down in Acts chapter 22 before he could get to his core
message. In Acts chapter 23, the council gets off into a religious debate before they ever get to hear
what he has to say. They're arguing about the resurrection before he can invite them into the
resurrection life with Christ. His defense before Felix keeps him busy against the Roman charges,
but never gets to the reason that he's actually there. So he's been able to defend himself against
the accusations, mob justice, but he's been continually blocked and barricaded from doing the thing he's
actually in Israel to do. To call dying people to a living Savior. And with that in mind, he begins his
address in verse 1. So Agrippa said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself. Then Paul
stretched out his hand and made his defense. I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa,
I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you
are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me
patiently. So who is this Agrippa? And why is Paul happy to talk to him? This is Herod Agrippa II.
Now if the name Herod sounds familiar to you, you're not far off. He's the grandson of Herod the Great
from Jesus' birth narrative. Not an altogether lovable man, if you'll recall from that account.
The Herod family were puppet kings instated by the Roman government to kind of placate the Jewish
people. They appointed the high priests and were generally involved with keeping the populace calm
through the religious control of the religious leaders. And as such, they were actually quite
knowledgeable of the Jewish religion. And so he's a very capable person to hear Paul's religious
defense. He represents both the Jews and the Romans. And so kind of he is the world leader in the sense
here. And so that's why Paul says he's fortunate to defend himself before Agrippa. He already has the
background to know whether or not Paul is teaching against Jewish law. And unbeknownst to Agrippa,
it also serves as the launch pad for Paul's real mission to invite him to join him with the
resurrected Savior. That's his purpose. So Paul continues in verse 4,
my manner of life from my youth spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem is
known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to
the strictest party of our religion, I have lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial because of my
hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our 12 tribes hope to attain as they earnestly
worship night and day. And for this hope, I am accused by the Jews, O King. Why is it thought
incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? Paul was a Jew. He was the strictest kind of Jew.
And his belief in Christ's resurrection was in line with exactly those strict beliefs. But the other
Orthodox Jews were saying that he's going off the rails. And his reply is, I'm the only one still on the
rails. Why would anyone be surprised when the God who spoke the universe into being, who rules the
nations, parted the seas, raised his son from the dead? Especially when that's exactly what he promised
to do. What was inconceivable for Paul was that the Jews who so fervently prayed for God's fulfillment
of the promises would accuse him of being faithless when he's the one who believed those promises.
The Jews believed in the resurrection, fervently hoped for it, but then rejected Paul's conviction
that it had begun in Christ. And don't we hope for resurrection as a society? Even if we don't give
voice to that hope. We don't talk about it, but we show that it's on our mind all the time.
We have shrines to vitality in our spas and our gyms. We eat foods with antioxidants. We've created the
heaven of retirement. We've removed death from our sight by sending people to die in hospices out of
sight. We don't even say someone died anymore. We have all sorts of other words and phrases that we like
to use instead. These all reveal just how much we hate death. We love life and long for resurrection.
But it's not always by distancing ourselves from it. That's what we do. Some cultures think the ancient
Egyptians spend lots of energy on solving death. They build great monuments and incredible religious
systems to avert death, to conquer it through their incantations. Whether we ignore it or can't
stop thinking about it, either way, the hope of every human culture at every time is that immortality,
is the hope of resurrection. It is in our hearts. We long for it. And what Paul is saying here amounts
to this. The God of Israel has promised that he would defeat death. And now he has done it in Christ.
So how can I be the faithless one for celebrating that? That's not how Paul's life started out.
Read with me in verse 9.
I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving
authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.
And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme.
And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
So far from embracing the news that God had begun the resurrection from the dead in Christ Jesus,
Paul originally hated him, hated his people. He spent his days trying to kill the young Christian
movement. And Paul wasn't content to simply end his pursuit of Christ in Jerusalem.
He wanted to stamp out the name of Jesus from the face of the earth. And to that end, he traveled to
foreign cities. But on one of these journeys, on a road to Damascus, it wasn't Jesus' name that was
stamped out at all. It wasn't Christ's name that perished. It was Paul's. He explains in verse 12.
In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.
At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun that shone around me
and those who journeyed with me. And when we had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me
in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? Is it hard for you?
To kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are
persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose,
to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I
will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you,
to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to
God so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith
in me. Finally, Paul gets to say what he has been in Jerusalem and in Caesarea in prison for two years.
This is what he came to say. Here's his message. He went to Damascus to stamp out Christ's name.
But Jesus' name wasn't eradicated in Damascus. Paul's was. He traveled to foreign cities with his
original name, Saul, to stamp out the name of Christ from the world. He left still traveling to foreign
cities, but with the name Paul. And now to proclaim the name of Christ to the whole world.
He had hoped in the resurrection, and now he had seen the blinding glory, physically blinding glory of the
resurrected Christ. And it was that light that he would spread to the whole world. The hope of the resurrection
was for everyone who longed for life, real life, life that is renewed, life that lasts. And we see that
hope alive and well today in our society. The answer to that life is not found in spas or gyms or
antioxidants. It's found in Jesus Christ himself. In the words of verse 18, Paul had his own
eyes opened to see that Jesus was the great hope promised in God's prophets. He had turned the
darkness, or excuse me, Paul had turned from the darkness of Satan's plan, making war against God,
into the light of God's presence. One who said, let there be light, and I am the light of the world.
He received forgiveness for his murderous sins and became holy through his faith in Christ.
Paul is telling Agrippa, I went to Damascus to destroy the name of Jesus. Instead, my old life,
my old prominent position, my old war against Christians, even my old name Saul, that's what
was destroyed. I have a new name, a new life, a new mission. And what is Paul's new mission?
It's to proclaim this message of the risen Lord, to deliver new realities to anyone who will hear.
First, to open people's eyes, verse 18, to the beauty of the Lord, to show them that he alone is
the hope for new life, for lasting life, for life lived with real purpose. To tell them, secondly,
to turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, only when God opens our eyes
to see that Jesus is Lord, that he is beautiful, that he is worth living for, will we be able to turn
away from our darkened ways towards God? When we live on our own path, we won't, we don't have the light
of the resurrection life. Only when we're living to God does this light and life shine on our path.
So, if you're not a Christian today, you need to live to God for that to happen. There is no other
way. And if you are a Christian today, but you're walking on a darkened path that is one away from
him, you will not be experiencing his resurrection life until you return to him.
Third thing we see in verse 18. The third new reality is that the power of sin might be completely
broken in us. If you read carefully, you'll see that there are two things going on. First,
that they may receive forgiveness of sins. God is completely and forever undoing the guilt of sin
in those who enter into Christ's resurrection life. And secondly, a place among those who are being
sanctified by faith in me. That resurrection life is a life where the power of sin no longer reigns.
I want to pause here and point out something very important from verse 14.
When Jesus first spoke to Paul in verse 14, he asked a very interesting question. He said,
why are you persecuting me? Paul was hurting Christians, not Christ himself. So what's going on there?
When Jesus makes you his, he identifies himself so closely with you that an attack on you is an attack
on him. The metaphor the Bible often uses is one of marriage. Jesus is the groom, the church is bride,
and he has wedded our fortunes together. We have his unimaginable love and riches. He has our suffering.
This means that if you're suffering today and you're a Christian, no matter what's going on and how alone
you feel, you're not alone. Your sufferings are his sufferings. His tears fall next to yours.
And the redemption he is working in this world, he is going to work in you. That's the only way Paul
could waste away for two years and still give this defense happily before Agrippa.
Christian, your sufferings do not belong to you alone. They belong to Christ.
Christ. Now, this isn't the main point of Paul's speech here. So we do have to move on. But if you
need to hear more of this message, if this has struck a chord with you, if you're a Christian who
needs more of that particular light today, or if you're not a Christian and this message is drawing
you towards a God who cares enough to walk alongside you, talk to me, one of the other pastors here at
Trinity, so we can explore it with you. I don't want to move on before we've said that.
But then again, that is not Paul's main thrust here today. So we are going to move to verse 19.
Verse 19.
To this day, I have had the help that comes from God. And so I stand here testifying both to small
and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass. That the Christ
must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our
people and to the Gentiles.
If you're not familiar with Christian lingo, you might not know what we mean when we say the word
testimony. Typically, when we say the word testimony, we're referring to someone's story of
their old life, how they came to meet Christ, and what their new life is after they've met Christ.
So it follows a pattern of, this is how I was, this is how I came to know Jesus, and this is my life now.
Often, it ends with, and now life's great.
I once heard a song that characterized it this way, saying,
And now I'm sunny with a high of 75, since you took my heavy heart and made it light.
Now, there's quite a bit of truth to that lyric.
Christ radically transforms our lives, so we can look at everyday situations and see joy.
But, anyone who's been a Christian
for more than an hour knows that that's not all our life is.
Sunny with a high of 75
is a nice sentiment, but it's our future hope.
It's not always our present experience.
And Paul's testimony
doesn't end with, and now my life is so great.
Here's what he says. He says,
Here's what I was like.
Zealous for the Bible, and zealous to persecute Christians.
Then he moves to how he met Jesus.
Stopped in his tracks.
But he doesn't focus the end of his testimony story
on, now everything's great.
He focuses on,
Now I obey.
He concludes his testimony,
not with how great his life is,
but how he has turned from his old life,
that is repentance,
and lives in line with God's will.
That's obedience.
Paul's resurrection life
is a life of resurrection obedience.
And Paul's message
wasn't just about his own obedience.
It has impacts for us,
because it requires us
to live a life,
everyone to live a life,
performing deeds
in keeping with their repentance.
That's how he says it.
So how do you know
if you're a faithful Christian or not?
Not because you call yourself one,
or because you show up at church.
We all know words are cheap.
It's no special thing,
doesn't take resurrection life
to arrive here on a Sunday morning.
We know we're Christians
when our lives are changed
and we obey Christ.
One pastor put it this way,
one of the first marks of our conversion
is that we obey Jesus Christ.
Are you obeying Jesus?
Jesus said,
why do you call me Lord, Lord,
and do not do what I say?
And I love how he puts it this way.
People who have heard the voice
of Jesus Christ,
just do not ignore it.
We receive today
the voice of Jesus Christ
through Paul and his testimony.
Will you hear it?
Or will you ignore it?
The two men in front of Paul
hear it
and respond in two different ways.
Verse 24.
As he was saying these things
in his defense,
Festus said with a loud voice,
Paul,
you are out of your mind.
Your great learning
is driving you out of your mind.
But Paul said,
I am not out of my mind,
most excellent Festus,
but I am speaking true
and rational words.
Festus here interrupts Paul
to tell him
how crazy this all sounds.
He's actually doing
two things here,
probably.
First,
he's rejecting the gospel.
He's saying,
you're insane,
this makes no sense,
I want no part of it.
And that's
absolutely part of his philosophy,
but he's also
probably doing something else too.
He's giving Paul an out.
It would be truly crazy
for Festus
to send a madman
to Caesar
and waste Caesar's time like that.
That would be
political suicide.
So,
if Paul is crazy,
he can get rid of this problem
altogether
and just put him away.
But Paul
doesn't
take
the out.
He could be done,
but he doesn't.
He's concerned about
someone else
and their reaction
to the message.
Verse 26.
He turns
away
from Festus
and towards Agrippa
and he says,
for the king,
that is Agrippa,
knows about these things
and to him
I speak boldly.
For I am persuaded
that none of these things
has escaped his notice.
For this has not been done
in a corner.
King Agrippa,
do you believe the prophets?
I know that you believe.
And Agrippa said to Paul,
in a short time,
would you persuade me
to be a Christian?
And Paul said,
whether short or long,
I would to God
that not only you,
but also all who hear me
this day
might become such as I am.
Except for these chains.
What's interesting
to note here
is that Paul
has stopped
defending himself.
He has turned the tables
and he has put
Agrippa
on trial.
While Festus thinks
the idea of resurrection
is insane,
Agrippa,
familiar
with God's promises
to Israel
and well aware
of what Jesus did
all over Israel,
couldn't escape
this conclusion.
Jesus
had perfectly fulfilled
all of God's prophecies,
centuries of them,
in his ministry.
and finally,
in Jerusalem,
he had defeated death
for all mankind.
But,
believing that the resurrection
happened
is not enough.
Agrippa heard these things
and may have believed them.
He didn't even try
to refute them.
But instead of repenting
and turning towards God,
he dodged the question
with a question
of his own.
In a short time,
would you persuade me
to be a Christian?
He said.
It's not enough
to believe
that Christianity
is true.
You can go through
your whole life
believing it's true
and that Jesus
is risen from the dead.
But if you,
in verse 20,
don't repent,
turn to God,
performing deeds,
keeping with your repentance,
you have no part
with Christ.
If that's you today,
if you know Christ
is risen,
I'm so scared for you.
If you know Christ
is risen,
but you haven't repented,
haven't turned
towards God,
aren't living a life
of resurrection obedience,
you are at the same
crossroads
as Agrippa.
God has set,
he has set before you
life and death.
Blessing and curse,
therefore,
choose life.
This was me,
personally,
for many years.
I grew up
in a Christian home.
I believed
that Christianity
was true,
that Christ was risen
from the dead,
that he was the Lord,
that he was coming
back again.
I believed
that he offered
life
to all who
would come to him,
turn from themselves,
turn towards him.
And I didn't want to.
I wanted to live
for me.
In his
great grace,
he was patient
with me.
He kept me
breathing
until a day
when he had
finally softened
my heart enough
that I could
repent.
I had the time.
Will you?
Paul is on trial
for his life.
Festus
gives him
an out.
Not guilty
by reason
of insanity,
basically.
But Paul
is concerned
with someone else.
It's not
his own life
that concerns him.
It's
Agrippa's
soul
that he cares
about.
He throws
his chance
at freedom
away
to pursue
Agrippa's
heart.
He puts
his life
on the line
to obey
Christ's
instruction
in verse 18
to open
their eyes
so that they
may turn
from darkness
to light
and from
the power
of Satan
to God
so that they
may have
resurrection
life
in Christ.
And the crazy
thing here is
here,
Paul didn't
like
Agrippa.
This wasn't
oh, I'll do
a favor
for my
buddy,
I'll stick
my neck
out for
a loved
one.
No,
no,
anything but.
Agrippa,
again,
he's the
puppet king.
He's run
by the
Roman government.
He was a
pretender
to the throne
of Israel
and an
offense
to people
like Paul
who were
zealous
for the
Jewish
religion.
It would
be like
if Russia
invaded the
United States,
Vladimir Putin
installed an
ex-KGB
agent as
our president
and then
he had a
dynasty of
presidents
who persecuted
Americans
generation after
generation.
That's
basically
the Herod
dynasty.
We wouldn't
think too
kindly of that
man standing
in the shoes
of George
Washington
and Abraham
Lincoln carving
his face
onto Mount
Rushmore.
And that's
the man
for whom
Paul is
throwing away
his chance
at freedom.
It didn't
matter to
Paul that
Agrippa was
a pretender
king.
It didn't
matter to
Paul that
he was a
puppet of
the Roman
government.
What mattered
to Paul was
this.
Agrippa was
a man who
needed his
eyes opened,
who needed
to turn
from darkness
to light,
who needed
to turn
from Satan
to God,
who needed
to receive
forgiveness
of sins,
who needed
resurrection
life.
Agrippa's
soul was
worth more
to Paul
than Paul's
life was.
And your
soul is
just as
important.
It's just as
precious.
And I'm not
risking my
life here
today.
but I am
pleading with
you.
Be
reconciled
to God.
It is more
important.
It is more
important than
life and
death.
And if you
belong to
Christ today,
I wonder,
would you do
the same
as Paul?
Paul,
resurrection
obedience
is first
obedience to
report the
resurrection of
Jesus Christ.
Will we
risk doing
uncomfortable
things to
share the
gospel with
people we
don't naturally
like?
or will
we let
that get in
the way of
our
resurrection
obedience?
Now, if
you don't yet
belong to
Christ, you're
probably asking
a question
much like
Agrippa's.
How can
we believe
Paul's
testimony?
How do we
know it's
true?
Resurrection
from the
dead is,
as Festus
said,
insanity.
There are
two kinds
of witnesses
that I
tend to
believe.
First, I
believe something
when I see
its effects.
We see the
effects of
Christ's
resurrection in
Paul's life.
He threw
away all of
his prestige,
everything he
had.
He counted
loss.
He was in
prison for
two years
just to make
this speech.
I think it's
fair to say
there was a
dramatic effect
of Christ's
resurrection in
his life.
And second,
I believe
witnesses whose
throats are
slit for their
testimony.
We don't read
about it here,
but Paul,
like most of
the other
apostles, was
martyred for
their testimony
to Jesus
Christ.
If you're
willing to
tell a message
that brings you
nothing but
pain, I'm
inclined to
believe you.
But not
Agrippa.
We read in
verse 30,
Then the
king rose,
and the
governor,
and Bernice,
and those who
were sitting
with them.
And when they
had withdrawn,
and they said
to one another,
this man is
doing nothing to
deserve death or
imprisonment.
And Agrippa
said to Festus,
this man could
have been set
free if he
had not appealed
to Caesar.
Instead of
answering Paul,
Agrippa
stands up
and walks
away.
He declared
Paul innocent,
but the
tragedy is
that he
didn't take
the time to
render judgment
on himself.
He heard the
message of
Christ, he
knew its
truth, and
he avoided
its implications
for himself.
And as a
result, he
was in a
far worse
position than
Paul was
sitting in
prison in
chains.
If you're not
a Christian
today, I
plead with
you.
I plead with
you.
Do not
stand with
Agrippa any
longer.
Agrippa.
And if
you're a
Christian, I
plead with
you.
Don't be
comfortable when
others around
you stand
with Agrippa.
The only
safe place to
stand is
with Christ.
Will you pray
with me?
Father in
heaven, you
have given
us access
to your
life,
resurrection
life in
us.
I pray
that anyone
here who
has not
heeded
Paul's
words,
would turn
to you.
From
darkness to
life, from
themselves to
you.
And Lord, I
pray that they
would not
stand with
Agrippa, even
if it feels
comfortable, it
is a
crossroads,
slowly
succumbing to
a flood that
will drown
them.
Lord, I
pray for
those of
us who
do know
you, who
do have
your
resurrection
life.
Lord, that
we would
be men
and women
of
resurrection
obedience,
and that
we would
not pass
Agrippa by,
but seek
him out,
risk
ourselves,
to draw
others into
your
resurrection
life and
resurrection
obedience.
We pray
these things in
Jesus Christ's
name, and
for the sake of
his glory,
amen.
Amen.
Would you
stand and sing
with me?
Amen.