Acts 24-26 - 3 Rulers and a CGI Explosion

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Talk. Today, we've got the mother of all episodes. We're going to be in Acts 24 and Acts 25 and Acts 26.

Here's why. As I mentioned last episode, all three of these chapters are along the exact same lines. So in here, Paul is giving his testimony.

He's telling these three government officials why he has been arrested and imprisoned, what he did to anger the people of Israel. So we're going to dive right in. We're going to go full speed blazing.

We're going to read God's Word. We're going to be encouraged from it. We're going to see a few thoughts at the end, but want to take this section instead of it being kind of repetitious for three days.

Going to take it all in one go. Here we go. Acts 24 verse 1.

After five days, Ananias, the high priest, came down with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus. These men presented their case against Paul to the governor.

When he was called in, Tertullus began to accuse him and said, Since we enjoy great peace because of you and reforms are taking place for the benefit of this nation by your foresight, we acknowledge this in every way and everywhere.

Most excellent Felix with utmost gratitude.

However, so that I will not burden you any further, I beg you in your graciousness to give us a brief hearing, for we have found this man to be a plague, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the Roman world, and a ringleader of the sect of the

Nazarenes, that is, Jesus was from the town Nazareth. He even tried to desecrate the temple, so we apprehended him and wanted to judge him according to our law, but Lysias, the commander, came and took him from our hands with great force, commanding

his accusers to come to you. By examining him yourself, you will be able to discern all these things we are accusing him of. The Jews also joined in the attack, alleging that these things were so.

When the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied, Because I know you have been a judge of this nation for many years, I am glad to offer my defense in what concerns me.

You are able to determine that it is no more than 12 days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem.

They didn't find me disputing with anyone or causing a disturbance among the crowd, either in the temple complex or in the synagogues or anywhere in the city. Neither can they provide evidence to you of what they now bring against me.

Everyone knows I wasn't fighting. You can ask anyone. I wasn't arguing, wasn't stirring up anything wrong.

But I confess this to you. I worship my father's God according to the way which they call a sect, believing all the things that are written in the law and in the prophets. It's kind of the shorthand of the Old Testament.

And I have a hope in God, which these men themselves also accept that there is going to be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the unrighteous. I always do my best to have a clear conscience toward God and men.

After many years, I came to bring charitable gifts and offerings to my nation. And while I was doing this, some Jews from Asia, Asia Minor, found me ritually purified in the temple without a crowd and without any uproar.

It is they who ought to be here before you to bring charges, if they have anything against me.

Either let these men here state what wrongdoing they found in me while I stood before the Sanhedrin, or about this one statement I cried out while standing among them. Today, I'm being judged before you concerning the resurrection of the dead.

He says, okay, the people that really should be here accusing me are those from Asia Minor that said that I brought someone into the temple. These guys have nothing that they can like accuse me of. All hogwash.

Verse number 22, since Felix was accurately informed about the way he adjourned the hearing, saying when Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case.

He ordered that the centurion keep Paul under guard, though he could have some freedom and that he should not prevent any of his friends from serving him.

After some days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and listened to him on the subject of faith in Christ Jesus.

Now, as he spoke about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became afraid and replied, leave for now, but when I find time, I'll call for you. Man, I can think of many of us.

That's the reaction that we had to the gospel, that when we heard about God's judgment, that it caused fear in our hearts that we went, Oh, I am not right with God. I'll give very briefly my testimony just because Paul's going to be giving his.

When I was nine years old, December 1st, 2006, my parents went away for the day to celebrate my mom's birthday. And I was with my cousins and my cousins at the time, they were less sheltered than I was. And we had a really fun day.

At the end of the day, the talk turned to they had recently seen the third Left Behind movie, which is kind of a imaginative retelling of some various aspects of eschatology, of the study of end times, somewhat of revelation, a very imaginative,

imaginative retelling. And they were talking about one of the things that happens in the movie where a missile hits this building that the Antichrist is in on the top floor and that he walks out of the building unscathed.

And they talked about how cool the graphics or whatever were on that. If you go back and look at a clip of it now, it did not hold up well with CGI. But hearing them talk about that, I'd grown up in church.

I knew about Jesus, knew about salvation, knew about even some things with the end times and the Antichrist and all that.

And I realized personally that I had never accepted Christ and that if Christ were to return and the tribulation were to happen, I knew that I was not right with Christ, that I had never made him my Savior and my Lord.

So that night when I got home, I asked my parents if they would pray with me, and I asked and accepted Christ into my life and made him my Lord. And I feel when Felix says here, he became afraid, but Felix put it off.

The fear didn't move him to accept Christ. The fear moved him to push Paul away, to push the Gospel away. Verse number 26.

At the same time, he was also hoping that money would be given to him by Paul. For this reason, he sent for him quite often and conversed with him. Some people just want what they can get out of churches or out of preachers.

And here Felix is not calling. He knows what he needs to do, but instead he's being greedy. He's being covetous.

He's trying to get instead of turning to Christ in faith. Verse 27. After two years had passed, Felix received a successor, Portius Festus, and because he wished to do a favor for the Jews, Felix left Paul in prison.

Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.

Then the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews presented their case against Paul to him, and they appealed, asking him to do them a favor against Paul, that he might summon him to Jerusalem.

They were preparing an ambush along the road to kill him. However, Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to go there shortly.

Therefore he said, Let the men of authority among you go down with me and accuse him if there is any wrong in this man. When he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea.

The next day, seated at the judge's bench, he commanded Paul to be brought in. When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him and brought many serious charges that they were not able to prove.

Well, Paul made the defense that neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned at all.

Then Festus, wanting to do a favor for the Jews, replied to Paul, Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, there to be tried before me on these charges? But Paul said, I am standing at Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried.

I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you can see very well. If then I am doing wrong, or have done anything deserving of death, I do not refuse to die. But if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them.

I appealed to Caesar. After Festus conferred with his council, he replied, You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar, you will go.

This was one of the rights of Roman citizens, that they could say, Okay, I appealed to the Supreme Court. Here I appealed to Caesar, and Caesar can decide my fate.

Paul here knew from what God had told him, Hey, you are going to witness before me in Rome, just as you have in Jerusalem.

So Paul says, All right, God, I think this is you telling me, I'm kind of done with preaching the Gospel in Jerusalem, and now you're calling me to Rome. So he says, Okay, God, I think you want me to go to Rome here.

Chapter 25 and verse 13, After some days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived in Caesarea and paid a courtesy call on Festus.

Since they stayed there many days, Festus presented Paul's case to the king, saying there's a man who is left as a prisoner by Felix.

When I was in Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews presented their case and asked for a judgment against him.

I answered them that it's not the Romans' custom to give any man up before the accused confronts the accusers face to face and has an opportunity to give a defense concerning the charges. Therefore, when they had assembled here, I did not delay.

The next day, I sat at the judge's bench and ordered the man to be brought in. Concerning him, the accusers stood up and brought no charge of the sort I was expecting.

Instead, they had some disagreements with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, a dead man Paul claimed to be alive.

Since I was at a loss in dispute over such things, I asked him if he wished to go to Jerusalem and we tried there concerning these matters.

But when Paul appealed to be held for trial by the emperor, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I could send him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said to Festus, I would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow you will hear him, he replied.

So the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the auditorium with the commanders and prominent men of the city. When Festus gave the command, Paul was brought in.

Then Festus said, King Agrippa and all men present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish community has appealed to me, both in Jerusalem and here shouting that he should not live any longer. So this has gone on for at least two years.

They are serious about this. Now, I realized that he had not done anything deserving of death, but when he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to send him. I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him.

Therefore, I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after this examination is over, I may have something to write, for it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner and not to indicate the charges

against him. Agrippa said to Paul, it is permitted for you to speak for yourself. Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense. I can kind of imagine like a, you know, outstretched knuckle crack.

Yeah, you know, see Paul doing that, stretches out his hand, and he begins his defense.

He says, I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that today I am going to make a defense before you about everything I am accused of by the Jews, especially since you are an expert in all the Jewish customs and controversies.

Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently. All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem.

They had previously known me for quite some time, if they were willing to testify that according to the strictest party of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand on trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers.

The promise of our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly serve him night and day. King Agrippa, I am being accused by the Jews because of this hope. Why is it considered incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?

In fact, I myself supposed it was necessary to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus the Nazarene.

I actually did this in Jerusalem, and I locked up many of the saints in prison since I had received authority for that from the chief priests. When they were put to death, I cast my vote against them.

In all the synagogues, I often tried to make them blaspheme by punishing them. I even pursued them to foreign cities since I was greatly enraged at them.

I was traveling to Damascus under these circumstances with authority and a commission from the high priests. King Agrippa, while on the road at midday, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun shining around me and those traveling with me.

We all fell to the ground and I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

Those would be sharp sticks used to prod animals such as oxen in plowing. It says you're kicking against the prodding sticks and you are hurting yourself. Then I said, Who are you, Lord?

And the Lord replied, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and of what I will reveal to you.

I will rescue you from the people and from the Gentiles.

I now send you to them to open their eyes so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that by faith in me they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified.

Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Instead, I preached to those in Damascus first and to those in Jerusalem and in the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do works worthy of repentance.

For this reason, the Jews seized me in the temple complex and were trying to kill me.

To this very day, I have obtained help that comes from God, and I stand and testify to both small and great, saying nothing else than what the prophets and Moses said would take place, that the Messiah must suffer, and that as the first to rise from

the dead, he would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles. Here, quoting from Isaiah again. As he was making his defense this way, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, You're out of your mind, Paul. Too much study is driving you mad.

But Paul replied, I'm not out of my mind, most excellent Festus. On the contrary, I'm speaking words of truth and good judgment, for the king knows about these matters. It is to him I am actually speaking boldly.

For I am convinced that none of these things escapes his notice, since this was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe.

Here he's staying directly to him. Festus is just saying stuff. And he's like, all right, I'm not even talking to you.

I'm talking to Agrippa. Agrippa knows about the law. He knows about the prophets here when he's saying, do you believe the prophets?

Do you believe what they say about the Messiah? Isaiah 53, among many other pastures. Then Agrippa said to Paul, are you going to persuade me to be a Christian so easily?

I wish before God, replied Paul, that whether easily or with difficulty, not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am, except for these chains. He says, I wish everyone was like me, except for being in prison.

So the king, the governor, Bernice, and those sitting with them got up. And when they had left, they talked with each other and said, this man is doing nothing that deserves death or chains.

This should be the testimony of a Christian, that a Christian should never be one that is deserving of death or chains, but that if we are ever persecuted for the sake of righteousness, I think of Martin Luther King Jr.

I don't remember in relation to when this episode comes out, how far back his day was, but him and his peaceful protest that he did nothing deserving of what was done to him and his assassination, but he was speaking up to free people.

And though he had some sins in his life, some difficulties and some ways in which he was not following Christ, how much more for those of us that want to wholeheartedly follow Christ with our life, that we would live our lives so that we would not

deserve imprisonment or death because of what we're doing, other than in circumstances in which maybe the law would make it illegal to follow the Lord. Verse 32, Then Agrippa said to Festus, this man could have been released if he had not appealed to

Caesar. So tomorrow, we begin Paul's journey to the, I was going to say the island of Rome, to the capital city of Rome. And we'll see the miracles that God has taking place today. A lot of reading of scripture.

All of these instances in which we see Paul is continuing to have faith in God, that he is proclaiming the gospel, he cares about people, he wants to convince people of Jesus and the fact that they need to believe in him, whether it was a king,

whether it's, you know, Paul all along the way, if it was a lowly jailer, if it was women washing clothes by the riverside, whoever it was, Paul wanted to preach Jesus to them to share the gospel. I want to ask you today, who will you share the

gospel with today or this week? Care about people like Paul did. Share the gospel with them. The God that was with Paul, every moment of his life is with you.

So you can go into your witnessing, your evangelism with hope, knowing that God is with you. His Holy Spirit will give you the words to say when you need to say them. And so you can trust in him.

Hope that would be an encouragement to you today from the life of Paul and him testifying before Felix Festus and King Agrippa. I hope you have a wonderful day. See you tomorrow.

Bye.