Acts 26:19-32 Keep on Loving Others!

Acts 26:19-32  “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.  First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me.  But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike.  I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.  ”At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense.  “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted.  “Your great learning is driving you insane.”  “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied.  “What I am saying is true and reasonable.  The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him.  I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.  King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?  I know you do.”  Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?  ”Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”  The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them.   After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.”  Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

To believe as Paul believed, our world shouts as Festus shouted, “You are out of your mind, Paul!”  Paul believed in the reality of the resurrection; he believed the prophets who prophesied that the Messiah would come to earth to rescue the human race out of darkness.  Paul spread this message of Jesus being the Messiah and that He is the light, the truth, the way to eternal life.  I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.  (John 14:6-7)  After the road to Damascus, Paul’s life was constantly in jeopardy.  Most of the Jews and Gentiles were vehemently opposed to his message of finding and knowing God through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.  The people in the Caesarea courtroom rationally supposed Jesus to be dead; his bones resting in a tomb somewhere in Jerusalem.  For these people, Paul was expressing madness, a fanatic who has lost his rational mind.  Paul’s preaching of the resurrection of Jesus was an unbelievable story, counteracting what the rational mind knows about death.  For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise: the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”  (1 Corinthians 1:1819)  God chose not to allow many to approach his redeeming power through the rational mind.  He selected the foolish and weak things of the world to confound the minds of the elite and strong.  Jesus’ followers were mostly the weak and deprived.  He told John's disciples who carried to Jesus a question from John the Baptist: Are you the anticipated Messiah?  Jesus responds to the two disciples of John, Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the POOR.  (Luke 7:22)  Jesus’ intimate followers that he dined with were considered by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as “scum.”  Paul talks to the Corinthians about the worldly status of most of those who believe in Jesus as Lord.  Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.  It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.  Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”  (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)  Paul in the courtroom of Caesarea does not have men of influence to support his innocence; he has only his testimony to enlighten these influential people.  For them he is expressing madness, yet they knew he was an innocent man who should be freed, but Paul appealed to Caesar so they could not release him from the chains that bound Paul.

Everything Paul is saying in the courtroom is based on a truth he has observed.  He knows through Jesus’ name people’s lives have been turned upside down.  Once they lived in absolute darkness, filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They were full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They were gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful.  (Romans 1:29-30)  These people Paul ministered to in the Gentile world displayed little fidelity, love, mercy to others, especially to their enemies.  But Paul saw the miracle of the newly born IN CHRIST.  Through faith in the work of the cross, their lives emanated love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  (Galatians 5:22-23)  God’s presence in them through the work of the cross had made them new creatures.  As Jesus said, you must be born again.  Paul saw the image of God come through these new-born people, Greek and Jew alike.  They once had sat in darkness, but now as new creatures they were living lives of goodness and love.  They were living testimonies of Jesus’ words. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.  If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?  Are not even the tax collectors doing that?  And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?  Do not even pagans do that?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  (Matthew 5:43-48)  As Jesus ministered, Paul ministered.  Paul saw the truth of born-again lives.  He knew his own life changed from hating Christians, killing them, hurting them, persecuting them, wishing for them to recant their belief in Jesus Christ as Lord.  His life was so transformed that he gave his life away willingly to follow Jesus as his Lord.  Festus evaluated Paul's life as madness.  But Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus; he saw the living Savior and he could not put that aside and say Jesus was still in a tomb.  He realized Jesus was alive and that He had a purpose for Paul’s life.  As Jesus who died outside of the Holy City of Jerusalem, he too was to go outside of the camp to the Gentiles and give his life, spreading the Good News to a very dark, wicked world.  Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.  For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.  (Hebrews 13:13-14)  With an enduring city awaiting him, death meant little to him.  The persecution of the world would not deter him from vigorously spreading the Good News everywhere.  Now in the Caesarean courtroom he was stating that his life was not his own; it was purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross.  He was living for Christ’s glory and not for his own glory.  He honored only Christ and no one else.

In Hebrews 11, we read about the ancients, about men of faith who lived in former days.  We read about people of violence who righted kingdoms and brought justice to the world.  They defended the honor of the Israelites through the sword.  Men such as Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel.  They defended God’s Promised Land: Canaan.  But after their rule, the people always descended back into slavery.  As long as the edge of the sword was active, people found peace in their land, but as soon as the edge of the sword was gone, people reverted back to their sinful nature.  Sin was rampant again, idol worship took the place of worshipping God.  Every mountain, every low place, every crossroad, every tree had shrines and idols to gods, but not the living God.  They rejected the consuming fire and the thunderous voice they saw and heard at Mount Sinai.  The sword could not change the Israelites' hearts.  Some of them did not pick up the sword to defend themselves but believed in the God of Mount Sinai.  They were looking for a better world, a place of peace and prosperity.  But without the sword, they were horribly mistreated: tortured, faced jeers and flogging, chains,  prison, death by stoning, sawed in two, death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.  These people were looking for a better world than the one they were living in.  They were looking for the ETERNAL PROMISED LAND OF GOD, not one built by human hands.  These men and women were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.  (Hebrews 11:39-40)  Paul’s ministry expresses the fulfillment of God’s plan for humans from the beginning of time.  Through Jesus Christ who died for the sins of all humans, people can find the way to God.  Perfection can be achieved through the work of the cross.  The  Eternal Promised Land will be inhabited by mere humans because of the work of Jesus on the cross.  But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.  You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven.  You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous MADE PERFECT, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.  (Hebrews 22-24)  To revenge the blood of Abel means violence will bring justice.  But justice was achieved on the cross.  Christ brought justice to the world; no longer do we need to hate our enemies.  Christ has achieved justice for us.  Therefore, Paul’s ministry seemed madness to a violent, dying world, but he was bringing healing to a very sick world.  He proclaimed that God is love.  He loves all people, even those who dwell in the deepest darkness.  God’s plan for them is to know and to emulate God’s love towards all people so that peace can be established in this troubled world.  So as Paul says, Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.  (Hebrews 13:1-2)  Brothers and sisters around this breakfast table, we are to be incubated in the grace of God.  Faith in God’s grace will change everything in our lives; we will be new creatures in God’s eternal love.  Amen!  

      

   

       

       

  

 

 

Acts 25:23-27; 26:1-8 Be Faithful!

Acts 25:23-27; 26:1-8  The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city.  At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.  Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man!  The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer.  I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome.  But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him.  Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write.  For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.”  So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: “King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies.  Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.  “The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem.  They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee.  And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today.  This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night.  King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.  Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

In the above scene we see Paul once again convened with the authorities, explaining once more his conversion to Christ and his ministry of the Good News.  This time because of Festus' desire to find a valid reason for sending Paul to Rome before Caesar’s court, he wants King Agrippa and Bernice to hear Paul’s defense against the Jewish leadership's accusations against him.  Festus realizes Paul is innocent of the charges against him.  For him to send Paul to Caesar is a waste of time of the highest court in the Empire.  However, maybe Agrippa by hearing Paul’s defense can determine a good reason for him to send Paul to Rome.  King Agrippa is the great-grandson of Herod the Great, the first Herodian to rule Palestine and the surrounding area.  King Agrippa and his sister, Bernice enter the courtroom with great pomp. They are accompanied by high-ranking military men and prominent secular officials.  In contrast to this group's prominence in society sits Paul, a man who has experienced a difficult life in ministering the gospel.   I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.  I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.  (2 Corinthians 11:26-27)  Paul is in the courtroom with well fed, well groomed, well perfumed people.  HIs clothing, grooming, and health are not anywhere near the well-being of these people.  In addition, he is in the room of his enemies, opposed to him and Christianity.  He knows the Herodians have always been opposed to Christ.  Herod the Great, his grandfather, tried to kill Jesus the baby.  Herod’s father, King Agrippa I, executed James and imprisoned Peter, holding Peter in prison to behead him after the Jewish Passover celebration had ended.  But Peter escaped his murderous hands.  Herod’s cousin, Herod Antipas, beheaded John the Baptist at the request of his granddaughter who was following her mother’s instructions   Her mother hated John the Baptist because John opposed her marriage to King Herod Antiopas, a condition of infidelity to her former marriage to the brother of King Antipas.  Now Paul knows, King Herod and Bernice are no independent arbitrators; they both harbored hatred toward Paul and his proclamation of the Good News.  King Herod the first, their father, had converted to orthodox Judaism when he ruled, so his son was very familiar with the tenants of Judaism.  Paul could not trust these people to treat him fairly.  He knew their hearts and their animosity to Christianity.  He could not trust their fairness.  Jesus did not even trust many of his own followers because he knew the intrinsic nature of humans.  Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name.  But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.  He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.  (John 2:23-25)  Jesus had once said that no one is good, only God his Father is good: trustworthy and loving.  

Paul understood, knew this courtroom was in a hostile environment.  No one in that courtroom wished him well or would advocate for him.  If they could find any supportive evidence for his execution under the Roman’s hand, they would rejoice.  But Paul was innocent of these charges brought before the court by the Jewish authorities.  As with Jesus, his enemies wished to kill him.  In Jesus’ case, the Jewish leadership constantly harassed Jesus, harboring murder in their hearts.  Jesus lived a sinless life, but this did not prevent them from their desire to murder him.  You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.  When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!  Can any of you prove me guilty of sin?  If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me?  Whoever belongs to God hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”  (John 8:44-47)  Paul is now looking at men who do not want to hear the truth about God.  They do not want to change their lifestyles, their selfish pursuits of benefitting themselves by the exploitation of others.  Leadership carries perks which they enjoyed.  Except for the magnificent presence of the Holy Spirit, Paul had none of these fleshly perks and advantages in life.  These enemies of Christ and the Good News rejected the idea that they needed a cleansing of their souls if they desired eternal life.  Paul knew the crux of eternal life is wrapped around a substitutionary work of Jesus on the cross.  Sometimes John 3:16 is misunderstood by those who quote it often.  Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  (John 3:13-17)   People leave out the reason they have eternal life; Jesus became a curse for them.  He was lifted up on a stake, just as a serpent was lifted up on a stake in the wilderness to heal those who looked upon it.  It is a horrible imagery to view Jesus as the bronze snake in the wilderness, but that is what He is in God’s sight.  God had cursed the snake and Jesus became that curse satisfying the wrath of God toward rebellion of his authority.  Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals!  You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.  (Genesis 3:14)   Without God’s intervention in our lives, we are cursed to death.  Paul’s Good News is that we no longer have to carry this curse of death on ourselves because of the rebellion within us to God’s authority and will for our lives.  No one wants to be imagined as a snake, crawling in the dust of the world, the sin of the world.  We want to be lifted up in the eyes of the Lord God as holy and good.  Jesus who is holy and good paid the price for our nature of selfish pursuits and self-interest.  Paul catalogs so well the nature of mankind:  They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity.  They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice.  They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.  (Romans 29-31)  How can we accept such a description of us?  

What might we say?  I am not like that.  Look at my life: I do not display that kind of nature.  Of course the Bible depicts clearly another group of people who said things like that: the Pharisees.  But Jesus the righteousness of God describes them differently.  What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees.  Hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.  Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness.  (Matthew 23:27-28)   Are we consumed with evil and wicked deeds?  No, but our nature is not pure or holy in everything we do, think, or say.  And God is always the same in season and out of season: perfect.  Jesus told us to be perfect as God is perfect, and unless we are, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven or possess eternal life.  Jesus categorizes these supposedly righteous people as Snakes!  Sons of vipers!  How will you escape the judgment of hell?  (Matthew 23:33)  For Jesus, they are dust eaters, sin consumers.  But Paul’s message is that Jesus paid the full price for dust eaters.  We who never will be perfect; the perfect  price for our imperfections has been paid, Jesus.  On the cross, Jesus became the cursed one, the snake, and paid the price for all unrighteousness. All who look upon that price, Jesus on the stake or the cross, will be healed of their unrighteousness.  They will not die as Jesus said: those who believe on his name and put their trust in his works, will never die.  This has been the message in the heart of God from the beginning of time.  Paul is faithful to deliver this message to the people in the courtroom.  He tells the courtroom, this is why generations of Jews have served the living God day and night.  This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night.  King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.  Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?  Jesus has been raised from the dead: He is not in the grave rotting as all flesh that is buried.  No!  He is alive!  Paul tells the people in the courtroom: the Good News has been promised to us Jews by our prophets.  Isaiah writes about the Messiah, who is Jesus, Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.  After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.  Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.  For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.  (Isaiah 53:10-12).  Friends around this breakfast table, God has come down in the form of a man, Jesus Christ.  He suffered in the flesh for the salvation of many.  Jesus experienced what it was like to be in a sinful, rebellious environment to his Father God.  He felt the pain of humanity.  He cried at Lazarus’ tomb.  In the pain of death, the sorrow of those who were weeping about Lazarus' departure, He wept.  But his mission was to be lifted up on the cross, to release humans from the pain of sorrow and death.  He told the people who believed IN HIM, you will never die.  This is your inheritance.  Paul preached this message to many communities, both Jew and Gentile alike.  Now the people in the courtroom are considering whether Paul should be charged with a crime deserving death.  They could not find such a charge, but off to Caesar he went.  Paul taught THE WAY to God; he was faithful in this task.  You will be faithful too.