Dennis Tuuri

We’ve been singing about. We read of Paul’s life, his pre-conversion life, and then his conversion by a sovereign God. And then this is said in the context of him leading the nations and indeed the world to the gracious God who saves sinners.

Please stand for the sermon text which is Acts chapter 26. We’ll read the entire chapter.

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, “Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.” Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself, “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews.

Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem know all the Jews which knew me from the beginning if they would testify that after the most strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee and now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers unto which promise are 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come for which hope sake King Agrippa I am accused of the Jews why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?

I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them, and I punished them out in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commissioned from the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me, and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And I said, “Who art thou, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest?” But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister, and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan, unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself. Much learning doth make thee mad. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness. For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him. For this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets?

I know that thou believest. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadeest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am except these bonds. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, the governor and Bernice, and they that sat with them. And when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, “This man doth nothing worthy of death or of bonds.” And then said Agrippa unto Festus.

This man might have been set at liberty if he’d not appealed unto Caesar. May be seated. We thank God for his word. And we pray now in song that he would illuminate to our understanding, wonderful peace, great happiness, joy, delight, blessedness. That’s the inheritance of the Christian. One that God is sovereignly called according to his grace brought to an awareness of his sins turned him from darkness to light from death to life from the dominion of the world the system that is governed by Satan into the kingdom of Christ who reveals to us the will of the father and gives us the holy spirit blessedness that’s the state in which we stand scriptures tell us many things about the blessedness of the people of God Beatitudes of course are filled with statements relative to that blessedness and the description of those character qualities that are characterized in the Beatitudes by blessedness or the blessing of God upon them are those that are to fill our lives.

They are those that are to characterize who we are and indeed shall if God has sovereignly called us by his grace to a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the qualities of the Lord himself. And we see these qualities written out in the gospels and in the account of the apostles and the disciples throughout the pages of the New Testament.

As we read these statements of blessedness, we should examine ourselves to see if blessedness and much joy and happiness is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ.

We read in Matthew 5 that blessed are those who are poor in spirit. Those who recognize their poverty, their destituteness of spirit before God. Those who are broken by God and whose poverty has been revealed to them by the grace of God. Blessed are those that mourn that mourn that seek for God’s righteousness in the earth and mourn the absence of that righteousness and mourn the absence of people to give gratitude and thanksgiving to God.

Blessed are the meek, the meek, humble, bowed to God’s harness. A meek person is not a weak person. The Christian church has misunderstood that for a long time. Meekness is the Greek word that was used for horses that were tamed to harness strong powerful dominion horses so to speak but under the harness of the Lord Jesus Christ in the case of the allusion to Christians meekness. What is your state of meekness?

What is your acknowledgement of your poverty of spirit? And to that degree we are blessed as we understand these truths and as God has made them real into our hearts.

Blessed are those which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, justice, the exhibition of God’s character in the context of our world. Do you hunger and thirst for the righteousness of God, for his justice, for the demonstration of his covenantal faithfulness in both blessing and in bringing judgments upon those who war against the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Blessed are you when you hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful, those whose great desire is to love, the demonstration of covenantal faithfulness and mercy to people. People who recognize that God has given us mercy and grace and wish to dispense that mercy and grace to those that we meet in the context of our lives. Blessed are the merciful.

Blessed are the pure in heart whose heart is guarded by them that they might indeed meditate upon the things above, the things that are lovely and pure and good and wholesome, things of the Lord Jesus Christ and of his kingdom. People that hearts are molded and determined by those things and not by the of the flesh, the pride of life, and everything that the world system offers to us by way of distraction and diversion and even rebellion against the purity of God and of his word and of his son. Blessed are the pure in heart.

Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who bring God’s order, God’s blessedness, God’s gifts to the context of their world. Remember, in the past, I’ve used the illustration of a clean room, a bedroom that’s straightened and ordered. And we can teach our children when they go into their bedroom and straighten it. They bring God’s peace, God’s order to that room. By way of extension of course implies much more than that for our vocation, our calling as Christians to see the peace of God distributed in the context of our lives personally, in our family, in our neighborhood, in our church, in our state, and in our culture.

Blessed are the peacemakers, the scriptures tell us.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. And here we find Paul. Paul’s in a state of blessedness because he’s being persecuted. The Jews are trying to put him to death. The false church that refused to distribute abroad the good gifts that God had given to it and were sensed against Paul for which one of the primary reasons was that he said that Jesus had come to bring light to the Gentiles.

And we’ll get to that at the end of chapter 26 and his explanation of to Agrippa of why he is on trial that false church was trying to put him to death until blessed is Paul persecuted for righteousness sake and there are those in the context of our immediate community here Reformation Covenant Church that I believe find themselves exactly in this position persecuted and sought after for righteousness sake for adherence to God’s standard in terms of the upbringing of their family blessed are they God says they’re blessed it’s an unexpected saying is it not you might think God will give us comfort.

He’ll give us consolation. He’ll say, “We’ll get through such a thing.” He’ll give us patience perhaps. And that’s very important in the context of what Paul says here. He requires, he asks for patience from Agrippa as he presents his message. But blessedness, the great happiness, that’s what the word means, great joy and happiness. Blessedness, that’s the state of those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

Not just being patient and keeping under, so to speak, and being submissive, but there’s a sense of blessedness to the whole thing. That’s the state at which we find the Apostle Paul.

I’ve talked about this because this is what the word means as Paul begins his defense so to speak of his case but more importantly as apologetic his explanation of the hope that is in him. That hope which is the dividing demarcator between the purposes of God and those who oppose the purposes of God.

That truth that is the pivotal point upon which all history both national international and personally to you hinges that truth of the hope of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and the implications that this is Lord his resurrection was a demonstration of his messiahship that is what is central to Paul’s message and as we said last week he drives it home in a tremendously spirit empowered way in the context of what is supposed to be his trial he indeed puts Agrippa he puts Festus he puts Bernice And he puts all men that are assembled in that place on trial themselves relative to this great truth of history and what they will do with it.

And he puts all of us on trial for that as well. He turns it into an evaluation and examination of our hearts and our response to the truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul in this context finds himself in verse two. I think myself happy, King Agrippa. Now you remember the when he gave his defense to Festus, he said, “I am happy, Festus, to talk to you.” Or was it Felix? I don’t remember. I think it was Felix, actually.

Felix, sorry about that., the first of the Roman tribunals. This is a more intensified word. This is that same word that is written in Matthew 5. Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake. Blessed are they that mourn. Blessed are the poor in spirit. See, that term blessed is what Paul is saying. Here I am blessed. I am receiving the blessings of God. King Agrippa.

This is an unexpected statement. It is to me when I found it here. Hope it is to you to understand the significance of it. Here’s a man who’s on trial for his life before an ungodly man. The fifth in a line of wicked evil kings, the Herods. And Paul says, “Gee, I am most blessed of all men here.” It’s essentially what he’s saying. I’m I have received the benediction, the blessing of God. Paul sees that he is blessed.

Do you want to be blessed? You understand that is to be the characteristic of the Christian life of life that we abide in a state of blessedness from God. Let’s read some more of the scriptural texts that we might join Paul in this blessedness.

Now, he’s going to give us some specific reasons that attach themselves to his state of blessedness, but I think it’s good to go over a few more scriptures to remind us of those that whose lives are characterized by the grace of God and what those lives will look like in the context of those being the ones that are truly blessed before God and join Paul and his assertion that he is happy.

He is most happy. He is joyous and he is blessed.

In James 1:12, blessed are the is the man that endureth temptation. When he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life to endure temptation. Not blessed is the man whose temptations are removed completely from his life by God. But blessed rather are the ones who stand in the face of the temptations that God has promised will never be such that he will not deliver us out of them should we respond faithfully.

Blessed are you when you receive temptations to sin in the context of this last week and endure those temptations correctly and respond to them in the grace of God. God’s blessing is upon you.

James 1:25 says that those who look into the perfect law of liberty and continuth therein, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, that man shall be blessed in his deeds. Those who meditate on the perfect law of liberty, the expression of the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, as found not in a sentimental apprehension of who this man might be based upon our emotions or feelings, but based upon the objective revelation of who he is in word, in gospel, in law, and commandment, and in the power of the Holy Spirit as he writes those things upon our hearts.

Blessed are you congregation who have been who have learned that the law is not to be rejected as coming forth from some cold unloving father but rather is the perfect demonstration of his love to us encapsulated in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed are you who can meditate on the Lord Jesus and meditate upon his word who look into that law of liberty but not simply those who look into it because the text goes on to say those who act in obedience to it whose lives are not characterized by a simple hearing of the word but an appropriation of the word of the power of the spirit to do those things.

Blessed are you in your deeds. Blessed is the apostle Paul and his deeds he performs before Agrippa in the context of Acts 26.

If you suffer for righteousness sake again 1 Peter 3:14 happy are ye. That word happy is the same word bless. Suffering for righteousness sake as I said before. 1 Peter 4:14, if you are reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. For the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.

Very important. When we suffer, there’s no value in suffering. The scriptures tell us if we suffer because of our disobedience, or we suffer because of our sin, or if we suffer because of the crankiness which we display to our workers or our employees, or if we suffer because of our sloth that we display to our employees, or if we suffer because we have our ideas of what we want to do today instead of our bosses for instance employers.

I’m sorry I made a mistake there. No, there’s no blessing. Blessedness if you suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ because of your obedience to his word. Blessed are you and you receive the blessing.

These are people’s whose lives understand of course that these things do not earn or merit God’s blessing upon you. These are demonstrations of God’s regenerating you. as you ought, as Paul said, from darkness into light, from death into life, transferred from Satan to God.

These are characteristics of men who have been granted that blessedness in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But these things shall characterize those who are so blessed. It’s an amazing thing, you know. Here’s Paul. He tells us his life story and how he used to persecute the church terribly and kill him and throw him in jail and do all kinds of nasty things. And now he’s standing up before King Agrippa and he doesn’t miss a beat.

He is right on tune. Boom boom boom. And we’ve said this throughout the book of Acts. There are people who I think in their foolishness criticize Paul for various actions or various things he said. Put improper constructions on what he said. He was remember we’ve talked about this a lot of times but it’s an example. He was just trying to rile up the Sanhedrin the Pharisees against the Sadducees and give himself an out.

It’s ridiculous. But in that excellent move of his he focused the issue upon the resurrection of Christ. And he goes on to describe that in the context of Acts 26 in spades. Paul doesn’t miss a beat throughout these descriptions of his life in the book of Acts. That’s a tremendous source of encouragement to me, folks, because what it tells me is that what we have here are the acts not ultimately of the disciples, not ultimately of the apostles, but the acts of the Lord Jesus Christ through his people.

Well, as you watch Paul work. You watch a man whose life has been transformed and brought into conformity to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this tells us that our lives also should be characterized by this way. Paul was a man. He was not the God-man of history. We read the gospel accounts and we know that we cannot be like Jesus ultimately perfectly. We’re always going to fall short of that mark.

But we read the life of Paul and it should be an encouragement to us that our lives can be characterized by essential obedience, wisdom and speaking forth the truth of God’s word. Now, I know he was an apostle. I know that this is a special circumstance and all that, but we cannot get away from the fact that the scriptures give this as both a prod and a great consolation to us that our lives can be characterized by the essential integrity of Paul as he conformed himself in the power of the spirit to be a distributor of the grace of God through his tongue and through his life.

It’s a tremendous encouragement means these blessed states, you know, are not given to people whose lives are marked by failure. Sometimes we think that the Christian life is one marked by failure. No, it’s not. Paul gives us the great example here and motivates us to the same thing that our lives are truly blessed and we can we will in the power of God according to his sovereign calling and election manifest lives that demonstrate those states that indeed demonstrate God’s benediction and blessing upon his people.

The Beatitudes of the Beatitudes and as well these other verses that we’re reading here. Blessed are is he Revelation 1:3 that readeth and they that hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written therein. Again, obedience to the prophecy, not simply hearing it. Obedience to it.

Revelation 14:13 rather, blessed are the those who the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Revelation 16:15 blessed is he that watchth and keepeth his garments.

Remember we talked about that oh a couple of years ago that watchfulness to watch for what is happening in the context of your life to not be a sleepwalker but to wake up every day to thank God for the day and to walk into the day watchful being careful what you do to evaluate the situations you walk in the context of watchfulness is a key mark of the Christian life and is it is those who are watchful and who keep their garments You see the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the imputation of his righteousness.

That’s the garments that we live in the context of. That is our peace before God and that’s the basis for our reconciliation. The righteousness of Christ, not our own righteousness. But that’s a great truth. But see, heresy always takes one truth and goes off this way. And that’s why you got to preach both sides of this. Yes, it’s true that it is the garment of the Lord Jesus Christ has imputed righteousness.

But this text tells us that your life as a Christian to be blessed to join Paul in his blessedness before Agrippa should be a life that is characterized by keeping your garments by not letting them become soiled so to speak by a practical application of obedience to the revealed will of the savior through his commandments of the entire 66 books of the bible his revelation of who the father is what the scriptures are Jesus came to reveal the will of the father to reveal who the father was the spirit comes to tell us of Jesus all of it is to bring us into a demonstration of the revelation of god in our lives and for our lives to become as well the source of that grace of the communicating the attributes of God through the way we live.

And this text tells us that we’re to keep our garments. We’re not to soil them. We’re not we’re to I guess use the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, our peace with God secured once and for all totally on the work of someone outside of ourselves, the God-man of history. But to use that not as a as a as an excuse to be slothful in good deeds, but rather to seek out the good deeds that do not allow that garment so to speak that we wear to become soiled to keep our garments.

I heard Michael Medved this week on the Rush Limbaugh show Jew a Jewish man as I understand it a rejector of the gospel or Jesus Christ and yet his life probably puts many Christians to shame. He said he gets up in the morning there’s two things that he’s been trained to do as a Jew. The first thing is to say rise I don’t remember how it goes exactly but rise up and be a lion in the service of the Lord.

That’s a good way to start the day, isn’t it? And then the second thing he does is to thank God for the day so that everything in it is marked by a thankful spirit. Well, that’s what God wants us to be. He expects us to have that same characterization of life. And what a shame that Christians don’t rise up in the power of the Lord to serve the Lord on a daily basis, not having that as their specific aim.

You should, I should, I speak to you, I speak to myself that should be our desire every morning when we get up to seek out service for the Lord. You know, the Jews have a custom of their children doing mitzvah. Now, they do it for the wrong way. I’m sure some of them it’s a way of they all do it wrong if they’re in rebellion of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the particular sin or error that much of the Jewish people today is they think that by those mitzvah, good deeds, they can merit salvation.

They can’t. But let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak. God wants us to do good deeds. He wants us to seek out daily opportunities to do mitzvah. You know, mitzvah in the in the Hebrew means commandment. A bar mitzvah is a son of the law. A child becomes a son of the law at the age of 12 and he becomes under the instruction of the law in a fuller sense and ob and responsible to be obedient to it.

But you see they didn’t abstract that as some of us do from the lives we live and the demonstrations of mercy and grace to people. To do a mitzvah is to do a good deed. They coordinated the doing of good deeds with the commandments of God. They understood some of them to some degree while albeit for the wrong purpose you know but nonetheless that Micah tells us that we’re to do justice we’re to love mercy we’re walk humbly before God and those are not three separate things they’re one package if God has brought us to the humility they brought the Apostle Paul to then he brings us to doing justice by loving mercy by adhering to God’s standard that standard is not simply a law book of right and wrong it is the expression of compassion and mercy and covenantal faith fulness.

We should teach our children that we are to keep our garments that we are to get up every day seeking to do good works in our lives. Not to merit some sort of salvation, not to earn those garments, but to keep those garments. At the end of the day, our motivation should be the love of the Savior that desires us not to soil that garment or to soil our message of who Jesus Christ is, but rather to adorn it with the grace of the Holy Spirit.

enabling us to do the works that are glorifying to God. Blessed are such people. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lord. You’re blessed today. You’ve been called here by God. Yes, to receive instruction. Yes, to have his sword cut you in two, but to be healed, to be brought back together in wholeness to the Lord Jesus Christ. We used to do that visibly. You remember we used to sometimes we’d raise our hands up and then when we did the benediction for the confession of sin, we’d put our hands together like this for the benediction at the end of the service.

And that was again the rabbis used to do that. You’ll see it on some of their tombstones. But it is a picture of God bringing his people to wholeness and blessedness. And you come here today guilty. You come here today needing to confess sins which you’ve done. And you need to hear the word of God that those sins are forgiven in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of you need more cutting up with the sword.

Well, we all do. But some of you need it today. And that’s what God’s going to do with you. And some of you have been cut already. What you need to hear is your wholeness. By the end of the day, God wants us to come to wholeness and blessedness. Being invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb. These are the true sayings of God. The texts go on to say the affirmation of God that this is the truth.

Revelation 1:3 that readeth and they that hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written therein. Again, obedience to the prophecy, not simply hearing it. Obedience to it. Revelation 14:13 rather, blessed are the those who the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth. Revelation 16:15 blessed is he that watchth and keepeth his garments.

Revelation 20, blessed and holy are holy that he hath part in the first resurrection. who have moved from death to life. The resurrection that the apostle Paul speaks of in the very text we have selected for the sermon text for today. Blessed are those people.

And finally, blessed are those who hear the word of the Lord and keep it. I mentioned that one before, but blessed are those in Romans 4:7, blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will impute not iniquity. And that’s the basis for all the other blessings. So blessedness, that’s where Paul starts in the context of his apologetic. And yet it really sums up the entire message, doesn’t it? In a way.

And so as we begin our examination of Acts chapter 26, let us meditate upon the blessedness of Paul demonstrated in this text. Let us remember that blessedness has a context. The scriptures give us a great deal of instruction about the lives of those when it is characterized by who are blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ because they have been moved from death to life. They have part in the first resurrection because their sins are forgiven and because the Lord will no longer impute their sins unto them. That’s the basis for all the blessing and benediction and that’s the basis ultimately for Paul’s blessedness as he stands before Agrippa as well.

But he goes on to speak in the context of his specific situation the application of the blessedness of those from the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks for the blessings apparent to him in this very context as he stands before Agrippa. And what he says is, “I am blessed. I think myself blessed King Agrippa because two things I shall answer for myself this day before thee, teaching all the touching all the things of him accused by the Jews.”

I think that the first thing he tells us is he is blessed because he answers for himself. And you know, in terms of a practical application, It is a happy state of affairs and it is a blessing that God gives us when he so moves things that we can stand before our accusers and answer the charges that they bring against us. When we don’t have to rely upon someone else to present our case. When we don’t have to rely on a system that for instance only would hear the Jews as they brought the accusations and then decide whether Paul was right or not.

Or another situation where the Jews would come and somebody else would come as Paul’s spokesman and say, “Well, I think Paul meant this and I think this is really what’s going on.” It is a blessed thing according to the scriptures when God moves in his providence that we can present our side of whatever issue is brought up. The scriptures tell us much about this basic principle.

Proverbs 18 verse 13, he that answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him. And then in verse 17, he that is first his own cause seemth just, but his neighbor cometh and searchth him. And then our savior says in John 7:31, “Do our law judge any man before it? Hear him and know what he doeth.” You see, basic principle of God’s grace to mankind is that even some apostate nations such as the Roman Emperor, the Roman Empire had established in itself these same principles of justice and righteousness.

That’s the grace of God at work. And now in terms of the practical application of this to your life. As you seek blessedness in your life, you seek to be in the way of the Lord Jesus Christ, the way of blessedness, you should want to and desire to be heard for yourself in the context of disputes that arise concerning you. And you should give anybody that you’re going to talk about the ability to answer for themselves.

Right? This is basic. We certainly see it applied to justice and the need for it in our justice system, both in church court, in state court. We should see it in context of the family surely that as we’re considering the case of one of our children, they should have the ability to speak for themselves and we don’t want to rush to judgment on anything.

Now, we have some contemporary example going on right now where a lot of people are picking up sides and doing this that and the other thing looking for the right side in the context of a famous court case that we’re involved that the nation is involved with right now. Millions of people watching it. I’ll just, you know, as a brief side comment, I would warn you If you look for good guys in this thing, you’re probably not going to find any. That’s been pretty clear this last week, hasn’t it? And if you think that what the police department does is irrelevant to this case or irrelevant to the kind of society in which we live, you are wrong.

Recognize that we are in the grace of God, we know long term what will happen in this country in terms of the establishment of justice and God’s people, but we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, in the immediate future. All indications seem to be that probably sooner rather than later, it will be Christians who will be hauled before civil magistrates for what they believe and what they do. And we’re already involved in the context again of this church where there’s pressure and not so subtle pressure being brought upon Christian parents to divert from the scriptures in terms of their upbringing of their children.

And if it doesn’t concern you that police officers lie, cheat, plant evidence, and everything else it ought to I brought back a report from a confessional conference a year and a half ago from Mr. Schlosser and in New York City things are a little more advanced than they are in other parts of the country. You know the trends of countries usually come from the cities and they move out to the countryside and he said that in New York City the police there are definitely against Christians for instance and for sodomites and when it comes down to a rally of sodomites and Christians they’re going to bang the heads of the Christians.

you’ll be the one having to argue before a judge that it isn’t fair that this guy brought the evidence. So, in any event, very important that we hear people out and that Paul is blessed by God and God’s sovereignty that he is able to present his own case and his own defense.

And one final application, I’ve said this over and over, but I’ve encouraged been encouraged in these last few days to say it again and I will by members of the congregation, and that is that the scriptures tell us what we’re to do and disputes arise in the context of our community here at Reformation Covenant Church. It tells us that when you think somebody has ought against you, you should go to them. And it tells us that when you think someone is in sin, you should go to them. It works both ways. If you think that they’re upset with you or if you’re upset about them, the scriptures are always trying to bring men into reconciliation.

Christians, we’ve been reconciled with God. And on the basis of that reconciliation, God works out reconciliation throughout the rest of our relationships. I’m sure as Richard continues to develop the messages on Ephesians, that’s a central theme there, reconciliation. And God brings men into reconciliation. And he does it by way of application, by way of this same principle that Paul observed blessedness and the state of being able to present a grip of his own defense. He does it by cutting off tailbearing and gossip mongering and slander and all that sort of stuff around the peripheries of a discussion or controversy.

See, he does it by forcing us to interact. Now, sometimes you’re going to need help in doing that. Sometimes it’s going to be time that’s required. Sometimes you need to bring third party reconcilers in. That’s what Elder Mayheart and myself are called to do by God. Don’t think it’s an imposition on us. It’s the thing I most delight in these days. I don’t delight in the controversies, but I delight in knowing that God has called myself and he’s called Reverend Mayheart.

He’s called ministers of the gospel. He’s called all of us, but he’s called elders in this particular context, a particular calling and gifting to try to bring reconciliation among men. So, that’s sometimes required. But yet, you understand what I’m saying? You know, I know what our tendency is. And I know that.

Let me say something else about this thing about Paul being an example to us, a positive example of what the Christian life should look like. It’s important to comfort ourselves. Right? I said that Paul is a demonstration of basic righteousness throughout the life picture given us in the book of Acts. And I’m sure it’s selected. Paul acknowledged his sin, particularly pre-conversion. It’s a consolation to us to know that our and an encouragement to know that Paul be characterized with a weight.

But remember, too, it applies to the guy sitting next to you in the pew or the woman sitting next to you or the child that you’re going to run into today. You should recognize that in the context of the visible church, this is what their lives are going to be characterized like. They’re going to want to do the right thing. You see, and that changes a lot about how we deal with each other.

Remember, Reverend Jordan said at family camp that one of the things we are in our sinful tendency, we put the worst possible construction of what people say and I know that there’s error on the other side as well. It is sin for me as an elder to ignore indications of problems in the context of people’s lives and be slothful then and not approach them in an encouraging helpful way toward righteousness. See, that’s sin. But it’s sin also to look at a person in the context of this church and think somehow they’re outside of the body of Christ or to fail to recognize that by Paul’s demonstration and the rest of the scriptures tell us that guy’s life is going to be marked by a desire, a thirst for righteousness.

Now, he may be going about it wrong and it’s going to be mixed with sin and error, his approach to seeking righteousness or justice and mercy in the land. But don’t let those demonstrations of problems cause you to change your basic perception of that person that they don’t want what the spirit of God moves us toward. God says that if they profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and they show signs of the growth and grace that regular attendance at church, regular context of Christian culture being produced in their home that you should know and expect anticipate that they’re trying to do the right thing.

They’re coming short. There’s two words for sin in the New Testament. One is a rebellion. That’s what Herod and Festus are into. They reject God’s word overtly. Christians don’t do that. Christian sin is a falling short of a mark. But recognize as you seek to present your case or to let somebody else present their case to you, you go into those conversations, into those points of great emotional turmoil with an understanding that people may be falling short, but we’re all aiming toward the same mark.

Now, you know, they may not know the mark. They may not know that the target is here. They may think it’s over here. I’m not saying they’re going to always be trying to do the exact right thing, but their lives are aimed toward the mark of the Lord Jesus Christ and your job is to encourage them in the development of that and part of that is to give them the blessedness of presenting their own case before their accusers.

So Paul is blessed because of that. Paul’s blessedness also though and this is rather incredible when you first think about it and then maybe not so incredible as you meditate upon it. But he says, “I think myself blessed because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things or I’m accused by the Jews, especially because I know that to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews.

Where before I beseech thee to hear me patiently. There’s a lot of I might as well tell you now we’re going to be in Acts 26 several weeks at least. This is really the culmination of the book of Acts. We got chapters 27 and 28 I think are almost like appendices to what this is the central presentation. Agrippa represents Rome and Jerusalem. He represents all the world. You see he’s been named the king of the Jews by Roman edict, right?

You we talked about that last week. He is the fifth beast. so to speak. In Daniel 7:11, it talks about how a horn began to speak. This horn had eyes and a mouth coming out of the fourth beast. That horn many believe is Herod, the face of the Roman beast to God’s people. And with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that horn, that beast, he’s then changed the description of a beast. That beast dies, but the other beasts continue.

And after the Lord Jesus Christ comes and particularly in judgment in AD 70, the Herodian beast, Agrippa, the false king of the Jews, is cut off. Rome continues for centuries, right? The Roman Empire continues for centuries. That beast doesn’t die. What beast dies? Well, I think it’s that fifth beast, that horn that comes out of the fourth beast that is the Herodian line., and so this is who Paul speaks before.

He speaks before all the world is what I’m trying to say. The fifth beast in a way represents the culmination of all the other beasts, but it also represents the false church. It represents, as we said before, this is the Herodian line going back to Esau, back to Edom, the power of Edom, the book of Obadiah, as Greg pointed out in question and answer period last week, is a is a picture of God’s judgment on Edom against the brother who hurts the brother, the other brother against Esau who seeks Jacob’s harm.

So, it’s a picture of all this stuff wrapped into this one image. And in a very real, we don’t have time to go into it, but if you look at the life of the Herodian line and look at the description of what we believe is Nero in the book of revelation the Herodian line follows in their perversions the life or predicts rather the life of Nero. And so when Paul preaches to Agrippa here he’s preaching to the king of the Jews.

He’s preaching to the Roman Empire is represented by this face of Rome to the Jews. Agrippa he’s speaking to the culmination of all the world. In other words, the Jews and the Gentiles together right there before him. And he’s speaking by way of what he will speak to the emperor in Rome. Okay, so we don’t get his long apology to the emperor in Rome, do we? We don’t get nothing much of what he does in Rome except talking to his to the Jews in the synagogue.

So really this is the height of his presentation and God wants us to see this is the message he takes to Rome and for two years is there. This is the message he would take to Caesar to Caesar’s court. So this is really the culmination of the book. We’re going to be there several weeks at least. but recognize here that Paul is blessed because he gets to present his case but he’s also blessed because he’s before this terrible Herodian Agrippa and he said and why because he says you are expert in all customs and questions customs is the word for law a law you know in the Hebrew a law things weren’t abstractions like we think of abstractions a law is a law that has no application no custom is a law put into place by people so customs refers to the laws of the people and questions are disputes about the application of that law in particular issue.

So Paul says that both in his understanding of doctrine or law his customs and in his approach to inquiries about the application of that law that standard in practice both in terms of orthodoxy and orthopraxy he is expert in these things and what Paul is saying is that he knows the Bible. He was one of those kings that Deuteronomy 17 said had to read through the law of God in front of the people. Remember we talked about that last week maybe in question answer time when he was doing that he started to weep because he wasn’t a real king or something, but that’s another story.

But the point is we know that he did this. We know that he would get up in front of the people at the appointed times and read the law. So Paul is saying that he is blessed because he gets to present his case by himself and also because he gets to present it to all the world pictured in Agrippa and all the world is going to make this decision based upon the word of God. Now it doesn’t mean that Agrippa is going to respond correctly.

We see that he doesn’t by the end of the text. Now, we’ll get to that hopefully yet today. But he does, it does mean that Paul found himself blessed to speak before someone who’s at least stated authority was something other than himself. Other than himself and specifically is the word of God by which this king must govern, at least overtly. And so Paul was blessed and saw himself blessed to be able to present his message before someone who recognized God as his word at least overtly again as the thing by which he must rule.

Now we are going to celebrate Labor Day tomorrow and so I try to think of some application of Labor Day. So I wore my Adam Smith tie today that Judge Beers was Judge Beers’s and Adam Smith you know spoke about the invisible hand guiding the marketplace. Labor Day is a is a holiday and memorial of warfare. He said eventually a class warfare between labor and management. And again there, if you’re looking for a good guy, forget it.

Because labor and management, both not humble before God, are neither correct in the ongoing battle that has ensued for a number of years in our country. Both of them reject the invisible hand that is God’s hand. God’s hand guiding the marketplace. And God’s hand says that marketplace is not free in the ultimate sense. The marketplace is bound to his word. His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is Lord of the marketplace and his word has relevance to bear to market decisions.

They reject that. So, we live in the context of a day and age where the message of God’s invisible hand guiding everything needs to be restated because it brings men to account. And Paul was happy to be before Agrippa because he could be held account to the scriptures. And that’s what Paul does. He preaches from the Bible. He talks about Moses and the prophets and the hope of the Israelites and the fathers and he talks about the 12 tribes.

He talks about the Bible to Agrippa. He reminds Agrippa of the source beyond which of the source which is beyond him and must govern him.

I mentioned I’ve mentioned it several times now an ongoing dispute relative to a state agency and child rearing. And I have read in the context of a particular case parents who are Christians called coercive, compulsive, male-dominated, and autocratic because they believe the Bible is how they should parent.

See? Well, the fact of the matter is that it is when men reject the authority of God’s word as the basis by which they must rule. That is when man becomes coercive, compulsive, power-dominated, and autocratic self-rule.