Dennis Tuuri

of Acts for our sermon text today. A text in which Paul was the one who surrounded by enemies yet sang forth the glorious light of the Lord Jesus Christ that all the earth might know that all nations might be brought as disciples to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Please stand as we read Acts chapter 26.

Then Agrippa said unto Paul, “Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.” Then 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 is at the first among my 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 have judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers under which promise are 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come for which hope’s sake King Agrippa I am accused of the Jews why should it be thought not 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 things I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints that 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 often 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 commission 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 of 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 with 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, and 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.” Then said Agrippa unto Festus, “This man might have been set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar.”

We thank God for his word, and we pray now in song that he would illumine to our understanding.

Shine thou upon us, Lord, true light of men today. And through the written word, thy very self display, that so from hearts which learn with gazing on thy face. Thy holy ones may learn the wonders of thy grace. Free thou upon us, Lord, thy spirit’s living flame, that so with one accord our lips may tell thy name. Give thou the hearing ear. Fix thou the wondering thought that thy dear church may hear the great things thou hast wrought.

May be seated and the younger children whose parents desire it of them may be dismissed to go to their Sabbath schools which the viability—by that I do not mean in its ultimate sense but the legal viability of the Christian faith—was what was now concerning Festus, Agrippa and Paul as they convened in this judgment hall to hear Paul and for Festus to be given assistance by King Agrippa to the end that he might write a letter to accompany Paul in his appeal to the emperor.

We had an example this last week in the O.J. Simpson trial of an appeal to an appellate court and then that appellate court immediately gave instructions to the judge on what he should and shouldn’t do and that’s the sort of situation that we’re in here except that the appeal that Paul has made is to the ultimate governor these emperor himself of Rome and with this appeal is not simply the case of a single man no appeals really are in the context of civil law or the legal systems of great empires legal decisions have an impact far wider than the individual case that’s heard.

And so, for instance, in the O.J. Simpson trial this last week, there was some precedent set in a very unusual case where a witness having given testimony against a defendant then took the fifth amendment upon cross-examination. And there are some precedents since there are probably not quite understood by people yet the implications of them. But the point is that appellate decision will be recorded and then referred to in future trials as how to give direction to judges when certain things happen.

Well, here we have the case of Christianity. We have Paul as the representative of Christianity and Paul is being tried under the court first of the Jews and now the court of the Romans. They seek to put him to death. The Roman courts have been involved because of several reasons. One, because of the fact that Paul’s a Roman citizen. Of course, that’s the primary reason.

If Paul’s appeal to the emperor is successful, and it will be, as we’ll see as we reach the end of the book of Acts that Christianity has a degree of liberty from the civil government of Rome that it would not have if Paul’s case is decided in the contrary and Paul is executed and the Christian faith is declared a not an acceptable religion in the Roman context the Romans as conquerors gave the conquered countries in this particular period of their history freedom to exercise certain religious activities and Christianity as a result of this case will receive an appellate decision in favor of it that God will use as part of his secondary means to protect the church from Jewish persecution.

So here we see as Reverend James B. Jordan taught us about the Roman government serving as a Doberman to protect the church. Now we know from the book of Revelation and from contemporary history after that the Roman church like all empires do turns and the Doberman begins snapping at the church itself. But I want you to understand a little bit of the significance and we have to understand Paul’s defense here to Agrippa in the context of a far wider conflict that is being waged between the Jews or you know it’s interesting Paul doesn’t use the term the Jews in this defense the what it actually says is Jews without the definite article attached sounds like a very small grammatical point but the true Jews are the Christian church and one of Paul’s great points in his defense is the continuity Christian faith with the Old Testament that there is no discontinuity essentially between the old and new covenants and he’s just doing what was always promised in the old covenant.

So he is the Jew and he refers to Jews who do this stuff against him.

Well, there’s this warfare going on and so this case is vital in terms of the legal conflicts that Rome will allow between Jews and the Jews the church of Jesus Christ. Additionally this conflict between Paul and Agrippa as representatives of Roman and Jews will also set the stage for the conflict the coming clash between Christianity and the Roman Empire itself.

Christianity will be successful in both of those battles and will be successful against every kingdom emperor state that rises up against it over the course of history. For 2,000 years that’s the case and for thousands more that will continue to be the case. And we have here an example of how to go about defending the faith when it’s persecuted in various ways. So this is an important case is the point I’m trying to make.

I don’t know maybe I shouldn’t be the way I am but as I was thinking of Paul’s presentation here in Acts 26 of Van Morrison song kept running through my head a song called Cleaning Windows in which he says he’s a working man in his prime. That’s part of the chorus in that song. And I have sometimes felt that way when I do things well, which is not a lot in my life, but I think the older I get, the better I get at certain things.

And those of you who have been involved in vocational callings for a number of years, I suppose that Dave H. and increasingly some of the other fellas as they do drywall or run their business, there’s a satisfaction to knowing that God has trained your hands to war in that particular realm to do your job well. And there’s a place at which you can say, “I’m a working man in my prime. I’m doing well now.” And there will be a time at which you’ll lose the ability to do that as we age.

Well, all of which is to say that Paul is a working man in his prime here. This is the apex, I believe, of the book of Acts. It is the full development of Paul’s ministry. And that’s why we’re spending so much time on it is to give you a sense of the importance of this text. This would be an excellent text for memorization. This is the height of Paul. It’s the longest defense we have by Paul. We have no defense given to us of Paul before Nero the emperor and we can take this as his defense. Okay, essentially now it’s a little different because this is addressed to Agrippa for the most part but this is essentially the summation of Paul’s message. So it’s very important we understand it and I want us to go through it again today and we’ll go a little bit more verse by verse and then as your outline suggests the basic application point I want to get out of this today is found in the middle of all this text where Paul says that he was essentially brought to a symbolic death before the Lord Jesus Christ.

His conversion occurs. God raises him up. Jesus says to rise up and he says that he’s raised him up for this purpose to serve. And that word means to be an underling under the power of someone else to serve and to testify to be a witness of the things that he’d seen there and further things that God would show him. And so the application of this is you know that we have been raised up to life those who have been brought to conversion through the sovereign grace of God for a purpose and the purpose is said to serve the Lord Jesus.

Now we’re not witnesses in the sense that Paul was he was a witness of the visible manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ and that’s the specific reference there but we are servants we are underlings so to speak of the Lord Jesus and so our resurrection is to the end that we might serve. So this text the center of it the application let me make today is that we should be compelled to serve the Lord Jesus because he’s the one who’s given us new life.

And then after that Jesus goes on to say that he will protect Paul. He’ll deliver him out of the hands of the Jews and the Gentiles as we serve God and are faithful in our service to him. We can rely upon the fact and have a deep sense of confidence about the rest of our lives and our ministry. We have the same assurance, I believe, as Paul did, that God would will protect us as he protected Paul as we complete our mission.

And we talked about this before. Paul was going to Rome and Jesus appeared to Paul at a very dark time in which persecution was great and plots were being made and they were trying to kill him and said, “Don’t sweat it. You’re going to fulfill your ministry. You’re going to get to Rome and whatever ministry God has called you to do, what service God has called you to do. You will be given protection by the Lord Jesus Christ to the end that you can fulfill it and you feel like you can’t a homeschool started up and part of the ministry particularly of the wise the father’s overseeing the wise doing most of the teaching in most cases not all of them a part of your ministry to fulfill is the education of your children you feel like you can’t do it you feel like the opposition the enemies are too great whether it’s your own personal sin the difficulties of neighbors and relatives the sin of the children a financial resources being whatever it is you feel like you cannot fulfill but God says that Jesus protects those that he’s called to minister and if that’s part of your ministry then you can have a deep confidence and hope that ministry can be fulfilled so protection for those who’ve been raised up to service and then finally faithfulness or obedience faithfulness might be a better term because Paul says then the whole purpose of this exhortation this exposition relative to his own conversion is that he’s been faithful to that call.

See, he is in essence saying, “I plead religious conviction relative to the charges the Jews make. They’re lying among other things, but my actions are based upon a firm religious conviction based on the scriptures and based upon God’s converting me to an understanding of what those scriptures mean in the context of my life. And I have been faithful to that.” He says, he says that I’ve been faithful.

And so, Those who know that they’ve been raised up and given new life by Christ respond in obedience and love to him in service. He protects those people for the purpose of their ministry and they then are to perform their work with faithfulness in spite of the difficulties that attend to them. And he had great difficulties. You know he you think of that verse as well he didn’t apostasize. Well not only did he not leave the faith he could have just sought a quiet life where he wouldn’t get, you know, the slings and arrows of abuse of Jews and Romans shot at him, but he didn’t. He was faithful in prosecuting rather his task in spite of persecution.

So, that’s the application out of all this. I’ll show you where we’re going up front. Now, let’s go through these verses these first few verses. And we already talked about the first and last section of the outline, the introduction.

You just remember the context. You remember that I’m sure we’re reviewing it every week. And then secondly, where Agrippa tells Paul to go ahead and start defending himself. Remember that the context for this is this is really a fairly literal fulfillment of Jesus is saying to his disciples in Matthew 10:18, for instance, you shall be brought before governors and kings. And again, in Luke 21:12, you’ll be brought before kings and rulers for my sake.

So Paul is here before a king and a ruler for a governor Festus and a king, Agrippa, king of the Jews. So declared by the Romans. And so that’s the context. The overall context is this is what’s happening now is in fulfillment of what the Lord Jesus has said would happen to his disciples. And so Paul begins to work this thing out in the context of being called before Agrippa. And I just want to mention a few things along the path here that I don’t want to stress, but you should know from the text.

We read in verse one, Agrippa said unto Paul, “Thou art permitted to speak for thyself.” And I just want to make one reference there to that term permitted. What’s going on here is that Paul has every legal right to speak for himself. This is not a favor done by Agrippa. He’s simply enacting what the law says to do relative to such a person. Paul is permitted not in the sense of being given something extraordinary, but rather just simply permitted to do what he’s supposed to do.

It’s when for instance, judge says to the defense, you may present your case now. Oh, he has to let them do that. The significance of that is this that when Jesus in the gospels and I know this is complete diversion But just so you’ll understand the relationship of this verse when Jesus in the gospels talks about divorce and he says that Moses allowed the people divorce. You know some people say that what that means is because of the sin of man Moses got sort of laxed and so the law delivered from Moses allowed for that when it wasn’t you really shouldn’t allow people to do it.

They’re using the term allowed to do something that’s illegal. It’s the very same term and the occasion here in Acts 26:1 is the way always used in the New Testament, people being permitted to do something which is legal. And so just as by way of an applicational point in the gospels when it says that Moses permitted people divorce, what it means is that Moses’ law provided for divorce and that Moses law is God’s law and so divorce is legitimate under certain cases.

It’s not some sort of second best alternative. Okay, it’s part of the law system of God. So that’s the way of application. Okay, so Agrippa permits Paul to speak. He calls on Paul to speak. Paul stretches out his hand and he answers for himself.

I think myself happy. You remember what we said that word happy there is blessed in other places of scripture. It’s not the same word as happy before Felix that he talked about before. It’s a strengthened term. He is blessed. I find myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day. Self-defense, a basic biblical principle of Judas a jurisprudence. And he engages it here before thee touching all the things I’m accused by the Jews. He says, “I’m going to answer all the charges. I’m pleading innocent here.” And then he goes on to say, “Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions, doctrines, and applications of the doctrines in hard issues, in other words, which arise among the Jews.

Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.” And so Paul here makes sure at the beginning of his defense that Agrippa knows that he is pleading innocent. Calvin points out the importance of this. He said that, you know, men frequently want to despise a message because of the messenger. And so, if you got a guilty party in front of you pleading various things about the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, it could poison the well, so to speak, against the message, Paul’s guiltiness.

And so Paul goes out of his way before Agrippa to say, I’m going to answer all the charges. I’m innocent. So listen to what I’m saying in the context of that, please. Okay. Now, that’s important, I think, just by way of application again because it’s very important that we understand that we shouldn’t be like that. A god it is said uses crooked sticks to strike straight blows can do that. And of course if you understand the nature of sin in mankind and the lack of perfection taught in scripture that we will never become perfect.

God only uses crooked sticks to strike straight blows in the sense of that being those sticks are men that he uses. Now he uses his word which is not crooked. No fault in it. But when people encourage and exhort each other to righteousness, he only uses crooked messengers. And so when you’re approached by somebody, a crooked messenger, somebody with a problem, then you know, don’t just you the easy way to divert things is to say, well, the guy’s mad like Festus did about Paul, which is a lie.

Or you can say, well, Paul, we know you sin, too, so why should we believe you? And see, that’s the tendency us Christians are going to have. We know each other and we know each other fall far short of the glory of God and it’s going to be a sinful tendency in us to not listen to what people tell us because we know their sins and so it’s something we should guard against and on the other side of the coin when we do want to make a defense for the Lord Jesus Christ and the application in life such as Paul’s doing here then we certainly want to try to make ourselves above reproach as much as possible particularly when we’re talking to those outside of the world now I do not go in for this notion that you better be perfect before you start witnessing because it’s the power of God ultimately.

God can do whatever he wants to do. He can speak out of the mouth of an ass as we talked about several weeks ago of Balaam’s donkey and there’s a sense in which we’re all asses before God. We’re dumb brute beasts and he can certainly use us. But on the other hand, even though he can sovereignly use someone who’s very much in sin to preach forth the gospel, and I’ve seen it happen very close to my own life, nonetheless, we should make attempts as Paul does here before Agrippa to live a life of good conscience before God and men so that the message of the gospel according to the secondary means of God might be heard.

So Paul pleases innocence and then he says that he’s happy to present himself to one who is under authority so to speak under the authority of the scriptures and then he asks to be heard patiently. I think I mentioned this last week but that is in capital letters on the outline because I wanted to stress that a little bit you take the outline home. Remember patience. Remember patience. Remember to hear people patiently.

Remember to present your conversation with people patiently. Remember to be patient waiting for their response to you. You know, things don’t happen bam bam. Usually in the maturation of the Christian life, things happen slowly. And so, we have to be patient. If somebody talks to you about an issue in a kind of interactive dialogue, as we’re getting here at Agrippa and Paul, Paul has every right to insist and to put forth God’s demands upon Agrippa.

He’ll do that. But he does it in the context of seeking patience from the one whom he’s speaking to. This is particularly important relative to authorities. Paul’s speaking to a governor here, a king, and he pleads for patience from the king toward him a subject. Okay? And so we as well, particularly when we go to present our case to those in authority over us, we should ask for patience. Put them in a mind that they should be patient with those under their authority.

I know that I as a father have a tendency to be real impatient. It’s a ministration of grace on the part of my children or my wife to speak to me and ask for patience as they present a matter to me. I know this is going to take some time, dad, but it’s important to me. Could you be patient, please? You see, that’s administration. Now, it doesn’t mean that they don’t do that, fathers. You can be impatient, but patience to hear people patiently, to be patient about what we do.

That is particularly true as we look at 2,000 years, the church has patiently awaited the manifestation of the kingdom. And we’re going to have to be patient in our own lifetimes about the manifestation of kingdom growth. Happens slowly. It happens over time. I was thinking that, you know, the lottery is a sign of impatience in our day and age. And I know myself, probably a lot of us now, you know, I don’t play the lottery, but people that do or people when you expect a big answer to a problem, usually it’s not God’s way.

The example again is a loss of weight, for instance. I’ve lost some pounds. Well, to try to lose a lot of weight overnight, not going to happen. People weld their teeth shut. People do all kind they get go to operations. They try to all kinds of weird and crazy things looking for the big hit right now to take care of a problem. People that play the lottery want the big hit right now. And they squander a dollar and another dollar and another dollar and another dollar.

You see the very principle of the lottery is impatience. It says that you don’t want to use those small measured steps toward financial security. You want the big hit. Okay? And so it’s a real tendency you know on part of everybody including Christians to be impatient in trying to save money. For instance, God wants us patient and he wants us slowly doing the things that are required that he normally uses.

He almost never brings a Christian to great wealth overnight because it’s not his way. He wants you patient. He wants you developing long-term habits of self-control and control by the Holy Spirit. Okay? So Paul says, “Hear me patiently.” And then Paul goes into, so this is like the introduction, right? These first couple of verses and then in verse four, he begins to talk about his previous life pre-conversion.

He said, “My manner of life from my youth which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem know all the Jews. So he says, you know, when I was there, they all knew what I was. I was in the context of Jerusalem. He received instruction there from Gamaliel. We know that from other scriptures. And then he says, those which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee.

And there’s the kind of the summation point of these couple of verses of his introduction to himself is he lived a Pharisee. A Pharisee was a couple of things. It was very concerned about external observations of things. When it says sect there, the straightest sect, straightest means most stringent sect means those, it refers to the exterior acts of religious performance. Now, those exterior acts are not bad, folks.

Religion is not a bad thing. I know that, you know, Christians, well, we’re Christians. We’re not religious, we’re Christians. Well, religion refers to external acts. And if those external acts have the proper understanding and meaning for them, we should do it all the time. We should involve ourselves in the external act of prayer before meals. It’s a good there’s no nothing in scripture that says you have to, but it’s a good exterior set of rules and regulations to remind us to be thankful for God in all things.

So the Pharisees were marked by an exterior and the problem that Jesus found with them was not that they were obeying the exterior requirements, but that they had counted upon their own specialness before God to draw merit from God instead of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. Pride had entered into what they were. But he says that you know I was a Pharisee. And the second reason he brings it this actually the reason he brings this up is now what he says in verse six as he moves into the defense based upon his previous life.

And now I stand in him 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’s sake King Agrippa I am accused of the Jews. Okay. So here’s what he saying I was a Pharisee. I lived a Pharisee. I just wasn’t my external profession. I lived a Pharisee, not as one. I lived a Pharisee. That’s what he was.

And because of that, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead. Most Jews did. Only the small group of Sadducees denied the resurrection. Okay? And he says, “It’s that very resurrection is the reason why I’m being tried. My consistency with pharisaical teaching, the teaching and the instruction of the Old Testament is why I’m on trial. I stand and I’m judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers.

God promised the fathers resurrection. He promised them deliverance. He promised them salvation. That was their hope. Their hope was a firm conviction of what God had promised. The resurrection of the dead, life eternal, etc. Blessings of God, deliverance, Messiah in the context of that. That produces present hope. It’s like experiencing in the immediate present tense what will come future. There’s a joy that Christian lives should be marked by knowing the end from the beginning.

Hope is bringing some of that joy into the present and sustaining us with the sure reality of the future in our present state. It points us toward that. And it’s not just hopeful faith. It’s not just, you know, pie in the sky hope. It’s hope based upon the sure promise of God. God cannot lie. And so Paul says he that’s why he’s in prison. That’s what he’s up to here is they’re charging him because of his consistency with the hope of the promise made to the fathers.

Now he mentions here in the context of this and you’ve got it on your outline in verse six. This is the hope of the promise given to the fathers unto which promise our 12 tribes instantly serve God day and night hoping to come for which sake which hope’s sake king Agrippa I am accused of the Jews. So he mentions this hope and promise in the context of the fathers the 12 tribes and the king Agrippa. Okay.

And so you have there again a recapitulation of all of Old Testament history as they move from the patriarchal period to the period of the tribes and judges and then to the period of kings and emperors. And so all the encapsulation of Old Testament history is in these three particular words used. Fathers, 12 tribes, kings. 12 tribes is one term really. So that all of history is encapsulated as being governed by the hope of the promise.

So the thread that runs throughout history is the hope of the promise of God that culminates and this will be his point in the Lord Jesus Christ who is Messiah and who is the firstborn from the dead, the resurrected from the dead. Now it’s interesting here. I don’t know that what Paul is thinking about exactly, but it is interesting that in Luke chapter 2 verses 25 and 26 and then verse 37 and 38.

We read in 25 and 26 of Luke chapter 2, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon and the same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him. See, here’s the man. He was waiting for the promise to the fathers. One of the 12 tribes. See Simeon here waiting for the consolation. And then there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phineas of the tribe of Asher, another tribe member here.

She was of a great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow of about four score and four years, which this is going on in verse 37. Now, she was a widow departed not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayer night and day. And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all that looked for redemption in Jesus Christ.

So here we have gospel prefigurings of what Paul is talking about here. Those that hoped for the consolation that waited and looked to the Lord for the redemption in Jerusalem and who served the Lord. What how did they serve him with fastings and prayers night and day? They continued instant as he says here serving God day and night in the context of the hope to come. Now this is also true of us. Because the hope to come culminated in the Lord Jesus Christ, but its work is fulfilled in the rest of history.

And so we can sing about, you know, being delivered, but we can also sing about being delivered yet in the future. We look for our deliverance present and in the future. We look for the manifestation of the blossoming of what Jesus Christ is in the context of the world. And so the Beatitudes apply to us. Blessed are those who mourn. Why are we mourning anymore? Well, in a sense, we’re not mourning anymore.

Our lives aren’t characterized by mourning. But we do look for the outworking of the Lord Jesus Christ’s work on the cross in created time and space. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Well, righteousness has come in the person and work of Jesus. But the manifestation of that righteousness is yet future in many aspects. And so we still hunger and thirst for righteousness. The Bible says you’ll be filled.

Blessed are the meek. They shall inherit the earth. Well, you know, well, we’ll talk about that a little later, but Anyway, the point is that the gospels give us a historical record of those representing the 12 tribes here who indeed hoped for the resurrection and the consolation and the promise. Consolation, promise, redemption, hope, all those things are wrapped up in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then Paul in verse 8, so he talks about his past life to point out that he’s on trial for the hope of the Jews. He’s the Jew and that’s why he’s being tried by these Jews. And verse 8, why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead. Now, it’s not clear. It seems to me likely that this statement is made parenthetically or made as an aside not to Agrippa but to Festus and the Romans gathered there.

Now it could be he’s pricking Agrippa’s conscience. You see understand the Sadducees were a small group. The predominant religious perspective of the Jews at the time was a belief in the resurrection that God certainly can and would raise the dead. So why would he say this to Agrippa? There might be a reason he might be picking Agrippa’s conscience because Agrippa would have to profess that externally. He as king of the Jews would make an external profession of a belief of the resurrection but maybe he didn’t believe it internally.

And so maybe Paul’s pricking his conscience and try to say hey why is it such a tough thing for God to raise the dead? More likely I think he says this to the Romans as an aside. He’s talking with a man who had an external profession of Old Testament religion and who believed in resurrection. And he’s saying, “I’m on trial because I say Messiah has come and has been raised from the dead.” And the Romans are thinking, “What is he talking about?” And he said, “Well, why would it be an incredible thing to do if God should raise the dead?” This is a good line in terms of our contemporary situation and speaking with people in our culture, outside of the visible church, outside of Christian culture, the pagan culture around us.

Why should it be thought incredible with that God should raise the dead. Shouldn’t be. See, God is God. He his arm cannot be short, not be shortened. It’s a long arm. Man always wants to think of God and restrict his arm to their length. And so, man does think it incredible. And we can look at that and say, well, men are just plain foolish because God is God and he can certainly raise the dead. So, Paul says that as kind of an aside.

Then he says, I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. So, he’s saying, I am on trial for the resurrection of Christ. which I profess. But I understand this because I myself thought it good and profitable to persecute do things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing also I 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. Now that’s a significant verse for another reason that’s kind of a diversion, but I think you should know it that this is the text that many people will point to the central text for asserting that Paul was married. Why? Because when it says, “I gave my voice against them.” What this means is that Paul voted in favor of executing these Christians.

That’s what it actually means in the Greek. He gave his voice against them. He voted that they were going to be put to death. Okay? And why? Well, it was the Sanhedrin who would vote on such a matter. The 70 rulers of Israel who would vote on whether or not the his men should be persecuted to the death put in that context. And so people look at this and say, well, if he’s voting, he must have been a member of the Sanhedrin.

And to be a member of the Sanhedrin, he had to be married. And that’s certainly true his both those things are true historically. Others say, well, it’s possible that, you know, while voting language is used here, he really was just sort of voting in the sense of agreeing with him that it should be done as the representative of the Sanhedrin. Because we know that he goes on in the next verse and he says, I punished them often in every synagogue, compelled them to blaspheme being exceedingly mad against them.

I persecuted them into strange cities where on whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests and he gets into the rest of the story. So he went as the emissary. It’s interesting that the Sanhedrin the emissaries of the Sanhedrin were referred to as apostles, sent ones. That’s what the word means. So what we’re having here is a picture of the sent one of the Sanhedrin becoming now the sent one of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the Sanhedrin are supposed to represent of course. So there’s irony here. But in any event, he was sent as their official representative and people say well then maybe he gave a vote in that sense as a representative I don’t know but you should know that this is the verse at which people think indicates pretty strongly that Paul was involved in the Sanhedrin and thus had to be married okay but the point that he’s making of course is not that the point he’s making is that he thought himself that Jesus should be opposed and he opposed him by shutting up Christians in prison then he got authority and put them to death voted for their death and he punished them in every synagogue, compelled them to blaspheme.

What this means is he would arrest Christians and they would do one of two things. They would either recant and blaspheme Christ or they’d kill him. That’s what this means. Means nobody got away. You either went through the death, so to speak, the spiritual death of blaspheming Christ. Now, I’m not saying that they lost their salvation. I don’t say that at all. Paul. But the point is that was the end to which Paul’s madness went.

He went all over the known world jailing Christians and making them either blaspheme or be killed. That was the two choices they were given. You see, so this tells us that the martyrdom of Stephen started something real bad in Jerusalem at the time and then into the rest of the world. And Paul says, “This is who I was.” So I understand this. I understand it. Now Paul, you know, clearly says that he was a blasphemer.

He says that in other port of scripture. he says in 1 Timothy 1:13 that who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and unbelief. So Paul says that he was the blasphemer and he was a persecutor and injurious. And so he confesses his sin and he certainly does it here by way of implication as well by saying that these things weren’t right for him to do.

And then he talks about his conversion.

Verse 13, at midday, oh king, I saw on the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. This is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the brightness of his countenance, the sun of righteousness that’s risen upon Paul here in verse 13. The sun rises in judgment and evaluation. that’s the picture throughout the scriptures.

If you do a little analysis of the light, the brightness as it were, the Shekinah glory of God, it is when God comes in a special appearance in judgment upon people that his glory and the brightness of the countenance of the Lord Jesus Christ shines forth brighter than the sun. And so when we read the brightness of the sun here, you know, you shouldn’t take that as oh gosh, it’s really illuminates things.

It does, but see it’s in a very extreme powerful fearful manner. You know, when God comes the day of the Lord, every Sabbath day, every Christian Sabbath, every Lord’s day. The brightness comes through the shining of God’s word, properly preached, properly read and sung in the context of church. And that brightness brings judgment and evaluation. And to Paul, the brightness of the Lord Jesus Christ killed him, knocked him to his knees, humbled him in the earth.

Okay? And when we’re all fallen to the earth, we’re all fallen to the earth. We’re dead. See, we’re buried here. We’re down on the earth. We become dust again. I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” And it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. I don’t know what that phrase mean kick. The only the only explanations I’ve read in the commentators commentaries are ones that are that are Roman in application.

There was no Jewish So, I read there was no Old Testament or Jewish phrase of kick against the pricks. The Romans used the term to describe you’d be driving ox into a particular direction or using them to do things, you’d have big spikes behind their heels. And if they didn’t like the fact that they were being goaded forward, they’d kick against those goads and just bloody their heels. They’d still have to keep moving forward.

And so the idea here is that Paul is kicking against the pricks. He’s doing what is what is foolish to persecute God is to kick against the pricks. Now, some others think that it’s specifically about what he’s doing in the context of being fallen to the earth before Jesus because now Jesus is effectually drawing him to himself and Paul can’t resist it. You see, it’s pointless to kick against the pricks.

It’ll just cause him damage. I don’t know. But that’s the explanation of this particular phrase based on Roman usage. It’s odd though because Paul says that he said to me in the Hebrew tongue, he stresses the fact it was the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Now, this could be simply because again the consistency of Messiah with the Old Testament, etc., but anyway, I think there might be something there that I’m not seeing.

If any of you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them. But in any event, Jesus says, I think the significant thing is that what he goes on to explain. And I said, “Who art thou, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest, but rise and stand upon thy feet.” The illumination of God’s judgment against Paul lets Paul see that what he thought were righteous for God are in reality persecution of the Lord Jesus Christ who is himself God.

And so what this is one of the strongest statements there are others of course where Jesus identifies himself with the church and with Christians because Paul’s not out there beating on Jesus. He wasn’t there when Jesus was crucified. But what he is doing is he’s persecuting Christians. And Jesus says to the effect that you’re doing it to them, you’re persecuting me. Let me say against me and I guess we could say like with David against thee against thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight even though you had obviously sinned against Bath-Sheba he’d sinned against Uriah etc.

Well so here certainly Paul is persecuting Christians but Jesus says it’s me I’m the focal point of history not my people on one hand on the other hand my people are the apple of my eye God treats us as his son you see Covenantly, we’re in the Lord Jesus Christ. This truth here should be both a great comfort to us and a great warning to us. It’s a great comfort. As you sit there and have belief in the Lord Jesus Christ and have come to saving faith through his sovereign call, then you know that when people pick on you, they’re picking on your big brother.

And your big brother happens to be God of all the universe, the commander of the force, okay? The commander of the angelic host. who can deliver you in an instant. Okay? You should know that your protection that he’ll later talk to Paul about is sure because those who pick on you, Jesus says they’re picking on him. This is a picture of protection from Jesus Christ. And so this should be a tremendous comfort.

God never forgets about us because he the father never forgets about the son and we’re in the son. So again, you should have a steady assurance that no matter what befalls you. Now some may die.