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That's ConnectWithSkip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. to hear the man myself.
Tomorrow, he said, you shall hear him. So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp and entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city at Festus Command, Paul was brought in. Look at the word pomp.
It's a very interesting word in the Greek language. The king comes in with great pomp. Fantasia. Fantasia. Fantasy. We get the word fantasy from this Greek word and it means a display, an open show of fantasy. So it's like, it's a word that was used to describe kids who dress up in character.
It's their fantasy. They play act. So this guy really wasn't much of a king, but he dresses up probably in his purple robe and the gold little ringlet crown on his head and he probably told, you know, Festus to dress up as well. So he came in his purple robe, the typical robe for the affairs of state. He had all of the ceremonial guards with him.
It was just a great fantasy dress up with all the officials there. And then it says Paul was brought in. Now this scene to me, I'm just imagining the pomp of the king and the prisoner Paul. A pompous king and a prisoner named Paul, face to face, eyeball to eyeball.
You couldn't have two more different people. One in royal robes, one in peasant garb, one absolutely free to make any choice he wants, one who is at the subject of that choice, it would seem, in handcuffs. As King Agrippa stood upright with his goofy looking little crown, pompous robe, pompous robe, everybody oohing and aahing, there stood Paul. And now Paul, we only have one physical description of Paul, one source that tells us what Paul the Apostle looked like.
It may or may not be true, but this is the only one we have, so we'll go with it. It says that Paul was a man of very short stature, a little bent over, bald, hook nose, what they call what would be translated beetle brows, like a unibrow, thick brows that joined in the middle. So he'd picture a little bald guy, kind of bent over, and also the description was he was bowlegged.
So a bowlegged bald guy with a unibrow, crook nose, and he squinted because he had bad eyesight. And this pompous king looks down at that guy and goes, all of this palaver over this thing? But in that courtroom, the most significant person was not King Herod Agrippa II, it was that little bald-headed, beetle-eyed, bow-legged preacher.
And he is not at all intimidated by this king or this governor. And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all the men who are present with us, remember, this is great pomp, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer. But when I found that he had done nothing deserving of death, and that he appealed to Caesar, I decided to send him. I have nothing certain to write to my Lord concerning him.
I don't really have any evidence. Therefore, I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after an examination has taken place, I may have something to write. Or it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him.
It's great, great humor here. So I got to take this guy to Caesar, and I'm going to make sense that we got to have something to charge him with. Now, there were plenty of charges against him. There's just no evidence for those charges.
None. This is the fourth trial Paul is on since he was in Jerusalem, and there is nothing that sticks to him in terms of evidence. So he's hoping something's going to come out of this. Then Agrippa said to Paul, you're permitted to speak for yourself. So Paul stretched out his hand and said, Paul stretched out his hand. Picture that bald-headed, bold-legged, short, unibrowed, hook-nosed preacher sticks his hand out. You see, you're laughing.
That's what everybody was doing in the theater in Caesarea. And he said, I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things which I am accused of by the Jews. Paul sounds ready, doesn't he? Paul doesn't sound like he has a loss for words. He's like, oh, like now? You want me to say something now? He goes, I'm ready. You know what Peter said right in his epistle?
Always be ready to give a defense and answer to anybody asked you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Paul was ready. So this is the greatness of the story. Paul is on trial. He turns the trial into a testimony. He turns the opposition into an opportunity. He uses it for the glory of God. I'm happy.
I'm ready to speak for myself. Jesus was like this. Always ready to turn a trial into a testimony, an opposition into an opportunity.
Always look for opportunity. So he's at the well in Caesarea, and he's speaking to a woman who came there to draw water. And he used that as an opportunity to speak to her about living water. Drink of this water, you'll thirst again.
Drink of the water that I give, you'll never thirst. Using the moment as a testimony for a witness. He did that when the crowd came to him and heard him give his speeches in Galilee. They were hungry.
Jesus miraculously fed them, but then used it as an opportunity to teach them about the bread of life. John 6-7. I am encouraging you to always be ready. You always be ready.
You always be ready to give an answer, to give a witness, to never be caught off guard, to be ready to give a defense. Here's why I believe. This is why I live the way I do. And not only you, but also train your children to do that. Because what happens too often is children who grow up in church and are sheltered and only live with a Sunday school education get out into the world unequipped. Their parents never taught them how to defend the faith, never how to present any kind of an apologetic whatsoever. They get to college, and they drop off the face of the spiritual map.
And then they scramble, what do I do? My child doesn't believe. Get him ready for that. I remember telling my son, the reason I'm sending you to a secular school in your primary education is because I want you to hear what people believe about God, and I want you to be able to give an answer to them. Later on, he was involved in Christian education, and he was involved in answer to them. Later on, he was involved in Christian education, but I didn't want that at first. I wanted the opportunity for him to hear where the world is at and stand up for what he believed in a secular environment. One author put it this way, let's say your son has been raised in a Christian home, has gone to a Christian school, and runs with Christian friends, and has spent all of his formative years in that rather sheltered environment. To make matters more complicated, you have said very little about the real world and done nothing to equip him for what he is sure to face. When he goes off to college, he is thrust into a school that is not Christian.
He is surrounded by young adults who, for the most part, are not Christians. Almost overnight, he is introduced to an environment that he hardly knew existed. This is where the rubber meets the road.
That is when all the theory either works or goes down the tube. Paul was ready. He had heard it all before. And people who were with Paul, he got them ready. So get your kids ready.
You get ready. Always be ready to give an answer, to give a defense. So what Paul does here is he pulls out of his apologetic mind and says, in his apologetic toolbox, his first, and I would say the first line of offense or defense, depending on how you want to look at it, depending on your conversation. And that is his testimony, your personal testimony, how you got saved. Learn to say it in a few sentences and say it in a few different forms so that you can quickly tell people how you came to Christ.
You're listening to Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, God desires to work in and through your life as a believer. And he does this through the Holy Spirit who lives in everyone who places their trust in Jesus. We want to help you better understand the Holy Spirit by sending you The Holy Spirit Then and Now, a resource featuring two books by Chuck Smith, The Book of Acts Commentary and Power, a biblical balance on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, with an introduction by Skip Heitzig. This resource is our thanks for your gift of at least $50 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give at least $50 today to reach people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Why is this important? Because you're telling them essentially, I have a vantage point you don't have. You are an unsaved person. I am a saved person who used to be an unsaved person. I've been on both sides of the fence. You're only on one side of the fence.
This is what happened to me. Here is my story and how I got from that side of the fence to this side of the fence. That's your story. Now you can't stop with your story.
You then want to buttress it and you want to fortify it and you want to strengthen it with not just your story, your subjective story, but then you show them objective evidence that shows why your subjective story can stand scrutiny and is reasonable. And it'll pay off. I have watched it pay off. I've watched it with atheists, with agnostics, with scientists.
I worked in a world for years that was filled with the scientific community of doctors and medical professionals that had no thought of spirituality at all and I was thrust into that and effectively was able to give testimony and see many of them come to Christ. So Paul was ready and he speaks and he says, I think myself happy King Agrippa because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patient. Now Paul was not just flattering him.
He wasn't buttering him up. He was saying a true statement. You're from the Herodian dynasty. You have a Jewish background. You're inculcated into their traditions and customs. You have a history of dealing with the Jewish people, you and your forebears, and so you know this stuff.
Compared to the governor here, you're an expert in this stuff. And he starts, my manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know. They knew me from the first if they are willing to testify that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.
What's he saying? He's saying all the people are accusing me. They know my background.
They're familiar with me. In Galatians, Paul said, I advanced in Judaism beyond my contemporaries. In Philippians, he said I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I was a Pharisee concerning righteousness which comes by the law.
I was blameless and they know me. When he was 13, we believe, Paul was shipped from Tarsus to Jerusalem, and he studied, I mentioned, under Gamaliel. Acts 22 is mentioned, Gamaliel. Gamaliel, one of the most notable teachers of Judaism, he was so notable, so revered, that when he died, the Talmud writes, when Rabban or Rabbi Gamaliel died, the glory of the law ceased. He was such a revered teacher of the law of Moses that when he died, it was felt.
Paul studied under him. He's appealing to that knowledge. And now, verse 6, I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. What promise? Deuteronomy 18, where God says to Moses, I will raise up a prophet like unto you, for my brethren, him you shall listen and obey. To this promise, our 12 tribes earnestly serving God day and night hope to attain, for this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews.
Why should it be thought, incredible by you, that God raises the dead? Indeed, I myself thought, I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them, often in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme, and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them, even to foreign cities. Paul is talking about his conversion here. He's going to go blow by blow what happened to Damascus.
Paul's conversion was huge. It was the pivotal point that drove all of those contemporaries of his in Jerusalem to hate him. This is why they want to kill him. This is why after two years, they're still wanting to set ambush and eliminate him, because he was one of them. And now he believes Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah sent to be the savior of the world.
This bothers them. If you know any people that you think are impossible cases, please let this testimony give you great courage and encouragement. Everybody thought Saul of Tarsus, ain't no way that boy's going to get saved. If he comes around, lock the doors. He just wants to kill us. He ends up coming to Christ. He was an impossible case.
God has the knack of taking the worst and making the best out of them. Saul was the worst. He was the chief antagonist. He became the chief protagonist in the first years of Christian experience and expansion. Well, verse 12, when thus occupied, I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests at midday, and I was He was an impossible case.
God has the knack of taking the worst and making the best out of them. Saul was the worst. He was the chief antagonist. He became the chief protagonist in the first years of Christian experience and expansion. Well, verse 12, when thus occupied, I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests at midday, O king. Along the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul? Saul? Of course, he would have heard, Shaul? Because Hebrew language. Shaul? Why are you persecuting me?
It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Have you ever walked outside of a theater after a matinee on a bright summer day? And you go, oh, man, that's bright.
It sounds bright. Well, you haven't gotten acclimated yet. That's what the experience for Paul was like.
He was in broad daylight, acclimated, but he was not acclimated to that heavenly light that, bing, pinged him in the eyeballs, knocked him to the ground. He's telling that testimony. He's telling that testimony. The question, Saul?
Saul? Why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads. Remember what a goad was?
We covered that in chapter 9. It's a long stick with a sharp, sharpened end or a nail at the end. It was used to incentivize animals. If an animal was stubborn, it wouldn't move. Easy. Take a goat out. Poke it. Poke it a little harder, and they will move.
If they don't, they're not smart. And sometimes you'll have animals that are recalcitrant, stubborn, and they'll kick against the goads. Now, when they kick against that goad, it doesn't hurt the goad, but it does hurt them.
What was a reference to? What were the goads? What was happening inside Paul that he was kicking against, that he was fighting against?
He was kicking, I believe, against two goads. The spread of the Gospel seemed to be getting out of control. He was trying to stop it, and it was just growing like wildfire. And number two, the testimony of Stephen. He was there. He accepted the clothes of those who killed him with stones, stoned Stephen to death. He was crying out, I see heaven open, and the Lord Jesus seated at the right hand of God. And he said, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Saul of Tarsus saw him die and saw him die with grace, and that goaded him. That bothered him. That pricked his conscience, and he wrestled with that and was not able to get rid of that. And so he's saying, King, this is what happened to me. I was suffering. I was struggling, and the Lord Jesus appeared to me.
I saw this light, and he asked me, it's hard to forget to kick against the goads. So I said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of these things which you have seen and the things which I will yet reveal to you. I will deliver you from the Jewish people as well as from the Gentiles to whom I now send you to open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.
He's laying it on. For these reasons, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come, that the Christ would suffer, and that he would be first to rise from the dead and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. There's the Gospel, death, burial, resurrection. Now when he had made his defense, Festus, the governor's hearing this, the governor's hearing this. You know, there's Paul, squinty-eyed, short, bald, bull-legged, talking to King Agrippa, talks about the death of Jesus and the resurrection. Festus is like in the background listening. Now he interrupts. He interrupts his testimony. He says, as Paul made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you're nuts.
That's what the biblical language beside yourself means. You are a nut job. You are crazy. You are detached. You are one burrito short of a combo plate. Lights are on.
Nobody's homeboy. You are crazy. Notice this. Much learning has made you mad. But he said, not backing down, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. For the king before whom I also speak freely knows these things, for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?
I know that you do believe. Then Agrippa said to Paul, you almost persuade me to become a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God that not only you, but also those who hear me today might become almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains. And when he said these things, the king stood up as well as the governor and Anne Bernice. And when he stands before the judgment seat, the great white throne judgment, he'll stand there and it'll be Anne Bernice and those who sat with them.
And when they had gone aside and talked among themselves saying, this man is doing nothing deserving of death or chains, then Agrippa said to Festus, this man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. There's a lot there, but we're out of time. So we're going to pick up Paul's rebuttal to Festus as we cover next week on into his journey in chapter 27. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program.
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