Give ’em Jesus (Part A)

Do you know, to have this worldly attitude of asserting yourself when you go to the God's house, you can't hear what God's saying. You're too busy trying to achieve or get or whatever it is, something for yourself without submitting to the Lord. And we Christians should help non-Christians on how to go to a church, how to attend church. The Bible talks about it the first few verses of Ecclesiastes 5 is one of the first places I would send you to.

There are others, but that's just a quick one. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the Book of Acts.

Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now let's join Pastor Rick in the Book of Acts chapter 26 as he begins his message, Give Him Jesus. Book of Acts chapter 26. We will take verses 19 through 32 in our exposition. We will stand and read verses 22, 23, 28, 29.

22 and 23 and then we'll go up to 28 and 29 and hopefully give some context to what we will be considering. Acts chapter 26 beginning in verse 22. 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, that he would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. Now verse 28. 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 all who hear me today might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains. Please be seated. If you're not familiar with this story, it's quite remarkable.

If you are familiar with it, it's very exciting what's going on here. Paul is being examined for any charges that they can put on him as they send him to Rome before Caesar and he's standing before the governor of that region, the Gentile governor, and a non-Gentile governor, pardon me, and the king of that region, Agrippa, who is not Jewish. He's Gentile also and I hope I do better as we go forward because that's not a good start.

Give him Jesus. That's the title of this message. And I want to open up with just a little application of what's going on today in Christianity and hopefully it comes off clearly and firmly but certainly with love and concern. Not long ago, people avoided going to church because they did not want to hear what God had to say. They were afraid, if I go to church I'm going to hear the gospel, I'm going to hear about Jesus, I'm going to hear about my sins.

But that seems to be changing now. People are not so afraid to go to church, some churches, or church period, because they don't expect to hear God's word. They're going and they're wanting to hear, you know, good things about my life and my future and that I'm going to heaven but they don't want to hear about sin, they don't want to hear reason from the scripture, they certainly do not want this present culture attacked.

Now it's not everybody of course but it's a growing number, it is a concern. Has the church become so leavened that it surprises people when they go to church to actually have the Bible taught to them? Well, people will get up and leave a service where the pastor is just preaching the word. Well, what did they come to the church expecting?

Why would it be a shock, a surprise? Why would they be offended to hear God's word preached in God's house? Well, it has to be that there are too many churches that are not doing this. They have made safe zones for Satan if they're not preaching God's word in God's house. In this culture, the people are coming to these types of churches sought with anti-Christ ideas and they insist still that they're going to heaven and that they're Christian and that it's okay. We should be upset about this. We shouldn't just, well, you know, it's the age we live in.

Nonsense. This is an attack from Satan. This is an offensive maneuver to dumb down the church and populate hell. And if you invite someone to church, prep them. If they're not Christians or if they are saying that they're Christians but you know they have no interest in what the scripture says, prep them. Say, listen, you're going to get it between the eyes if you're not a friend of Christ and his word to help you, not to hurt you, but it's going to hurt if you are going to try to find comfort in not addressing sin. And stone cold blasphemers, fake Christians, have nothing to fear from a Bible-less church. However, they have nothing to hear from a Bible-teaching church because they won't go.

They don't want to be a part of that. What does all of this have to do with what we're talking about in this section of Acts? Well, Paul's going to give him Jesus.

He's not holding back. He's not saying, well, I know you don't want to hear about repentance and sin, so I'm not going to, I'm just going to say, you know, hey, King Agrippa, hey, Festus, you know. God has a plan for your life and he wants you to be happy and rich or whatever else it may be. Well, there are people growing numbers attending churches insisting that churches agree with this sick, sin-filled, dark and violent culture. If sinners have any chance of surviving death, then sin has got to be dealt with.

It has to be dealt with. This is not self-righteousness. This is not legalism. Legalism, the Lord says, thou shalt not kill.

That's not legalism. It's this commandment of God. So the question is, especially for you younger ones still in high school, will you turn on Christ? Will you side with this world? Will you insist that you are still going to heaven while you trample the word of the Son of God?

That's going to be your call. But you need to also remember that there's going to be enough Christians that are ready to stand by your side and keep you strong if that's what you want, if you want the Lord. Well, that is hopefully a good segue into what we have here. Now, verse 19. Now, remember Paul, they're examining him. What are we going to send him to Caesar with?

What charges are we going to send him to Caesar with? Verse 19, therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. He starts off, well, he continues, for he had already given to them how Christ saved him and what Christ told him to do, to go preach the gospel. And so now he's continuing, and he says, well, I complied with that.

I followed, I'm following my orders. Paul knew how to take orders from the Lord. Had more pastors and churchgoers followed this example of complying with the commandments of the Lord, we would have fewer broken churches, and we've got a growing amount of broken churches. And thank God there's still churches that are preaching the word and still people in the pews supporting those churches. But, you know, to have this worldly attitude of asserting yourself when you go to the God's house, you can't hear what God's saying. You're too busy trying to achieve or get or whatever it is, something for yourself without submitting to the Lord. And we Christians should help non-Christians on how to go to a church, how to attend church. The Bible talks about it, the first few verses of Ecclesiastes 5 is one of the first places I would send you to.

There are others, but that's just a quick one. Anyway, Jesus brought Paul face to face with Paul's sin. That's what he does.

He brings an individual face to face with their defects before God. Well, what should he do? Ignore it? Let it run wild as though it didn't matter?

Well, it does matter. It's a personal problem and God wants to help us with it. And we know that, and one of the reasons why we who serve the Lord love him so much. He's so gentle with us, so patient, so ready to go forward in spite of our flaws. And so, of course, before he met Jesus, Paul was very useful to the devil. This is why this has something to do with all of us.

He's no different from me and you in that respect. Before you come to Christ, you are the devil's flunky, whether you know it or not. And of course, there are different degrees as to how he will use you. How many politicians are in Washington that are the devil's flunkies? And they don't even believe in the devil that's playing them like a fiddle. Well, Satan needs people to be useful to him and therefore be useless to God. God doesn't want it this way, but what is he supposed to do if a person is determined to stiff arm him? Satan wants to give humans advice about God, about life. He's giving advice to Eve in the garden. God didn't really say that. This is what he's doing.

I know what I'm talking about. Listen to me. There's never been a shortage of takers for the things that Satan wants to give people, and that is advice on God, advice on life. Always goes opposite of God, without exception.

And his advice to this present generation, and when I say generation, I'm not talking about a single age group. People who are living today who are romping off with those things that the world holds sacred, and they're holding these things sacred now, the perversity, the insanity, the lack of reasoning. And again, they hold it sacred because if you dare say anything against it, you're going to pay. It hasn't always been this way. People used to even say, live and let live. Now they try to destroy you.

They render you just marginal, no voice, irrelevant. And they'll come out and say, don't listen to the Bible teachers that are teaching the Bible. Listen to us about the Bible, if you want to hear anything about the Bible.

And listen to those in those churches who agree with this apocalyptic culture. We are heading towards fulfillment of the prophecies in Revelation, unlike ever before. And the reason why we can say that is because the technology is helping us to understand what those things mean. No other generation has had so many parts of the puzzle come into place to understand right in front of our eyes where this is going. I mean, if you went to a theater and you saw them, the stage hands setting up the stage, you could probably get an idea of maybe what's going on. But when they really got it all set up, you'd know.

You'd know where that act was going, and that's what's happening with us. Paul warned the Christians 2,000 years ago. He said, be blameless and harmless. How do you be blameless? Well, I might not get there, but God counts the effort I put into that.

It means something to him, because to put no effort in it means another thing to him. Become blameless and harmless children of God without fault. Now remember, he is able to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. God enjoys forgiving those who come to him with a contrite heart. And he will separate the fake believers from the make believers. Well, that's the same thing. The fake believers from the true believers. This is why we should have coffee up here. No, we should not. Drinking coffee in the middle of service.

The ground would open up and swallow me up if I did that. Anyway, coming back to whatever points I was trying to make with you. Oh, from Philippians, he continues, children of God, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world. God does not have a low opinion of Christianity. The world does, for whatever reasons.

Let's not help them with that. This world is satisfying their need for love with those who do not love the Christ, the maker of the universe. We Christians have to learn to satisfy our needs for love in Christ first. Other loves can fail.

They don't always, but they can. His love does not. And when you think his love is failing, that is your sign, indication, after you've examined yourself and said, Lord, I don't know why I feel like you don't love me. That is your leading to hang tough from him. He's just going to encourage you. Just be strong. I know it hurts.

I know it's unpleasant. Be strong. Otherwise, there'd be no such encouragements in this scripture to persevere, to overcome, to force our way through whatever barriers this enemy of ours in this world puts before us. And so Paul stands before them and says, I have complied with the commandments of the Lord, to preach the gospel. Verse 20, he said, 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. That word that he uses for repentance, it really means guilt, dealing with your guilt before God. There is a pure and holy God. And we are guilty as sinners before him.

We are born that way. We don't sin because we're sinners. We sin because, oh, wait a minute. This is, we have, just rewind this a moment here. Oh, excuse me, that phone for me?

I'll be right back. We sin because we're born sinners, and yet God makes a way of escape. And if Agrippa, that wicked king, can understand that he is being invited by God to side with God, to repent and come to him, if he can get it, everybody can get him.

We're going to come to that in a little bit. But when he says, he declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, when he got converted, he was in Damascus, and he had to escape that city because they were going to kill him for preaching what Christ had done for him, and that Christ had made it available to Jews and Gentiles alike. So he goes to Arabia, he spends time with the Lord, and then he makes his way back into the promised land to Judea, and finally in Jerusalem. And then he has to escape Jerusalem because of a plot to kill him yet again. All this for complying with the Lord, to go preach the gospel. He is doing the Lord's will and people are trying to kill him. And I have a bad day and I ask Jesus what's going on. It says, and then to the Gentiles. That inflamed the zealot Jews of his day, and they never forgot this and will look for any chance to kill him that they could get. That they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance. He's giving them Jesus Christ. This is part of the process. Turn from Christlessness.

That's what he's saying. Repentance is a change of mind. And how I view things, how I see things now. It is essential for salvation. You cannot become saved without repentance, without saying, yes, God, you are right. I am a sinner. I confess my sin. Regeneration, which is being born again, that is a change of heart. So repentance is a change of mind.

I'm boiling it down. Regeneration is a change of heart. The whole of me.

How I see life. How God has taken from me that hardened heart against the Christ and given me a new heart. And redemption, overall, is a change of destiny, where I'm going. And so, again, repentance is a change of mind. Regeneration is a change of heart. And redemption is a change of destiny. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things pass away. Behold, all things become new.

Well, there it is laid out for you. A new mind, a new heart, a new place to go. Together, these make up genuine salvation.

Ephesians 4, that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Verse 21 now, for these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. Well, there again, as we covered already, their hatred for him was intensified by the fact that he was a former rabbi. He was one of them. He had no right to trade. Now he's running off all over the world telling Gentiles they could enjoy the identical salvation that the Jews enjoyed. They hated him for this. And that's what he's saying.

This is what I was doing and this is why I'm standing in front of you. Through faith in Jesus Christ, who they detested. It's just to be piled up offenses like we do. When we come out and say we're not for this, you know, men trying to be women, women trying to be men. We're not for sexual perversity. When we stand up and say we're not for these things, we have attacked their church. We have attacked their doctrine.

These things are sacred to them now and we become the enemy. Well, Paul was going through that in his world also. Now, Festus, who is the Roman governor, he realizes Paul is innocent, but he caused this mess by playing politics with Paul. You know, I'm going to send you back to Jerusalem and there you can have your own people deal with this.

Paul said, no way. I appeal to Caesar because if you send me back to Jerusalem, they're going to kill me. And so, you know, Festus is in a spot now and that's why he's asked Agrippa to come and hear Paul out so that they can figure out what charges to send him to Caesar with. Well, Paul takes the opportunity and says, well, here's why I'm on trial. And then he gives them Jesus. He gives them the gospel. He's more interested in their salvation than he is in his emancipation. How do you get to this level of Christianity?

Well, may we pursue, may we chase it, may we go after, find out. And if we never attain to this level, we'll still be better off by just trying to do better in our faith. Verse 22, 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.

Paul said they tried to kill me, but God helped me. That's why I'm here now. And he says, I stand, I'm firm to this day. I'm not backing down.

I'm not caving in. I'm not going to appease anybody when it comes to the gospel. Then he adds, witnessing both to small and great, as he was doing at this very moment before them. He saw them as lost souls. He was not interested in their social status.

He was not impressed. He was not intimidated. He saw lost souls, and that's what he dealt with. And that's a pattern for us, because when you get caught up with who this person is, you're not focused on who Christ is so much.

It doesn't matter who they are in life. What matters is you preaching what the Holy Spirit has given you to say to that person. And you can't do that if you're not knowledgeable about the Word, if you don't know what you believe, if you're just following somebody else. But if it's yours, you understand the basics of Christianity, then you become very useful to God and a threat to the kingdom of hell. Saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come. There it is. He said, I just preached the Bible.

That's it. The difference between the rabbis and the preachers of the gospel was the rabbis used the teachings of men and all their doctrines and all their funny words. We still have this in Christendom.

We've got all sorts of titles for you, whether you believe in the rapture or you don't believe in the rapture, whether you drink decaf or regular. They got a word for it. You spend so much time trying to figure out their words, you're not spending time in the Word. And if you've ever had to deal with one of these people, you understand they filter everything by those definitions and not what the scriptures are saying all the time. I mean, some of them are, you know, hold it together, but a lot of them, they're just, it's disappointing that they can't get past pigeonholing everyone. Jesus doesn't pigeonhole me.

Why would I be so quick? I just want to know what the scripture says. You're going to have a pigeonhole as one giant one. What does the Bible say? Paul is saying to this audience in front of him, and it was the kings and their commanders and the other VIPs of his day, he says, I taught scripture, the fulfillment of what was already declared and in publication, some of it over a thousand years. I mean, the words of David were a thousand, written a thousand years ago.

Throughout Acts, the gospel is presented as fulfillment of all testaments, scripture, and the prophecies there. And the reason why he is doing this and saying this is because it's just fact. He deals in the facts.

He would have made a good engineer. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply visit crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Acts, right here on Cross Reference Radio.