Hi, this is Bill Meyer, urging you to give generously before our accounting deadline this Monday, June 30th, at midnight. You can give a donation to Insight for Living Ministries right now by calling us at 800-772-8888, or go to insight. org slash donate. Yeah. The book of Acts includes a story about Paul who stood in chains before his accusers.
The men in royal robes were morally compromised. The man in shackles was spiritually free. What an irony.
Well, today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindahl recounts the dramatic courtroom showdown and the speech that Paul delivered. It's a masterful picture of choosing conviction over convenience. Let's pick up the study in Acts chapter 26, verse 12. Paul was in the middle of his speech to King Agrippa. Chuck titled his message, Standing Tall as Paul Stood.
While I was so engaged, as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, At midday, Okay, I saw something and then I heard something and then I did something. This is a testimony from a man whose life has been transformed. And I believe it was delivered in the most gentle, sensible manner one could imagine. I was on my way to Damascus pursuing Christians that may have been hiding out in the far reaches of our boundaries. And on the way, at midday, there was a light that I saw.
brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice. Saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, I heard it in Aramaic, my mother tongue. And he knew my name. He called me Saul.
Saul. Why are you persecuting me? And I said, Tis I courier. Who are you, sir? Who are you lord?
And he said, Ego I me yesus. I am Jesus. I saw him. I heard him. And then Jesus gave me my commission.
Sixteen through eighteen, I have appeared to you. I have appointed you a minister. Uh I will rescue you in the process from Jew and Gentile alike who don't understand. And I am sending you to them. You are my messenger, Apostolos.
You will go as I send you in my name.
So King Agrippa. I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision. I mean, how could I? And I kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and then at Jerusalem, and then he enlarges the circle, and then Judea, the province surrounding Jerusalem, and then to the Gentiles. I mean, I've gone all around the known world, Agrippa, making this known that they should repent and turn to God.
Performing deeds appropriate to repentance, they should turn their lives as I have over to the Lord Jesus Christ. I've done that. And For this reason, some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death. While Paul was saying this, Festus said. Shop.
Paul. Paul! You're You are out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you mad. Paul now turns from the focus to the group.
Dephestus. Paul said verse 25, I'm not maniacal. Uses the same word. I'm not a madman, most excellent Festus. Your honor.
But I utter words, look closely. I utter words that are sensible and true. For the king knows about these matters. I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa.
D do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe them. Boys had a great moment. Grippo's like, yeah. Yeah.
I mean, he is connecting. I know that you do, Agrippa replied to Paul. In in in a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian. This is the moment that Paul's been waiting for. The latter half of his life.
One sentence. And I want you to notice the genius of his response. Paul said. I would wish to God that whether in a short or long time, not only you. But also, all who hear me this day might become such as I am.
Except these chains. Isn't that a great one? Agrippa? Would to God that You and all those around you are just as I freed from the sin of our lives through Christ's power. Without chains.
Look at what happened. Look at their answer.
Okay. No answer. The king stood up. Can't you see him straightening his robe? kind of coming back to himself.
Bernice. You know, get a Grip. By the way, this reminds me. Charles Spurgeon does a masterful job with this scene, and he points out the reasons that Agrippa. responds like this.
Why did he put it off? Why did he delay the decision?
Well, there was Vestus. Losing face with Vestis there was Bernice? He's got to live with her. And then There was this. Pff image.
I mean, what would people say?
So they get up in silence. brush themselves off And verse 31: When they had gone aside, they began talking to one another. They don't do this in front of Paul. Paul walks out with the chains. Rattling.
But they're back behind the hallway or in a private chamber, and they're saying, This man is not. doing anything worthy of death or imprisonment. How did Paul know that? Luke. Luke is over there by the door.
He's writing this. He's writing this. He's like the reporter. Did not do anything deserving of death. But isn't it interesting?
They talk about Paul's case, they don't talk about their own souls. Cheap talk. Easy talk. Obvious talk. There's no There's no vulnerability.
And Agrippa said to Festus, This man might have been set free. if he had not appealed to Caesar. Paul is free. Just happens to have chains. He's the only one free!
I wonder if Grippa thought himself has chained. wishing to be free. This is an epical moment. Paul slips through the door and is gone. His words linger in the place.
They sort of get absorbed into the woodwork. Whether sooner or later, I pray, God, that not only you, but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for the chains. Would that you could come to Christ. By faith alone. Let me leave a couple of thoughts with you.
When you stand tall. You're so focused, you operate as though you are invincible. I don't miss this.
Some of you have never been there. Because you have never allowed yourself to be in a threatening setting. Because you've always played it safe. You've always let someone else do the talking for you.
Somebody else stick their neck out. When you personally stand tall, you become so focused, you operate as though you are invincible. The odds mean nothing to you. You are unconcerned about yourself. You are unimpressed with who's sitting or standing in front of you.
You are unintimidated by the odds. You are uninhibited in your zeal and determination and convictions. And that's what makes you significant. At that moment, you are God's voice for that hour. Such was Paul.
When you stand tall, you are so focused, you operate as though you are invincible. It's called a Spirit's presence in your life. Second thought. When you stand tall, you are so passionate. You are unaware at the moment of the impact you are making.
It's not about making impact, it's about standing for the principle. and letting the chips fall where they may. Paul's audience simply got up and left. It looked as though it was a total failure. Waste of time, it was neither.
For Paul, life returned to the routine. Who can say what others did with his words? Who knows what Agrippa dreamt about that night? Who knows whether Bernice may have even left him? Or Festus.
compromising Festus. Who knows if he didn't toss and turn for weeks to come? Peggy Noonan is a writer I have enjoyed for years. She was a speech writer for President Reagan. And then later for President Uh George Herbert Bush.
and still does some writing, has written a fine book called Simply Speaking. I've read it twice. It's a wonderful little book. She closes with a story that is worth our time. Stay with me.
She covers the story of Mother Teresa, who had been invited to the national prayer breakfast. Back in 1994, February 3rd to be exact, held at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. Mother Teresa was introduced and came from behind a parted curtain to walk to the podium. She was small and moved slowly, hunched forward slightly as those with osteoporosis often are. She wore white.
Blue-edged floor-length habit and looked weathered, frail. Tough as wire. As she stepped up onto a little podium that had been placed beneath. There was a great applause. She nodded.
took her speech in her hand and began to read it. in a soft sing-song voice. She began. Make us worthy, Lord, to serve our fellow men throughout the world who live and die in poverty and hunger. Give them through our hands this day their daily bread, and by our understanding love.
Give peace and joy. There was no thank you. No smile. She just stood there holding the speech and looking down at it. She didn't look up or make eye contact, nor did she gesture with her hands.
A little later on, this came from her lips. In the families of the West, It is not unusual that the father and the mother are so busy they have no time for their children. Or perhaps they are not even married or have given up on their marriage.
So the children go to the streets and get involved in drugs and other things. This is tragic, she said, for it is within the child that the love and peace of adulthood begin. Therefore, it is within the family that love and peace must reign. There was a bit more shifting now, for an audience composed of humans is an audience composed of sinners. And an audience dominated by busy boomer parents is composed of veterans of sin.
She continued. But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion. Because Jesus said, if you receive a little child, you receive me.
So, every abortion is the denial of receiving Jesus, the neglect of receiving Jesus.
Well Silence. Cool, deep silence. in the cool round cavern for just about 1.3 seconds. And then applause started. On the right-hand side of the room, and spread and deepened, and now the room was swept with people applauding.
And they would not stop for what I believe was about five or six minutes. As they clapped, they began to stand in another wave from the right of the room to the center and now to the left, and not. But not everyone applauded. The President and First Lady The Clintons seated within a few feet of Mother Teresa on the platform were not applauding. Nor were the Vice President and misses Gore.
They looked like seated statues. They glistened in the lights and moved not a muscle, looking at the speaker in a determinedly semi-pleasant way. I was applauding at my table, and most of my tablemates were standing. I turned to look at what the friendly and intelligent woman to my right was doing. We had a nice conversation before the speaking began.
She was a lawyer, the wife of a member of the Clinton administration, a modern and attractive blonde-haired woman in her late 40s or early 50s. She was not applauding. She was staring straight ahead, impassively, if you can call white lips and a stricken expression, impassive.
Now, Mother Teresa is not perhaps schooled in the ways of world capitals. And perhaps she did not know that having said her peace and won the moment, she was supposed to go back to the airier, less dramatic assertions on which all agree. Instead, she said this. Abortion is really a war against the child, and I hate the killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that the mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?
How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love. The father of that child, however, must also give until it hurts. By abortion, the mother does not learn to live but kills even her own child to solve her problem. And by abortion, the father is taught that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into that world.
So that father is likely to put other women into the same trouble.
So abortion just leads to more abortion. Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion. Again, Applause. And I looked once more at the woman to my right.
As the applause spread, she sat back in her chair and folded her hands on her lap. Then she briskly reached. for her purse and took out a notepad. Then she took a slim gold pen. Gleamed in the ballroom lights, and she started writing down words I couldn't resist.
Appeared as Unobviously, as I could, to see what she was writing. Shop right. It said. on the hospital white pad. Cleaners.
She was making a to-do list. That is how she detached from the moment. She did not like what she had heard, but she couldn't walk out, she couldn't boo.
So she made a little list of things to do. I looked toward the platform. Hillary Clinton was still staring straight ahead, unmoving. I imagined her looking at my table mate and yelling over, don't forget the tide. Mother Teresa now spoke of fighting abortion with adoption.
Of telling hospitals and police stations and frightening young girls, please don't kill the child. I want the child. Give me the child. I'm willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who would love the child and be loved by the child. It was at this point that the senator turned to his wife and asked if his jaw was still up.
It was something. The silence. And the surprise with which her words were received. It was all so unadorned. Not a great word.
Explicit. Impolitic. And it was wonderful. Mother Teresa seemed Neither to notice the applause nor care. She's invincible.
This moment. She finished her speech to a standing ovation. Turned and left as she had entered silently through a parted curtain in a flash of blue and white. Mike Paul. He'd said it all.
And he walked out. And these officials were left with their conscience throbbing. in their chests. unable to ignore or turn off. This invincible Messenger.
Sent by the Holy Spirit. for that moment in time. Would you bow your heads, please? Close your eyes. Just Just you and God.
It's like it will be someday. Just you and he. Talking over your life. I promise I will not beg. And I need not plead.
The Spirit of God will take everything that's been said. And we'll help convince you. What you need. What you're missing. But if you're without Christ, listen for the rattle of the chains.
When it's quiet tonight. Or when you're in that hospital room and it looks pretty bleak. Listen for the chains. that rattle. When you're left alone with your thoughts and your mate has walked out.
Or the crushing blows of life have crumbled in on you. You've lost your job. Or you finally been found out? Remember, they offer still good. The one who comes to the Father will never be turned away.
The one who comes to Christ will never be rejected by the Father. But you must come. You must come on your own. As many as received Christ, them The Father gives the authority to become the children of God, even those who believe in the name of Christ. Today's the day.
Come today. We pause, our Father, with deepest sense of gratitude for. your presence Among us, and during this period of time when we've looked again at a life. that was really worth living. Thank you for this man whom you protected and used.
in such a magnificent manner Thank you for his courage. Thank you for his trust in you. freedom from bitterness, so that when he was able to speak, It didn't spew out in venom. but it flowed in love and gentleness. And thank you that that message of hope In the risen Christ is as good today as it was Back then In the 10th and 15th and 18th centuries, as it is today.
I pray, Lord, that you will cause this sense of hope. to give us a renewed determination to be people who stand tall. without concern. for others' responses. to do what is right.
without tiring of it. and to do so the rest of our lives. That we might be, amazing thought, that we might be for some the hero that they've needed. Whether it be one of our children or grandchildren, One of our neighbors or friends or someone who we've never really that close to. closely mapped.
May we live that kind of life. while the chains rattle. And we live free. I ask for Jesus' sake. And everybody said.
Amen. The Apostle Paul has shown us how to stand tall, even when we feel like shrinking back. He's a model of strength and courage. You're listening to Insight for Living and the Bible Teaching of Chuck Swindahl. Chuck is presenting a biographical study on the life of Paul, a man of grace and grit.
And if you missed any portion of this 22-part series, remember you can hear Chuck's sermons in their entirety on the Insight mobile app. or you can purchase the audio C D's by going to insight.org/slash offer. And now, here's more from Chuck. Thanks, Bill. When Jesus warned us that life would bring trials and tribulations, He wasn't kidding, was he?
Most of us have endured torture. Tough seasons. that prove his assertion. When we ignore their gravity, tribulations can take us. to desperate places.
For instance, our doubts seem to escalate. when our suffering is prolonged.
Furthermore, An extended season of pain and suffering came. creates a pathway that leads to hopelessness. And nothing is more devastating than losing hope. You see, the human heart craves hope. In fact, Frankly, we die.
without it. For these reasons and many more, We take great pleasure in sharing the life-giving hope of Jesus Christ. And friends like you Proclaim that hope with us.
Well, right now we're coming near the conclusion of another ministry year. We will close our financial books on june thirtieth. And so today it's imperative that I think I communicate the critical importance of your role. Insightful living would not be heard beyond our own studios. without friends like you I'm the Bible teacher, but you're the one who gives flight.
to our daily program.
So today I'm asking all who rely on this ministry. to go above and beyond.
So that we can keep sharing the hope of Jesus Christ to a world that's desperately in need of it. Your gift today will lead suffering people to realize that God has not abandoned them. In fact, your partnership may cause them to realize that truth. Then look up. and smiled for the first time in a very long time.
Please join me in telling the world those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles, They will run and not grow weary. They will walk. and not faint. Thanks so much for responding.
Soon. To respond to Chuck, you can choose one of several easy ways to give a donation. Many prefer to send a check in the mail. If that's you, address your envelope to Insight for Living, Post Office Box 5000. Frisco, Texas 75034.
Monday, June 30th, we'll be closing our accounting books on another ministry year, and it's important to hear from you. Your generous support of Insight for Living will help make disciples of Jesus Christ here in your hometown and all around the world. To give a donation by phone, call 800-772-8888. Or you can give online at insight.org slash donate. By the way, in recent days, you might have received an exclusive resource from Insight for Living in your mailbox.
It's called Guided by Grace. If not, we'd be happy to send one to your home. It's an inspirational statement that creatively portrays the impact of Insight for Living all around the world. Plus, this multicolored tabletop publication is filled with behind-the-scenes pictures, a compelling story, and creative illustrations about the scope of Insight for Living Ministries. In addition, you'll find comments from Chuck and his daughter Carissa about their vision for the future of Insight for Living.
After 46 years of God's faithfulness, we have absolute confidence that His grace will guide us into the future. To receive the Guided by Grace vision statement, call us at 800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org/slash grace. I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindahl resumes his study of Paul, a man of grace and grit. Monday on Insight for Living.
The preceding message, Standing Tall as Paul Stood, was copyrighted in 2001, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindahl, Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
