Well, I want you to take a Bible out if you brought one and open it to Acts chapter 25. And if you didn't bring a Bible, we have a copy for you to borrow right under the armrest in your seat. And we're going to be on page 792 in our copy of the Bible. Page 792. We're returning to our study of the great man, the Apostle Paul's life.
Now, you might ask, Lon, just out of curiosity, when did we start? This study.
Well, I went back and looked, and we actually began studying Paul's life in 2001. But you will be encouraged to know that we're planning to finish it before Christmas. Yay! All right, and then we'll launch into something else. But here we pick up in Acts chapter 25.
You know, William Larkin, in his commentary on the book of Acts, said this, made this amazing statement, and I quote. He said the most important event in human history, apart from the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, is the conversion to Christianity of the Apostle Paul. End of quote.
Now Larkin's comment may be just a little bit overstated, but not by much. Think about it.
Now, after he comes to faith in Christ, the Apostle Paul goes on to dominate the rest of the New Testament. He becomes the Central character in the Book of Acts. He writes 13 of the 27 books, 48% of the New Testament. He takes the message of Jesus Christ to Europe for the very first time. He establishes churches all over the Roman Empire.
He brings untold thousands of people to faith in Christ in the Roman Empire. He redefines Christianity from being a small sect within Judaism. Into being a global force to be reckoned with, and he radically changes the history of the entire civilized world for the next 2,000 years. Today we're going to look in Acts chapter 26 as Paul shares the story of his conversion with King Agrippa, and I just want to remind you that as we look at this and as we listen to Paul rehearse this, we are looking at one of the single most pivotal events in all of world history. We're going to look at it, and then of course we're going to come back and talk about well, so like, what difference does that make to me?
So here we go.
So Acts chapter 25 and 6.
Now a little bit of background. We haven't been here for a while, so let's remind ourselves of where we are. Here in Acts chapter 25, it is the summer of 59 A.D. The apostle Paul is in Caesarea, and he's been here for two years in jail. The Apostle Paul was sent here for his own safety by the Roman commander in Jerusalem, after the unbelieving Jewish community there tried twice to kill him, once in the temple and once in an assassination plot.
And when Paul arrived, the Roman governor's name was Felix. Felix decided to do nothing with Paul, and so for two years, from 57 to 59 A.D., Paul just simply sat in jail. In 59, where we're picking up the story, a new governor has arrived. His name is Festus, and he decides to put Paul on trial and to do a favor to the Jewish leaders of of Israel, trying to win their goodwill. And and it becomes obvious in just a few moments to Paul that this thing is just a kangaroo court that's going to cost him his life.
So Paul exercises his right as a Roman citizen. He he kind of. Reverts to his last resort, and he appeals his case directly to the emperor in Rome—a right that he had as a Roman citizen. And we look here in chapter 25, verse 12. Festus says to him, "You have appealed to Caesar.
To Caesar you shall go." Now that's where we left off.
So let's pick up the story, verse 13, chapter 25. A few days later, King Agrippa and his sister Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. And while they were there, Festus discussed Paul's case with the king.
Now the king Agrippa that we read about here is Herod Agrippa the second. His father was the Herod in Acts chapter 12, who killed the apostle James and who put Peter in jail, intending to kill him as well until the angel rescued him. His grandfather, this guy's grandfather, was Herod the Great, the king that was ruling Judea when Jesus was born in Matthew chapter 2, who. Was there when the wise men came, who killed all the babies in Bethlehem? That was this guy's grandfather, and King Agrippa the Second, the guy here in Acts chapter 25, rules over a part of his grandfather's kingdom.
King Agrippa's territory was mostly north around the Sea of Galilee. He had the reputation of being an expert in the Jewish religion and Jewish customs, which is probably why the governor Festus. Decided to run Paul's case by King Agrippa, so verse twenty-two. Then Agrippa said to Festus, "Well, I would like to hear this man Paul for myself." And Festus said, "Well, tomorrow you will." Verse twenty-three. And the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came in with great pomp.
And entered the auditorium accompanied by all the high-ranking military officers and all the prominent men of the city. I can only imagine the spectacle that this must have been. Agrippa and Bernice in their regal robes, and Festus in his purple tunic, and all the military officers in their full military dress, and the bands and everything. And then verse 23 goes on at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.
Now we know from later in chapter 26 that Paul was in chains when he was brought in, and having spent the last two years in jail, I doubt very seriously that he was wearing Versace, if you understand what I mean. And so here Paul stands in rags and in chains in the presence of all these decked out people. It must have been quite a contrast. In fact, F. F.
Bruce, the famous scholar and commentator, said, and I quote: "There is a quiet humor in Luke's description of the great pomp with which they assembled." Nowadays, what person knows virtually anything about Agrippa, Bernice, or Festus? Yet all the world knows the name of this handcuffed Jew who stood before them in rags and chains. End of quote.
Well, let's skip to chapter 26, verse 1. Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You now have permission to speak." And remember, Paul's accusers weren't here. He didn't have to defend himself against any charges. He was free to say whatever he wanted. And so, what Paul did is he set out to tell King Agrippa his testimony.
He set out to tell him about how he had come to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. Verse four, he begins. He says the Jews all know my manner of life since I was a child.
Well, what exactly was that? We learn from Acts 22 that he was born in Tarsus. He had a Jewish father. His father sent him to Jerusalem as a young boy to be trained in the Jewish religion, and as such, he sat at the feet of the most eminent Rabbi of the day, a fellow named Gamaliel. For a young Israelite to study at the feet of Gamaliel, well, friends, this was reserved for Jewish people who got 1,600 on their SATs.
You understand what I'm saying? This was reserved for number one draft picks. This was for rising stars in the nation of Israel. I mean, for a young Israelite to study at the feet of Rabbi Gamaliel, it would have been like a young physicist sitting at the feet of Albert Einstein, or a young humanitarian sitting at the feet of Mother Teresa. Or up until this past week, I would have said a young news anchor sitting at the feet of Dan Rather.
But we won't go there.
Now. Paul sat there and learned at the feet of Gamaliel, and then he went on to become one of the most well-known and famous rabbis in all of Israel. Look, he says in verse four, "I lived as a Pharisee after that, according to the strictest sect of our religion. The Pharisees were the people who kept kosher and went to synagogue daily and studied the Old Testament diligently and observed all six hundred and thirteen." Daily laws religiously and devoted themselves to Judaism obsessively. And as a Pharisee, Paul made it his personal mission to wipe off the face of the earth all faith in Jesus Christ.
Look what he says, verse nine: "I was also convinced that I needed to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth, and that is just what I did." King Agrippa. In Jerusalem, I put many followers of Jesus in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Acts chapter seven tells us that when they stoned Stephen to death and martyred him for his faith, he was watching and approving wholeheartedly what they did. Verse eleven. He goes on to say, "I punished followers of Christ often in the synagogues, trying to force them to blaspheme and deny Jesus.
In my obsession against them, when I ran out of them in Jerusalem, I even pursued them to foreign cities to persecute them." Man, this guy was fanatical. He just kept coming and coming and coming. He was determined to eliminate the Christian faith from the face of the earth. Verse 12. And while I was on my way to Damascus to bring those followers of Jesus Christ who were there back to Jerusalem to be punished, about noon, O King, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun, blazing around me and all my companions, and we all fell to the ground.
And I heard a voice saying to me, Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Isn't it hard for you to kick against the goads? And then I asked him, Well, who are you, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. You say, Lon, wait a minute, stop there just a second.
But you see, the point is, you say, Lon, Paul wasn't persecuting Jesus. He was persecuting the followers of Jesus.
Well, that's right. But this is so cool. What the Lord says here, the fabulous thing about what He says here, what Jesus says here, is that when we are followers of Jesus Christ, we are joined at the hip with Him in a relationship so close, so personal, and so intimate that when anybody does something to us, as far as Jesus is concerned, it's like somebody doing something to Him. He's like our mama bear, and we're like the cubs. If you understand what I'm saying, and somebody messes with the cubs.
You got to deal with Mama Bear.
Now, if you're here today and you've never trusted Christ in a real, impersonal way, how cool would it be? To have a relationship with Almighty God, where He was Mama Bear and you were one of the cubs, how cool would it be to have a relationship with God so close, so intimate, so personal that anybody who messed with you, Jesus considered it somebody messing with Him.
Well, you can have one of those. That's what you get when you give your life to Jesus Christ. And I hope if you're here and you've never done that, that you'll think about that today. There doesn't get any better relationship than you get when you. Come into faith with Jesus Christ.
Think about it.
Well, let's go on. Paul's lying there on the ground now, and as he lies there, he suddenly realizes that Stephen, whom he watched die in Acts chapter seven, was telling him the truth. He realizes that all the thousands of Christians that he has arrested and beaten up and even killed—that the whole time they were telling him the truth. He realizes that Jesus is alive and well here on planet Earth. That Jesus did rise from the dead.
That He is alive forevermore, and He is the Messiah of Israel. Suddenly, Paul gets it, and lying there on the ground, he makes the decision to make Jesus Christ his. But God doesn't stop there. Oh no, He immediately tells Paul what the mission for the rest of his life is going to be. Look, look with me at verse sixteen.
Now get up on your feet, God says to Paul. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and a witness. I'm going to send you to your own Jewish people as well as to the Gentiles. And why?
Well, I want you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. I want you to turn them from the power of Satan to God. And I want you to do this so that they might receive forgiveness of sins and a place in heaven. Verse 19. And so then.
Paul says to King Agrippa, "So then, King, I was not disobedient to that heavenly vision. I did exactly what God called me to do, and it's what I've been doing the last twenty-some years. And, King, that's how I ended up right where I am today, in these chains, standing in front of you. You want to know how I got here? I got here because I've been doing what God told me to do for almost the last thirty years." Now we're going to stop there.
We'll come back and finish the speech. There's still some great stuff left in this speech, but we want to stop right now and ask our most important question. And you've had all summer off. I know that. Last week we gave you a little warm up, but this is the real deal here now.
We're back.
So are you guys ready? Are you ready? All right.
Now come on. Here we go. One, two, three. That feels good, doesn't that feel good? Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside, doesn't it?
You say, "Yeah, Lon," but so what? I mean, all right, this is great.
So Paul gave his life to Christ. I mean, that's great. But when I walk out of my house tomorrow morning to go to work to go to school, so like, what difference does this make to how I live?
Well, let's see if we can explain that to you. You know, we have a phrase that we use in our world a lot. Very often we say, "Well, the odds are against it." Now think of some things in our world that the odds were against that happened anyway. Joe Gibbs coming back to coach the Redskins for the second time. Hey, the odds were against that, but he did it.
Frankly, I think he was foolish. I think he should have stayed retired and stayed a hero. But that's his business. McLean Bible Church finding 52 acres of land at Tyson's Corner. Hey, the odds were against that, but here we are.
How about Britain being able to hold up all by herself against Nazi Germany? Hey, the odds were against that, but she did it. How about the recreation of the state of Israel and the return of the Jewish people to their land after 1,900 years of exile? Hey, the odds were against that, but it happened. And let me tell you of a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed.
And then one day he was shooting at some food, and up through the ground come a bubble in crude oil—that is, black gold, Texas tea. All right, the odds were against that, huh? Yeah. And it sort of happened, sorta. But you know what?
In the history of the world, I'm not sure there was ever an event that the odds were more against than Rabbi Paul coming to faith in Jesus as his Messiah, and yet it happened. And what a wonderful thing the Lord does to remind us of that here today—to remind us that no matter how badly the human odds are against it, nobody—let me repeat—nobody is beyond the reach of Almighty God to bring them to faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, many of us here are facing this very issue in our lives. We have loved ones—moms and dads, brothers and sisters, husbands, wives, children—that when we look at them, we say, "You know what? The odds." Odds are against them ever coming to faith in Christ. Friends at work, friends at school, friends in the neighborhood, and we say the odds are totally against it. Hey, that don't matter.
That doesn't matter. Remember the Apostle Paul. If God can reach the Apostle Paul, there is not a human being alive that God can't reach. Don't you dare give up on those people. As long as there is breath in their body, don't you dare give up on those people, friends.
Let me just tell you, there was nobody more unlikely to come to faith in Christ than my mother and my father. When I first came to Christ and I tried to share the Lord with my dad, my dad would turn the volume up on the television as loud as it would go, and if that didn't stop me, he'd get up, walk out of the room, and wouldn't come back. My mother, she believed that Hitler was a Christian. I said, "Why? You believe Adolf Hitler was a Christian?" She said, "Well, yeah.
Think about it.
He wasn't Jewish, and he wasn't Muslim, and he wasn't Buddhist. He was a Christian." I'm like, Mom, you gotta be kidding me! Adolf Hitler was not a Christian. She said, Well, he wasn't Jewish, he wasn't Buddhist, and he wasn't Muslim.
So what was he?
Now, how you gonna reach somebody like that for Jesus Christ?
Well, I'm happy to report my mom and my dad both came to Christ before they died, and they're in heaven today. And you say, Well, Lon, that's wonderful, but how did you get through to them? You know what strategy did you use? Because I'm trying to reach people that are just as hard to reach, and I need a strategy.
Well, that's a great question. And the answer is right here in this passage.
So let me show it to you. Remember, Paul said, verse 14. He said, "King Agrippa, I heard a voice saying to me, 'Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me?'" And then Paul tells us something positively intriguing that the Lord said to him. The Lord said to Paul, "Isn't it hard for you, Paul, to kick?" Against the goads, you say, "Yeah, I've read that in there." What in the world does that mean?
Well, the imagery comes out of the ancient Near East, the world of of animal husbandry. In the ancient Near East, an animal herder had a goad. A goad was a long stick with a very sharp point on the end. And whenever one of his animals was going in a direction that he didn't want that animal to go, that was unsafe for that animal. He would take that long stick and he would jab that animal into behind to get the animal to change direction.
Now the animal didn't usually appreciate that, and so the animal would kick with its back legs, trying to kick whatever it was that was sticking it in the rear. But the herder would stick it and stick it and stick it until he finally got that animal to get the message. And change direction, and listen to what God says to Paul. He says, "Paul, I've been sticking you, buddy. I've been goading you, man, and you've been kicking and kicking and kicking, Paul.
Aren't you tired yet? Aren't you tired of kicking? Aren't you ready to come to faith in Christ?" Now, friends, what were these goads that God was using to prod the apostle Paul into faith?
Well, there were two of them, and they were both provided to God by the early followers of Christ. They provided the goads; God used them. And what I want you to understand is, we can provide God today with the exact same two goads to be used in the lives of the people we want to see come to Christ that look highly unlikely. And the better job we do of providing these, the better job God can do of goading people into faith.
Now, what were these two goads?
Well, the first one was, these early followers of Christ provided the goad of authentic Christian lives. Hey, think about Stephen, Acts chapter seven. When they had driven Stephen out of Jerusalem, they began stoning him, and Stephen called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus, please receive my spirit." And falling on his knees, he said, "Lord, please don't hold this sin against them." And having said this, Stephen died, and Paul was there. Guarding the robes of those who were stoning him, and giving hearty agreement to Stephen's death, we said earlier Paul watched Stephen die. He heard Stephen's word.
He felt Stephen's passion for Christ. He saw Stephen willing to give his life rather than deny Jesus. Paul saw this same authenticity of life in the hundreds and thousands of other followers of Christ that he arrested, that he tortured. That he beat and that he killed, and these authentic Christian lives that he saw became a goad that God used to begin whittling away at Paul's unbelief, to begin whittling away at Paul's objections to the faith. And Paul began thinking to himself, "Hey, you know, all these people—they're so real, they're so genuine, they're so convinced they're right.
They're willing to die rather than deny this Jesus character. Maybe." There's really something to this. How else can you explain the way these people act? See, I think that was really working on Paul's heart, based on the words that Jesus said to him here. You know, my dad, when he came to Christ, the way it happened was he was in the hospital, having had a heart attack, and I went down to the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville to see him.
And when I walked in his room, he said to me, "He said, 'You know, I've been doing a lot of thinking, Lon, laying here in this bed,' and he said, 'I'm beginning to wonder if what you've been telling me about Jesus all these years isn't really right.' Well, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. If you understand what I'm saying, and I was like, 'Oh my gosh!' And we got down on our knees, and my dad, right there in the hospital, prayed and asked Jesus Christ into his life. And later, I asked him while I was down there. I said, 'Dad, this is amazing to me. You turned the television set up.
You'd walk.' Walk out of the room. I didn't even think you were listening. What is it that changed your mind? Here's what he said to me. I'll never forget it.
He said, "Lan, I got to the point where I could not explain the change that I was seeing in your life any other way than the way you were telling me that it was supernatural, that it was Jesus Christ that was doing this in you. I couldn't explain it any other way, and that made me realize something." It made me realize that people are watching, folks. You may not know they're watching. You may not feel them watching, but they're watching. Once we come out and we claim to be a follower of Christ, they are watching.
And when we live authentic lives in front of them—lives of integrity and honesty and kindness and decency, lives of compassion. And sexual purity and racial justice. Lives that are careful what we say and the language we use and the stories that we tell and the jokes that we laugh at. When we come out and live lives that reflect godly character and a biblical worldview, they notice, and God begins to use that in people's lives to say, you know what? They got something you don't got.
And whatever they say about Jesus, your head may object. But look at their life. Wouldn't you like to live like that? Want to give God a big goad He can use in your friend's life? You live an authentic Christian life in front of them, and God will use it.
The second thing, very quickly, was prevailing prayer. You know, in Acts chapter nine, the Bible tells us that as Paul headed for Damascus, his reputation preceded him. Look what Ananias, who lived there in Damascus, said. He said, "Lord, we've heard reports about this man, and all the harm that he's done to your followers in Jerusalem, and we've heard that now he's on his way here." With authority from the chief priest to arrest all who call on his name, friends, don't you think there were thousands of Christians that were praying for the Apostle Paul? Christians in Jerusalem, where he had already ravaged the church.
Followers of Christ in Damascus, where he was on his way to ravage the church. Don't you think they were praying, Lord, protect us, Lord, dear, in some way intervene, Lord, slow down this one-man wrecking machine, and Lord. As preposterous as it sounds, lead this man to Christ. I think there were thousands of people praying for the Apostle Paul, and the more they prayed, the more they focused the power of God on Paul's life, like a big old goad sticking him in the spiritual behind. And I want to remind you that prayer is the secret weapon of reaching hard-to-reach people.
Secret weapon. This is Shlomi Abramov. Born in Israel, a big Israeli, trust me. He was in the army, and after he got out of the army, he worked as a policeman. And after he worked as a policeman, he worked as a bouncer.
And finally, he was such an impressive bouncer that Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel, hired him to be his personal bodyguard. Schloomy is a bouncer. One time, a man tried to get around him and go into a club that he told him he wasn't supposed to go in, and Schloomy grabbed him and cracked his forearm over his knee right there outside the club. This guy was like Rocky, Rambo, and Conan all rolled into one, and definitely not a very likely candidate to give his life to Jesus Christ. But there was a young lady named Miriam from the United States who was on a tour in Israel and ran into him casually in a restaurant.
Began talking to him, just loved the guy, and so she shared Jesus with him, and he summarily dismissed it and said, "You have got to be nuts." She came back to the United States and started praying for Shlomi. She got hundreds of her friends around the country to pray for Shlomi, and the good news is Shlomi came to faith in Jesus Christ. Not only that, he resigned from being Ariel Sharon's bodyguard and joined the staff of Jews for Jesus in Israel. Today he's on the staff. He also, by the way, married Miriam.
So that's pretty cool. And he goes out on the streets in Israel every day and tells people about Jesus Christ. He's one of the most outspoken witnesses I've ever seen. And let me just say, when you're on the streets with Shlomi, you never worry about what anybody's going to do to you. It's never a problem or a concern.
Now, what are the odds of a guy like this being reached for Christ? I'd say pretty slim. But Miriam understood a very important truth. She understood prayer. Prayer is the secret weapon for reaching hard-to-reach people.
She used it, and now she's married to it. The result of it, and it's a wonderful thing. Friends, you've got hard-to-reach people in your life. Let me tell you something. Prayer is the secret weapon to reaching those people.
And if you'll focus on praying for them, it's like letting God have another goad—the same goad that Miriam used, the same goad the early followers of Christ used that brought the Apostle Paul to Christ.
So let's summarize. What have we learned today? We're done. We've learned that nobody is beyond the reach of Almighty God. Paul wasn't, and neither is your friend or your relative.
We've learned also that the best way we can help is by providing God with the same goads that the early Christians gave Him. Namely, number one, living an authentic life in front of them, and number two, being a prayer warrior for them.
Now, does this guarantee if we do this that every person we pray for and try to live a godly life does this guarantee they're going to come to Christ? No. People still have free will, but just let me say it does guarantee that we're going to put the maximum amount of pressure on them. That God is going to have the greatest amount of goads to use on them. And my experience has been when God's goading you, not a whole lot of people escape.
So you try this out, and I promise you, you're going to see some results in those people's lives. We'll come back and finish next week. Let's pray. While our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I want to give you just a moment. To pray for those people that you thought about when I said, not likely to happen, really hard to reach.
Whether it's a mom or dad, a husband, a child, whoever. And I want you right now, as you pray, to say, Lord, I'm going to be a prayer warrior for them, and to the best of my ability, I'm going to try to live a consistent, authentic life in front of them. You take those and use them in their life. Pray for that person right now. Lord Jesus, many of us have prayed for relatives, friends, co-workers, neighbors, people at school we know that nobody would bet a dime on them ever coming to faith in Christ.
Lord, people wouldn't have bet a penny on Paul, and yet he did. And my prayer is that you would revive hope inside of us today, and that you would remind us that no one is beyond your reach. I don't care how impossible it looks humanly. Lord, grant that we might never give up on these people, and for people we've already given up on, restore today our commitment to pray for these people and try to reach out to these people and. Father, remind us the best way that we can be of assistance is not only with prevailing prayer, but by living authentic, godly lives in front of them, so that they can see Jesus alive and real and working in our lives, doing things that the world system cannot duplicate in their life.
And so, Lord Jesus, I pray you would take these goads as we give them to you, and that you would. Stick and stick and stick these people we've prayed for. Until you stick them right into faith in Jesus Christ, that's our prayer. And Father, don't let us ever give up on these people as long as there's breath in their body. May the example of the Apostle Paul encourage us today.
And thanks for sharing it with us. May it change the way we live tomorrow. And we ask this in Jesus' name. And God's people said. Amen.
Hey, thanks for being here. See you next week. Bless you.
