The Last Herod

And this has not been done in a corner. This Christianity is not a hidden thing. It's not a secret subversive thing.

It's out in the open. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do. Wow. Perhaps it was that he had a little trace of Jewish blood coursing through his veins.

We don't know. I know that you respect the prophets who spoke of the coming Messiah, which I've now introduced to you. He's changed my life, and it's as if he says, he can change yours too. You see, Paul, in effect, says, King Agrippa, would you now like to become a Christian? As the Apostle Paul was on trial, he had the opportunity to stand before two really important men of his day. A ruler named Festus and a ruler named Agrippa. When Paul spoke, it was not so much a defense as it was a testimony of the power and gospel of God. The two men responded in very different ways. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart. Stephen Davey continues through his series from the book of Acts with this lesson called The Last Herod.

If you're able to, please open your Bible to Acts 25 as we look into God's Word together. I want to read a list of names to you, and while I read through the names, I want you to try and figure out what these men had in common. James Burns, Pierre Laval, Hugh Johnson. More than likely, you don't recognize the names of any of these men. You probably couldn't tell me what they did or how they made the list. Yet each of these men were at some point in their lives Time Magazine's Man of the Year. In other words, sometime in the past 50 years, and I went back to the library and read the biographies of each of these men, they were perceived to have had in their given year the greatest impact on the rest of humanity.

And some 30 or 40 years later, we probably don't even remember who they were. As I've been studying the last few chapters of the book of action, it has struck me that the Apostle Paul is standing on trial before his civilization's greatest leaders. The men that Paul is going to be addressing and has been addressing were the movers and shakers in the Middle East. These were the power players.

These would have been the men most likely to land on the front cover of Time as the Time's Man of the Year. In Acts chapter 24, Paul stood before Felix, one of those movers and shakers. And in chapter 25, he will stand again before the great power players of his generation.

And if it were not for scripture, none of us would even know their names. But I want to pick up where we left off by noticing this subtle reference from Luke to the fact of their influence in chapter 25, verse 5. Therefore, he that is Festus said, let the influential men among you go there with me, that is, to this next proceeding or trial. And if there is anything wrong about the man, Paul, that is, let them prosecute him. Now, basically, in Acts chapter 25, Festus, the new governor of Caesarea, is really a repeat performer of Felix, his predecessor. Festus, like Felix, wanted to do the Jews a favor, and so they both left Paul hanging.

Without ever rendering a final verdict. In verses 1 to 12 of chapter 25, Paul gives his defense before Festus that he had repeated now for some two years before Felix, and prior to that before the Jewish Sanhedrin, and prior to that before the Jewish mob. Now, when it seemed that Festus was going to do something Felix wasn't, that is, hand Paul back to the Jewish Sanhedrin and allow them to take him back to Jerusalem, knowing that would be death without any doubt, Paul, in verse 11 of chapter 25, appealed to Caesar, Nero. As a Roman citizen, Paul exercised the right that he had to what he considered a fair trial. And so he is asked to take this to the Roman high court. So Festus, in a way, I guess, has his hands tied, but he's about to play host to another mover and shaker, King Agrippa II. And I want you to understand that chapter 25 is simply an introduction, a warm-up to the trial that will take place in chapter 26.

Let's go set the stage in chapter 25 with verse 13. Now, when several days had elapsed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and paid their respects to Festus. He had just been appointed to office.

They're coming to congratulate him. And while they were spending many days there, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, there is a certain man left to prisoner by Felix. When I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation upon him. And I answered them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over any man before the accused meets his accusers face to face, that is, without a fair trial, and has an opportunity to make his defense against the charges.

And so after they had assembled here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. And when the accusers stood up, they began bringing charges against him, not of such crimes as I was expecting, but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion, and note this, and about a certain dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive. And being at a loss, how to investigate such matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there stand trial on these matters.

But when Paul appealed to be held in custody for the emperor's decision, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I sent him to Caesar. And Agrippus said to Festus, well, I also would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, he said, you shall hear him. Before we enter the courtroom, I want you to understand that what begins in chapter 25 and ends in chapter 26 is nothing less than the collision of an ordinary Christian testimony given by a former Pharisee, a former rabbi, and the movers and shakers of his generation.

Verse 23. And so on the next day when Agrippa had come together with Bernice amid great pomp, you know, kings do that, they don't go anywhere without it, and it entered the auditorium accompanied by the commanders and the prominent men of the city at the command of Festus, Paul was brought on. Now, before we go any further here, the scene is being set, I want you to understand what kind of crowd Paul stood before and try to slip into his sandals as best you can. If you think you've tried to present your testimony to a rough crowd, take courage from this moment.

You're going to be greatly encouraged. King Agrippa here was none other than Herod Agrippa II. The text tells us in verse 23 that he arrived with pomp and ceremony with Bernice. It doesn't tell us anything, but we learn from Jewish historians that Bernice was Agrippa's full-blooded sister and that their incestuous relationship was the scandal of Rome. It's interesting also to learn, as I have, that Bernice's full-blooded sister was Drusilla, the equally immoral wife of Felix. They're all related.

This is like a little Baptist church in the woods of North Carolina. They all somehow belong to the same family. Well, Herod Agrippa II was appointed by Rome as a political leader to be the guardian of the Jewish faith. And what that meant was that he had the power to appoint the high priest.

This tells you where the religion of the Jews had digressed to. This corrupt man could appoint whomever he wished to this high seat of Jewish religious systems. He also had the power to administrate the temple treasury. And yet, this man was as corrupt as a man could be and went back for generations. His father, Herod Agrippa I, had executed James. He had ordered Peter to be thrown in jail.

And had it not been for the angel, Peter would have died as well, the angel who delivered him. This man's great uncle was Herod Antipas, who had stolen his sister-in-law away from his brother and whose terribly immoral relationship became the subject of a sermon preached by John the Baptist. And because John the Baptist dared preach against it, he was beheaded. The great grandfather of this man who's about to try Paul was Herod the Great, who was the one who ordered the massacre of the babies and the children in Bethlehem two years and under in order to stamp out this one who supposedly was born the King of the Jews. The family tree of the Harrods dripped with the blood of the church. Paul is on trial here before the last Herod. With the death of this man, the line will pass away.

No one will hold that high name of royalty. Do you think Paul knew the history of the Harrods? Do you think Paul knew before whom he would stand on this day? How could Paul stand before him knowing the history, knowing the hatred for Christ and the church, knowing the immoral state of this man and all those around him? How could he enter that courtroom and stand there without fainting from fear and intimidation?

See, we skip to the other parts or the end of the story and forget what he's going through at this moment. He has every reason to believe he, like John and James, will be put to death. How does he stand before them? I think he stands before them knowing at least theologically, and maybe it comforted him, that while Herod ruled, God overruled. Chapter 26, verse 1. And Agrippa said to Paul, you are permitted to speak for yourself.

Then Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense. The first few verses here, by the way, could be divided into a statement of his past. You could divide his testimony into these three sections. The key phrase of his past life is found in verse 5.

I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion. In other words, he says, King, you need to understand something, that when it came to religion and my past, I was serious. If the king had asked Paul sometime during Paul's past, Paul, how do you stand with God? Paul could have said, God and I are very close.

We're tight. He was a Pharisee. He kept all the rules, prayed at all the right times, never missed the synagogue services, probably volunteered to teach. We're rock solid, God and I, he could have said. The second point of Paul's testimony is his conversion. And by the way, the deception of religion today is that you could say as a Paul in your past that I am dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's. I'm praying at all the right times and I'm going to all the right places. In fact, I'm here in church on Sunday, aren't I?

God and I must be close. And yet you could just simply be speeding on your way to hell. Paul will tell us in his conversion experience that every person must exchange eventually the moldy crust of religion and works for the fresh bread of life that comes by faith in Christ. And at some point in life along your path, there must be an intersection between you and this awesome revelation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that this dead man is indeed alive and he is the son of God. And I am now submitted to him has nothing to do with the religion of works.

It has everything to do with the relationship by faith in Christ. He tells the story verse nine. Then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus to be a good religious man in that day. This is just what I did in Jerusalem. Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prison, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death, I cast my vote against them. That's the indication he was a member of the Sanhedrin.

Only Sanhedrin is were allowed to vote, and he voted here against them. Verse 11. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. While thus engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads or the pricks.

Those pointed sticks that drove oxen along made it only worse for the oxen should they kick against them. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. In other words, Paul, you've been kicking against the truth about me, Jesus of Nazareth, ever since you first felt it. When would Paul have first felt it and been pricked by it? Been goaded along to believe it had to have gone back in that time when Paul stood before those who were stoning Stephen and they laid their garments at Paul's feet. And Paul heard Stephen as he died, saying that he saw this Jesus resurrected and alive. It was the truth.

And that had bothered him ever since. Now, between this verse and the next verse, as we've already studied from Chapter 22, Paul submitted his life to this resurrected Nazarene, the Lord of lords and King of kings. Verse 16. But arise and stand on your feet. For this purpose, I have appeared to you to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you've seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you. Now, verse 18.

By the way, get your pens ready. Pencils is the sum and substance of the gospel message. It is in one verse the truth of the gospel.

It does what? This is what Paul is telling King Agrippa. He wants him to hear it. It opens their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me. See, the Lord views us prior to salvation as spiritually blind. It isn't that we can see a little bit, is that we can see nothing and we are satanically bound. The gospel opens your eyes.

He says here, First Peter two nine. We know that it brings you out of darkness into a marvelous light. It delivers you from the domain of darkness and enters you into the kingdom of the sun. Colossians one twelve people out there don't realize there are two kingdoms in the universe, the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light.

And we are telling people to please leave the kingdom of darkness and enter the kingdom of the sun before it's too late. The gospel message, he says, also brings a forgiven heart. Paul would later write to the Romans. Blessed, happy are those whose sins have been forgiven.

Have yours been forgiven? Finally, the gospel deliverance secures your future. Peter wrote that there is for us who believe in imperishable and undefiled inheritance that will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you.

How can all of this belong to someone? Paul ends his gospel at a glance by stating the words of Christ in verse 18. This is what happens to those who have been sanctified, underline this, by faith in me, sola fidei, faith alone in Christ. Salvation is not a religion based upon works.

It is a relationship based upon faith in him as the resurrected one. Verse 19, consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea and even to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance, that is, revealing their repentance by virtue of their deeds. For this reason, some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death, and so, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to the small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place, that the Christ of God was to suffer and that by reason of his resurrection from the dead, he should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. And while Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, Paul, you are out of your mind.

Your great learning is driving you mad. Quite an interruption. I've been interrupted before while preaching. Kids going, I'm going to the bathroom and all sorts of nonsense like that, but I've never had anybody interrupt a sermon by hollering out, you're insane.

They tell me that afterward, at least not during it. Paul, you're out of your mind. The Greek word gives us the word maniac. Paul, the belief in the resurrection of a dead man proves you are a maniac.

How would you respond? Remember Paul lost his cool earlier. Had he learned? Verse 25, Paul said, I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus. But I utter words of sober truth, for the king knows about these matters and I speak to him also with confidence since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice. He ignores Festus.

He goes right back to the king. This has not been done in a corner. This Christianity is not a hidden thing. It's not a secret subversive thing.

It's out in the open. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do. Wow. Perhaps it was that he had a little trace of Jewish blood coursing through his veins.

We don't know. I know that you respect the prophets who spoke of the coming Messiah, which I've now introduced to you. He's changed my life and it's as if he says he can change yours too. You see, Paul in effect says, King Agrippa, would you now like to become a Christian?

Have you ever asked anybody that question? Have you ever shared the gospel with someone and or given your testimony and you've reached the point where you where you say to them, you know, based on what I've said about who Christ is and what he's done for my life and I told you about my past and and my conversion and how I came to faith in him. And now would you like to receive him too?

And if you've been there, by the way, that's why you're left on planet Earth to say that to people. And you say, would you like to receive Christ too? If you have, you know that at that moment you just sort of hold your breath and you wait because you know that there are two kingdoms and this person is on the the block and his soul is being bartered.

I think Paul held his breath and there probably wasn't a sound in the courtroom. And then he responds, verse twenty eight. In a short time, you will persuade me to become a Christian. Now some believe here that Agrippa is jeering at Paul, interpreting the phrase to read something like this. Paul, do you really think that in such a short time you can persuade me to become a Christian?

Others interpret it as I do to mean something like this. Paul, in such a short time, you have almost persuaded me to become a Christian like you. Almost.

But not quite. And the king arose, verse 30, and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them. And when they had drawn aside, they began talking to one another, saying, This man is not doing anything worthy of death or imprisonment. And Agrippa said to Festus, This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.

Now, this isn't exactly true. According to Roman law, an appeal to Caesar was only necessary if the lower court rendered a guilty verdict. And they are proving by their private conversation, known to us as readers, that he is what?

Innocent. They just simply play a political move that keeps the Jewish leaders happy. And Paul continuing to hang, as it were, without a verdict. He wants to see Caesar. Here's how we can get around all this problem. Let's just let him go to Nero and see him.

And we'll let the highest Supreme Court justice in the land make a decision. Two responses. Men and women come from this passage by way of application and closing.

Number one, the response of derision. Anybody who believes in Jesus Christ is a fool. Furthermore, anybody who would ever give their lives to serve a dead man, they claim to be alive, is even a bigger fool. The apostle Paul said, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Only a fool would think that. Don't ever expect the world to understand. There is also the response of delay.

Almost, but not yet. You see, ladies and gentlemen, hearing the truth of the Gospel, even this morning, for those of you who do not believe, just hearing about it does not automatically bring conversion of the soul. It may only harden your heart more against it.

Swindoll wrote some interesting words. He says, The truths of Christ are like the rays of the sun. They can on one hand bring growth and life, but on the other hand, they can also harden hearts made of clay.

The sunlight can do either one. King Agrippa II, the last of the Harrods, heard the Gospel that had been ignored by his great-grandfather on down to his father, and his heart now is further hardened in unbelief. Almost, but, Spurgeon, a man I quoted earlier, said, commenting on this passage, Almost persuaded to be a Christian is like a man who was almost pardoned, but he was hanged. He is like the man who was almost rescued, but he died in the fire.

A man that is almost saved is lost. There's an old hymn text, in fact, a hymn that doesn't even appear in our hymnal, that comes from this text of Scripture. Almost persuaded, now to believe, almost persuaded, Christ to receive. Seems now some soul to say, Go Spirit, go thy way. Go thy way.

Some more convenient day on the alcohol. The hymn ends with the words sad, sad, that bitter wail. Almost, but lost. For this man, the last of the Harrods, almost would mean never.

For this man who would have been featured undoubtedly as a time man of the year, the things that really mattered the most, he missed. Almost, but lost. I trust that this time in God's Word has encouraged you. You've been listening to Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry that has been working for the heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davey.

Stephen is the pastor of the Shepherd's Church in Cary, North Carolina. I want to make sure you're aware that Stephen has a Bible study that goes along with this series. It's called Acts Volume 3. Of course, there's Volume 1 and Volume 2 as well, but this current series is Acts Volume 3. This book is a tool for your personal study and reflection on God's Word.

It also works well if you teach or lead a group Bible study. We can give you information about the Acts Volume 3 study guide if you call us today. It's also available on the website in our online store. By the way, there's so much more on that website as well.

The archive of Stephen's teaching is available on that site free of charge, and you can access it anytime at wisdomonline.org. And as I mentioned, the Bible study guide for this series is there as well. Our phone number here in the office is 866-48-BIBLE. Again, that's 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. Join us next time for more wisdom for the heart. I'll see you next time.