SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: There are three chapters in the book of Acts that cover the same topic.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 24, Acts 25, and Acts 26 all describe the historical accounts of the Apostle Paul's trials before Roman officials.
SPEAKER_00: They're slightly different as the officials change from scene to scene.
SPEAKER_00: The most detailed account is in chapter 24, which we looked at last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: So the two chapters before us this morning, 25 and 26, repeat the same topic, just with different characters and a few different minor details.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing really new in chapter 25 and chapter 26.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to preach the same sermon from last Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: No, not going to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Thankfully, Scripture is living and active, right?
SPEAKER_00: There's always something new to challenge us, even if we are familiar with the material.
SPEAKER_00: In this case, when we're dealing with similar trials, just with different people hearing the arguments, we should start by asking, why would Luke, the author of Acts, why would he put three different trials back to back to back?
SPEAKER_00: One with Felix in chapter 24, one with Festus in 25, and then another with Festus in Agrippa in 26.
SPEAKER_00: Why would he do that back to back to back with very little difference between them?
SPEAKER_00: Is it just to show us the progression of events?
SPEAKER_00: And if so, what's the spiritual significance of a progression of events?
SPEAKER_00: We might find some answers, I think, by asking another question.
SPEAKER_00: What is Luke doing by including repetitive trials in the story of Christ's work in his world?
SPEAKER_00: What is Luke doing?
SPEAKER_00: So asking, why would Luke put these accounts here is an attempt to understand Luke's mind, to understand his thought process, to get into his head and think, what was he thinking and doing this?
SPEAKER_00: But asking, what is he doing encourages us to step back and to look at the whole picture of Acts and its historical context to make sense of the final result.
SPEAKER_00: What part do these trials play in Luke's account?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know because we can't talk to Luke.
SPEAKER_00: So we're left to try to determine what are the possible answers.
SPEAKER_00: There are many, many possible answers.
SPEAKER_00: I think we can summarize them maybe in three different ways.
SPEAKER_00: The first is by looking and thinking at this in a very simple way.
SPEAKER_00: Guys in the booth up there, my remote is not working.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't, there we go.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a simple way.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: What is Luke doing?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's just showing us how Paul gets from Jerusalem to Caesarea to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Just wants us to know, yeah, he's gonna end up in Rome at the end.
SPEAKER_00: Here's how that happens.
SPEAKER_00: That's a very simplistic way of looking at what Luke is doing.
SPEAKER_00: There's a more complex way, and that is that he might be showing us the struggle that the early church had in contending for the faith.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we would think since our faith began in Jerusalem, that might be the best place for us, but that's where Paul got arrested.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's where he had to be rescued by the Romans because they were afraid he was going to be torn to pieces.
SPEAKER_00: So maybe what Luke is doing is showing us that the early church had a struggle in its early decades.
SPEAKER_00: That's possible.
SPEAKER_00: We go from simple to complex to, I don't know what the next word is.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we can use the word intricate.
SPEAKER_00: And that is that Luke is showing us the power dynamics between the scenes, behind the scenes, not between, behind the scenes of the history of the early church.
SPEAKER_00: It's this last intricate aspect, I believe, that is the most subtle yet intriguing element of these two chapters, Acts 25 and 26.
SPEAKER_00: Around the world, at every moment, complex webs of relationships and interactions between individuals, between groups, even between nations and empires exist where one or more entities try to exert power or control.
SPEAKER_00: We hear this in the news almost every single day in our country.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's through monetary means, economic means, whether it's through military means, there are activities going on day after day where one nation attempts to control or exert power over another.
SPEAKER_00: Luke integrates these power dynamics into these two chapters.
SPEAKER_00: I think he does that to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and to show us what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: But let's get a sense of who Luke writes about in this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: There are four or five primary individuals.
SPEAKER_00: We might say there are three primary individuals and then two secondary individuals.
SPEAKER_00: So we have Felix in chapter 24, we have Festus in 25, and we have Agrippa in 26.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what that looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Felix on the left-hand side of this image was the individual in power in the Judean area when Paul was arrested.
SPEAKER_00: He was not a very nice guy.
SPEAKER_00: The Roman historian Tacitus describes his rule as cruel, and that with lust he wielded the power of a king, but he did so with the mentality of a slave.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know, I don't really know what Tacitus meant by the mentality of a slave, but I think we get the picture that he's kind of putting him down really harshly.
SPEAKER_00: Tacitus does not think well of Felix.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Felix was partly responsible for the eventual revolt of the Jewish populace against Rome that began in AD 66 and ended with the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of all started with Felix's rule.
SPEAKER_00: When Nero succeeded Claudius as the Roman Emperor, Felix was recalled to Rome because Nero thought that Felix had reacted too violently to a Jewish uprising.
SPEAKER_00: So he replaced him with a man named Festus.
SPEAKER_00: But before we go on from Felix, you might remember from last week that Felix was married to a woman named Drusilla.
SPEAKER_00: Except that wasn't just a simple, ordinary marriage.
SPEAKER_00: Drusilla was Felix's third wife.
SPEAKER_00: He'd gotten rid of the first two.
SPEAKER_00: And Drusilla was a famously beautiful woman who was married to another man, a different man named Herod, not of the Herodian family.
SPEAKER_00: And Felix wanted her as his wife, so she convinced him to divorce her husband and marry him when she was 19 years old.
SPEAKER_00: That woman, Drusilla, had a sister named Bernice and a brother named Agrippa.
SPEAKER_00: In between Felix and Agrippa, we have Festus.
SPEAKER_00: He's just the transition.
SPEAKER_00: Felix is just there for a little bit of time.
SPEAKER_00: He has to replace Felix.
SPEAKER_00: Felix is recalled because of the Roman Emperor's lack of trust in him.
SPEAKER_00: He's brought back to Rome.
SPEAKER_00: He's replaced with this man named Festus, who we don't know exactly how long he ruled.
SPEAKER_00: It was probably anywhere between two and five years.
SPEAKER_00: We do know that Festus died unexpectedly in about AD 62.
SPEAKER_00: And he was then replaced by Agrippa II.
SPEAKER_00: Agrippa is the grandson of Herod the Great.
SPEAKER_00: You know Herod the Great because he's the one who ordered the killing of all of the infants in Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: Herod the Great had a son named Herod Agrippa, and you know Herod Agrippa from the book of Acts in chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: Herod Agrippa was the one who ordered the beheading of the Apostle James to please the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: Agrippa I then had children by the name of Drusilla, Bernice, and Agrippa II.
SPEAKER_00: Agrippa II was 17 years old when his father died, and maybe you remember how his father died.
SPEAKER_00: He was giving a speech before the populace, before all of his subjects, and they were adoring him, and they shouted out in his speech, This is the voice of a god, not a man.
SPEAKER_00: And that made it feel pretty good.
SPEAKER_00: And so God struck him with worms, Luke says, and he died.
SPEAKER_00: When Agrippa II was only 17 years old, and Agrippa II was good friends with Emperor Claudius in Rome, but he was too young to really rule well.
SPEAKER_00: So a few years later, when he was about 21 years old, Claudius gave him the authority to rule over a small territory, and gradually that expanded to where he ruled over the same general territory as his father, Agrippa I.
SPEAKER_00: Bernice, who's mentioned here in chapter 26, was married to a different Herod.
SPEAKER_00: And when her husband died, she went to live with her brother, Herod Agrippa II, and it was widely believed that they lived together in an incestuous relationship the rest of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: But it's important to note that Herod Agrippa II held authority over Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was the one that controlled Jerusalem, he was the one that controlled the Temple Mount, and he was a shrewd politician who somehow convinced the Jews that he supported them and their religion while also being a strong supporter of Imperial Rome.
SPEAKER_00: So he was playing both sides at the same time and doing it very well for quite a long time.
SPEAKER_00: I bring all of this to bear in our minds because these individuals and the and the circumstances surrounding them would have been fairly common knowledge to many Christians of Luke's era, especially those with any sense of Judean or Syrian history.
SPEAKER_00: So that all adds intrigue to the question: what is Luke doing?
SPEAKER_00: I suggest he's guiding us to understand the unseen power dynamics at work for Christians in an evil world.
SPEAKER_00: So as we think about that, let's start with how the world thinks of Christians.
SPEAKER_00: To do that, I think it's important to begin at the end of Acts 25.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 24, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 24, verse 27.
SPEAKER_00: How does the world view Christians?
SPEAKER_00: Well, since Felix left Paul in prison for two years, I think that suggests that Christians are generally viewed as relatively unimportant.
SPEAKER_00: He can just leave him there, sitting there for two years doing nothing.
SPEAKER_00: That says, at the very least, that Paul, as an apostle, as a Christian who follows Jesus, is not that significant to the Roman governor.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we start.
SPEAKER_00: And hopefully that sets our attitude and our perspective in the right place, in a place of humility.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, if they don't accept me, they're not going to readily accept you.
SPEAKER_00: That's where things start.
SPEAKER_00: From there, as we get into chapter 25, we begin to see that the world views Christians as political pawns.
SPEAKER_00: It says here that after Felix was replaced by Festus, the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged Festus, asking as a favor in verse 3 of chapter 25, that he summoned him to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: The favor here is literally a grace.
SPEAKER_00: Something that is not deserved, but they're hoping that Festus is going to look favorably on them and do them a favor.
SPEAKER_00: The chief priests and the important men asked Festus to establish this new governmental relationship between the Roman governor and the Jewish people on a solid foundation by granting them a gracious request.
SPEAKER_00: What is that gracious request?
SPEAKER_00: We want to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what they want to do.
SPEAKER_00: They want him to bring Paul down to Jerusalem for another trial, but they have a notion that they're going to ambush them on the way so that Paul can be killed.
SPEAKER_00: Within the first couple of weeks on the job, Festus is presented with Paul, a Christian, as a political pawn.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't willing to grant their request.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke doesn't tell us why.
SPEAKER_00: However, Luke does describe the situation fairly well.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has been imprisoned in Caesarea for two years.
SPEAKER_00: The Jewish leaders still haven't gotten over him.
SPEAKER_00: He really is stuck in their craw, hasn't he?
SPEAKER_00: Whatever Paul did, they can't forget him and they want him dead still two years later.
SPEAKER_00: Felix didn't do anything for them, so now they turn to Festus.
SPEAKER_00: And they use political tactics to influence him to act in a way that eliminates Paul.
SPEAKER_00: A week and a half later, everyone is back in Caesarea.
SPEAKER_00: And a proper hearing can begin in verse 7 and verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: Luke merely summarizes the arguments since everything has already been laid out in chapter 24.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting here is that Paul refuses to be a political pawn.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, he wasn't wishing to do them a favor first.
SPEAKER_00: But now, about 10 days later, he is wishing to do them a favor.
SPEAKER_00: He wants to grant the Jews a favor, so he asks Paul where he wants to have his trial.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul knows he won't receive a fair trial in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And he also knows his rights as a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: So if their charges, if the Jews' charges can't be sustained against him, then the Jews have no legal right to demand a trial in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul refuses to give in to Jewish demands.
SPEAKER_00: The conflict between Paul and the Jewish leaders was theological, not legal.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Paul said, I'm on trial for the hope of the resurrection of the dead.
SPEAKER_00: So he refused.
SPEAKER_00: He declined to be transferred to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: His case was brought before the highest courts in the Judean province of the empire, and he believed that's the right place to be tried.
SPEAKER_00: So he refused to be a political pawn of the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: But he also refused to be a political pawn in the hands of the new governor.
SPEAKER_00: He insisted and was certain of his own innocence.
SPEAKER_00: He'd done nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_00: And his innocence, he believed, could be proven in any court.
SPEAKER_00: So Festus, as the Roman governor, should have shown the courage, the strength, the leadership to determine innocence in this case.
SPEAKER_00: But he either couldn't see that innocence, or he refused to carry out justice in Paul's case.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul asked to have his case heard by the emperor.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that the world views Christians as political pawns as nothing new in Acts, I've already mentioned that Agrippa's father had James beheaded, Luke says specifically to plead, repeatedly, opposed or recruited Christians ever since then.
SPEAKER_00: But notice that the Apostle Paul would have nothing to do with that kind of treatment.
SPEAKER_00: He refused to be a political pawn because he served Christ alone.
SPEAKER_00: There's another way here in this chapter that we begin to see how the world views Christians, and that is as citizens who are innocent.
SPEAKER_00: They've done nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's done nothing wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He hasn't committed treason against the empire as they as they claimed in chapter 24.
SPEAKER_00: But there's still something wrong because Paul isn't let go.
SPEAKER_00: It's not until the end of chapter 26 that we hear for the first time from King Agrippa that Paul could have been set free.
SPEAKER_00: But he's been jailed for two years.
SPEAKER_00: And he will continue to be incarcerated, at the very least, under house arrest until the end of his life, when he's beheaded by the Emperor Nero in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: An innocent man charged with guilt for being a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, we can be completely innocent of wrongdoing, obeying the laws of the land that govern us, yet still face the same kind of treatment as those who do wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: It's because of the power dynamics at work in the world.
SPEAKER_00: As citizens of heaven living in a fallen world, we are seen as strangers, as aliens, as threats to a world system.
SPEAKER_00: Luke repeatedly demonstrates that Paul and his companions are innocent.
SPEAKER_00: They're Christians who are innocent of upsetting the Roman Empire because they're not political threats, but they are unexpected threats.
SPEAKER_00: They threaten to undo the Roman system through allegiance to another Lord, through other sets of standards, of character, of living, of working, and of relationships with other people.
SPEAKER_00: That term meant something utterly different to first century Christians than it often does to us.
SPEAKER_00: For first century Christians, Caesar was Lord of the Empire.
SPEAKER_00: The emperor was considered a son of the gods.
SPEAKER_00: And he demanded compliance and subservience.
SPEAKER_00: So refusal to submit to Caesar's lordship was treason against the empire.
SPEAKER_00: It was punishable by death.
SPEAKER_00: Christians weren't seen as threats to Caesar's rule over his political empire.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't planning to overthrow.
SPEAKER_00: Government because Jesus' kingdom is not of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to Pilate, If my kingdom was of this world, my servants would be fighting.
SPEAKER_00: They're not fighting, so my kingdom is not of this world.
SPEAKER_00: They're obedient citizens, innocent of any wrongdoing.
SPEAKER_00: That's the Apostle Paul.
SPEAKER_00: But becoming a Christian in the first century meant that you were declaring that Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He is the Christ, the Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: He is Lord, not Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they obeyed the emperor whenever possible.
SPEAKER_00: But Christ was Lord, and he received the ultimate allegiance and the ultimate obedience.
SPEAKER_00: These Christians bowed to Jesus, not to Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: And so the threat that Christians posed to the Roman Empire was one of ultimate allegiance.
SPEAKER_00: It said to Caesar, you are not the son of the gods.
SPEAKER_00: You are not Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so our hearts and our minds are directed and commanded by him, not Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: Hearts, minds, lives, convictions were submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so for a first century Christian, becoming a Christian meant shifting allegiance from Caesar, the supposed son of the gods, to Jesus, the true Son of God, the only begotten of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: That is how Christians posed a threat to the Empire.
SPEAKER_00: My friends, it should be no different today.
SPEAKER_00: We are not a threat to political systems under the influence of the Prince of Darkness, except that our ultimate allegiance and submission is to Christ the Lord and how we live our lives under his guidance.
SPEAKER_00: But that means we will always be seen with a hint of suspicion by the world.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's part of being in the world, but not of the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's what comes with being citizens of heaven, where our true home is.
SPEAKER_00: That's what comes with proclaiming Christ as Lord of all.
SPEAKER_00: So that leads us to another perspective that the world has towards Christians that we're nuts.
SPEAKER_00: Crazy.
SPEAKER_00: We're out of our minds.
SPEAKER_00: This is shown in Acts chapter 26 when Paul is turned from making his defense to preaching the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And Festus shouts out, Paul, you're nuts.
SPEAKER_00: You're out of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Your great learning has driven you mad.
SPEAKER_00: Festus can't imagine a crucified Messiah or a man risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: The world doesn't know how to handle us because it senses a tension between innocence and this feeling of threat.
SPEAKER_00: And often it's the feeling of threat that prevails.
SPEAKER_00: Because the powers of darkness ruling this world know that the message of Christ as Lord will put an end to their reign of terror.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how the Apostle Paul defends himself in each trial, beginning in chapter 24.
SPEAKER_00: He says in chapter 24, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Not 24, 1.
SPEAKER_00: I wrote down the wrong verse.
SPEAKER_00: He has a hope in God, verse 15, which these men themselves accept that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
SPEAKER_00: And you remember it's that judgment between the just and the unjust that began to make Felix a little a little uneasy, a little uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Then in chapter 25, we see in verse 19 that the message is the same.
SPEAKER_00: Certain disputes about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul regarded to be alive.
SPEAKER_00: In chapter 26, it's the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 6, Paul is on trial because of the hope in the promise made by God.
SPEAKER_00: What promise is that?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 8, that God raises the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Paul asserts his hope in the resurrection before King Agrippa.
SPEAKER_00: And it's then that Festus shouts out that Paul is out of his mind.
SPEAKER_00: Paul may be crazy in the minds of the Roman authorities.
SPEAKER_00: But he had done nothing wrong that was deserving of death.
SPEAKER_00: Or in prison.
SPEAKER_00: Do those who know us well know that we proclaim the message of Christ, crucified, buried, and risen again, and yet see us as innocent of any wrongdoing?
SPEAKER_00: We should expect that our message sounds strange because it truly is from another world.
SPEAKER_00: Is it not?
SPEAKER_00: It must be because there's no hope in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Hope must come from outside of this world.
SPEAKER_00: And so it did.
SPEAKER_00: And this resurrected Lord is Jesus the Messiah, in whom we must believe to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: But in a world under the power and the authority of the evil one, everyone will see that message as ridiculous unless God Himself has started to move them to believe.
SPEAKER_00: That is the power dynamic in which we exist.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same power dynamic that Paul and the early Christians experienced.
SPEAKER_00: God is doing something, God is working, but everything here is in a different system opposing that, and they are going back and forth trying to see who can exercise power, who can exercise control.
SPEAKER_00: And we are seen as pawns then in the middle of that spiritual and political struggle for power, regarded as relatively insignificant and innocent.
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, we are often viewed with a strange suspicion and threat because of our innocence and God's indwelling presence in the Holy Spirit, because God's holiness in us speaks out, shouts out against the evil in our world.
SPEAKER_00: It sees us as a threat because of our allegiance wholeheartedly to Christ, and meanwhile, we proclaim a message that is otherworldly, leaving unbelievers to think that we are out of our minds.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that during these early years of the church, the believing community did not challenge the political authority of the Roman Empire.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't try to overthrow the ruling powers, they did not attempt to Christianize the pagan empire, they did not seek a higher status.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they proclaimed Christ and him crucified, buried, and risen.
SPEAKER_00: The power of God for salvation to those who are believing.
SPEAKER_00: And that idea brings us to the counter power dynamic that we need to consider for a few moments.
SPEAKER_00: And that is how God views the world.
SPEAKER_00: How does God look at this world?
SPEAKER_00: I think we can summarize it.
SPEAKER_00: God sees this world as an evil system ruled by the Prince of Darkness, opposed to God.
SPEAKER_00: In and through that evil empire, that evil system.
SPEAKER_00: Said more simply, Satan is the evil yet powerful bully running the world.
SPEAKER_00: The bully thinks he's in charge.
SPEAKER_00: The bully exercises all the power that he can, but unbeknownst to him, God is using his bullying to bring about God's purpose, not the bully's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And in the end, God's going to deal with the bully.
SPEAKER_00: Satan's evil plans feel and may appear to succeed.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's kept in prison for years, but they will ultimately fail.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Luther was right to compose the lyrics, for still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe.
SPEAKER_00: His craft and his power are great, and armed with cruel hate, on earth is not his equal.
SPEAKER_00: But God is not on earth, is he?
SPEAKER_00: See the power dynamics?
SPEAKER_00: And so Luther went on to say, and though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear.
SPEAKER_00: For God has willed his truth to triumph through us.
SPEAKER_00: What a picturesque description of the power dynamics at work.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Luke is showing us in these trials.
SPEAKER_00: From the human perspective, the governments, the political system, the world is in control, it is thriving, it is succeeding.
SPEAKER_00: But Luke wants us to know, yeah, God's just using it.
SPEAKER_00: Not really that powerful.
SPEAKER_00: I love the way that J.C.
SPEAKER_00: Ryle said it.
SPEAKER_00: The wickedest enemies of God are only axes and saws and hammers in his hands.
SPEAKER_00: And they are ignorantly instruments for doing his work in the world.
SPEAKER_00: Notice chapter 27, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And when it was decided that we should sail for Italy, they delivered Paul and some other prisoners to a centurion of the Augustan cohort named Julius.
SPEAKER_00: They're headed to Italy because they're going to have their cases appealed to Caesar.
SPEAKER_00: That was Paul's right as a Roman citizen.
SPEAKER_00: But he appealed in chapter 25 because Festus was inclined to take him back to Jerusalem, where he would not receive a fair trial.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul's in a situation where crooked attorneys were twisting the truth, wicked accusers were making side deals with other people to kill Paul, and corrupt governors are seeking bribes.
SPEAKER_00: That feels like Paul is on the bad end of the deal.
SPEAKER_00: He's caught in the middle, relatively insignificant, but being used as a political pawn, innocent of wrongdoing, but still a threat, and believed by his judges to be out of his mind.
SPEAKER_00: The other apostles are strangely absent.
SPEAKER_00: We don't hear from them.
SPEAKER_00: Because the focus is on the apostle Paul, who is imprisoned without proper hearings, without justice, and in this power struggle, the evil one appears to be winning if he can just keep Paul in prison.
SPEAKER_00: But God has other plans.
SPEAKER_00: We tremble not for him.
SPEAKER_00: His rage we can endure.
SPEAKER_00: For lo, his doom is sure.
SPEAKER_00: One little word shall fell him.
SPEAKER_00: If you know Luther's hymn, that one little word is not a spoken word, but a person.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And Luke has already shown us God's plans.
SPEAKER_00: The evil world system is throwing its weight around as if it holds Paul's life in its hands.
SPEAKER_00: And these trial scenes, if they were all we had, it would feel as though Christianity hung in the balance of Paul's imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: But we know otherwise because Jesus has already told Paul what would happen in chapter 23, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: He said to Paul, as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify about me in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Look how creative the Lord Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: He gets his enemies and unbelievers to send Paul to Rome for him.
SPEAKER_00: But even more significant is that Jesus has risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: And he has declared that Caesar is not Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But he is Lord, and he is building his church, which requires spreading the good news of his resurrection to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Pentecost foreshadowed it, Paul's imprisonment continues it, and we carry it on today.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, nothing surprises God.
SPEAKER_00: In the power dynamics that exist in this universe, he rules.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing overcomes his purposes, not even when it seems all hope is lost.
SPEAKER_00: And so when it does feel, when we do think that hope appears to be lost, we must learn to think properly about how God works, about how he functions in relation to the power dynamics of our world.
SPEAKER_00: I love this way of looking at it.
SPEAKER_00: John Blanchard said, we don't get at a proper understanding of God by reasoning or by arguing, thinking from the events of our world, the events that happen in nature, and then go to God.
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: That gets you twisted up.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you think about the realm of this world, you need to start with God, with theology proper, with who God is and how God works, and then you need to work from Him out to the rest of the world and his circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Because then you will see the true power at work.
SPEAKER_00: You begin to see that it's not about wicked feelings and his cruelty.
SPEAKER_00: You begin to see that it's not about Festus and his twisted desiring of bribes.
SPEAKER_00: You begin to see that it's not about Agrippa and his immoral lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: But you begin to see that God uses those whom the world considers unimportant.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, God uses the evil people to serve his purposes.
SPEAKER_00: The Roman authorities served Paul's purpose of proclaiming the gospel ultimately to those in Caesar's household.
SPEAKER_00: So while it may seem like we are just pawns manipulated by the latest politicians, they are actually in God's hands, meant to fulfill his purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And in God's great irony, those who seem to be most out of their minds for trusting in a crucified, buried, and risen Lord become the privileged vessels for God's great work.
SPEAKER_00: So how does this impact Luke's readers?
SPEAKER_00: If Luke is showing us these power dynamics going on behind the scenes, how should it impact us?
SPEAKER_00: To paraphrase G.
SPEAKER_00: Campbell Morgan, the Christian who measures things by the circumstances of the hour is filled with fear.
SPEAKER_00: But the one who sees Christ enthroned and governing has no panic.
SPEAKER_00: Paul has no panic about it being in prison.
SPEAKER_00: In the next few chapters, we'll see that he has no panic about being in a shipwreck.
SPEAKER_00: The world tussles with God to be in control, and Satan uses the world and everything in it to attempt to dethrone Christ as Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But as William Cooper so wisely said, events of all sorts creep and fly exactly as God pleases.
SPEAKER_00: Because he's the one who directs all things.
SPEAKER_00: So, fellow Christian, lift up your head from your circumstances and see Christ your King.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in Him as the one who directs all things and rest your hope in Him.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we confess that we too often look around us.
SPEAKER_00: And like Peter, we begin to sink.
SPEAKER_00: Fill us with your spirit to remind us that you are directing all things and that you are moving everything, including us in our lives, to the end which you have already determined, in which the Lord Jesus will return as a mighty warrior to make all things right.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, strengthen us for the weary days.
SPEAKER_00: Strengthen us for the frightening days.
SPEAKER_00: And enable us to present everything to you in prayer and supplication and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Trusting that you will do all things right.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, work in our world.
SPEAKER_00: Use even evil and corrupt people.
SPEAKER_00: Use your unimportant people to accomplish your end.
SPEAKER_00: Enable us to praise you each step of the way.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.