Through The Bible - Acts 26 - Part 2

Brett Meador: Paul says, whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun. How bright was the light? Brighter than the sun. That's pretty bright.
Guest (Male): Pastor Bread Matter with scripture's account of the glory of God.
Brett Meador: 1 John 1 5 says that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. That's who we should be following.
Guest (Male): Paul defends himself in Acts chapter 26 by sharing his dramatic testimony of coming to Christ and declaring the amazing things the Lord wants to do for the lost through the power of salvation. As Pastor Bread Matter reflects on Paul's message from today's word, we're encouraged to share our light in dark places and stand together in the light of truth as the body of Christ.
Brett Meador: Acts chapter 26 King Agrippa and Bernice and Festus are all sitting in the big theater in Caesarea and Paul's going to sort of give a sermon here. Paul, he's got the floor now and I love it. What does he say? He says, Then Agrippa said to Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself. Talk to the hand. No, he didn't say that. Sorry, no. He says in verse two, I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things where I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee, speaking to Agrippa, to be an expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. You know Agrippa is called about. You know what the Jews believe and that's going to come into play with what he's saying here. Now, this is where Paul's sermon kind of goes into five key statements that Paul makes and it's going to be part of his defense. So, let's look at these five defenses. Number one, he's going to start in verses four through 11 where he's going to declare, I lived as a Pharisee. This is where he makes that claim, verse four. It says, My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews which knew me from the beginning. If they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. What does he say? The most straightest sect of Jewish religion. They were the most pious, most holy, most righteous. And Paul said, I was a Pharisee. Verse six, And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God to our fathers. Unto the promise our 12 tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come. For which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I'm accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? Now, what's he saying here? Of course, the raising of the dead is the one of the things that got him in trouble. When he said, I believe in the resurrection. Now, the reason Paul goes to this is the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, but the Pharisees do. And all of Judaism believes in that. Paul's appealing to his own scriptures. I'm just doing what the Old Testament, uh you might say the Hebrew Bible. Paul would say, I'm just doing what what our Jewish Bible says is going to happen and what I believe. He says, I was a Jew from my youth. I was a Pharisee of all the Pharisees, but other Jews are angry because I share the hope of Jesus Christ. This is what he's saying. Verse six says, Now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. The hope promised that he's talking about is the hope in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. But the Jews didn't believe and that's why they hated Paul. They didn't believe that Jesus is the Messiah. It's interesting, you know. Sometimes I think, you know the Jews should have been the ones to really believe Jesus more than anybody. And the reason why is they had the scriptures foretelling of the Messiah and and hundreds and hundreds of prophecies about Jesus. And that's really what Paul's really saying. So, let's pick it up in verse nine. It says, I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceeding mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Paul's admitting. He said, I lived as a Pharisee. This is verses four through 11. But you know he's making the point, I was one of these religious people that want to kill me right now. I was part of their team. I'm just bringing hope to them. But before verses nine through 11, what did he done? He says I corralled Christians, put them in prison. He even says here, I compelled them to blaspheme, which would be to deny Jesus Christ. I wonder do you wonder if that ever haunted Paul as he's even telling the story right now? Man, I can't believe I did that. You know making these new Christians, brave Christians deny their faith in Christ. Paul is admitting that. But some of you before you were saved, you made fun of Christians. You mocked them and you thought they were a bunch of weirdos. And then the Lord got a hold of you and saved you and changed you radically. I wonder you know if Paul kind of thinks of his BC days sometimes, you know before Christ. But he mentions it here as part of his defense. Notice something else about Paul's past. This is kind of interesting. Verse 10. You might mark the word voice there if you're a Bible marker. He says, And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. Now, some of your translations say vote. Well, it's actually the word pebble, sephos in the Greek, which means a pebble. And you say, Well, why does it say pebble in the Greek? Well, this is something our culture is not familiar with. That why the translators changed it to a vote or voice because really it's the way that the Sanhedrin would cast votes. They'd have a black stone and a white stone. And then they would reveal on their vote which pebble, the white pebble or the black pebble. The reason that I'm going into this, there's other passages in the Bible where this might actually help you to understand what in the world the Bible's talking about. And you might miss some of this stuff. But that's something to kind of tuck away in your memory when it mentions a pebble and and it doesn't in this passage. But this is for example. Do you remember when Paul consented in Acts chapter seven when Stephen was going to be martyred and Paul says, I consented to that happening. How did he consent? With a pebble vote. That's the way they did it. Now, by the way, which also implies both in Acts seven cuz Paul was there holding the garments and he cast a vote. But also here that he uses this word in verse 10 when they were put to death, I gave my voice or vote or pebble against them. That tells us something the Bible doesn't tell us that he was probably part of the Sanhedrin. Cuz the Sanhedrin were the ones who cast the votes. So, as a young man, Paul was part of the Sanhedrin of the Pharisees. The Sanhedrin was made up of Pharisees, Sadducees, and the high priest. But uh the idea is it was a way to cast a vote in the ancient courts of justice, but particularly with the Sanhedrin. Now, one of the things about that by the way, Acts 8 1 when it says Paul, I was consenting unto Stephen's death. That means he voted. But there's another thing that might tell us about Paul that's just kind of interesting. Paul, to be a part of the Sanhedrin, there was one big requirement. Does anybody know what that was? You had to be married, which you say, but Brett, Paul is single. There in lies a mystery. Where is Paul's wife? Well, A she could have died. That was possible. B she could have dumped him because he became one of the crazy Christians. And she would have had rights to leave him because of that according to the way they were handling the whole thing. So, we don't really know what happened to Paul's wife. But later on, he would say, I would that y'all be single like me. Why? Cuz he was able to be given to the ministry. So, Paul argued for singleness in that. But Paul voted to have Stephen killed, probably part of the Sanhedrin, probably married at some point. By the way, interesting. Have you ever heard the phrase they've been blackballed? That actually comes from way back in these days when they used the black pebble and the white pebble. And being blackballed means you've been rejected. Do you remember in Revelation chapter two verse 17 it says to the church at Pergamum, it says, He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the hidden manna and I will give him a white stone. And in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth. So, what about the church person of the church that overcomes to the very end? He's going to give to eat the hidden manna which is cool. But also I'll give him a white stone which speaks of acceptance that you'll be accepted and brought in. That's this white stone and also that your name is written on it speaking of a new name. The Lord sort of reidentifies you when you get to heaven which is going to be glorious. But this is why the black stone, white stone thing is kind of important. Well, so God is going to cast his vote in favor of us that endure to the end. Isn't that great? Well, back to point number one. So, we see here verses four through 11. Paul saying, man, I lived as a Pharisee. But now we go to the second point. Paul will say, I saw the light verses 12 and 13. Let's take a look verse 12. It says, whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest, at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. How bright was the light? Brighter than the sun. That's pretty bright. No wonder Paul couldn't see after this incident and was blind. But Paul says, I saw the light. This is where Paul falls down and is blinded now for several days. So, I lived as a Pharisee, number one. I saw the light, number two. And number three, I heard a voice. Let's see what it says there in verse 14. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. This is really how we all came to Christ is we we saw the light. Remember the old I saw the light him. You know it's like that's what happened. We saw the light. Paul literally sees the light. We moved from you know darkness into his marvelous light, the Bible says. Everything of Satan is darkness. In God, there's no darkness at all. I love being a Christian just for the the fact that we're moving into the light, the light of Christ. I like light. It's something that's warm and encouraging and it's going to be awesome in heaven. But the further you move away from the light, the more you're in darkness and depravity and away from God. You know it is something that I think we have to be careful to be drawn to the light and not to the darkness. There is a a thing in us in our human flesh that wants to be drawn into darkness. That's just human nature. And when you become a Christian, you should be able to start to discern, Am I going in the direction of light or am I going in the direction of dark? And sadly, there's people that don't really use that discernment. Be careful with that one. But we as a church should all be about, How can we bring the light of Christ into our workplace, neighborhood, school? Don't be afraid. Don't be ashamed, but turn on the light. Paul first saw the light and it changed him and then he became part of that light as he was a great light, a beacon of light. And so, you know the Lord catches him with that. I love that. But you know when he hears a voice here, what did the voice say? Verse 14. It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Remember where a team of oxen would be uh you know plowing. But if the oxen would kick, they would either have a handheld prick as they would call it with a little sharp point and they'd sort of poke at the oxen's backside to keep them going. But they would start to kick against that, but it only made things worse, you know. And that's the idea. That's the idea of the Lord saying, Paul, why are you kicking against the pricks? Don't you realize that this is you're going making it hard on yourself? So, Paul hears a voice and in verse 15, And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But verse 16, But rise and stand upon thy feet for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee. Verse 17, Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee. So, Paul's just saying, man, I was called out of that being a Pharisee, killing people and prisoning them to being part of the light and reaching even Gentile people. And then verse 18, To open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Can we pause verse 18? This is a giant verse. Wouldn't you agree? We're going to call this, What does the Lord want to do for the lost? There's a nice list here of things. Number one, to open their eyes. You know right now we see through a glass darkly even as Christians, but before that we were just blind. You can't see anything. The world thinks they see stuff, but they're blind. And God is the one who wants to open your eyes and you say, Well, I can see just fine, Brett. I have 20 20 vision. We're talking about your spiritual eyes is what we're talking about here. To open their eyes spiritually to the truth of God. And that's something you should realize. There's people that have their eyes blinded and there's people that have their eyes open. It's just that simple. Unsaved and saved. Not Christian, Christian. And when you have your eyes opened, what's the first thing you notice? Wow, look what I've been missing. That's why when people accept Christ, there's always this joy realizing, wow, I should have done this a long time ago to have your sins lifted off of you and to know you're saved and forgiven. There's a spiritual eyesight that is needed. By the way, there's an Old Testament story of this in 2 Kings chapter six. If you remember the story where you know the Syrian army, they were encamped against Israel and they were trying to beat up Israel. But but if you remember, you know Elijah the prophet was always telling the kings of Israel where the armies were and like giving them all like CIA type information, you know undercover stuff. And they're like, how do these guys know? And they said, Well, there's this prophet of God that keeps stuff. Well, the king of Syria, Well, let's go find this prophet. We're going to get him. So, you know that king of Syria goes into where Elijah was once have a word with them. So, he marches his army to Dothan, Elijah's house. And Elijah's servant sees the army coming in and freaks out. Oh Elijah, the whole army of the Syrians is right outside our door, you know. And he says, We're toast, you know. And Elijah, do you remember what does he pray? Oh Lord, open his eyes. Open whose eyes? Elijah's servant, probably Gehazi's eyes, the dude in that story. And what happens? His servant looks and his eyes are open and he sees not only the Syrian army, but he sees a army of angels all surrounding the Syrian army with flaming swords drawn. Like there's a nice thing to see. That's kind of a good thing to see if you're in that big of trouble. So, his servant there sees the army much greater and there was chariots of fire on that army which is kind of cool. But then Elijah asks that God would make that army blind. So, he gives, you know his servant sight, but then he blinds the eyes of the whole army. And then Elijah and the servant lead the army on a long journey, miles and miles away blinded. Follow me. I 'll take care of you by the hand. So, there's the army, you know walking clink clink clink with blindness. And they lead him right into the center of the Israeli army surrounded. That's a great story in the Bible. But remember that's the way God rolls. He opens eyes and and blinds eyes. Right now the Jews are blinded in part because they don't know the Messiah. Question, Are you blind? Have you accepted Christ? Do you believe in Jesus? If you have, you see, man your sins are forgiven. You have the hope of heaven. But that's what the Lord wants to do to the lost. Number one, open their eyes. And then number two, turn them from darkness to light. We already talked about that. That's what our job is in Portland to bring our darkest city into the light. And the light is Jesus Christ. Question, Do you turn from light to darkness? Some of you might be walking with the Lord. Things are great. Then you start listening to darker music, secular, dark, foul, swearing, sexual music. And you're like, man, why do I feel so lousy? Hello. You're going from from light to darkness. You and I as Christians need to go from darkness to light. That should be our goal. Always moving toward the light. You know we can do that. Have you ever wondered why you feel depressed after watching some movies or depressed why you you're you know you you're you're linking yourself up with friends that maybe lead you more on a dark trajectory. This is what God wants to do. He wants to open your eyes and then once you're seeing, turn you from darkness to light. And just kind of remember that. Remember when you're listening to music, is that music for Jesus or against Jesus? That's what you want to ask. Is it for Christ or against Christ? Romans 1 are those who practice continually sin and the Lord says, I'm going to give them over to their perversion and their their darkness. So, you and I should be soaking in the light as Christians and walking in the light as he is in the light. So, number three, Turn from the power of Satan unto God. We see that there as the third thing in this verse 18. We need to remember that Satan is real and you know he's the darkness. Uh 1 John 1 5 says this then is the message which we've heard of him and declare to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. That's who we should be following. And by the way, on the Satan thing, if you're a Christian, Christians cannot be possessed with devils or demons or Satan. There's groups out there saying, you got the demon of backache. No, you don't. You just have a backache. Stop that. It's just dumb. So, you have the demon of this or you have the demon of that. Now, if you're not a Christian, you are open to demonic and satanic attack. Sometimes I'm more concerned about the church not being demon possessed cuz they can't be, but they're demon obsessed. There's a lot of churches that put too much emphasis on, oh Satan's going to get you and look at we're running around for hey, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. If you're a Christian, you have light of Christ in you. And where there's light, there can be no darkness at all. And that's what we believe. That why we don't have to run around freaked out. And then what if you do all these things? Number four on this list, you receive the forgiveness of sins. Oh if people were only able to know their sins are forgiven, that'll fix 90% of your problems in life. I think so many people are plagued with depression or anxiety or just misery because they're they don't know that their sins are forgiven. There's a lot of people that live with that guilt. That's the burden that you cannot carry. You are not created to carry the burden of your own sin. That why Jesus said, come unto me all you are weary and heavy laden, you know and take my burden, my load. It's easy. It's light. And that's the forgiveness of sin. I've heard in red you know famous psychologists who finally realized, man, if we could just help people understand their sins are forgiven, then then our job is done. There's a link to mental health to unconfessed, undealt with sin in in a person's life. I love the old story father in Spain and his son Paco had a falling out. And the son you know did some nasty stuff and the father was furious. But they were separated in argument and and the father fell so bad as a few years went by and he didn't even see his son Paco because of their argument, because of the son kind of doing a goofball thing. But he in his desperation, he didn't know even how to find his son Paco. So, he decided to take out a full page ad in the newspaper ad that said this in big letters, Dear Paco, all is forgiven. Meet me in Town Square tomorrow. Love Dad. And he just hoped that his son would show up in the square. Well, the thing that was shocking is the dad was in the square and more than 800 Pacos showed up because they were all in the same situation. You know it's interesting because I think a lot more people are are dealing with unforgiveness and the weight of sin and they're just living life without but we have a father in heaven who says, all is forgiven. Come to me. And there's more than 800 that are coming to Christ. Praise the Lord for that. So, you receive the forgiveness of sin verse 18. And then the last one is it's glorious. Number five, Inheritance among the sanctified. It says that, An inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Faith that is in me according to Christ is the idea there. What does the Lord want to do for the lost? This is a pretty good list. Would you agree? I mean I love all of these things. Open our eyes, turn us from darkness to light, turn from the power of Satan to God, receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance which the inheritance by the way mostly summarized by an eternal life and heaven. How do we get there? By doing good works? No. It says here in verse 18, Sanctified by faith, which is really important.
Guest (Male): Pastor Bread Matter drawing from Paul 's message to King Agrippa in Acts chapter 26, an insightful list of the spiritual benefits offered to those who put their faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there's even more to share as our verse by verse study of today's word continues next time. And I invite you to stay right there as Pastor Brett will join me here in just a moment. If you missed any portion of our time today, you'll find all of his messages online at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Bread Matter is the senior pastor of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon. In addition to the main Athey Creek campus, we have other locations in the Portland, Oregon area. For more information, just go to todayswordradio.com and click on the link locations. All right, I have Pastor Brett with me now. You know most people know that you go verse by verse through the Bible every week. And I've been wanting to ask you this question, Brett. Do you have a verse or a passage of scripture that might be your favorite?
Brett Meador: Wow, that's a a tough one because it depends on what day you ask me probably. But you know I'm going to say this past year the scripture that just comes to mind again and again has been Psalm 23. You know it takes us through the whole journey of life from the green pastures through the dark valleys to the house of the Lord forever, you know. And And It assures me of goodness and mercy following me all the days of my life. You know no matter what I'm dealing with whether it's a trial that I might be facing or things that I'm happy about, Psalm 23 reminds me ultimately the Psalm points me to the shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. And I can even find myself driving down the road in my truck and just speaking that. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures and leads me beside still waters and he restores my soul and I can just kind of speak through that. And And whatever I'm dealing with, Psalm 23 actually tells you the answer and it makes you think of other passages of scripture that really reminds you that Jesus is the great shepherd. You know I find myself audibly saying Psalm 23 and finding strength in that. So, that's been lately probably my go-to favorite.
Guest (Male): Well, I know you're not alone in finding Psalm 23 as your favorite passage because that's certainly a favorite for many. Thank you, Pastor Brett, for sharing that.
Brett Meador: Yeah.
Guest (Male): And for more information about today's word or Pastor Bread Matter, you can visit our website at todayswordradio.com. That's todayswordradio.com. Well, next time Pastor Brett will share how even before powerful people, the apostle Paul wasn't intimidated to speak openly of the scriptural truth of the gospel. Today's word with Pastor Brett Matter is an outreach of Athey Creek Church in West Linn, Oregon.