Lechem Panim #234 “Chained For The Lost” (Acts 26:1-18) Pastor Cameron Ury

Hello and welcome to the show today! It is such a pleasure to have you with us again today as we study the Word of God together. 

Faith Under Trial— You know, if you wanted to find an example of faith under trial in scripture, I don’t know if you can find a better one than Paul. He’s almost like the New Testament version of Job. He is a man who has lost or has forsaken all for the sake of Christ; and has suffered tremendous persecution and hardship for the purposes of carrying out the mission Christ gave him to preach the Gospel. And today we find him on trial. He’s been in prison for some time. He has come under the authority of Governor Felix, but Felix (though he can’t find grounds on which to convict him) won’t acquit him because he doesn’t want to anger the Jewish leaders who are accusing him. And so (as per their request) he offers to send Paul from Caesarea back to Jerusalem to be tried there. But Paul, knowing he had less chance of getting justice there (and wanting to get to Rome anyways) appeals to Caesar, which was his right as a Roman citizen. And so Festus says “You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!” Now Festus can’t quite wipe his hands clean of Paul because it already looked bad that one of the first cases he tried, the defendant had to appeal to Caesar to get justice. And it will look even worse if he sends Paul without any charges that make sense. But (with King Herod Agrippa and Bernice coming to visit him) he decides to have Paul’s hearing in front of Agrippa so that Agrippa can hear and help Festus establish charges. And so King Agrippa and Bernice come, and Festus turns Paul’s hearing into this elaborate pompous show for both of them. And after King Agrippa and Bernice parade in and all of the pompousness has been quieted down, Festus gets up and addresses Agrippa, explaining the situation once again. And it says in…

Acts 26:1-5 (NKJV)— 1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” {And so Paul gives what is his third apologetic/defense speech in the book of Acts. And [Five key statements summarize Paul’s defense.] It says…}
So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself: 2 “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, 3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
4 “My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know. 5 They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. 

KEY STATEMENT 1: “I lived a Pharisee”— And that is the first key statement: I lived a Pharisee. But of course the Jewish leaders were not willing to testify to that fact because they knew what weight Paul’s former life as a Pharisee would add to his present testimony. So on this they've kept very silent. But Paul declares it; and, using the power of story, he seeks to connect with even them as well. He’s saying, “I was just like you.” And that sets the stage for his explanation of what changed the course of his life and what might change the course of theirs as well. He says…

Acts 26:6-8 (NKJV)— 6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. 7 To this promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. 8 Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead? 

Resurrection Critical— And the word “you” here is actually plural in the Greek, indicating that Paul is now looking around at and addressing everyone. Now the Greeks and Romans did not believe in the doctrine of the resurrection (Acts 17:31-32). Nor did the Sadducees, who were present (Acts 23:8). But the doctrine of the resurrection was (and is) the (and I mean THE) most critical doctrine of the Christian faith. Paul himself says as much in 1 Corinthians 15. If there is no resurrection, then obviously Jesus could not have been raised; therefore our sins could not have been paid for (and so we would then still be lost in our sins), and Paul would have had no gospel to preach. So Paul brings the focus right where it needs to be, on the resurrection of Jesus and how that historical event made all the difference in his life. He says…

Acts 26:9-11 (NKJV)— 9 “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

He Identifies With Them— Now here he is identifying with the Jewish leaders in his audience. He’s saying, “I understand why you hate me; why you have so set yourselves against me. I was the same way. I was also zealous, but my zeal was not based on knowledge (as he says of them in Romans 10:2). And so I did to them exactly what you guys are seeking to do to me. But then he says in…

Acts 26:12-13 (NKJV)— 12 “While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13 at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. 

KEY STATEMENT 2: “I saw a light”— And that’s key statement number 2: “I saw a light”. You might call Paul an enlightened man (literally). He was a Jew (Rom. 9:4-5), a scholar (Acts 22:3), and (at least he thought) a righteous Pharisee. But Paul goes on to describe how he came to discover that while he had thought he was a righteous Pharisee, he (in reality) had been in spiritual darkness. And Jesus had right then and there (on that Damascus road) struck him blind, casting him into the darkness for three days so that he might come to embrace the Light of the World. Now all this is pretty dramatic stuff. But, in a way, it had to be; because there was no other way to explain how such a dedicated and zealous Pharisee so set against Christianity could himself become a Christian. It had to come through seeing the resurrected Lord Jesus personally. And that is what he describes next. He says in…

Acts 26:14 (NKJV)— 14 And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 

KEY STATEMENT 3: “I heard a voice”— And that’s key statement number 3: “I heard a voice”. And Paul tells his audience that the voice spoke to him in the Hebrew language. Now some say it was Aramaic. I disagree for a number of reasons, two of which I’ll mention here. First of all, the text actually says Hebrew in the original Greek. That alone ought to give us pause. But secondly, why would Paul highlight that detail if it wasn’t actually Hebrew? Who would care? Nobody. The reason he mentions it is because he is connecting the resurrection of Jesus with the promises God made to the Hebrew people. He himself is a Hebrew who met the promised Hebrew Messiah who confirmed His Hebrew-ness by speaking to him in Hebrew, calling him by his Hebrew name (Saul). By the way, it is a common misconception that God changed Saul’s name to Paul. Never happened. Saul was the name he used when amongst Jews in and around Jerusalem; and Paul (his Roman name) was the name he used abroad around Gentiles. Now there is a shift from “Saul” to “Paul”, but the reason we see that shift is because Paul became primarily a minister to the Gentiles. And it’s not until Acts 13:9 that we find the last reference to his name being “Saul”. And here it’s important to note that Jesus called him by his Hebrew name. And, using that Hebrew name, Jesus asks Paul in Hebrew: ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

Goads— Now that’s kind of a weird statement, “kick against the goads.” What does that mean. Well when a young ox was first yoked, that ox would usually resist the yoke and try to kick its way out. If it was a single-handed plow that it was yoked to, what the plowman would do was he would take a long staff with a sharpened end and hold it close to the ox’s heels. Then, if and when the ox would kick, it would strike the spike. Similarly, if the ox was yoked to a wagon, there would be a studded bar with wooden spikes that would serve the same purpose. Now the reason that Jesus had used this imagery was because [the ox had to learn submission to the yoke the hard way.] And Jesus is saying, “Paul, you’re that ox. You’re resisting me.” Do we have any goad-kickers today? If so, there’s hope for you when you respond to the voice as Paul did…

Acts 26:15-18 (NKJV)— 15 So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

The Promised Inheritance— Now I love how Paul never hides any detail he thinks might hurt his case, particularly those details concerning how God called him as a missionary to the Gentiles (something the Jewish leaders have and will continue to react violently against). No, Paul took every opportunity available to him to proclaim that the Gentiles have an equal share in God’s inheritance in Jesus Christ; and he talks about how this inheritance is the promise and blessing of the covenant that God had made with Abraham; and how Jesus Himself had appointed him to bring this Good News to the gentiles. 

Chaining Ourselves— And, you know, I’m a gentile. And many of you listening today are too. And so I want to ask you, “How did that happen?” Well, it happened because (somewhere in time past) a Jew (like Paul, but of course there were many others) was willing to cross some social barrier (and perhaps to go through some intense trials and persecutions) to help make that happen. Now if that is true (and it is) then the question is, are you and I returning the favor? Are there people that we are becoming uncomfortable for so that they might have the opportunity to hear the Gospel too? Who have you willingly chained yourself to so that they might come to experience the Light of Life in Jesus Christ? In that sense, become chained this week. Bind yourself to somebody; do what Christ leads and empowers you to do to be a witness to them, so that they might experience the same joy that you now have in Him. Let’s do so. Amen.