The Word Made Plain

Guest (Female): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with Senior Pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts.

Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 26, verses 1 through 11.

Tony Clark: Good morning and welcome to Calvary Chapel and we are just thrilled to have you worship with us and to study the Word of God. And we're just so thrilled to be able to give you God's Word and let's dive into the Word of God. Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Acts chapter 26. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 11.

As we continue to go for those who don't know, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, and book by book, through the Bible, we find ourselves on Sunday mornings in the book of Acts and on Wednesdays, we will be back in First Samuel chapter 15, dealing with the cost of disobedience, part four. And we're going to continue going through the Old Testament on Wednesdays and the New Testament on Sundays.

And Father, we are so grateful and blessed by your presence. We are so grateful for your Word. And so, Lord, we pray that you will prepare our hearts to receive with meekness the implanted Word that is able to save our souls. Oh God, hide me behind the cross so your people can just see who you are in the pages of scriptures and the verses we're dealing with, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Acts chapter 26, looking at verses 1 through 11. The title of this message is, "Tell Your Story Again," part one. "Tell Your Story Again," part one. Now, all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, we have a story to tell of our encounter with Jesus Christ.

That time when He came into our lives. All of us who are Christians, remember that encounter, no matter how long ago it was. You will find that God will have you tell that story again and again like we see here with Paul. Why? Because God has people around us that need to hear what Jesus did in our lives to give them some hope.

So Paul gave his story, which is called a testimony, in chapters 22, 24, and now here in chapter 26. Now, how did we get to this point where we are now in chapter 26? Well, Festus had just became the new Roman governor of Jerusalem.

And he went up there to introduce himself. Immediately, he was informed about Paul from the high priest and the chief men, according to chapter 25 and verse 2. Festus wanted to make a good impression upon the Jews. He agreed to hear this case. He had them come to Caesarea.

They laid the same false charges against Paul that they couldn't prove. So after hearing what they had to say, it is now Paul's turn to speak, which brings us to chapter 26. Look at verses 1 to 3.

Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You're permitted to speak for yourself." And so Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself, "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. Especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore, I beg you to hear me patiently."

Now, Festus allowed for King Agrippa, who was there in Caesarea to visit the new Roman governor, to take charge of this hearing, probably because as was just said in verse 3, that he was an expert in all customs and questions concerning the Jews.

So Agrippa gives Paul permission to speak for himself in verse 1. And Paul stretched forth his hand, which was a practice of the day for speaking. Luke, the author, describing this mannerism or giving this description of Paul stretching forth his hand, it shows us that Paul that Luke was actually there. He was actually there at the hearing to see Paul do this.

And so Paul addressed King Agrippa, as I said earlier, because he was an expert in all of the customs of the Jews. And Paul left, Paul felt, should I say, good talking to him, not only because of his knowledge of Jewish customs, but also because of his ties with Rome, which meant that he wouldn't automatically side with the Jewish leaders.

And then he tells Agrippa at the end of verse 3, "I beg you to hear me patiently." Or, "Agrippa, pull up a chair. This may take a minute." And in other words, that in the verses that follows, Paul is about to tell King Agrippa his story. Look at verses 4 and 5.

"My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know. 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."

Now, notice how Paul starts off his testimony with his life prior to Christ in verse 4. He said his manner of life from his youth was spent being dedicated to Judaism. Then he doubled down by saying at the end of verse 4, "all the Jews know."

I mean, what a statement. Paul is saying that he sought Judaism so zealously that all the Jews could testify of this fact. Then he threw a little shade on the religious leaders who were there falsely accusing him in verse 5, when he said, "They knew me at the first, if they were willing to testify," or, "ready to tell the truth."

He went on to say that he lived according to the strictest sect of our religion. Notice he said, "I lived as a Pharisee." Now, according to what Josephus, that first century Jewish historian wrote, he said this about the Pharisees. He said, "A certain sect of the Jews that appear more religious than others and seem to interpret the laws more accurately." And this was his book called "The War," volume 1, page 5, paragraph 2.

Whenever Paul wanted to describe his zeal for the law of Moses, he said in Philippians 3:5, "concerning the law, a Pharisee." Whenever people heard this saying, they knew that Paul was very religious. We would say today that he was a fanatic or he was a religious extremist.

And Paul was very religious before he came to Christ. Notice that sentence, he was very religious before he came to Christ, but he was lost. A lot of people in the world are religious, but they are lost. Millions around the world are worshipping many false gods and bowing down to idols, very religious, religiously following the dictates of idols, but they are lost.

And maybe you're here today and you consider yourself religious, or the buzzword today, you consider yourself spiritual. But if you don't have Jesus Christ as the head of your life, you too are lost. Like Paul was describing himself here.

As Paul is describing himself here, can you describe how Jesus changed your life? And there must be some ways about you that Jesus has changed. This is what we're talking about, how Jesus changes life. There must be something about you that Jesus has changed. Some explosive temper that now has been tamed or softened.

Or could it be a lack of patience that you found yourself exercising more patience? Or hatred toward a certain group of people that you now find yourself loving. Your story and my story starts off by describing our lives before Christ, and then moves into how He has changed it.

How powerful is the cross to take a man like Paul, who used to arrest and kill Christians, enraged against them, to be the greatest Christian in the history of Christianity. That wrote one-third of our New Testament. This is the power of the cross. Has the power of the cross invaded your life?

When it does, you will not be the same. Everyone around you will see it and begin to ask questions about your transformation. This gives you a chance to tell your story again and again and again, like we see Paul doing here. Oh, look at verses 6 and 7.

"And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers." He says, "To this promise, our 12 tribes earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews."

Now, after Paul described his life before Christ, he now brings Agrippa to the present in verse 6, by saying, "And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers." Paul was saying, "King Agrippa, with whom is an expert in Jewish customs, I am only here because I believe in the hope of the promise made by the Fathers, which is the Messiah."

I find this phrase in verse 7 fascinating, that Paul said, "To this promise, our 12 tribes." Notice the phrase, "earnestly serving God night and day hope to attain." I find this phrase fascinating because the Jews, according to Paul, were earnestly serving God day and night, in hopes that they could live to see their Messiah come and fulfill the promises of the prophets in the Old Testament.

The Greek word for earnestly is *ektenos*, and it means to without ceasing. It means fervent, it means earnestly. I bring this up because I wonder when we look at our Christian walks, can we describe them as earnestly serving God day and night?

Oh, maybe we earnestly serve God in the day, but what about at night? We aren't earnestly serving God. We're earnestly pursuing other things. Can we even say that we serve God? Forget about the earnestly part. Do we even serve God at all?

Do we even love God? Let me take it a step further. Do we even like Him? This is an important question for us to search our hearts about. Because, you know, we say a lot when we're sitting in here. "Yeah, I love the Lord. He heard my cry."

You know, and all this sort of stuff. And we say these things and these clichés and these Christian jingles and jangles, do we even love God? And this is something we have to ask ourselves.

Yes, we talk about the Jewish people as we go through the Bible. We do. But if we were to study your race's history, what would we be up here saying? Erase the Jews. Put your race in here and we were studying through the Bible talking about your race.

Your race's history. What would we be up here saying? Would we say the Latinos are earnestly serving God night and day? Black people are earnestly serving God night and day. White people are earnestly serving God night and day. Africans are serving God night and day. Or whatever your historical, your racial background is, you're serving God night and day. Is that what we'd be saying?

Or would we get up here and just rehearse the stereotypes about your race? Oh, we have an example of that in the book of Titus. It says, one of their own prophets said that Cretans are always liars and lazy and gluttons.

And then Paul told Titus, "This testimony is true. Rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith." I wonder what would we be saying if we were up here talking about your race? Whether you believe it or not, we owe a great debt to the Jewish people and how they preserved the scriptures for us to read and study today.

And may God help us to be able to say someday that we earnestly serve God night and day. Or will we say, "I serve God in the day, but I party and drinking, clubbing at night." How do you describe your days and nights? If we were to follow you for a week.

This is something for us to search our own hearts about. Look what it says in verse 8. "Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?" See, the full gospel message is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And here in this verse, Paul points out the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Why? Because ultimately, Paul wants to convert King Agrippa.

How do I know? Because in verse 28 he shouts, "You almost persuade me to become a Christian." See, this is the objective of preaching the gospel. It is to see people saved. You never know that you could be preaching to the next Apostle Paul or Billy Graham, or someone who would change this world for Jesus Christ. So never dismiss or underestimate who you are sharing the gospel with, because once they accept the gospel message, you never know the plans God had for their lives.

And that includes those wayward children. Don't stop praying for them. Don't stop. That disinterested spouse, don't stop praying for them. You never know the plans God has for their lives. I love that how Paul was preaching to everyone present, but as I mentioned a few seconds ago, but especially King Agrippa.

He says, "Why should it be thought incredible?" The Greek word is *apistos*. And it means unbelievable, untrustworthy, or incredible. He said, "Why is it he said, why should it be thought incredible or unbelievable or untrustworthy or incredible by you that God raises the dead?"

In other words, why are you blown away that God can raise people from the dead? The resurrection of Jesus Christ had already been verified by his 40-day post-resurrection ministry by over 500 people, according to First Corinthians 15:6. In other words, according to our Jewish prudent system, if something was being taken to court, let's say the resurrection of Jesus was being put on trial.

And if it was taken to court, and if you marched 500 people into court and said that we saw this man alive, they would instantly throw it out and say, "This man is alive." It's already been proven according to First Corinthians 15:6 that 500 people saw Jesus alive. So the resurrection was already a verified fact.

Now, see, here's the thing, because his question is amazing to me. He said, "Why is it that you think that this is an incredible thing for God to raise the dead?" Miracles aren't hard to believe in when you believe that God is the creator of the universe.

If you believe in the Big Bang, or that we're only randomly here by chance, then you will have a hard time with miracles. You've heard me say many times before that if you can believe in the very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," then you should not have a problem with anything else in the Bible. The story of Jonah, the parting of the Red Sea, or any other things that people kind of trip over. You won't have a problem. You can just believe the very first verse.

If you can believe that God spoke the universe into existence out of nothing. He says, "Let there be," and there was. It wasn't like God put on his tool belt and went to fashioning the heavens and the earth and nailing things, No, he just spoke. He said, "Let there be light," and guess what, light was there.

He spoke it into existence. He created it out of nothing. That Hebrew word for created is *bara*. It means to create something out of nothing. He spoke it into existence. And if you can believe this, then what is too hard for him?

What problem can we ever experience or encounter that is too hard for God to handle? Oh, God can handle, you believe, "Oh, God can do anything. Except this Rona, huh? God can't do nothing about that Rona. This Rona is too big for Him." Oh, really? Really?

See, we believe that there's nothing too hard for Him. One time in Genesis, two times in the book of Jeremiah, and as well as Luke 1:37, it says, "With God nothing is impossible." Those three times in the Old Testament, it says, "Is there anything too hard for God?" I think right around Genesis 18:14, Jeremiah 32:17, another place in Jeremiah, and then Luke 1:37.

"With God nothing is impossible." Nothing. No, except this. Nothing. But you don't know about this. Nothing is impossible for Him to handle. This is the kind of faith that Paul had. I just wonder, does it describe our faith?

Does it describe our faith in God? If not, then the way that you increase your faith is by digging in, reading, meditating, studying God's Word. Because I've said it a thousand times, Romans 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." The more you are hearing, reading, studying, meditating on God's Word, the Bible, the more your faith in Him will increase.

I've said it a lot and I have to keep repeating things because I thought as a church we were really getting it. And I from the last two weeks, I can tell we're not getting it. So let me just keep repeating it. It's the reading, studying, meditating on the Word of God. That's how our faith is increased.

Start with the book of Proverbs. How many of you have heard me say that? There are 31 chapters corresponding with the 31 days of the month. You read a Proverb a chapter each day. Today is the 15th, what chapter did I read today in Proverbs? Chapter 15. It's not rocket science. It's not anything difficult. And just start there.

Just start there. Not this, I got a little app on my phone, it gives me just a cute verse for the. Stop. Stop. Why I got the daily bread. Stop. This is the daily bread. This is it. Well, you're dismissing. This is the daily bread that you need to be into. This is where your faith is going to be increased. Do you want your faith increased in the words of man or in the words of God?

This is where it's increased. I'm just start start slow. I know some of you you got start slow. And then slowly as you read about the God of the Bible, then your faith in Him will begin to increase. Look what it says there in verse 9.

"Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus Christ." Oh, really? Now, we see Paul use himself as an example of someone who believed in the resurrection theologically as a Pharisee. As the Pharisees, the conservative religious leader that Paul was a part of, they believed in the resurrection. They did.

But didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah. To the point where Paul said that he even tried to do everything against or contrary to Christianity. The Greek word for contrary is *enantios*, and it means opposite. It means to be antagonistic or against something.

And I just wonder, are you like Paul was before he was saved? He was religious, but he lived his life contrary or against biblical principles. Are you antagonistic towards some things in the Bible? You see some things in the Bible, you're against, you're antagonistic towards.

Wives, submit to their husbands. You're antagonistic towards that. Tithing. You're antagonistic towards that. Forgiving someone who has hurt you, forgiving someone who has done you harm. You're antagonistic towards that. And there are things in the Word of God. Wives, or husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. You're like, too. You don't know mine.

And you're antagonistic towards things in the Bible. This is what Paul was. You know some things in the Bible, but you live contrary or the opposite to those things in the Bible. And if so, then you are a modern day Pharisee. You know biblical things, but your life that you live is contrary or against Christianity.

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