The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): 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 25, verses 13 through 27.

Tony Clark: We can’t assume anything anymore. I remember one time that I was teaching through the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and I was talking about the Pharisees. The Pharisees this and the Pharisees that. I remember a couple, this was when we were down at the Denbigh campus, and I remember a couple going out the door. They said, "Hey, this is our first time here." I said, "Did you have any questions about anything?" She said, "Yes, what’s a Pharisee?"

I said, "Ah, we’re not living in a society that understands biblical terminology and things anymore." This is why you always hear me say, "And the Pharisees, who were the conservative religious leaders of the day, blah, blah, blah, and the Sadducees, who were the liberal religious leaders." I have to explain these things because it’s not common anymore. A run-of-the-mill kind of knowledge and understanding of Christianity doesn't exist today. It doesn't exist.

Those of you who have been with me long enough to have gone through books of the Bible with me understand such things, but there are most folks who are clueless about these things. This is why I say the things that I say now. I always will say something, hit a comma, and define it because I can no longer assume that people understand biblical terminology and words anymore. We can't assume this. We so often think that people understand our songs and phrases, but they don't.

This is why I believe more than ever that the teaching of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is so important because of the illiteracy of the Bible in today's world, just like we're seeing with Festus. The Bible says in Amos 8:11 that there's going to be a famine in the last days. Not a famine of food or drink, but a famine for the word of God. There is a famine today. Things that were very common in the church when I got saved over 35 years ago, phrases very common even in society, are no longer common now.

This is why I define, why I go in depth, and why I explain words and phrases because I can no longer assume that everyone understands what I'm talking about. Watch this, because this is most important. The Bible says when someone doesn't understand the word of God, Satan comes and takes the seed out of their heart lest they should believe and be saved. This is why when people come to a church and they don't understand what was said, that seed was planted because God's word doesn't return void. Then you go out and Satan comes and snatches it away lest you believe and be saved.

You can't believe it because you don't understand it. You didn't understand what was said. This is why when you leave here, I'm going to make sure that I define every word, phrase, and issue for you. This is why the ministry across the world is called the Word Made Plain. We want to make it plain to you one verse at a time so you can understand, so the seed of the word can be planted, and so you can believe and be saved. Satan cannot take that seed out because you understood what I said.

This is why I want to teach the Bible so plainly and so simplistic to the point where you can leave here and practically teach this to somebody you come in contact with. "Hey, what was church about?" "Oh, he talked about this and he explained this. I didn't know that before." That's when I know I've done my job. We have to understand there are people out there like Festus looking to us, King Agrippa so to speak, for answers about these things.

People like Festus are all around us. They don't know about the things we hold true like Jesus and His resurrection, His death and burial, and His death on the cross. They don't understand why that is important to us. Why is it that we view marriage between one man and one woman? Why is it that we view these things? Why is that important to us? They don't understand. Unfortunately, the church looks more like King Agrippa and Bernice with mess, scandals, and drama in our lives.

People like Festus in this world are looking to us for help to understand the things of God, and we’ve got more mess, drama, and junk in our own lives. I just say may God have mercy on us. May God help us. Look at verse 23. It says, "So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at Festus’ command, Paul was brought out."

Festus kept his word to hear Paul's case, so King Agrippa came in with great pomp. The Greek word for pomp is fantasia, and it means a grand or showy pageant. The place of this hearing was an amphitheater on the beach of Caesarea. It would have been packed out. People would have been dressed up with gold crowns, rings, and scepters. Soldiers would have been standing guard or at parade rest, and dignitaries would have been escorted in. Here is Paul.

Paul, whose name means little, was true to his name. History tells us that Paul was short, hunchbacked, bowlegged, had a hooked nose, and a high squeaky voice. Second Corinthians 10:10 gives us a biblical example of this historical record. It says, "For his letters they say are weighty and powerful, but his bodily appearance is weak and his speech is contemptible." There is a biblical account of this historical record of Paul. In the midst of all of this pomp, pageantry, and outward show and display, little old Paul is brought in and is about to spellbind them.

It's amazing how God delights to use little things and little people. James 4:6 says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. God uses little things and does great things with them. In John 6, verses 1 through 14, Jesus took a little boy's lunch that consisted of five loaves and two little fish, and He fed 5,000 men. Counting women and children, that would have been 15 to 20,000 people. The city of Bethlehem, a very small city, has become the most famous city in history. Why? Because Jesus was born there.

Jesus loves to take small things and do great things through them. David, the youngest of all of his brothers, is used to kill the giant Goliath who came against the nation of Israel, and he became Israel's greatest king. It's amazing to me. Moses, the youngest in his family, was used to lead two million Jews out of slavery in Egypt. As I was going over my notes before service, the Lord brought this to my mind: What about Harriet Tubman? A little bitty woman was called the Moses of her time. She led so many out of slavery to the North, never got caught, and never lost a person.

If you will pay attention and walk down memory lane, the people who have done great things in history are so often the youngest in their families, the ones no one expected to do anything. God takes them and does a miraculous work through them. This is why humility is the key to being used by God. When we are little or small, God can do big things in and through us. Do you remember what God told the prophet Samuel to say to King Saul when he sinned?

He said in First Samuel 15:17, "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?" When did God anoint him king over Israel? When he was little in his own eyes. God anointed King Saul, and the Bible talks about it in First Samuel 10. They went to look for him because Samuel said, "You got a king." Everybody's like, "All right, okay, where is he?" He was hiding among the stuff. There was a bunch of equipment he was hiding behind. He was little in his own eyes.

God made him king. The implication is that King Saul was no longer little in his own eyes. We know this to be true because in First Samuel 15:12, it says that King Saul had set up a monument for himself. He thought more highly of himself to the point where he built a statue for himself. Whether you believe it or not, this can happen to any of us. God begins to exalt us on a job through a promotion. He begins to exalt us in the eyes of the people. People are looking to us for help and for how to do this or how to do that, and we begin to become prideful.

The way to be exalted is by allowing God to do it. James 4:10 says, "Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up." When He does, get on your face in prayer and thanksgiving to God for exalting you to such a position. Here is little Paul in the midst of this amphitheater packed out on trial again. Look at verses 24 to 27. "And Festus said: 'King Agrippa and all men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer.'"

"But when I found that he had committed nothing deserving of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him. I have nothing certain to write to my lord concerning him. Therefore I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place, I may have something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him."

Festus begins by telling everyone why they are there. The Jews are saying that this little man Paul is not fit to live. However, he continues to tell them that he examined him and that he had not committed anything deserving of death according to Roman law. Festus continues by saying this man appealed to Augustus, so he decided to send him. Augustus is a title that means "of the gods." It was first used by Octavius, who was the Caesar when Jesus was born.

He was the one who ordered the census to take place that caused Mary and Joseph to travel 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered. The Messiah Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem, but they lived in Nazareth. How was God going to get her, nine months pregnant, to travel 70 miles? It wasn't in a nice air-conditioned van with her feet up on the dashboard. No, it was on a donkey. God put it on the heart of Octavius, who was the Caesar at the time, to have a census.

Egyptian records say they had a census every 14 years, and it happened to time it just perfectly. It got them to Bethlehem where baby Jesus was born. Octavius was the first Caesar that used this title, Augustus. He was the Caesar after Julius Caesar. The Augustus spoken of here is Caesar Nero, by far the most wicked Caesar in the history of Rome. When Paul told Timothy in First Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2, "I exhort first of all that prayers and supplications, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life," he was telling Timothy, who was the pastor of the church of Ephesus, that they were to be praying for Caesar Nero.

It doesn't matter who is in that White House. Our job is to pray for kings and all who are in authority. Point-blank, simple as that. For you not to, you’re sinning as a believer. That’s our job, no matter who's sitting up there. That is our job. The Caesar Nero that Paul was about to go before is Caesar Nero, the most wicked dude to ever don the title Augustus. Festus didn't want to look incompetent in front of Nero, and it was required that he write the crimes of the prisoner he was sending him, but he had nothing to write.

Notice that. He had nothing to write. Let us strive to be this way on our job. Let our supervisors have nothing evil to write about us, like we see here in Paul's case. He lived for the Lord and lived a life of integrity. He said, "I always strive to have a good conscience without offense before God and man." That was his thing. Daniel was the same way. In Daniel chapter 6, verse 5, he lived the same kind of life of integrity that his enemies said this about him: "Then these men said, 'We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.'"

What a testimony to have, to live in such a way as to have our enemies say, "I cannot find fault in their lives." We will see what Paul had to say, God willing, next time. We’ll pick it up in chapter 26. Let me conclude with this. In this message, "The Little Things in Life," we saw how God likes to take the little things in our lives and do great things with them. I think this is so important because so often we say, "I don't have much to give to the Lord. I'm just a nobody." No, God takes the little things and does great things with them.

We saw how God took little Paul and did great things with his life. Paul wrote one-third of our New Testament. For me, I believe it was 13 books of the 27 books in the New Testament that Paul wrote. He’s considered the greatest Christian who ever lived. What does God want to do with you? Have you thought about that? "All I am is a stay-at-home mom." Then guess what? You stay at home and pour Jesus into those kids you’re staying at home with. God can do great things.

It doesn't matter what you do. It doesn't matter what little you think you are. "I didn't get much of an education, so what can God do with me?" Great things. What does God want to do with you? You stay little in your own eyes, because when you begin to boast and think you’re hot stuff and build monuments of yourself on your wall at home or in your office, God will humble you. So humble yourself first, because you don't want God to have to humble you.

Trust me, you're listening to someone that God had to humble, and it’s not pretty at all. This is why He tells us to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. He will lift you up because you don't want God to have to humble you. Humble yourself by staying in His presence through prayer and Bible reading, and God will do big things through you. I say this just for illustration. I pinch myself all the time with what God has done in my life. My wife and I are just blown away. I'm the youngest in my family.

God takes those little things. It’s funny, my dad always comes across classmates of mine or people that grew up with me, and they're all shocked because they thought if anybody was going to make it to the major leagues in baseball, it would have been me. They all say, "Didn't he make it?" And then when they hear what I'm doing, it’s been over 35 years, so of course most of them know now. But when some hear, they’re like, "Clark?" Yeah. God delights to use little things and people who are little in their own eyes.

You stay little. When you begin to think you’re hot stuff because you got a certain amount of rank on your sleeve or certain kind of animals, birds, or stars, be careful. God wants to use you. He wants to use me. It’s when we stay little in our own eyes that God is going to use us. Don't think you're hot stuff because you’re not. Your spouse will tell you you’re not. Everyone on the job sings your praises. Your spouse will say, "Do a load of laundry. Vacuum that floor for me." It keeps you humble.

May God keep us low and may God keep us usable for His glory and His kingdom. Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for Your word. Oh God, I just pray that Your spirit will move in our hearts. I pray God that You would etch this word upon our hearts so we can be not just hearers of Your word but doers of Your word. You said this man or woman will be blessed in what he does, and so God we want to be blessed by You. Dear God, I just pray if there is anyone here who has not repented of their sin and accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, if that's you in here today, I just want you to repeat this prayer after me.

Just say, "Lord Jesus, forgive me. I believe You died on a cross and were buried and rose again. Come into my heart. I make You my Lord and Savior. Help me to live for You by the power of Your Holy Spirit in Jesus' name, Amen."

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