Acts 26 Foolishness to the Greeks; Stumbling Block to the Jews

This morning we come together to hear the truth from God's Word and the T in RECAST, our name is an acronym for our core values, Reproducing Community, Authenticity, Simplicity, and Truth, and the T stands for Truth.

And we believe that God's Word is true in a very objective, real sense. That is, that it conforms to what is real. That's what I mean when I say true. So it has its foundation, its basis in reality, the way that things really happen, the way that things really are.

And the Apostle Paul in our text is going to outright declare that the gospel of Jesus Christ is both true and rational. That's what he's going to use, those are two words that he uses to describe the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ came in flesh, died for our sins, lived a sinless life, died for our sins, and rose again three days later.

And he's going to use the words true and rational for that. We're going to see that as we come to our text this morning. And actually in our text we're going to see the last extended speech of Paul in the entire book of Acts.

And it's probably no surprise that in that speech he's going to make a defense for the gospel. And anybody be surprised to hear that Paul's going to talk about the gospel? Anybody who's been following along in the book of Acts, that would kind of make sense, wouldn't it?

That's what he does. He's going to explain the significant change that an encounter with Jesus Christ made in his life, and then he's going to call everyone in his audience to respond by repentance and faith.

And he's going to ask them to respond, but he's going to share his own story. And in that, Paul gives us a model for the way that we can and should be going about our lives proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ.

He shares his story. And I've mentioned many times that people can argue with you about your theology, right? Anybody have anybody argue with you about your theology, about what you believe is true of God from the Word of God?

They can argue with you about your interpretation of Scripture, but it would take a very cold, hard, calloused individual to argue with you about your story, right? Like, if you just go and share your story, tell him what Jesus Christ has done for you, man, it would be, no, he didn't do that for you.

No, he doesn't love you. Anybody agree with me that that would be kind of cold and hard and callous for somebody to do that? It's not very likely in our culture. So sharing your story is a good thing.

That's what Paul chooses to do. He gets a chance to stand before a really austere council of the who's who of Caesarea, the Roman leadership are there, the governor of his district is there, and he shares his story with them and talks about the power of Jesus Christ to change a life, his included.

And also we see Paul in our text taking into account his audience. He was really good at recognizing where people were coming from and proclaiming the gospel in ways that they could understand, because how many of you know that you can say the words of the gospel to an individual but they might not get it and hear because you are putting stumbling blocks before them in the way that you're presenting it or you just, you know, maybe you pull out a megaphone and you shout in their ear about the gospel.

That might not be very culturally sensitive to them, but understanding where they're coming from and having a handle on the good news are, how many of you would agree that that's valuable? Have both of those in there.

But Paul, a few years back, to the events that we're looking at in Acts 26, wrote in 1st Corinthians 1, 22 through 24 about the way that people are going to respond to the gospel. So we're going to see a gospel presentation in our text this morning, and then he actually understood how certain people tend to respond to the gospel.

He said this in 1st Corinthians 1, 22 through 24. He said, for the Jews demand a sign and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, which is a stumbling block to the Jews and folly or foolishness to the Gentiles.

But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. So there he spells out three responses. He says, to the Jewish mind, the gospel is a stumbling block.

To the Gentile mind, the gospel is foolishness or folly. But some from among those groups who are called will experience the gospel as the power and the wisdom of God for salvation. That's interesting.

Festus in our text is going to think Paul's gone insane. He's going to actually say, you're out of your mind, Paul. We're going to see that here as we read it. The gospel seemed foolish to him. King Agrippa that we're going to see in the text, he's a good Jew, and so he's going to respond in an arrogant way in our text as a good law-abiding Jew, saying that it would take a long time to make him a Christian, because you see to the Jews, Jesus was a stumbling block.

They thought they were already good enough, and why would you need Jesus Christ or him crucified? It wouldn't make sense. Jesus was an extra in the way, something to stumble over. But we know, as we see in the text, there's a third way, and that is by the supernatural act of the Holy Spirit calling an individual, Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

And that's something I want us to reflect on as we come to worship this morning. We're going to read this text, and then Dave and the band are going to come and lead us. I want you to open your Bibles first to Acts chapter 26.

It's page 800 in the Bible in the seat back in front of you. Grab that Bible. You can turn to page 800, and if you don't own a Bible, I want you to take that one with you. I say this every week, but I mean it sincerely.

We desire for everybody to own a copy of God's Holy Word to us, and so you can take that. Follow along as I read Acts chapter 26 in its entirety. So Agrippa said to Paul, you have permission to speak for yourself.

Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense. I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, that I'm going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews.

Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently. My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They've known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion, I have lived as a Pharisee.

And now I stand here on trial because of my hope and the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope, I'm accused by Jews, O King.

Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead? I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem.

I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme.

And in raging fury against them, I persecuted them, even to foreign cities. In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me.

And when we had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. And I said, who are you, Lord?

And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.

For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from God, so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass, that the Christ must suffer, and that by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, you're out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you out of your mind. But Paul said, I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words.

For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly, for I'm persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?

I know you believe. And Agrippa said to Paul in a short time, would you persuade me to be a Christian? And Paul said, whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains.

Then the king rose, and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them. And when they withdrawn, they said to one another, this man is doing nothing to deserve death or punishment, death or imprisonment.

And Agrippa said to Festus, this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. Let's pray. If you were here last week, some of you weren't, so I want to kind of catch you up on context a little bit about what's going on here.

We're going to jump right in with Paul speaking. And it's kind of like, who's he talking to? What's going on? Paul has been in protective custody of the Romans for over two years when we come to our text.

When the old governor was deposed, he did a favor to the Jews and kept Paul in prison. A new governor came on, and that new governor wanted to do the Jews a favor as well, and so he was going to move Paul to Jerusalem.

Well, Paul, knowing what he knew about the Jews, and knowing what he knew about a former plot to kill him, realized that when they're wanting to move him to Jerusalem, things are not going to go well for him.

He smells the plot and realizes that there's injustice that's about to happen, and he's going to be killed, and so he actually appeals to Caesar in front of the Roman governor. He says, I appeal to Caesar.

Now, that was a right that any Roman citizen had at that time. They could appeal their trial. If a verdict had not been reached yet in their trial, then they could appeal to Caesar, and they would actually go to Rome under arrest, and in the process go to Rome and actually stand before Caesar himself and have him try their case.

That was a privilege, a right, but also, as I mentioned last week, a little bit dicey, because the Roman Caesars, the emperors, were known to be kind of capricious. You're putting your life in the hands of a person who is kind of an egomaniac a little bit.

Many of the Roman emperors declared themselves to be gods, and so you can kind of imagine what their character might be when it comes to trial. They got a hangnail, like I mentioned last week, or something's not going well for them.

They might just be unjust and condemn you to death, and the sentence would be carried out sometimes right then and there. And so Paul was actually kind of putting his life on the line in one way, but also saving his life in another, because he knew that this wasn't going to go well.

If they took him to Jerusalem, people were lying in wait to have him killed on the way, even in transit. So that's where we're at, but the problem is, the Roman governor now has to write a letter to Caesar, the emperor himself, to say, why is this dude coming before me on trial?

And it's only his second week on the job, and so he's kind of going, I've got a right to the big guy, and let him know why I'm sending this guy, and I have no clue what he's done wrong. He still doesn't know, the governor has no clue what Paul has done wrong.

Well fortunately, some Jewish dignitaries come into town to greet the new governor, who's, like I said, been there two weeks, and they understand Jewish customs, they understand the Jewish culture, and all the things that have been swirling around in the history, and so he's like, hey, would you guys be willing to listen to this guy, Paul, talk, and help me come to a verdict, help me to reach an accusation even, so that I can send an accusation.

Is that making sense to everybody? Everybody kind of caught up on the context there then? From the get-go then, we see in our text, right away from verse one, so Agrippa said to Paul, King Agrippa, this devout Jew, is going to take the lead in this case, and he says, Paul, speak freely, you have permission to speak for yourself.

Go ahead and just say what's on your mind, Paul, so that we can kind of get down what is the real thing. You don't need to be all formal here, just let us know what's going on. So Paul gives the gesture of formal rhetoric, and begins his defense.

Now, it says he made a gesture, that gesture is not to silence the crowd or anything like that, there's an actual word in Greek that was, the the protocol for a courtroom type of scenario is very specific, there were certain hand gestures to quiet a crowd, and there's a word in Greek for that, that's not what this is, this is a formal rhetoric.

Have any of you ever been like in a formal setting, where there were like, maybe there was a trial or something, and there were hand gestures that people, we don't really do that in America. I've been to the Oxford Union, for example, to see a formal debate there, and if you stood to contest somebody else's point in the debate, there was a hand gesture, and you held your hand out like this.

Anybody ever seen anything like that before? Okay, we don't really do that a whole lot, but that's what's going on here, Paul gestures, and the signal, the sign, is that what I'm going to do is going to make my defense now.

It's really going to prove to be less a formal defense, though, of the charges against him, and more a defense of his life, a defense of the gospel, and the power of God working in him, and that's what he's going to do.

So he gives the formal courteous greeting, he doesn't get too flowery, we saw a guy, Tertullus, several weeks ago, who was over the top and lavish, and actually lying to try to flatter the ruler. Paul doesn't do any of that, he just says, I consider it fortunate that I'm standing before a Jew on trial for these things, because you as a Jew, at least, will understand some of these things that are going on.

You get the customs, you understand the controversies, and so I'm glad that I'm making a defense before you, King Agrippa. Paul doesn't promise a short defense, but he asks for patience, so that he can give some of his backstory, so that Agrippa can get caught up to speed, and Agrippa apparently obliges Paul, and listens to him intently.

Paul begins with his childhood, he starts right at the beginning, he explains that his lifestyle had been known by the Jews from the beginning. He was raised in Jerusalem. He was raised not just in Jerusalem, but he was a student of one of the most prominent rabbis of his time, Gamaliel.

So we know from historical documents that this guy that Paul studied under was a significant man, and it's apparent that Paul's parents must have had some kind of influence, or at least some kind of means, in order to send him from where he was born, up in Tarsus, down to Jerusalem to study as a religious student.

Things like that didn't happen in that day and age without significant means, so they were able to send or move to Jerusalem to have their son study. Now he was therefore a child of promise to the Jews.

He was a student, he was studying to be basically a rabbi, a prominent person in Jewish circles. He was a student with great promise and great expectations placed on him. It's clear in the text he even kicked around with the chief priests in Jerusalem.

He knew these people. He became a card-carrying member of the Pharisees, which was the strictest religious party among the Jews. And at the beginning of verse 5, if you look there, Paul exudes so much confidence that he says that the Jews themselves can verify, that is, they have known for a long time, and if they were willing to testify, these things are so.

It's common knowledge among the Jews. My history is an open book to them. If you ask them if they're willing to testify, they can validate that these things are true. I was a Pharisee, a very strict Jew.

I was there in Jerusalem, and everybody knows my life from childhood till now. I've been an open book. Verses 6 through 7 show that the way Paul sees it, he's on trial for following the Old Testament to its correct conclusions.

He says, I was a student of the Old Testament, I studied it, I know it, and I'm following it to its logical conclusions with a hope based on the Old Testament, and that is why I'm on trial. A hope, he sees his hope as a Christian, well substantiated from the Old Testament.

Now some of you, are any of you the Old Testament fairly confusing to you? If you were just being honest, like you read it, and it's kind of like, I don't really know quite what that has to do with me.

I mean there's some stories, we teach them to our kids in Sunday school, that's awesome for the kids because they're good stories, right? But is it just about morality? What is it about? Do good, you know, you can slay the giant too.

What are all these stories about in the Old Testament? Did you notice it's like two-thirds of the Bible? So it ought to grab some of our attention, probably, we ought to pay some attention to what's going on in there.

But all of it is a pointer forward to Jesus Christ. The law, all of those big sections, anybody ever get like, you're gonna read through the Bible in a year, and all of a sudden you get in Leviticus, and suddenly you're not going to read through the Bible in a year?

Okay, you know what I'm talking about. You get into those laws, and those laws are there for a purpose, to show us our inability to meet God's standard. It's like, it's all throughout the Old Testament is this common theme of, you can't do it.

Great, what a uplifting message there. But it's significant. How many of you know how important that is? Like, you look in your own heart, and you say, I needed that. I needed somebody to tell me I can't do it on my own, because believe me, I'll keep trying, and trying, and trying to do it on my own, pick myself up by the bootstraps, and lift myself to heaven.

Right? Are any of you like me on that? That you'll just keep trying to do it on your own, and you need constant perpetual reminders that you need help. You can't fix the sin problem in your heart on your own.

You need a Savior. That's what the Old Testament is all about. And Paul said, I get it. I've made, I've connected the dots. The Old Testament makes sense, and it's hope, and it's logical inclusion, is a Savior, a Messiah, one who would come and save us from our sins, and our inability to meet God's standard.

So it made sense to him. And that's the hope that he sees, and that he's living. A hope that he thinks all Jews should follow. And it's interesting that in verse 7, he identifies that the 12 tribes of Israel hope to attain to the promises of the Old Testament.

And in their attempt to attain those promises, which are, the Messiah would come, that they would have salvation, that they would be made in a right relationship with God, and they're trying to attain those things by earnestly worshiping, it says in the text, night and day.

They are earnest in their desire and seeking to please God, but it's based on works. And here's why I say it's based on works. There's a difference between attaining something and receiving something.

Did you know that? It's the difference between attaining something. I looked up the definition of the word attain this week. Attain is to reach, to achieve, to accomplish. What were the Jews trying to do?

To do it on their own. To reach out and to accomplish the promises of the Old Testament. And they weren't able to. The Jews are striving to attain, to accomplish something that God has now offered to us as a free gift through his Son.

Now some people in church, and some people maybe here in this room, can fall into the trap of trying to attain the promises of God. Striving to attain forgiveness, striving to attain salvation, trying to accomplish those things.

When God desires, his primary desire for us is to cease our striving and to rest in the work of Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior. You see he's already done it. The gospel is a historical event. His death on the cross is the place of forgiveness and salvation.

And there is nothing left for us to do. So when Jesus Christ cried from the cross, it is finished, guess what? He meant it. It is finished. The work accomplished on our behalf. All the work necessary for you and I to be made in a right relationship with God and get to spend eternity with him, forever and ever and ever, on a remade earth, a remade place for us.

Restoring things to the way that they were in the garden, only even better with progress, a city, the new Jerusalem, an amazing future for us. By the way, I'm convinced that many Christians, and I say this whenever I mention heaven or the new earth, I just feel like I've got to say this, I think we have thought poorly about heaven.

Like what am I going to do there? I can only sing so many praise songs, right? I can only bow so long before my back starts to strain and my knees wear out, right? So is that what it's going to be? I mean, how has God created us to worship him?

Has he given us these bodies? Are these bodies evil or are these bodies given to us for a purpose? Did Adam and Eve, were they just like strumming harps, like floating on clouds when he created them and that's what he wants us to be doing forever and ever and ever?

No, we worship God in a multitude of ways, through work, through doing a variety of things with our lives, through interacting with one another, right? What is it about our minds that all of a sudden shut off when we think about heaven and we cease to be creative in our understanding of how God has made us to be earthy creatures?

The new heaven and the new earth are going to be earth. It's going to be a place, tangible, where we'll visit and we'll eat and we'll talk to one another and we'll interact with God. Do you see how that captures you like it captures me?

It's so much more, it's so much beyond like just floating on the clouds, singing some songs and strumming some harps, okay? It's something that's much more than that and that was totally a side note and I'm gonna have to catch up here with where I was.

We fall into this trap though, we fall into this trap of trying to complete the work that's already been done for us. That's what Jesus has bought for us on the cross when he said it is finished and I consider this sometimes.

I think how offensive it must be to God when we act as though we can add more to the cross. Have you ever thought about that? Like how offensive that must be that he went through the pain and the anguish of his son's crucifixion and sometimes we fall into living our lives in a way that's like saying to God, thanks for that whole cross thing but hey look at what I can do.

Do you know what I'm saying? Can we fall into that? Like hey but I can add something to that, let me tack on a little bit of my own stuff to this. The only thing that God is impressed with, I had to think about this a lot before I decided to write this down and say it, I believe that the only thing God is impressed with regarding human action or interaction is the righteous life, the sacrificial death, and the exalted resurrection of his son.

And that only as much as we are in Christ in those things is he pleased with us. It is only on the merit and the basis of what Christ has done with us that we can please the Father. And it's his life living through us in the Spirit and as we walk in the Spirit that is how we can live a life pleasing to him is by being in Christ.

Does that make sense? In verse 8 Paul challenges everyone in his audience to consider their own thinking on resurrection. Why is it so unbelievable that God raises the dead? If you think about that logically it's kind of funny.

If you believe there is one who has made everything, anybody here believe that there's somebody who made everything? God? Okay, logically if you believe he's there and if there is one who gives life to begin with, is it really extreme to think that he could raise the dead?

No, right? I mean it kind of flows logically from the belief that there is a God who created life, that he can reinstall life in something that is dead. It's not that unbelievable. But now Paul takes us back to a time when he himself found it unbelievable.

And I love how he can relate to his audience because he goes back and he says, but I get it. I mean it's not like he's just gonna bash them over the head and be like, how in the world could you not believe in resurrection?

Well I used I used to be one of you. I used to be in that place where I didn't believe in it. And he relates well with his audience rather than just looking down on them as ignorant or he sympathizes with their belief system.

He had opposed Jesus, he says, doing many things. Things like locking up Christians with the authority of the chief priests. He cast his lots against them, having them put to death with his approval, with his lot cast against them, he says.

Did you know Paul was not a good guy when he was Saul before his his change? He had blood on his hands. Not only that, he says, he goes on, he elaborates on this, he punished them, he persecuted them, even trying to make Christians blaspheme.

Which means in essence, we might misunderstand that, I'm asking Christians to blaspheme that he was actually trying to get them to denounce Christ. What the word and the theme there means is that he would go to a synagogue and that's what he was going, where was he going when he went to Damascus?

He was on his way to the synagogue to go and collect some Christians, to take them back to Jerusalem, to put them in prison and maybe have them killed. And he's going to the synagogues and he's asking them to declare their beliefs about Jesus Christ because if they say, if he can get them to just state their doctrine that they believe Jesus Christ is God, that to a Jew is blasphemy.

Now he has good grounds to arrest them and to see the death penalty initiated from a Jewish law standpoint. You see what I'm saying? So he's actually trying to get them to declare just strictly what they believe.

He's asking, do you believe Jesus Christ is Lord? Yes? Okay, you're with me and with chains and you're arrested. So that's what he's doing and he's going around trying to get them to blaspheme. In the middle of verse 11 he uses a word for his persecution that is very strong.

If you look at verse 11 he says, and I punished them often in all the synagogues and I tried to make them blaspheme and in a raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities. That's a maniacal, crazed, uncontrollable rage that he's talking about there.

Even chasing them to foreign cities like Damascus and then he's going to expound on that trip to Damascus. Because on that particular journey he was coming close to the city. It was about midday when he encountered a light, the text tells us, brighter than the sun.

Everyone was dropped to the ground and he heard the voice of Jesus Christ. Jesus was challenging him to think about who it was he was persecuting and that this persecution was equivalent to kicking against the goads.

That's not a typo, it's not kicking against the goats. I don't recommend kicking a goat but that's not what it is. So what does that mean? Do you have a picture in your mind of what goads are? Anybody besides me kind of going, what is that?

Okay good. Then I'm going to explain it but if you don't, if you already get it I don't need to walk through it. A goad is a long pointed stick that was used to keep an ox that was pulling a plow or pulling a cart to keep it on track and so rather than a whip it was just a sharp stick.

You're going right, I want you to go left, I'm going to poke this side and you're going to go the other way. Okay, not super humane but the way that it was done and Jesus is saying you can kick against the direction God wants you to go but it's not going to result well for you.

It's going to result in your own pain so it's not good for you to kick against the goads. Think about this word picture and how that works in our own lives. Have you ever kicked against the goads so to speak in the way that Paul is talking about?

God wants you to go this way, you go this way. How does that work for you? Does that go well? Result in a little bit of pain most often? I know you would acknowledge that maybe you've experienced some pain because you've kicked against the goads before in your life.

We do that when we're convicted of sin but keep doing it we're kicking against the goads. When we read scripture and sometimes we read it's not just the sin, it's not that just this just points out the sin that we do but sometimes it points out the good that we ought to do that we don't.

Have you ever experienced that? You're like ah it says I'm supposed to love my wife that way and I'm not doing a great job with that or whatever good it tells us to do and we're not doing it. That's kicking against the goads as well, right?

God guides us and directs us and the question we've got to ask is are we going to follow him or is he gonna have to do this the hard way? It's not a threat, it's just a reality. God has a way of bringing us around to seeing things his way and sometimes maybe I should say rarely in my life we've done it the easy way but many times it's taken drama or pain in my life to get my attention.

I think we probably all could agree with that in various levels. Jesus commissions Paul in verse 16 through 18 declaring that he is calling this zealous church-persecuting Pharisee into a ministry of growing the church among Jews and Gentiles.

That is a role reversal. I mean I think there was some serious whiplash in Paul's life. I think it actually says he went without eating. Another account of this, by the way we this is the third time we've seen this in the book of Acts where he's given his testimony.

He's explained what happened to him on the road to Damascus and in one of the accounts it says he went three days without eating or drinking. He was just in silence and it was, by the way, he was blinded.

He doesn't mention it in this account but he was blinded by that light that he saw. Couldn't see for three days and he goes without eating. I think he's actually almost catatonic. I think he's just kind of like having a hard time.