One of the difficult things about living the Christian life is the hidden pitfalls that we often encounter. It’s one thing to see what’s coming and to brace yourself for it, but it’s quite another to only realize the danger once you are already there. Or to put it another way, it is one thing to be warned of mistakes we might make in the future, while it is quite another to be warned of mistakes that we have been making through much of our lives and are, in fact, making now.
I would like to think that as we see some of these pitfalls in the text that we could all say, “Hey, thanks for the warning, but I am avoiding it to this point” rather than “Man, I’m making that mistake right now.” Whatever the case, however, there are difficulties and mistakes made in the Christian life that we need to avoid. And as we see an excerpt from the life of Paul tonight, we will be able to expose some of these things.
What happens in these three chapters is a follow up to the end of chapter 23. At the end of chapter 23, we read that Claudius Lysias had shipped Paul to be tried by the governor Felix because Paul was in danger of being killed where he was. In chapter 24, an attorney named Tertullus gathers the Jews in order to bring charges against Paul. The attorney accuses Paul, Paul defends himself, and Felix delays a decision in the case. All the while, Paul is under house arrest.
“Some days later” (v. 24), Felix’s wife came and influenced him to hear Paul again. Again, he becomes frightened by Paul’s preaching and sends him away.
Finally, we arrive at a point two years down the road where Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And the chief priests and elders brought the charges against Paul before him. Festus hears Paul’s case, realizes he has not committed any crime, “but wanting to do the Jews a favor” (25:9) asks Paul if he is willing to stand trial at Jerusalem. As a citizen of Rome, Paul has the right to approve or disapprove this. And seeing that Jerusalem would not be partial and that his quest was to end up in Rome, he appeals to Caesar.
However, before he is sent, Agrippa comes to visit Festus, and they bring Paul before them again. Finally, Paul makes his defense before Agrippa, sharing his testimony and preaching the gospel, and Agrippa declares, “This man is not doing anything worthy of death or imprisonment” and “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar” (26:31-32). And the stage is set for Paul to go to Rome for trial.
As I stated at the beginning, in these hearings, we get to see something more than the accusations against Paul and his defense; we get to see pitfalls that Paul might expose in our lives as we look at his. He shows us what we cannot forget by recognizing it himself.
I mentioned last week that the culture we live in is one of tolerance. In other words, “It’s fine that you believe what you believe, but don’t try to push it on me!” are the cries that will be heard in our day. We live in a day when the highest goal is to tolerate the person beside you, whatever he or she believes.
And if you could think of something that is the extreme opposite of tolerance, it is believing that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that those who do not know him as Lord will suffer eternally in hell. This is not tolerating your neighbor’s beliefs.
Therefore, because the whole world is going to persecute (on some level) the individual who believes and proclaims that there is a divine judgment after this life where some will be cast into eternal hell, I fear that some of us will be tempted to avoid that declaration. But we must not, for it is true! One author writes, “It is one of the weaknesses of a great deal of contemporary Christianity that we do not speak of the last judgment and of the possibility of being finally lost.”
In fact, many professing believers today teach that there is no eternal judgment of hell for those who do not believe. They would say that for the believer there is eternal life, but for he who is not saved, the grave is simply the end. But to say that one must ignore Scripture.
Paul did not fall into the temptation of being silent on the topic of judgment. He spoke clearly, and some of the portions of Scripture that one must ignore in order to believe that there is not an eternal hell are Paul’s speech here.
Luke tells us in 24:25 that Paul “was discussing righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.” And he spoke of it so that “Felix became frightened” (24:25).
This gives us a valuable lesson; though it is neither necessary nor beneficial to push men into professing Christ as Lord, men need to know the judgment that hangs over them. Men need to know that the only one giving them breath is the very one whose judgment they are storing up for themselves. Felix may have been left alone by Paul, but he was not ignorant of the fact that he was under divine judgment.
However, even here I am aware that some might say, “Well, just because he was speaking of judgment doesn’t mean that it is any more than a man dying and begin left in the grave instead of having eternal life.” For one, I would respond that such a teaching probably would not put such fear in Felix, however, there is another statement by Paul that rejects such a view.
In 24:15, Paul says, “There shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.” Do you see? Scripture doesn’t leave us the possibility of thinking that men are simply left in the grave, nor that only those who believe in Christ are raised. No, rather both the righteous and the wicked will be raised to face the judgment of God. And just as some will then be appointed to eternal life, others will be appointed to eternal suffering in hell.
Men need to know that they are storing up for themselves wrath in the day of judgment. They do not need to see the gospel as something that can be added to their life or dismissed but something that is good news for those under divine judgment.
I hope that Paul wakes us up to this as we see him preaching about the judgment to come in these passages. I hope that we avoid this pitfall of ignoring the reality of hell. However, there is another pitfall we can see to avoid by looking at Paul.
Paul did not view his message of Christ as separate from his Jewish teaching from the Old Testament, but as a fulfillment of it. This is obvious as he defends himself against the authorities.
His testimony in these chapters is full of his argument of Christ being a fulfillment of the Old Testament. He is standing trial for proclaiming Christ as risen from the dead, but when he speaks of this in 26:6-7, he says, “I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day.” Also in 24:14, Paul says, “But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law, and that is written in the Prophets.”
Then again in 26:22-23, Paul argues, “And so, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what he Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; that he Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He should be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.” Paul’s argument is: This message of Christ was in the Old Testament.
And it is so, for in Isaiah 52:13-53:12, we read of the sufferings of Christ. Also, in Isaiah 42:6, 49:6, and 60:3 we read of salvation being proclaimed to the nations. And finally, when he is wanting to show Agrippa that what he said is right, he doesn’t say, “Do you believe what I have said?” He says, “King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets?” (26:27), for he knew that they were fulfilled in Christ.
Even when Paul testifies of the words of Christ to him in verses 15-18, we are immediately reminded of Christ’s work foretold in the Old Testament. For Isaiah 42:6-7 records God speaking to his servant, which we recognize as Jesus, saying, “I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you, and I will appoint you as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations, to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from prison.”
And when Paul speaks of his commands from the Lord, they are strikingly similar. He says, “And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; delivering you from the Jewish 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 dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me’” (26:15-18).
If Agrippa was versed in the Old Testament, then he was thinking that the work of the coming Messiah is being fulfilled even now in Paul’s life. But that would then lead him to believe that somehow, these followers of Christ were carrying out the role of their Christ as he has now ascended. And such is exactly right. That’s why Jesus can say to Paul as Paul is persecuting the church, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (26:14). The Old Testament is fulfilled in Christ and now his work is carried out through his church. I think that is why Acts can begin with Luke writing, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach” (Acts 1:1). Luke can write “began” because Christ’s work is continued through the work of his body.
This same prophesy of the work of the Messiah recorded in Isaiah 42:6-7 is also mentioned in Isaiah 35:4-6 and 61:1 as Isaiah writes, “Behold, your God will come with vengeance; the recompense of God will come, but He will save you. Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy” and “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the humble/poor.”
Therefore, when John wants to know if Jesus is the Messiah and sends his disciples to ask him so, Jesus answers, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who keeps from stumbling over me” (Matthew 11:4-6).
Because John is well versed in the Old Testament, this means much more than just, “John, look at my power and kindness.” This means, “John, I am fulfilling what was prophesied about the coming one, the Lord. And you will be blessed if you do not stumble over my appearance as a man.”
This is a taste of what Paul is doing all through his defense in Acts 26. He is preaching Christ as a fulfillment of the Old Testament. And we need to do the same.
“But why?” you might ask, “There is reason that we need to believe in the reality of hell, but what is so necessary about seeing (and continually studying in order to see) Christ, as the fulfillment of the Old Testament?”
The answer to this question is short but the entailments are many. The answer is that you might see Christ as he truly is, in all his greatness and glory. You just don’t see that if you read Matthew 11:4-6 without knowledge of Isaiah. You take away lessons like, “Jesus was kind to the disabled and poor, and so should we be kind.” But you miss the majesty of the message Jesus is giving to John. He is declaring himself God!
The implications of this truth – that Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament – are many. I will list three.
1) Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength is the greatest commandment, and such affection will only come from you as you realize more and more who Jesus Christ is. And that will come more and more through seeing the depth of who he is as a fulfillment of the Old Testament.
2) Your holiness will diminish as your view of God diminishes and will rise as your view of God becomes greater. Therefore, the more time you meditate on and see the depths of the greatness of our Lord, you are allowing yourself to be sanctified by him. And you life will resemble it.
3) Nothing else but a great view of (and passion for) God will drive you to radical obedience. In other words, it is hard to find the strength to continually conquer sin by telling yourself, “Jesus was kind to the poor, so should I be, etc.” But when you wake in the morning and realize the majesty of God as our Lord’s richness, majesty, and glory is announced in the Old Testament and realized in the New, you will find power and a longing to live holy even as he is holy.
Therefore, I pray that we, like Paul, would avoid the pitfalls of avoiding speaking of the judgment and only seeing the outer layer of Scripture, but that we would proclaim the coming judgment and would be driven by a majestic view of God from Genesis to Revelation.
Grace be with you. Amen.