Preaching the Gospel from Acts (Part 1 of 2)

The apostle Paul, imprisonment spoke before many high-ranking authorities, but he never used those opportunities to seek his own release was sent today on Truth for Life. Alistair Begged answers that question by teaching us about the serious undertaking that's involved in being appointed to preach the gospel writers among many factors that inhibit persuasive gospel preaching and their leaves, confusion regarding the message itself.

Fear of the consequences of preaching that message and complacency regarding the condition of those who are listening to the message Paul could never be charged with any of those conditions and as we look at his approach this morning.

He's really clear he's very straightforward and authoritative and he is urgent in the way in which he deals with the matters. Let me just as well as we go into this that there is a distinct difference between preaching from. For example, a gospel or preaching from historical narrative and the narrative in this instance should frame our approach. Let me then do what I'm suggesting to you and first of all say that it is imperative to come to terms with this sketch in a little bit of background, this would presumably calm you would be unlikely for you to just arbitrarily choose acts chapter 26 for a one-off sermon, it would probably calm in a series of expositions in acts but nevertheless you would need to make sure that your people had an understanding of the background and in order to really set this in context, you have to go back to chapter 24 and verse five and there you discover that Paul has been accused of being a troublemaker at the Holman Bible that I read this morning. Somewhere along these lines, we have found this man to be playing an agitator of the Jews, a ringleader of a sacked and desecrate the temple property. Those are the underlying notions which I've put Paul in custody and in front of a series of folks who are seeking to hear his case at the trial had gone in chapter 24 before Felix. He had heard the case without issuing a verdict.

He and his adulterous companion, Drusilla had on a number of occasions invited Paul to give a talk and Paul had missed the opportunity to give a talk, and had given quite a talk to somebody who was sitting there in adultery as he discourses verse 25 of chapter 24 on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come. He always he wasn't trying to get himself released from jail was a he always he wasn't trying to get himself onto good terms with the ruling authorities so that he would be invited to the garden parties so that he would be able to come in and out the back door of the equivalent of the White House if he had been seeking to do that, then he certainly would not challenge them concerning these things. He was very clear. He was very authoritative. He was very urgent and Felix had no time for the tall and in the King James version. Of course, recall that Felix trembled and set out get back to you when it's a better time for listening to this kind of thing that chapter 24 ends with the fact that he is left for two years in custody before Felix is succeeded by this fellow Porsche's Festus, and here we go again.

Festus makes a stab at it, but he's quickly out of his dad, Paul, in the course of the dialogue decides to appeal to Caesar and when the Jewish king and his wife arrived to pay their respects to this fellow Festus, there is an opportunity for Festus to get a little bit of help in the matter, and that's what he says when a group arrives. I was hoping perhaps that I know that you're here, you would be able to give me some kind of insight and you can read that in chapter 25 says it, I think, in verse 14 and then again in verse 19 and he outlines the situation for the visiting gang. There are some points of dispute verse 19 of 25 there disputing about matters of their own religion about a dead man named Jesus, whom Paul claimed was a lie. Wonderfully dismissive way, is there some kind of intramural discussion gang always on about Jesus of Nazareth. He's clearly dead. He actually thinks he's alive, and as a result of this the king says others is quite fascinating. I like to hear him myself and saw a large door of opportunity in the providence of God is now swinging open door of opportunity for Festus to hear for Agrippa and Bernice to hear and a big door of opportunity swinging open for the apostle Paul to make clear, not simply the nature of his predicament, but the nature of the gospel itself and in verse 23 of chapter 25, which was where we began at the scene is set for us.

If you want to know about lighting this for myself. My first heading for my own notes was sketch in the background. My second heading is considered the scene consider the scene is important is your studying the Bible you stand far enough back from you don't immediately assume that you know this because you read it seven times that you are prepared as a teacher of the Bible to be surprised by the text that you prepared to come to. As an agnostic, not as a believer not in the sense of you don't believe the truth of it. We just don't know everything about if you come to a samurai notice. I learned this many many times that you will not discover the things that you will discover review prior to come to. It is where on your needs and I wonder why it's written in this way. I wonder how this unfolds. So I put my notes consider the scene, Agrippa and Burness came with great pomp. In other words, is the circumstances would be a bit like a miserable high school graduation where they play Elgar again and again and again and again to you just about going insane by the timing is of the 47th time.

It's like scratching your nails on a black and practice anticlimactic when everybody finally shows up as a been played so many times the high-ranking officers. The leading man of the city all arrive the Herod's are here. The Herod's are here while is this the Herod whose great-grandfather was responsible for the slaughter of the boys under the age of two in Bethlehem.

Yes.

Is this the Herod whose grandfather was responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist. Yes. Is this the Herod's father killed the apostle James and died a miserable death. Yes, quite a group. Wouldn't you say not the nicest of people in the scene is straightforward. The humble apostle stands before this representative of the morally corrupt house of Herod and the language as it is given to us makes the distinction very clearly. Agrippa and Burness came with great pomp, the high-ranking officers and the leading men of the city. Okay, they came at the command of fasters. Paul was brought there is a distinction here.

They arrived and as you look at the scene you save yourself. Where does power lie in this scene any onlooker looks at the circumstances that where is that authority and where there is that it might in all of this and people would inevitably concludes that the authority in this scene lay with those who would arrived with this great display of standing with the indication of their status. Certainly whoever this little Jew is whatever he's about to say he's in a position of abject weakness. Now we might posit this in our preaching and so you know this is actually a classic picture of the church in the world is a classic picture of the average Baptist Church somewhere in rural Alabama with the pastor, and 110 people in the little Sunday school in the world going by the town Council executing its judgments and the significance and authority of status intellectually and commercially and socially, all appearing to be on the site of this is a reminder to us that we need to allow our Bibles to frame our thinking on some of you who are younger who are old and off like me to remember chariots of fire.

It wasn't something that your grandfather watched you may actually have that scene in your mind where Eric little stands in the pulpit and he says he brings princes to not and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.

I wish I could get invited just once to the prayer breakfast in Washington because this is my text.

Give me one shot. This is what I want to preach but we will never be invited back. It doesn't matter. You only need invited one do you not know have you not heard the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the year scenes is not, nor is weary. There is no searching of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and to those who have no might he increases strength.

Surely young men will stumble and fall, but they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength. He is the God who brings princes to not and reduces the rulers of the world to nothing. It is quite pathetic to see the extent to which even Angelica Christianity continues to hang on to the coattails of politicians in this country, as if somehow or another they actually control very much Agrippa has declared that he would like to hear. And so here he will and verse one of 26 you say were here for a long time this morning. Don't worry, we will move ahead quickly. He gives permission to Paul to speak and notice the little eyewitness observation. So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense is interesting is that I would like to look for what's surprising is quite surprising that you have a detail like that. He motioned with his hand and began his defense that's eyewitness somebody reported a ride was a characteristic of Paul that he always started in the same way, or it was characteristic of the time that when you began an oration you began in that way. I kind of Shakespearean look to it. If you like I kind of Polonius Milesian madam to expose her leg or Majesty should be what Judy is why day, day, night, night, and I missed time were nothing but wasteful of my day and time, and since brevity is the soul of wit and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes. I will be brief. That's the kind of thing and you remember the queen replies. The Polonius formatter unless our words. We don't eat a lot of folderol.

Polonius, what is it your own about some of us are masterful at getting to it and never reaching the place, all motions with his hand and began his defense, and you will notice number one. He says I was a religious prodigy.

He's going to get quickly to the issue. I was a religious prodigy. I was the Lebron James of Pharisaism. That's what he says the people know this.

They can verify I was brought up in the strictest of backgrounds and my life has been characterized by the hope of Israel, my whole life is been driven by the hope of Israel, and if you want in your reading out loud.

Then you can go and look for the times that he mentions whole certainty of a reality, not yet fulfilled the conviction that God was going to come again as he had done before in the deliverance of his people from Egypt and he was going to raise up a banner of salvation in the house of David. That's what we were looking forward to sis Paul that's what I grew up with. That is the context of Zechariah's song in the temple where he says of Jesus, he has you have raised up a horn for eyes a horn of salvation in the house of David and it was this whole which gave life which gave meaning which gave purpose to the synagogue gatherings to the morning sessions to the evening sessions to the sacrificial system and that is what Paul is pointed out in verse seven he says this is the promise of 12 tribes which is simply a nation in its totality. This is the promise that our 12 tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as the earnestly serve God night and day again and it's because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me and then he says is in this crazy, why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead. It was the Sadducees that didn't believe in the resurrection, but the Pharisees were clear.

There is a resurrection to life and there is a judgment that will follow. Paul knew exactly what he was saying because the issue wasn't resurrection per se. The issue was the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and just in passing, the issue is not resurrection today either. When I was a teenager in the 60s used to get in the huge arguments about the resurrection and rationalism. Scientific rationalism fought vociferously against any of us who were seeking to argue for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I don't find the same arguments and in the present generation. I think people are quite happy. These give up on the notion of resurrection or reincarnation or coming around again or whatever you might like to call this a different day. But what we're talking about what the New Testament is talking about in both the incarnation and the resurrection is a unique unrepeatable event. Why would anybody consider it strange that there is a resurrection know the real issue is this Jesus thing it always is. It always is. No pieces. I was the Lebron James and then he goes on to say that actually he was engaged in opposition and in persecution, as verses 9 to 11 and he outlines his animosity. Then in verses 12 to 18. He tells the king that there has been a divine intervention 12 to 18 recount his conversion experience at least one of the records that we have of it from Paul himself. And if your gaze is in the text, you will see that he is telling the king that he realized that Jesus is alive and that he is so closely connected with this people to persecute them was to persecute him, and when this dawning realization came to him as he picked himself up from the ground.

He discovered that he had been rescued from his people and from among the Gentiles and he was being dispatched verse 18. So just so you know if it's helpful to you.

The way that I tried to move through this is I simply identified that in verse four and following he he distinguishes himself as a religious prodigy. He then says that but to be fair and there's a little transition in verses eight and nine is a transition there but to be fairly says I was actually posted Jesus and I persecuted those who love Jesus.

That's opposition and persecution, then 12 to 18.

There is divine intervention. God is divinely intervened and then in verse 18. He's going on to tell that he is been commissioned, commissioned, and so I would pause there as I pause now with you. Reiterate again. I am sending you to them. Verse 18 to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Verse 19 so then, King Agrippa, I wasn't disobedient to the vision from heaven and I set out to do what I had been asked to do. Note it is at this point the monologue is going to break beyond the bounds of propriety and is going to issue in a dialogue and so what we need to do is summarize the balance of the material. If in preaching through narrative we are unprepared to allow things to just lie and leave them then finally will take 100 years of your life to preach to the acts of the apostles and was if you try and go through the narrative of acts in a way that you would go through. Let's say the epistle of James, and you use the same methodology and you hold yourself to the same sort of intricate word studies and syntax in all these different things.

I suggest to you that you will bore your people to death and that you run the risk of failing to let them see that in this great dramatic historical suite. There are overarching themes and implications that can only be fully grasped when you take them in their entirety. When you start to particularize them as is and am all and you will run adrift, you may want to debate whether that is fine I don't mind I'm talking now, lexically, so he gives this explanation.

When you have explanation then you get into the journalist approach, which is the who what why we are when stuck right if you do journalism school.

You know you arrive on the scene of the crash is for, say, who, what, why, where, when, and so if you get that then you can begin to put your paragraph together.

So sometimes I comes on like this. I just use the same questions are right! Question number one, why, why, what, why was I doing this king. Why did I all of a sudden get out and start doing this answer because I was appointed because I was appointed. In other words, and I'm not a bright idea sky.

I'm not here my own authority. This isn't something I dreamt up this isn't something I want to do is not that I was considering going to law school and I decided to go to seminary instead and I just got this and ran so I'm here and I'm going to talk to you. You won't last long. The only reason to go is because you are sent. The only authority with which you can speak is the authority of divine commission. I thought everybody was commissioned. Everybody is commissioned to be a witness to Jesus Christ.

Not everyone is commissioned to be a pastor and teacher and the fact that a number of individuals have banged up against the pool. To the distraction of their own souls and to the detriment of their own people is evident throughout the entire nation. Better to be a king or a doctor or a farmer or a plowman to the glory of God, then to end up in this position on commission on-call on sentence. What's the deal here why you constantly in jail. Why are you the proponent of these things and circuiting. Let me tell you why because I was appointed. That's why reason the apostle Paul preached with such authority is because he was under God's from today's message on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg.

One of the ways that we can gain a perspective on sharing the gospel with others is by looking at how the apostle Paul spoke to key officials just one of the many lessons we can glean from his faithful ministry. That's why were excited to tell you about a book that's available beginning today. It's a book that will help you see how Paul prayed for the Ephesians book is titled praying big. Learn to pray like an apostle and it's written by Alistair Begg in the book pretty big.

You'll find an honest assessment about our struggle with prayer points out how easy it is for us to fall into familiar patterns work just repeating things we memorized. That's why Alister shows us how we can resuscitate our prayer life insurance five key qualities we can use to fuel our prayers. All of them based on Paul's old intercession for fellow believers.

Alister's books tend to go quickly, so be sure to request a copy of pray big right away book comes with a corresponding study guide in both of these can be yours when you make a generous one-time donation to Truth for Life. Give online at truthforlife.org/donate about looking hope you enjoy worshiping with your local church this weekend. Join us Monday as Alister explains why it is so urgent that we preach the gospel the Bible teaching of Alistair Begg furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living