Felt good this morning walking
across the parking lot instead of down the hall of a motel. I thought it felt good this morning
to be home. The older I get, the more of
a homebody I am. I just soon stay home and go
nowhere. Turn to Acts chapter 25. Acts 25. The verse that really
has my attention this morning is verse 19. I'll cover some
of the others, but verse 19. And the title of this lesson is, A Man Named Jesus. A man named Jesus who was dead
is alive. And this was the charge brought
against the Apostle Paul. It's the only charge that Festus
could come up with. He said, this is the only thing
that I know of that's against this man. He says here, but the Jews had
certain questions against him of their own superstition. He
called their religion a superstition. And you know, for the most part,
it became that way. Isn't that something? It really
became that way to them. And of one Jesus, which was dead,
whom Paul affirmed, says with great conviction, he's alive. He's not dead. He's not dead.
Well, let me cover some of this and then we'll say something
about that. We see here in verse 27 of chapter
24, after two years, Porcius Festus came into Felix's room. Felix was removed. And Felix,
willing to show the Jews a pleasure being a politician that he is,
or was, he wanted to get on the good side of them. And so he's
going to show them a pleasure and he left Paul bound. Paul
was bound for two years. And now when Festus here, Festus,
he comes into the province, he takes over and he goes to Jerusalem. And the Jews want him to deliver Paul. They wanted
to assassinate Paul. They wanted to kill Paul. So
they try to get Festus, since they didn't get it out of Felix.
They try to get Festus, who wants to do them a favor also, just
like Felix. And they tried to get him to
turn over Paul. But Festus wouldn't do that.
He would not send Paul back to Jerusalem. He's in Caesarea.
He wouldn't send him back to Jerusalem, and the reason is
this, God wouldn't let him. The heart of the king is in the
hand of the Lord, like the rivers of waters, he turns it whithersoever
he will. The heart of our enemies are
in the hand of God. They're in His hand. Remember
in the Psalms here, I think about three weeks ago, where God turned
the heart of the Egyptians to Hades people. It says God did
that. God turned their heart to Hades
people. The heart of the whole human race, every person. I was
flying over Dallas. I took pictures of the city as
far out as you can see to the left side of the plane and right
side of the plane, front of the plane, back of the plane. It
was nothing but lights. And I was watching these cars
look like a little matchbox about that big. We were still that
high up. And I could see them and just look like ants. You
know how ants will follow you? They look like ants running down
the road. And the thought struck me. God knows the thought right
to the thought of every person down there. I mean, it really
struck me when I looked at all those lights and the vastness
of that city and all that commotion and moving going on down there.
God knows the thought of every one of them. That just made,
what it did, it made And I don't know how to say this, but at
that moment, it made God so much greater in my thoughts that he
could know right down to the thought of every, and that's
just that city right there. Seven billion people, he knows
their thoughts. And every idle word, he said,
will be brought into judgment of every person. That's astounding. Our God is great. He's great. And here, God would not allow
Festus to turn Paul over. He wouldn't do it. God knows
how to take care of His own. Now the Jews, it says there in
verse 7, and I'm just going to touch these, they brought many
accusations against Paul. Lies. Lies. False religion has no problem
lying. False religion is a lying tongue. That's what it is. And
there's no problem to bring these false accusations against Paul.
They couldn't prove them, it says there. They couldn't prove
any of these accusations. And Paul in verse 8, he lets
Festus know that he had done no harm and no wrong to anyone. None. So Festus asked Paul there
in verse 9, he asked Paul, he said, do you want to go back
to Jerusalem and be judged? He wanted to send him back to
Jerusalem. And Paul said, no, no, I don't want to go back there.
I want to go before Caesar. I want to go before his judgment
seat. Paul knew if he went back to Jerusalem, it was a lynch
mob. They'd kill him. He wouldn't
get fair judgment, they'd kill him. So Paul, in wisdom, and
here's something too, you know God told Paul he was going to
preach to those at Rome also? This is the road to Rome. This
is it. He's going to be sent to Caesar,
and he's going to end up preaching to the people there in Rome.
But in verse 13, now comes King Agrippa. This is brother to Drusilla,
and the brother to his wife, Bernice. That's her brother. Anyway, he comes in and The scriptures
fulfilled You you when you read that you just look right over
wouldn't you you just go back to Acts chapter 9? Look back
in Acts chapter 9 What we see is the scripture being fulfilled,
you know, and most of the time we just read right over that
In Acts chapter 9, let me get there Look in verse 13. Then Ananias answered,
Lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath
done to thy saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from
the chief priest to bind all that call on thy name. But the
Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto
me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings. Here he is standing before the
governor and the king. Now how's that gonna happen? Isn't the providence of God amazing? Isn't the power of God amazing? The will of God, it's amazing,
isn't it? He said he's gonna bear witness
before kings, Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. And
that's exactly what's happening. Here's King Agrippa, here's one
of them. Everyone's in God's hands. God's
purpose can never fail. God's Word can never fail. I've
learned this as I've gotten older. I've learned more and more and
more, and this is important. Take God at His words over your feelings. Don't go
with your feelings. Go with the Word of God. Well,
this is how I feel. But what does the Word of God
say? I stand on the Word of God. Because
most of the time, if I went by how I feel, most of the time,
what does it feel like to feel like you're saved? You feel like
you're lost most of the time, don't you? I mean, you feel like
a wretch. Well, that's probably because you are. You and I are
wretches. That's why we feel like it. But
I know in the Word of God, I stand before God holy and righteous. I know that. I know that. Now in verse 14, Festus tells
King Agrippa about Paul and how that he's done nothing to right.
There's no charge by which to send him to Caesar. He's a dilemma. He's a dilemma for Festus. And
he becomes one for King Agrippa. He was one for Felix. How do
we handle this man? I don't have anything to write
against him. I can't send him to Caesar and
say, you know, he's done this and this because he hasn't. So he keeps trying to pass him
off. Paul's like a hot potato. He's passing him off. And here's
the charge. Festus tells Agrippa, That the
only thing that he knew that was a problem and the only charge
that could be brought against him is this, and this is important.
In verse 19, "...but certain questions against him of their
own superstition." Their own religion. It has to do with their
religion. It doesn't have to do with anything
concerning the state, concerning Rome, concerning the government
of Rome, it has to do with their religion. And of one Jesus, this one named Jesus, which was
dead, He was crucified, they knew that, He was crucified,
that was evident. Their historian, Josephus, he
was the historian of the Jews, he put this in history. History
speaks of this man, Jesus, and how he was put to death. And
he says, this one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed,
he constantly says, this man, Jesus, is alive, he's not dead. He said, that's the only charge
against this man. That's a great charge, isn't it? That's a great
charge. Here is an outsider who hears
both parties' case. And here is what he hears, this
outsider, here's what he hears. On the Jews' part, he hears of
their religion. He hears of their ceremonies
that they conduct all the time, and how Paul's against them.
He hears of their feast days, of their creeds, and their catechisms. He hears this from the Jews.
This is what the Jews are talking about. And this one man named
Jesus, who was dead, but Paul keeps saying he's alive. They
spoke of their laws, and how Paul stood against their laws,
against their religion, the religion of their fathers. But when Paul
spoke, He spoke of a person. They speak of their religion.
Paul spoke of this man, Jesus Christ. Boy, there's a world
of difference here. A world of difference between
speaking and holding up a religion, or preaching and holding up,
lifting up Jesus Christ. Paul spoke of a man named Jesus. That's the person he spoke of. Paul's whole religion, if you
want to call it that, because there is a true religion. It's
of God, it's all of grace, and it's about Jesus Christ. It's
all of Him. So Paul's whole religion and preaching was concerning
a man named Jesus. Christianity has to do with this
man named Jesus. It doesn't have to do with how
we live. It's not a lifestyle. It's not a lifestyle. It's a
person named Jesus Christ, Christianity. That's where we get Christianity
from, it's Christ. We are Christ followers. That's
why we are called, it was first called Christians, Christ followers
at Antioch. I know in our day, in our day
that has been so abused. and misused and misrepresented. But that does not mean we don't
use the name no more. We're still Christians. We are
still Christ followers. I am and you are a true Christian,
a true Christ follower. We are. Christianity is a living
union with a man, the God-man, but this man named Jesus Christ, This is what you all believe.
No, it's not a what. It's a who. This is who we believe. It's not what I believe. You
know, when someone talks to me, well, I had a man that I worked
for. He said, what do you believe?
What is your, and I told him we believe God. Then he said,
no, that's not. He kept trying to put a name
to it. I said, well, there are those that would call us Calvinists.
Because when I put a name to it, all right, they put me in
a box. When you stick a name to it, I'm Baptist, okay, you
belong here. I'm Methodist or I'm a Catholic, well, you belong
in this box. They got all these boxes for us to put us in. But they don't have a box for
someone who believes God. They don't have a box for someone
who loves and follows after Jesus Christ of this Bible. We don't
fit in a box. We fit in a person. We're in
Him and He's in us. But even this pagan ruler knew
who Paul was preaching. He knew who Paul was preaching.
The Jews knew it also. That's why they wanted to kill
Paul. They hated that name. They despised that name, Jesus
Christ. And listen, they wanted to get
rid of their guilt. That's what he wanted. Boy, you
know, Paul just kept this up. This one whom you crucified is
the Lord, Jesus Christ. He's the Lord. He's the Prince
of Glory. It's like, if this is true, if
this is true, we crucified the Messiah. We crucified the promised
Messiah. Paul, listen, Paul preached that
the one whom they crucified was alive and well. you know, from
time to time, I do have to sit down and seriously consider the
Lord is alive. You see, we, sometimes we just,
I don't know how to put this, we just take it for granted.
We just kind of just go about our day, you know, and just,
but boy, sometimes you got to sit down and realize the Lord's
alive. And I need to have fellowship
with Him Not just this talk about facts and things like that, but
that really, personally, alone, getting alone by myself and have
fellowship with the Lord. He's alive and well. He's alive and well. He's the
reigning King of kings and Lord of lords. Paul preached life
by his death, not by my obedience, life by his death, atonement
by his blood, not by some animal. The blood of an animal could
not put away the sin of a man or a woman. It can't do it. That
would be easy, wouldn't it? We'd just go out and get a lamb
and kill it and move on about our business. Paul preached acceptance through
His righteousness, His obedience to the law and not ours. That's
what Paul preached. And it was so offensive, it was
so offensive to those Jews who believed not. Because it meant
that everything they were doing was useless. It's useless. Paul preached the substitutionary
work and character of this one Jesus, which was dead. He was
crucified and he was dead. You know what this means when
he says he was dead? He really was human. A man died. A man, and I sit down at times
and think of this, a man actually died in my place. There was a
man actually executed. in my place. He was executed. He put the death in the flesh.
Quickened by the spirit, he was put to death in the flesh. And
that death belonged to me. It belonged to me. Yes, he died. He was dead. He was really dead.
They put him in a tomb. They wrapped him about with grave
clothes and they put him in a tomb and they sealed that tomb. There
was a dead body put in that grave. But He didn't stay dead. Because
if He had, we would have no hope. We would have no hope. But He
was dead. The Jews believed, listen, they
believed they put to death an imposter, a blasphemer. They called Him a blasphemer,
not the Son of God, but a blasphemer. That's what they believed. And
Paul preached that this one Jesus is the Messiah whom we've been
waiting for. He's the one we've been waiting
for. This one Jesus died for the sins
of all God's elect, Jew and Gentile, and God has raised Him from the
dead, which says God approved of Him. It says God approved
of Him. You reckon if God approves of
Him, we should? How much more we should? How
much more? Paul preached righteousness by
his obedience. The Jews believed that righteousness,
they really believed this, they believed this, that righteousness
came by their obedience to the law. They believed that. They believed that they were
accepted of God by what they did. Now, I never really believed
that growing up because I didn't give a flip either way. I'll
be honest with you, I didn't even think about it. Righteousness
meant nothing to me. Doing what I wanted to do meant
everything to me. But to them, they were raised
up from a child. What did that rich young ruler
say? From my youth up. I have kept
all these from my youth up. He was taught by his parents
to be a good little boy. And this is how you be a good
little boy. You keep the laws, you keep these commandments and
God will save you. You'll be in heaven. God will
accept you. You do this, this and this. And they lied to him. That's sad. That's making them
two-folded children of hell. That's what the Lord said to
those Pharisees. You compass sea and land to make
one proselyte. And when you've made that one
proselyte, you've made that one proselyte two-folded child of
hell. Not only is he an out-and-out sinner, born in sin, shaped in
iniquity, but now he's got a false hope and a false refuge. I feel like I've been doubly
saved. Not only saved from my sin, my
sinful self, but from a false profession. Most whom God saves are saved
out of a false profession, aren't they? Most of them are. Most
of you came out of a false profession. That's what I call, and I know
it's not, but I call it doubly saved. You're saved from sin,
your wretched self, and you're saved from a false profession.
So Paul was that way. They honestly believed that by
their obedience to the law, which they never did obey it, not in
their heart, outwardly they did, but in their heart they were
wanting to do something else. In their heart, it's like doing
something, and you're going about doing it, but in your heart,
you're like, I'd rather be over there. I'd rather be down there with
that prodigal. I gotta stay here. This is how I'm saved. No, it
isn't. It offended them to think. that
all their obedience meant nothing. You remember the story of the
prodigal? How he went out and took his inheritance and just
spent everything. He spent everything, spent all
his living down there slopping with the hogs. And he came home
and his father ran and met him and kissed him and said, get
the fatty calf. And they was going to have a
party. My son, which is dead, has come
home. And that son that stayed home, that elder son made him
mad. You never did this for me. I
can see in that story, the Jew being the elder and the Gentile
who went out and just lived it up. And that Jew stayed home. And when the Lord received sinners,
this man received his sinners and he each with it, made him
mad. It made them mad. Harlot, there's a harlot. I've
never done that. I've never, you know, I've never
been a harlot or a prostitute or this addict or that addict
or, you know. And it made them mad that God
would accept them who did nothing and we've done it all. Well,
you haven't done anything either. You haven't done anything either.
Because in your heart is where God judges. God judges us by
the heart. He judges us by what goes on
in the heart. He told those Pharisees, he said,
you're just whitewashed sepulchers what you are. Outwardly, you
look good. Inwardly, you're full of dead
men's bones. That graveyard out there looks
good, doesn't it? When you mow it, there's flowers
decorations out there, the tombstones look good, but you don't want
to dig that up. You don't want to turn that upside
down. It would not be pretty. It's full of dead men's bones.
That's what it's full of. And it made them mad, so it made
them mad. But they didn't realize that
they hadn't even obeyed the first letter of the law. And after
God saved Paul in Philippians 3, he said, I count all these
things as loss. He gives his resume. He gives
his resume. And he says, you know what? This
resume is nothing but dung. It smells like dung. It is dung. And it's lost. Just toss it in
the trash. Christ is everything. Jesus Christ
is everything. Paul preached. Now listen. I'm
going to close here. Paul preached. Christ died. He was dead. But he also preached
Christ risen. He claimed that he had seen the
Lord and that he was alive. Paul claimed to have seen the
Lord. He was taught the gospel by the Lord. He was not taught
the gospel by Peter or John. He was taught the gospel by Jesus
Christ Himself. That's who taught him. He preached there was a real
bodily resurrection of Christ from the dead. He really came
out of that tomb. And this agreed with the Old
Testament Scriptures, the Old Testament and the New Testament.
You know, really, we call it the Old Testament and the New
Testament, but really it's one book. It's the Bible. We call
it the Word of God. It's the Word of God. This is
one book. Listen, I'm not going to turn to these, I don't have
time. But in the agreement of Scripture from Old Testament
and New Testament, Psalm 2-7, Hebrews 1-5, they agree. Psalm 16, 10, Acts 2, 27, 31.
Psalm 68, 18, Ephesians 4, 8. Psalm 1, 10, 1, Hebrews 1, 13. Psalm 1, 10, 4, Hebrews 7, 17. Isaiah
26, 19, Matthew 27, 52 through 53. Hosea 6, 2, Ephesians 2, 6, and Colossians
3, 1. They all speak of Jesus Christ. They agree. Scripture interprets Scripture.
I think it was Rolf Barner who said that the Scriptures really
shed a lot of light on the Bible. The Scriptures really shed a
lot of light on the Bible. Another thing he said, he said the Scriptures
really shed a lot of light on commentaries. It's the Scriptures. The Old and New Testament are
in perfect harmony over this man, Jesus Christ. Now the Jews
knew, they knew, that if this were true, they were in a lot
of trouble. This is how they came across
to Him. If this is so, Paul, what you're saying is so, we're
guilty, we're in a lot of trouble, we crucified the Son of God,
the Lord of glory. But what they did not realize,
What they did not realize was the good news that came out of
this, Jesus Christ being crucified. The very blood they shed, now
listen, this is so important. The very blood they shed is the
only blood that can put away the sin of shedding it. The blood they shed is the only
blood that can put away the sin of shedding it. His blood had to be shed for
the remission of sins, and it included putting Him to death. The only one that could save
them from wrath to come is the one they put to death and is
now risen." It's like Joseph. Remember when Joseph's brothers
found out it was Joseph and they found out he's alive? They were
like, oh, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. Well, that's
the same attitude the Jews have when they listen to Paul. Paul
said he's alive. It's like he's alive. We are
in trouble. Well, God first has to get you
in trouble before he can save you out of trouble. He's got
to make you to realize, like we looked at in the Psalm 107,
he's got to make you realize you're in the wilderness, you're
a captive, you're a fool, and you're going to die. He has to
make us realize this. We're already in this position,
but we don't realize it until God gives us life, and then we
realize it. And then listen, His resurrection
assures the salvation of all God's elect, Gentile and Jew. It also assures this, it assures
that all for whom Christ died shall be justified. He was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. We are
justified. It assures that all who die in
the Lord shall be raised again from the dead. You know what? Listen, to all
you who believe, the hour of death is coming for us to die,
for this body to die. But you know what? The Scripture
says we're going to rest in hope. My body that you're gonna bury,
it's gonna be buried someday. Your body's gonna be buried someday.
It's gonna rest in hope of the resurrection. Paul said in the
earlier part of Acts that he was brought into question for
hope of the resurrection of the dead. Boy, isn't that good news? I mean, you and I grown old.
It's coming up on us. It's coming up on, death is creeping
up on us. I thought it was strange. My dad, when he was dying, they
said it won't be long now that he was modeling. I didn't know
what that was. I didn't know what modeling was.
The blood was leaving his legs. They were just turning an ash
color. The blood was leaving his legs, his arms, and it was
going to the vital organs. It was like watching death creep
up on the body. But we have hope, don't we? We
have hope. We have hope that we are going
to rise from the dead. We're going to have a new body.
We're going to live for, I try to get a hold of this, but to
actually live in a time, whether it won't even be time, to live
in a world, to live on earth where sin doesn't exist anymore. God's taking care of this matter
of the sin. Sin to me is a great mystery.
And once for all, Jesus Christ has put it away and it'll never
exist again. It will not exist again. And we'll live on earth
and we'll live out a life in eternity where there's never
a mention of death again. Henry said to me one time when
he and I was walking away from a friend that had died, and Henry
looked at me and he said, I'll be glad when we quit dying. I'm tired. I'm tired of doing
funerals. I'm tired of it. But I'm going
to be doing some more. If I live, I'll be doing some
more. But I'm tired of it. I'm tired of the pain, the weeping.
I'm tired of the heartaches, the separation of our loved ones.
I'm tired of it. But we'll still have to do it
for a while. But in a little while, we'll do it no more. I'll
never perform another funeral. Isn't that good news? Paul preached
Christ so effectively that even a pagan ruler knew whom he preached. They're complaining about their
religion, but Paul's talking about a person who was dead but
is alive forevermore. I hope we can be accused of this. Jesus Christ is our message to
a lost and dying world unto the end. Unto the end. All right.