Sermon Tone Analysis

Victorious Christians

The Book of Acts - Part 87

Acts 26:19-32

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - June 21, 2015

BACKGROUND

*God's Word has a whole lot to say about this season in Paul's life.

Back in Acts 21, Paul arrived in Jerusalem.

Paul went there, both to worship the Lord, and to deliver a generous love offering for the poor Christians in the city.

*After Paul got to Jerusalem, he was nearly murdered three different times.

He was also held prisoner by the Roman governor in Caesarea for at least two years.

Now in Acts 26, Paul is in the middle of the fourth trial where he faced the death penalty.

With this background in mind, let's read about the end of the trial starting in Acts 26:19.

MESSAGE

*If anybody ever lived a victorious Christian life, it was the Apostle Paul.

That's why in his last letter, in 2 Timothy 4:7, Paul could write: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."

*God wants all of us to have victorious Christian lives, and Paul pointed us to this truth in Romans 8:35-37.

There he said:

35.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

36.

As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.''

37. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

*God wants us to have victorious Christian lives, and this Scripture helps us understand what that means.

1. First: Victorious Christians believe the Bible.

*We believe the Bible, and this includes the New Testament we are studying tonight, the New Testament that was being written as Paul spoke these words before the court.

*Paul began his testimony by telling the story of how Jesus miraculously met him on the road to Damascus.

Then starting in vs. 22, Paul said:

22. "Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come

23. that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.''

24.

Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, "Paul, you are beside yourself!

Much learning is driving you mad!''

25.

But he said, "I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason.

26.

For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner."

*Jesus Christ was not some kind of secret Savior.

He lived His life in a very open and public way.

The story of Jesus we read in the New Testament was well known everywhere that Jesus went.

*John Phillips explained that "Festus was a newcomer to the country.

Agrippa, on the other hand, was at home there.

He could not help but know about Jesus of Nazareth.

For three and a half years Jesus had preached, crossing and re-crossing the country from northern Galilee to Jerusalem.

He had taught God's truth in a pungent, authoritative, and unforgettable way.

Who, having heard them, could forget the parable of the prodigal son or the Sermon on the Mount?

*Jesus had electrified the country from end to end with remarkable, numerous, and spectacular miracles.

People by the score had been healed.

Thousands had feasted on a few loaves and fish miraculously multiplied from a little boy's lunch.

Demons recognized Jesus and fled at His command.

The very dead had been raised.

Moreover, He had lived a life of immaculate holiness combined with all-embracing compassion and love.

*The Lord's illegal trial and crucifixion, His burial in the tomb of one of the wealthiest and most influential Jews in the country, and His subsequent resurrection had rocked the country. . .

Christ had appeared again and again, on one occasion to more than 500 credible witnesses.

Nothing but deliberate refusal to face the facts could account for unbelief."

(1)

*That's why we have every reason to believe the New Testament we are studying tonight.

But we also believe the Old Testament Paul mentioned at his trial.

Again in vs. 22-23, Paul said:

22. "Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come

23. that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.''

*Then down in vs. 27, Paul put this soul-searching question to King Agrippa: "Do you believe the prophets?

I know that you do believe.''

Apparently, Paul was wrong about that.

There is no biblical evidence that King Agrippa really believed the Old Testament prophecies.

*But Christians, we believe!

And we should believe because so many of the Old Testament prophecies have come true.

*Think for a moment how hard it is to predict the future.

Here are some examples from a book called "The World's Worst Predictions": In 1773, King George II said the American colonies had little stomach for revolution.

In 1939 The New York Times said the problem with TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn't have time for it.

*And on May 31, 1911, at the launch of the Titanic, an employee of the White Star Line arrogantly said: "Not even God himself could sink this ship."

Less than a year later, 1,500 people died when the ship went down.

(2)

*We don't know that's going to happen tomorrow, but God sees the end from the beginning.

Thus says the LORD in Isaiah 46:9-10:

9. "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me,

10.

Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure.'"

*God sees the end from the beginning, and He has revealed it in His Word.

Consider the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus.

Online sources list over 350 Old Testament prophecies that Jesus fulfilled when He was on the earth.

(3)

*Here are just a few examples:

[1] About a thousand years before Christ, Psalm 2:7 prophesied that the Messiah would be the Son of God.

There the coming Messiah said: "I will declare the decree: The Lord has said to Me, 'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.'"

This prophecy was fulfilled many places, including at the baptism of Jesus.

Matthew 3:17 says, "Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, 'This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'"

[2] Around 725 BC, Micah 5:2 prophesied that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem: "But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.''

The Christmas stories in Matthew 2 and Luke 2 show that this prophecy was fulfilled.

[3] A few years after Micah, Hosea 11:1 prophesied that the Messiah would be called out of Egypt: "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son."

This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 2, when King Herod sent his soldiers to murder all the baby boys in Bethlehem.

*Matthew 2:13-15 says:

13. . .

behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.''

14.

When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,

15. and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son.''

[4] About 520 BC, Zechariah 11:12 prophesied that the Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver: "So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver."

*This prophecy was fulfilled in Matthew 26:14-16:

14.

Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests

15. and said, "What are you willing to give me if I deliver Him to you?''

And they counted out to him thirty pieces of silver.

16.

So from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him.

[5] And a thousand years before Christ, by the mouth of King David, God prophesied how the Messiah would die.

Psalm 22:16 says, "For dogs have surrounded Me; The assembly of the wicked has enclosed Me.

They pierced My hands and My feet."

*Wow.

-- No wonder we believe the Bible!

That's crucial because nobody can be saved without believing in God's Word.

And nobody can be a victorious Christian without believing the Bible.