Well, open up your Bibles this morning to Acts chapter 25.
We're gonna read the end of 25 and, and make the trek all the way through 26.
Uh, we are actually almost finished, like two more chapters after this.
And as I've mentioned a, a number of times now, we are still following
the Apostle Paul's prison ministry.
Not that he's going to visit prisons and minister to the prisoners.
No, he's in prison himself.
And as I said, this is, uh…
God has ordained to use the Apostle Paul through this process.
Uh, being in prison, not the best situation in life,
but still being used by God.
Uh-oh, where's my church notes?
Sorry, my sermon notes.
I might be using my phone Sorry.
That deer in the headlight moment.
Okay.
Dude, I must have dropped them somewhere.
All right, hold on.
Hold on.
Time out.
Oh, they're right here.
Okay.
Under the bulletin.
I was gonna have to use my phone.
All right.
I still use paper notes, yes.
All right.
So as I said, we're gonna be in chapter 26 this morning.
Now let me ask you a, a, a question here, or, or just something to think about.
Are there not moments in our lives when we have to make a decision about something?
Like you can't…
You can put it off, right?
There's sometimes you can put it off or by changing the subject or doing something
different, keeping yourself busy.
You're like, "I don't wanna make this decision at this very moment.
I want to, uh, distract myself or prolong it, or put it off until tomorrow
or next week, or maybe not even make a decision about it altogether."
But there are times when we're confronted with things that
we have to make a decision.
We can no longer put it off.
And we have to say, "What am I gonna do with the information or the situation
that's presented itself before me?"
We're gonna see this in the text this morning in, in Acts chapter 26.
We're gonna see how Paul stands before a governor, a king, a-
and military commanders and prominent people in the city.
And, and Paul is going to do something remarkable.
He, he doesn't spend time, uh, talking, right, talking about,
"Hey, why am I in prison?"
And talking about himself.
Instead, he's gonna use this platform that he has to tell other people about Jesus.
He's gonna tell them how the Messiah had to suffer and had to rise from the
dead, and that the entire scriptures, and at this time he's speaking of the Old
Testament, 'cause that's all that there was, had testified about these things,
had told the people about these things.
And in the midst of everybody that hears those things is confronted with
that truth or that reality, and they come to the point of like, what are
you gonna do with that information?
As we'll see, one person dismisses it, another person
hesitates to make a decision.
But Paul himself embraces that, as we'll see, and he's devoted his entire life
not only to that, but to proclaiming it.
And that's why this passage isn't merely about what P- what happens to Paul, right?
'Cause we're gonna read about this episode in his life, but it's not all about Paul.
It's about how the people respond to the truth of the gospel
And it's even eventually about us.
How do each and every one of us respond to the gospel or to
the facts that are presented?
What do I…
You can ask yourself, "What do I really believe about Jesus?
And does my life demonstrate what I believe?"
'Cause we're gonna see all that unfold in the text this morning.
So let's start in verse 23 of chapter 25.
And if you remember, we left off where, uh, King Agrippa was like,
"I wanna hear the Apostle Paul.
I wanna hear this man who's in prison."
And so this is where we are.
We're gonna read, uh, through verse 27 about this, up to the end
of the chapter 25, I should say.
And it says this, "And so the next day, when Agrippa had
come together with Bernice…"
So this is King Agrippa and his sister Bernice, "… amid great
pomp, and entered the auditorium accompanied by the commanders of
the prominent men of the city.
At the command of Festus Paul was brought in."
So there's this great procession, right?
The king's coming, and his sister, and all the commanders, and they're going into,
uh, the auditorium to hear this case.
And verse 24 says, "And Festus said, 'King Agrippa, and all you gentlemen
here present with us, you behold this man about whom all the people
of the Jews appealed to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly declaring
that he ought not to live any longer.
But I found that he had not committed anything worthy of death.
Since he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to send him.
Yet I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord.
Therefore, I have brought him before you, and especially before King Agrippa, so
that after the investigation has taken place, I may have something to write.
For it seems absurd to me, in sending a prisoner, not to indict
also the charges against him.'"
So if you remember, Festus here is in a dilemma.
He has a prisoner but no crime, is what he's saying.
Right?
Paul was presented to him as committing a crime, and in his investigation
he doesn't really find one.
But Paul says, "Hey, I'm gonna appeal to Caesar," because he felt that Festus might
send him off to the Jews to be tried.
And if you remember from last week, the Jews were setting an ambush, and
they wanted to kill the Apostle Paul.
He was never gonna make it to court.
And so Paul said, "I appeal to Caesar," right, to the highest court.
And f- and then King Agrippa came to town, and Festus is like, "You know what?
I'm gonna tell King Agrippa about my dilemma."
And then King Agrippa hears it and goes, "I wanna hear the man, and that's
what we have before us right now."
So Festus has not found Paul guilty of anything, and so he's like, "How
can I send him to the emperor if I don't have anything to accuse him of?"
And so he's like, "Okay, maybe King Agrippa can help me with this situation,"
because, as we'll see, King Agrippa is familiar with Jewish laws and the Jewish
religion because he himself is Jewish.
And that takes us to chapter tw- So let's look at chapter 26.
"And Agrippa said to Paul, 'You are permitted to speak for yourself.'"
So now the Apostle Paul gets to stand up and present his defense
This is what he says.
He says, "Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense: 'In
regard to all the things of which I am accused of by the Jews, I consider…'"
Excuse me.
Yeah, "'I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I'm about to make
my defense before you today, especially because you are an expert in all the
customs and questions among the Jews.
Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.
So then, all the Jews know my manner of life and my youth, youth on up
from which the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem.
Since they have known about me for a long time previously, if they are willing
to testify that I lived as a Pharisee, according to the strictest sect of
religion, and now I am defending…'"
Excuse me.
"'I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our
fathers, the promise to which our 12 tribes hope to attain as they
earnestly serve God night and day.
And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by the Jews.
Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?'"
So the Apostle Paul is presenting his defense to King Agrippa and to
everybody standing there, and he is going to try-- he's gonna prove,
actually, that Christianity is not a rejection of Israel's story
of the Old Testament, but it's a fulfillment of Israel's story, right?
And he begins by describing his youth, right?
He's like, "I've been here.
It's been publicly known who I am.
I've-- I haven't lived a secret life.
I've lived among my own people, and I've lived publicly here in Jerusalem."
I was even a Pharisee, the sh- one of the strictest sects within his
religious, uh, religious belief.
And he said, "I'm standing on trial because I believe the promises that
were made to his own people," meaning these guys that are accusing me.
Right?
I believe the same thing they believe, but they're accusing me
of something different, and we'll get into that in a few moments.
He's saying, "I believe in the promise that was promised to us, our fathers,
our ancestors, the 12 tribes of Israel."
And we'll see in a few moments it was the promise of the resurrection.
The nation of Israel believed in a future resurrection.
He's saying, "This is all I'm preaching, and I'm standing before
you today on trial for that belief."
It sounds silly, which is why Festus is like, "I, I don't know
what we're accusing this guy of."
And so Paul's saying, "Hey, I believe the same things my accusers believe."
It's the promise, he says, that has fueled us to serve God day and night, and
it's for this hope that he stands trial
And he, he asked a question, verse eight.
Look at that question.
He goes, "Why is it considered incredible among you people," right,
to the audience and probably to the Jews, the Jewish leaders, I should
say, "if God does raise the dead?"
Because that was his message, right?
That Jesus was raised from the dead by God.
He's like, "Why does that seem so incredible to you guys that God raises
people from the dead since we believe it," he's saying, "Since that's our hope?"
Seems kind of ridiculous, does it not?
So he goes on.
Let's start in, in verse nine.
So he leaves them with that question.
Then he goes on and describes his testimony.
He goes, "So then I thought myself that I had to do many things hostile
to the name of Jesus of Nazareth."
So he's talking about before he was converted, right?
As a, as a, as a Pharisee, he thought he had to be hostile to the name of Jesus,
which is what they are doing, right?
They are hostile to the name of Jesus.
He says this, "And this is just what I did in Jerusalem.
Not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received
authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to
death, I cast my vote against them.
And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them
to blaspheme, and being fiercely, furiously enraged at them, I kept
pursuing them, even to foreign cities."
So he's saying, "I'm doing what these guys are doing.
I used to do that, and matter of fact, I was better than them, right?
I actually had people killed.
I cast my vote against them.
I captured them.
I chased them down.
This is exactly what they're doing."
But he was successful.
But then something happened, and we see in verse 12.
Let's, let's read on.
He says, "While thus engaged as I was, journeying 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, shining all around me
and those who were journeying with me.
And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to
me in the Hebrew dialect, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?
It is hard for you to kick against the goads.'
And I said, 'Who out thou…
Who out…
Who art thou, Lord?'
And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.'"
So in the midst of, of Paul's chasing down of the saints, of the Christian
believers, he is knocked down, he says, and a bright light shines all about him.
And then God speaks to him, and he recognizes that it's God, because
he says, "Who are, art thou, Lord?"
Or, "Who are you, Lord?"
And what does the voice say?
He says, "I'm Jesus.
I'm the Lord Jesus, whom you're persecuting."
So right then and there, Paul's confronted with a decision.
Does he go on to continue to persecute the one he says he believes in, or
does he give his life to the Lord?
Let's continue on.
This is what the Lord says to him in verse 16.
He says, "But arise, stand on your feet.
For this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you to be a minister and a
witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things
which I will appear to you; delivering you from the Jewish people and from the
Gentiles, to whom I am sending you."
So right from the very beginning, we're told that he told me I was
gonna be persecuted as a believer, but He's gonna deliver me, and
he's living it out right now.
We're seeing this, uh, play out in full display through the Book of Acts.
Verse 18 goes on, "To open the eyes, 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."
So God commissions him.
He says, "Saul, you're gonna go out and be my witness to all the things
I'm gonna show you in your life, and I'm gonna deliver you in the
process, and you're gonna speak to people, calling them to repentance."
And so as I mentioned, Paul has a decision to make.
And we know the decision he made, but he's telling all those who
are listening to him what he did.
Look at verse 19.
This is what he says: "Consequently, King Agrippa, I did not prove
disobedient to the heavenly vision."
He's saying, "I answered it in the affirmative.
I was obedient."
He goes, "But, but kept declaring both to those in Damascus first, and also to
Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles,
that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds to repentance.
And for this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death.
And so, having obtained help from God, I stand this day testifying both to the
small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said is going to
take place: that Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection
from a dead, from the dead, He should be the first to proclaim light both to
the Jewish people and to the Gentiles."
So Paul says, "Okay, I was confronted with the Gospel.
I got knocked down."
Right?
Or, "I got…
You know, I fell down.
Great light came, gave me a commission, and I responded in the positive.
I believed it and I did what I was commissioned to do."
Right?
He says, "Instead of pursuing after people to throw them into prison, He
pursued after them to release them from the prison that Satan held them in."
Right?
He says, "I went everywhere, to the Jews and also to the
Gentiles, telling them to repent."
Repent means to change your mind, to turn around, right?
He's, uh, he's calling them to turn
To turn to what?
To turn to God, right?
It means to change the direction and the orientation of their life.
He was literally going one way, God stopped him, he's turned
around and went the other way.
That's what repentance is.
I like what Pastor John MacArthur says about repentance.
He says, "Repentance involves a change of mind which results
in a change of behavior."
That's true repentance.
It's not saying, "Oh, I'm sorry I got caught," or,
"Sorry I did something wrong."
It's agreeing with God and the thing that you did was wrong, and then turning
from it and changing your behavior.
Right?
That's why he said in verse 20, "Performing deeds
appropriate to repentance."
If you repent, then you turn from it.
It doesn't mean you won't do it again, but your orientation
is like, "I'm not gonna do it.
I'm not gonna try to.
I'm not gonna pursue after it."
And he goes on to, and he acknowledges, hey, that God is the one who saved me.
God is the one who brought me here before you.
Again, as I mentioned over and over the past few weeks, it may seem
repetitive, that God puts us in situations so that we can be used by Him.
And so instead of saying, "Woe is me.
Look at the bad thing that's happening to me," the Apostle
Paul says, "You know what?
God's gonna use me in this situation.
How can He use me?
I'm gonna stand before kings.
I'm gonna stand before governors."
And eventually, he's gonna stand before the Roman Emperor proclaiming the Gospel
Right?
So he tells them, "Hey, I'm s- this is the crowd.
I have a captive audience."
And what does he do?
He talks about the Messiah who was tol- who's gonna suffer, who's gonna
raise from the dead, and who's gonna be a witness to everybody, first to
the Jews, and then to the Gentiles
This was God's message.
He says it's the same message that the prophets and Moses had proclaimed before.
I'm just telling you about it now.
It's nothing different from the Old Testament.
If you think about this, the scriptures always look to include both Jews and
Gentiles in the divine blessings of God.
If you remember in Genesis 12:3, when God spoke to Abraham, he said this, "And
I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse."
And look at this, "And in you," only the Jews will be blessed.
Is that what it says?
No.
That's the wrong scriptures.
"In you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
Abraham, the…
He hadn't even called the Jews yet, right?
Abraham, we haven't even got to that part.
It is all the families, Jews and Gentiles.
You could follow that message throughout the Old Testament.
The Jews were to be the light to all the world that God would use, and
when they failed, right, they were disciplined throughout the Old Testament
And so Jesus has come, has fulfilled all that, and now He
is the light to the Gentiles.
And now He uses the church, both Jew and Gentile believers,
to be a light to all people
This is what the Apostle Paul is saying.
He's like, "Hey, I'm just preaching what we already believe and what
these guys believe who are putting me before you and wanting to kill me.
I'm not saying anything different."
And so verse 24 through 32, we have the reactions now of what has just been said.
Look at verse 24.
"And while Paul was saying this in his defense," so mid, you know,
Paul's mid-speech, "Festus," who's the governor, "said with a loud voice,
'Paul, you are out of your mind.
Your great learning is driving you mad.'
But Paul said, 'I'm not out of my mind, most excellent Festus,
but I utter words of sober truth.
For the king knows about these matters.'"
Now he points to Agrippa.
Agrippa's like, "I'm just minding my own business.
Why are you calling me out?"
"'For the king knows these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence
since I'm persuaded that none of these things escape his notice, for
this has not been done in a corner.'"
He's like, "This is public knowledge.
It's not some secret knowledge that I ha- that I schemed up.
You think I'm crazy and I came up with these ideas all on my, all by myself?
Like this secret learning that only I know?
I'm coming up with some new doctrine?"
No, it's, he's not, he's not doing that.
He says, he said…
And then he goes, "King Agrippa," verse 27, "do you believe the prophets?"
Now he's, like, pinpointing, locked in on King Agrippa.
"Do you believe the prophets?
I know that you do," right?
He's Jewish.
He's been called in because he's an expert.
"And Agrippa replied to Paul," verse 28, 'In short time you will
persuade me to become a Christian?'
And Paul said, 'I would to God that whether in short or long time, not
only you, but all those who hear me this day might become such as
I am, except for these chains.'"
He's like, "I want everybody that hear to become a Christian, to be just like
me, except in the chains that I'm in."
And the king arose.
So he's still speaking, the, the king's like, "I'll- I'm out."
And the king arose and the governor and Bernice and those
who were sitting with him.
And when they had drawn aside, they began talking to one another saying,
"This man has not done anything worthy of death or imprisonment."
And Agrippa said to Festus, "This man might have been set free if
he had not appealed to Caesar."
So the outcome is like this guy's, he hasn't even done anything wrong.
He's proved his case to Agrippa.
But because Paul earlier said, "I'm- I appeal to Caesar," they
have to send him to Caesar.
So Agrippa was gonna let him off, but that's not to be the case.
And so we'll end our text there
So the reaction to Paul, again, uh, as we see as he gives his testimony before
the authorities, Festus himself-- Again, going back to Festus, how did he reply?
He thought, "Paul, you're out of your mind."
Right?
"Nobody believes in such things as a resurrection."
Festus, being a Roman, would have thought, "Us Romans do not believe in such things."
And this is a sentiment that was expressed earlier in the Book of Acts, in Acts
17:18, when the Apostle Paul was speaking to some of the, uh, to the philosophers of
the day, the Roman and Greek philosophers.
In the marketplace, Luke records this after that, and it says, "And
also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with
him," were conversing with Paul.
Some were saying, 'What would this idol babbler wish to say?'
Others, 'He seems to proclaim, to be a proclaimer of strange deities.'
Why?
Because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.
So thinking somebody's strange about believing the
resurrection was common, right?
They're like, "What is this guy talking about?
He's bringing these strange teachings."
Festus is saying he's out of his mind.
Is this not an accusation?
This is an accusation, I should say, against all believers, right?
The foolishness of the resurrection.
When you…
You know, we talk about going out and proclaiming God's Word, and sometimes
we're afraid because of that, right?
People are gonna think we're foolish that we li- that we believe that God
could raise somebody from the dead.
That was the question the Apostle Paul posed, remember back in verse eight,
"Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?"
Think of this for a second.
What did the Jewish people already believe about God?
He parted the Red Sea.
He knocked down the walls of Jericho.
I mean, we could go on about all the miracles of the Old Testament.
What's so hard about God raising somebody from the dead?
You today, if you believe God created the heavens and the Earth,
what's so hard about believing God could raise somebody from the dead?
Paul later would attest in 1 Corinthians 1:18, he says, "For the words of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us, we who are
being saved, it is the power of God."
Right?
We as believers, I hope you believe in the resurrection
That it is what's God used to save us, but to others outside of not being a,
that aren't believers, it's foolishness
Right?
And Paul responds like, "This isn't foolishness.
I'm of a sober mind, as I mentioned already."
And then he, he points out to King Agrippa.
And what was King Agrippa's response to these words?
He…
Many believe he was, it was sarcastic.
He's like, "You're trying to convince me with such few arguments?"
And then he, he walks out, right?
We don't know.
Was he getting convicted?
Was he like, "Hey, that's enough.
I don't wanna hear anymore"?
He didn't wanna get involved, just like every other leader.
They didn't wanna make that decision.
We don't know
And so we leave this again with different responses, right?
And let's look at those responses a- as we go to our application, because I go
again to, uh, chapter 26 verse 8 and ask each and every one of us this morning:
Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?
Each and every one of us have to answer that question.
Does God really raise the dead?
Do you really believe that?
How do you respond when the resurrection, that truth, confronts you?
Because each and every one of us has to make a decision, and I think
there's, there's four examples in the text this morning that can
relate to each and every one of us.
We respond in one of these ways
And I would say in a, in an exhortation to us, number one, let the
resurrection change what you believe.
Right, the Jewish leaders claimed to believe in the resurrection, but they
rejected the resurrection of Jesus.
Why?
They believed in it.
Why would they reject the resurrection of Jesus?
I think because accepting it would require them to reconsider
what they believed about Jesus, about scripture, and about God.
It would have to…
It would transform their whole entire theology
Right?
And some people in our lives that you may have confronted, they don't
want the resurrection to be true
Because that would mean they too would have to change what they believe
about Jesus, about scripture, and about God if the resurrection is true
But because it's true, I'm saying this morning, let that
resurrection change what you believe.
Let it change what you believe about God.
Let it change your understanding about the claims of Jesus.
Let it change what you believe about the scriptures that we read this morning.
If Jesus rose from the dead, then all that He said is true, and what
He said about God is true, and what He says about scripture is true, and
therefore, that should transform you
And it should also transform what we believe about the future if
the resurrection is true, 'cause that means people rise from the
dead.
And we'll get into this a, a few mo- in a few moments.
But if people rise from the dead, that means there's a future
hope, that death isn't the end
Second point, don't dismiss the truth because you don't
like its implications, right?
Festus doesn't seriously engage Paul's argument.
He just dismisses that you're crazy.
As I mentioned this earlier, people today say the same thing about us,
pro- you believe in a resurrection?
Come on.
There's no evidence that God raised somebody from the dead.
That's a coping mechanism that you have.
It's wishful thinking.
They equate it to believing in Bigfoot.
Sorry for those of you that believe in Bigfoot, he's not real
Some people believe in the resurrection.
Like, like that's like a fairy tale
For those that think that, I would ask you this: Have you honestly
considered the claims of the gospel, or have you simply just dismissed them?
Like, "That's … It's not true.
That can't happen, so I'm not even gonna listen anymore."
Right?
That's what Festus did.
"You're crazy, Paul."
He, he cut him off in the middle of, "You're crazy.
You're out of your mind."
For us as believers, though, let me ask you this.
Maybe you believe the resurrection.
I hopefully you do.
I'm sure you do if you're a believer.
But what about other truths that scriptures confront you with?
Do you dismiss those because accepting them would mean you'd
have to change what you're doing, what you're involved in, right?
Some people will say, "Well, that's not true in the Bible," or, "That
doesn't mean that," or, "That was for that time or that church."
'Cause they don't wanna be … They're confronted with
this truth, but they push it away.
They, they dismiss it.
Don't be that person
Or another way that we are, uh, can respond to is it, respond to it, or
I would encourage you not to respond to it, is that don't walk away when
God's word confronts you, right?
Agrippa, whether he was convicted or not, we're not sure, but he walked away, right?
He got up, which means trial's over, and everyone else got up, and he went to a
side room to discuss, and Paul was done.
We have nothing l- else said of Paul.
We don't even know if Agrippa ever made a commitment
But maybe some, some of you do that today, right?
When you hear, when you're confronted with God's word, you
say, "Mm, I think that's enough.
I don't wanna hear anymore.
I close my Bible.
I don't come to church anymore."
Whatever the case may be.
"I turn off that radio."
Uh, maybe you were listening to a sermon and, and the word convicts you.
You're like, "Ah, I don't wanna hear that.
I'm gonna change it."
We all do that to a certain extent.
But don't walk away when God confronts you.
God is trying to do something with you.
He's trying to say something to you, trying to have you
reorient your life for a purpose
Again, I ask you, is there something God is asking you to surrender
that you keep walking away from?
That you shut Him off
Are you like Agrippa?
I would say that the best way to respond to all of this is to let
the resurrection transform you.
Remember Paul, he heard the truth of the resurrection, and he was transformed.
Right?
He committed his life to serving God, and he committed his life to telling
everyone about the salvation of God, as we see in the text this morning.
Right?
He says, "I, I've c- I haven't been disobedient to that call
that God has called me to do."
Even when I'm locked up unjustly in prison, he didn't focus on the, the
bad things that happened to him.
He said, "No, I'm gonna use this as an opportunity to proclaim what the
truth, what God has called me to do
So I would say let the, if you believe in the resurrection, let that
transform you in the following ways.
One, live according to the ways of God now.
Scripture says this in, uh, Romans 6:4
The apostle Paul writes this: "Therefore, we have been buried with Him through
baptism into death, so that," right?
We, we baptize into Him, we're, we're saved.
Why?
"So that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of God, so we
too might walk in newness of life."
He's saying when you're a believer, you've died to your old ways, now you're
walking according to the ways of God.
That's what the Apostle Paul is doing, right?
He literally said, "I'm no longer gonna pursue after killing Christians.
I'm gonna help make Christians.
I'm gonna proclaim God's word."
That's, that's the, the total opposite.
That's true repentance right there.
Good picture of that.
Number two, live for God.
Not only just live for ourselves, but live for God, meaning let Him
be, uh, the, the number one person in your life that you live for.
It's no longer about you, right?
The Apostle Paul, again, is a great example.
It's not about the Apostle Paul.
He's locked up in prison.
He's left alone.
We learn later from his, um, from his letters to the
churches, his friends leave him.
It's just him and God.
I love this verse, 2 Corinthians 5:15, 'cause it really gives purpose
and meaning about the Christian life.
It says this: "And He died for all," speaking of Jesus, "so that they
who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died
and rose again on their behalf."
Paul's telling the Christian church, "You no longer live for yourself.
Christ died so that we could live for Him."
Not for our purpose, not for our goals, not for our desires, but
we live for God and God alone now
Which leads us to our th- our third point, pursue what matters in life.
Pursue what matters in life.
If you let the resurrection transform you, it changes your mind, it changes your
focus, it changes your outlook on things.
Now, I'm not saying you can't go out and enjoy things.
That's not what I'm saying at all.
But that can't be what we pursue after.
That can't be like, "I live for Fridays" type of thing, right?
The Apostle Paul writes to the Colossian church in chapter
three, verses one and two.
He says this, "Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ,"
right, if you're a believer, "keep seeking things above, where Christ
is, seated at the right hand of God."
And then he says, "Set your mind on the things above, not the
things that are on the earth."
Again, your, your priorities in life are now, uh, framed by God.
What God wants, that's what I want, because I live for His glory, I live
according to His ways, and I'm gonna pursue what He wants in my life.
And Scripture talks about that all the time, within your families,
within our workplace, within our hobbies, all those things.
Whatever we do, whatever we eat, do it all for what?
For the glory of love?
No.
For the glory of God.
We do it all for the glory of God.
And lastly and finally, we'll end here, and I, I, I alluded to this
earlier, let the resurrection transform you that you live with assurance.
I could say hope, but assurance is a better word for that hope.
In 1 Peter 1:3, the Apostle…
or Peter writes, not the Apostle Paul, he says, "Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
According to His great mercy has caused us to be born again," look at
this, "to a living hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead."
This is what the Apostle Paul says.
We have this hope, right?
Our fathers had it, the 12 tribes of Israel had it, the
resurrection of the dead.
And he's saying because Jesus rose again, we have that assurance
that we too will rise again.
Do we not believe that?
Those who have died in Christ, we look forward to seeing them
again, being reunited again.
That's why the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians, "We don't
grieve like those who have no hope."
But we have hope, right?
When that last trumpet sounds, the dead in Christ will rise, and we
who are alive will rise as well.
That is our hope.
That's our future, right?
If there, if there is no resurrection, right, doesn't the Apostle Paul
write to the Corinthian church, "Then we're to be pitied of most people if
Christ doesn't rise from the dead."
That means there's no hope.
Let us eat, drink, and live for tomorrow what?
Who knows.
We die.
There's no hope.
But the Christian has hope, or better yet, assurance.
And why?
All because Christ rose, and this is what Paul was preaching before r- governors
and kings, and he preaches to us today.
And each and every one of us this morning need to make a, a decision.
Are we gonna be transformed by the resurrection, or are
we gonna keep pushing it away?
And that's the only decision that each and every one of you can make this morning.
Let's pray.
Lord God, we thank you so much for your assurance that you've given us through the
resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ.
Because of Him, Lord God, salvation is offered to all people.
And this morning, Father God, as we sit here this morning, each and every one
of us has to examine our own hearts.
Do we believe in the resurrection?
Do we believe that you died for our sins, and you've called us
to repentance and to turn from darkness to light, from Satan to God?
I pray, Lord God, this morning that each and every one of us, as we examine
that, would answer in the affirmative that, "Yes, Lord, we want to follow you.
We want to be transformed by the resurrection."
I pray, Lord God, this morning that you would give us boldness, as you
did with the Apostle Paul, to proclaim your truth no matter what situation
we find ourselves in, that we would live for your glory and your glory
alone, and we thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.