The Apostle Paul

And we're going to hopefully not water things down this morning by uh the dryness of our preach or teaching. Let's let's call it that. Um, I I don't want you to get the idea that we're just spitting out data and facts and I'm here to lecture on on a topic, but I in all things, what I want more than anything is just a visitation of the presence of the Lord in everything that we do. So, we're going to launch into the word of God this morning. Our our topics for this series has been kind of the obscure characters of the book of Acts, which sometimes is a reach to try to find um material on some of these characters that are more obscure.

And so my my topic this morning is going to span the book of Acts from chapters 24- 26. And three characters from that that portion of scripture. And it sounds like u something out of gunsmoke. Felix and Fesus and King of Grippa. Felix and Fesus and King Agria.

And together what I have titled this lesson is the anthem of hell. Together these three men pinned the words as it were to the anthem of hell. Acts chap 24 beginning at verse 24. And after certain days when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, get this, Felix trembled and answered, "Go thy way for this time when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Now Paul, much much has been said about this apostle.

He's been called arguably the third most influential man in human history. Jesus, Muhammad, and then the Apostle Paul. Uh, rightfully so, because because this man practically singlehandedly evangelized most of the Roman Empire of his day. And in doing so, he had inflamed the Jewish population, the people from whom he had come. And the Jews were really upset with Paul.

They didn't like Paul because they felt like that Paul was tearing down their uh their traditions and the faith of their fathers. And and he at one point in this discourse uh when he was standing there giving his speech, he said uh after the way that you call heresy, this is the way that I worship the God of our fathers. You call it heresy, but I'm really worshiping truly the God of our father. So the Jews were inflamed against Paul and they they considered him a heretic. They considered him a seditionist, an insurrectionist, a rabble rouser as it were.

And they wanted to try him before the Sanhedrin because in that court you could stack the deck. In that court, Paul probably wouldn't have gotten a really fair trial. So in about and these events take place in the mid to late uh 1st century 54 57 59 somewhere in there uh and and so Paul as he's called to question he appeals to Caesar. It just happened that Caesar now the the instability of the Roman government was well known especially uh at at the upper echelons. They went through Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero finally.

And then when Nero died between 68 and 70 AD, there were four emperors that that came on the scene within those two years. There was uh Oo and Galba Alice Vatilius and then Vespacian. After Vespacian was a son Titus. After Titus was a man by the name of Nerva. After Nurva there was Domian.

After Domian there was Traan. And so uh there was an instability at that level of the government. And and so the Romans had this they they had started out as a uh a republic of senators. They were governed by a senate. And uh the the wisdom of that was that no matter how unstable the person who may be leading the empire might be and they were very unstable.

Some people uh actually believe scholars uh believe that that the the Romans had had u actually invented indoor plumbing and they used a series of lead pipes. Plumb bum that's the chemical name for u for lead. And they believe that a lot of these Roman emperors had actually gotten lead poisoning that went to their brain and caused them to be crazy. Okay? So they were unstable to say the least.

They were at that level. But what they did at the at the local level brought some stability to the empire because they the Romans made the boast. We we don't destroy su uh cultures. We absorb them. and they absorbed the cultures of the people that they conquered and they put rulers over them so that the rulers that now ruled in Judea at Paul's time and even prior to that starting with Herod agria the first uh they were of the Jewish many of them of Jewish descent so they had a king that ruled in Judea and then the the Romans had governors that ruled there and and I I don't want to bore you with all this but I'm just laying a foundation as to how things operated here in in in the Roman Empire.

So that uh the king, the governors that were appointed, what they call procurators, uh they all swore allegiance to Rome. You had to make the statement and this was why the Christians got uh decimated was because they failed. They would not. They refused to bow and say Kaiser curios the Caesar is Lord. They said Yus curios Jesus is Lord.

And it got them into hot water because the Roman government expected every citizen to swear allegiance to the emperor of Rome at the time. So that's the setting. And uh Paul Paul was living in this era and he was now under house arrest. The Jews uh as this develops he uh they have brought charges against him and he answers and he says I haven't done any of the things that they've accused me of. And so they put him under house arrest.

Now tradition says that Paul was able to convert many of those that were chained to him. House arrest was not just like having an ankle bracelet. you actually were chained to a Ptorian guard, one of the Roman guards. You were chained bodily to them. And uh so they would change these guards every four to six hours.

So every day uh Paul would have Paul would have up to six guards uh that he was chained to. And he was so persuasive that some of the historians say that he converted many of those guards in the Ptorian Guard. And and it's even stated when he writes to the church at Philippi, he says, "But I would that ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel, so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace." That term there means in all the Ptorian guard, the elite guard of Rome. He said, "They know who Jesus is because I've talked to them about Jesus." And in Philippians 4:22, it had reached even to the household of Caesar because he said, "All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household." This was a persuasive evangelist. You stay with him long enough and Jesus is going to jump off on you.

Oh, for that kind of testimony that that as it was stated in the book of Acts when they when they walked by the crowd that they took note of them, they they had a lot of things against them, but they took note of them that they had been with Jesus. There was something about the aroma of his presence that dwelt in them. And when they walked through the crowd, they knew that they had been with Jesus. And so it was with the the Apostle Paul. He said, "My speech nothing.

It's not with enticing words of men's wisdom." Literally, he admitted, "I am not Apollos. I'm not an eloquent man like Apollos, but my speech was not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but was in the demonstration of the spirit and of the power of God." Oh, that God would baptize his church uh with that kind of power that demons flee and sickness fleas and and problems lie down at the presence of the child of God. Excuse me, I've lapsed into my preaching voice. The rulers of Judea came to the uh under the sphere of his influence. These three Felix and Fesus and Agria, they had a brush with eternity.

They came that close. They came that close to being saved. Even Marcus Antonius Felix, he was the Roman governor of Judea. He himself was a former commoner, just a common man. But he married well.

He married Drusilla, who was the daughter of Agria the first. And Tacitus, the historian, described him as a cruel and corrupt man. It was he hoping to gain favor with the Jews who imprisoned Paul for two years. He put him in jail just to please and try to garner favor with the Jewish people. It was he who looked for Paul.

It says in Acts 24 26, he was hoping that Paul would give him some money. Bribe me so I can set you free. It wasn't bail money. It was a bribe that he was looking for. And so finally Felix was retired quote in 58 AD.

The Roman government kind of uh recalled him as it were because he was really a cruel man. And he was followed by then Porschius Fesus and he inherited the Pauline problem. He's got a man sitting in house arrest now for two years and and and Fesus follows Felix and he just inherits this Pauline problem and willing to please the Jews again, he says, "I'm going to try you at Jerusalem." bad choice because which unexpectedly it would have pleased the Jewish contingency but prompted Paul quite unexpectedly as was his right as a Roman citizen to say uh-uh I'm not going to a Jewish court send me to Rome send me to Caesar I as a Roman citizen appeal to my right to appear before the emperor, which which is like frying pan meet the fire, right? He goes from a bunch of Jews that want to kill him to the most possibly vilified and hated emperor of Rome who set Rome on fire just to just to shore up his own popularity and to persecute the Christians. So he appeals to Nero of all people, the worst of the worst.

And Felix says, "Okay, I'll I'm going to pass the buck on this." And the next ruler of uh of Judea is the king Herod Agria II. He was a client king. He couldn't rule independent of Rome. I'll get to where I'm going this morning if I got enough time, but he was the last of the Herodian kings when he died in either 92 or 93 AD. The historians, Josephus and Tacitus, both imply that his relationship with Bernice, his sister, was less than legitimate.

They think they it is rumored that this was an incestuous relationship that this king had with his sister Felix and Fesus and Agria. Three differing levels, three differing personalities, but they share a common bond in that they everyone had a brush with greatness. They had a brush with eternity. They had a brush with possibly the greatest kingdom that ever exists. Not that of Rome, but a kingdom that would outlast every kingdom that has been established on the face of the earth through a man whom God had called my chosen vessel.

My chosen vessel. And together these three men collaborated to write the national anthem of hell. They had appointments with destiny. And Felix says in Acts 24:25, uh, verses 24-2 that we read as a text, he said, as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled. There's something about the convicting power of God that is irreplaceable.

If we lose that, we lose our grip on sinners. We must have that conviction that causes men to tremble under the influence of the holiness of God when they come into contact with this presence. people, sinners should tremble in in that sphere of influence. It says that he trembled and answered, "Go thy way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee." Procrastination is described like this.

The art of keeping up with yesterday by postponing today and rescheduling tomorrow. often mistaken for deep thought. As I like to say, why put off till tomorrow what you can put off till the day after tomorrow, right? Procrastination. Many, many are going to be lost simply because they have sung this chorus, a convenient season.

I'm waiting for the right time. I'm waiting for the time when I've got all my ducks in a row. As somebody said, I don't even know where my ducks are most of the time. To get them in a row is almost unheard of, particularly in our culture and society today. But men are going to be lost because of waiting for a more convenient time.

What have we put off? It's well known statistically in religious circles that most churches lose people between the ages of 19 and 30. Why is that? It's not something that they set out to do. It's just that as the parable Jesus told about the swer of seed, they get caught up in the cares of life.

They get caught up in trying to build a life. If you think about it, during that time period is when you are just overwhelmed. You you got to find a job. You got to continue your education. You got to start building a family.

You want to buy a house. You want to start accumulating possessions. You want to start planning for the future. And all the while, God gets pushed to the background. The really important thing, we lose sight of the things that have eternal value because they get pressed out because of things of temporal value.

And Felix says, "When it becomes more convenient, I'll do this. I'll call for you again and maybe I'll be ready to accept your Jesus at that point. Listen, good intentions. And we know the old saying about good intentions. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

What we intended to do but never get done. Listen to some Old Testament admonitions. Psalm 63:1, the psalmist said, "Oh God, thou art my God. Early, early, I'm not going to wait until the middle of the day. Early will I seek thee." Isaiah 26:9 says, "With my soul I have I desired thee in the night.

Yay, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. Paul writes to the Corinthians and he says,"For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted and in the day of salvation I have secured thee. Behold, now." Everybody say, "Now." Now is the accepted time. Behold, now. Everybody say, "Now." Now is the day of salvation.

Listen, there used to be a phrase among especially our previous generations about pleading the blood of Jesus Christ. before my feet ever hit the floor in the morning. I want to acknowledge God and I want to let him know maybe the world at large doesn't acknowledge you, but I want you to know I am seeking divine intervention in my life for this day. Before I ever climb out of that bed, I'm seeking the Lord early and asking him direct my paths. Don't let me sin presumptuously against you.

Keep my heart, keep my mind stayed upon you. Don't wait for an accepted time. Don't wait for the time of trouble to come. But do it early. Seek him while he can be found.

Fesus when he had conferred with the council answered to Paul, "Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? Unto Caesar thou shalt go?" He was all too willing to do this, unwilling to commit himself. Fesus represents a large group whose chorus sounds like this. Just leave me alone. Just leave me out of it.

Don't bother me at this time with all of your statements and your problems. And so it's after the manner of Pontius Pilate who thinks that he can just wash his hands and be rid of this Jesus of Nazareth. Not so easily. It's like Judas who thinks that I can just get rid of Jesus if I just sell him to the priesthood. If I just get rid of him, I'll be okay.

This is one of the most recognizable lines in the anthem of hell. Leave me alone. We hear it inundating our culture today. It is saturated our vocabulary. I just want to be left alone.

It is straight out of the pits of hell. Jesus came to the coast of Gera and there came to meet him a man out of the tombs vexed with devils. They called him or he called himself legion for we were many. There were many devils that were tormenting him. But the thing that he wants most and the thing that he appeals to Jesus about just leave us alone.

I don't want anything to do with you. It's the cry of the tormented of hell. Just leave us alone. But folks, if the church loses its voice, if the church loses its conviction, we will see an entire generation that is ushered into the pits of hell simply because we have responded to their cry of leave us alone. Leave us alone.

I remember I remember one time out in front of the house, not where we live now, but I saw a dog get hit by a car and this man came running out and he was one of the sheriff's deputies as a matter of fact and he had a he had a towel and as they he would get close to that dog, the dog who is desperately in need of help, but he snaps at him and he keeps trying to get the man away from him, trying to bite at him. And I see humanity in that same condition. That dog had to be held down until the man could finally help that dog, wrap him up so that he wouldn't hurt himself or anybody else. I see our culture in that condition, snapping and biting at anything that wants to help them. But God, help us if we do not through the power of the gospel bind up their wounds and help them regardless of what they're saying.

This gospel has the effect of offending people, invading their personal space. There are those that think we can ignore him and we can exempt ourselves. Just because you ignore God doesn't mean that he doesn't exist. How far down have we fallen? I'll tell you.

I saw a t-shirt of a guy in England who was protesting. And it said this, if Jesus comes back, kill him again. If Jesus comes back, kill him again. There's support for that kind of thinking in our world today. But it must not penetrate the environs of the church.

We must understand as Christians, I need a God who is intrusive and invasive and invited into my life. A lot of religious people want a God who is less. They want a God who is voiceless and faceless and nameless and harmless and powerless. That's the kind of God that many who called themselves Christian want in their lives. I want you God, but like Laban's godsuh that were stolen from him and placed in saddle bags.

Many people want gods of that size. Uh I'll take you off the shelf when I need you in my life. Otherwise, you're going back on the shelf and you're staying there. And don't bother me while I'm living my life. a non-intrusive God who gives them heaven.

You know, everybody goes to heaven, right? I don't recall a funeral I've been to in recent history where people didn't go to heaven. Nobody. Nobody talks about judgment. And And it's not appropriate.

I know that's not the place for it, but I'm just saying it has so saturated our minds and it creeps into even this our church that people think that everybody's going to heaven. No, you cannot have a God that you hold at arms length and expect that he is going to put your feet on streets of gold simply because one day you said, "Well, I do believe in God, but I'm going to put you over here." Listen, he is not just God that we take off the shelf on Sunday or Wednesday night. He the the songwriter said that if he is not Lord of all, he will not be Lord at all. He is the God of Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday as well as Sunday. He must be God.

He will not leave us alone. And I thank God for that. I thank him. Religious uh religious culture has created an image of God who seems to be relying upon I'm going to dig up some stuff here today. So bear with me.

We have religion today. It has crept into our songs of this uh of this uh reliant God. Well, God needs us. Shake yourself, Samson. Come to your senses.

God doesn't need us. It It's crept into our songs. We've got this almost dependent God who chases me down. And we elevate our status to being someone that God is dependent upon for his existence. Not.

So listen, God is before anything was. He is not dependent upon me for his existence. A and so so nothing could be further from the truth when I create this image in my mind of a God who actually needs me. I'll tell you what I need. Jesus.

The song said it this way. I can't even walk. Listen, that that is not a popular theme outside of Christian circles. But I'm going to be very transparent with you today. I can't even walk.

Can I make it through life? Yeah. People do it every day. They make it through their lives without God. But as for me and my house, I need Jesus.

I can't even walk without you holding my hand. I don't want to walk a day without God. He is not dependent upon me. But oh, I am dependent totally upon him. The Jesus that these people will someday meet is not going to be the lowly Galilean who extends an invitation right now graciously to bow.

When Jesus walked on this earth, he extended the invitation. Follow me, Brother Jury. Follow me, Brother Fred. Follow me. He extended a gracious invitation.

And so people have got this smarmy idea about an impotent Jesus, a a weak and meek and lowly Jesus. Listen, the one that they meet the next time. Hallelujah. The next time that he comes, the one who has a rod of iron and upon whose vesture is written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, now with a rod of iron and not an invitation, but a command that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Jesus Christ is Lord. That weak, meek, lowly Nazarene that you've got in your mind is not the one who's coming back.

He rode in on a colt, but he's coming back on a white horse. The horse at some point grew up and so did Jesus. Hallelujah. Don't leave me alone. Don't leave me to my own devices, God.

Because if you do, I'll surely fail. I'll surely fall and I'll be lost. I acknowledge my dependency upon you. Let me hurry on. Herod agria as Paul stands before him, he said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

So persuasive was Paul's argument before a king. This was prophesied about Paul that he would stand before kings and rulers and give his testimony. So persuasive was his testimony and so powerful was the impact of his spirit that he carried within him that this king of Judea looks at him and said, "Man, if I let you stand here much longer, if I listen to you much more, I'm that close to being persuaded to be a Christian." Almost. Almost. John Greenleaf Whitter wrote these words.

For all said words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these. It might have been. It might have been. It might have been. I thought, brother Willford, in the history of our church, 90 years, the thousands of people, the thousands the thousands of people, even some who have tasted of the heavenly gift.

Not every prodigal that walks out makes it back. Not everyone that goes out makes it back. Not everyone gets a second chance. Sometimes like Herod and Fesus and Felix, your chance is your chance, the only chance that you ever get. No doubt there have been thousands, tens of thousands who have come through the doors, witnessed the power of God, the unmistakable presence of the Lord, listened to the word of God as it went went forth and and probably almost were convinced in their minds.

I've watched the shipwreck of lives of people who have thought, "Ah, not at this time, almost not quite there yet." And I've watched them make shipwreck of their lives. Our speech is weak. I'm not the best ortor, the most eloquent, the most educated, none of that. But Agria stood in the presence of a man that I esteem so highly above human beings, arguably the most influential man from among us, and be so moved by the presence of God and his testimony of what God had done for him. And the only thing that remains from that encounter, the thing that we remember the most about Agria's encounter with the Apostle Paul, the thing that echo echoes through time most loudly and will echo for eternity is one word.

Almost. Maybe you're there today. Maybe you're almost persuaded. We used to have those songs in the back of the book. You could go and you could find songs that were appropriate for altar service, right?

We could find those those songs that were appropriate for altar service. And and uh almost persuaded. We used to sing that. Not the country song, the altar song. almost persuaded trying to appeal and I've heard even as pastor pastor and people sometimes I've heard man if you just sang that song one more time I was almost to the point of coming that all if you just preached just a little longer I I I was almost there and walk out at the point of almost Almost.

Almost. The thing that resounds after all these years about a grippa speech is almost almost. The Bible is filled with such stories. Israel almost went into Canaan 40 years earlier than they ultimately got there. Almost.

But they were turned away because of their own doubts and their own fears. Achen almost got away with stealing the Babylonian garment, the wedge of silver. Almost got away with it, but it cost him his family and his life. Saul almost destroyed all the Amalocites, but not doing so that almost cost him his kingdom. Almost.

Abnner. One of the most tragic to me stories in the Bible was that of Abnner. And Joab calls him back. He was a a city of refuge that you could run into and and the avenger of blood couldn't touch you there. Abner comes back to Hebron and stands in the gate.

Almost, brother Richie. All he had to do was step inside the city of refuge. And Joab couldn't touch him. But he stood in the gate and died. And and David said, "Abnner died like a fool.

dies. Almost almost made it to the city of refuge, but he died in the gate. One of the saddest New Testament epitaps was given by Paul to a man named Teeus. He said he mentioned him several times, three times at least in the New Testament writings, but the final epitap was Deeus hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. Deeus could have achieved greatness.

He almost made it, but he forsook me, my Lord. There's a there's kind of a somber spirit in here right now. I don't want to close as someone said, we don't need all that negativity, but sometimes we do. Sometimes we we need to just realize that that there are people who are standing poised on that brink of almost and just need a little nudge to get them to the place of I am committing. Listen, almost almost by definition is not inherently good or bad.

It's shaped by the context in which it's used. Right? Its emotional impact depends on the outcome or expectation that it modifies. Let's stand together. I'm closing with this.

almost a grip made it. But there's going to be a group that says we're going to rejoice over the almost. Asaf in Psalm 73 said, "But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped." Almost. Brother Willilifford almost.

I was almost gone when he found me. When I came to the sanctuary, I made it to the sanctuary and what was almost that fall that I nearly took, that decimating fall that would have brought me down for the last time. Almost the enemy caught me. But I came to the sanctuary of God. And because now I was almost lost, but now I am found.

And he brought me up out of a pit. Like the prodigal who nearly died in a pig pin, estranged from his father almost, but he came to himself and said, "I'm going back to my father's house." Hallelujah. in that number in Revelation 7 13 and 14. And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, "What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they?" And I said unto him, "Sir, thou knowest?" And he said to me, "These are they," these are they which came out, got it that came out of our feet had well nigh slipped.

The enemy had well nigh taken us down. But these are they which are come out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the lamb. The enemy almost had me, but the grace of God pulled me out and saved me. I'm going to rejoice on that shore because I was almost lost, but thank God I'm found. Let's praise him together.

Thank you, Lord God, for your word. Thank you, Lord, for saving us sometimes in spite of ourselves. Thank you, Lord God. Amen. God bless you this morning for your faithfulness, your attentiveness, and listen to my ramblings.

And let's take a break. Great one another.