The Saviour and the Secular Soul Acts 25:13-20a After Easter, What? A Sermon Series

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1 The Saviour and the Secular Soul Acts 25:13-20a After Easter, What? A Sermon Series Rev. Michael D. Halley April 19, 2015 Suffolk Christian Church Suffolk, Virginia Third Sunday of Easter ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Acts 25:13-20a New International Version (NIV) A few days later, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay 4 their respects to Festus. Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul s case with the king. He said: There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned. I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. I was at a loss how to investigate such matters. The Word of the Lord: 1

2 Page 2 Thanks be to God! Our Scripture lesson for today is just a small part of a larger story. Let me tell you about it. The year is AD 60, about 30 years after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The place is the Mediterranean port city of Caesarea (seez-uh-ree-uh). Festus has come there from Rome to assume the office of procurator, or governor, of the Roman province of Judea. His immediate predecessor in that 5 office was Felix, who also is mentioned in the New Testament. The situation that Festus found was not good. Felix had left him a prisoner, our very own Paul the Apostle, who had been accused by the Jews. As our lesson tells us, Festus even made a trip down to Jerusalem to learn more about the charges against Paul. He still was not sure what crime, if any, Paul had committed. And then, he received two visitors at his office in Caesarea. King Agrippa and his sister Bernice came to call on the new governor. Agrippa would be the last in the line of the Herods of the New Testament. His great-grandfather, by the way, was Herod the Great, the man who tried to kill the baby Jesus and had the infant boys of Bethlehem killed. Agrippa ruled over a small territory northeast of the Sea of Galilee. He is a well-versed in the Jewish religion and he and his sister came to Caesarea to pay their respects to the new governor Festus. While they are there, Festus decides to ask for Agrippa s help with the case against Paul. In these words of Festus, we gain a little insight into how the secular soul deals with the Saviour. He tells Agrippa and Bernice that when he was in Jerusalem, he found

3 Page 3 that the Jewish leaders there had some points of dispute with him [Paul] about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. I was at a loss how to investigate such matters. I was at a loss how to investigate such matters. Interesting way to put it. I checked the translation of this phrase in several other versions: I did not know how to find out the truth about all this. (Contemporary 6 English Version ) I m a newcomer here and don t understand everything involved in cases 7 like this. (The Message ) I did not have any idea about how to judge these matters. (Easy to Read 8 Version ) A dead man, Jesus, was claimed by Paul (and surely others) to be alive. Festus knew the Roman law and the Roman law covered insurrections, but it didn t cover resurrections. This is just incomprehensible to Festus. I was at a loss, he said. He s never heard anything like this before. He doesn t know what to say or even where to begin. In Festus mind, Paul isn t guilty of anything. He s not a murderer or a thief. He s not a criminal. Spouting all this about a resurrection may make Paul a little odd, but that s no crime. In many respects, Festus represents the secular soul. He doesn t believe in the resurrection but it s okay if someone else does. When the secular soul comes face to face with a true believer, the secular does not know what to do with the sacred; doesn t know what to say or where to begin. The message of Easter has baffled the world all these years since. The words of Festus ring out across the centuries I was at a loss how to investigate such matters.

4 Page 4 Briefly let me tell you what happened next there in Caesarea. Agrippa understood the Jewish people fairly well. He was born about the time Jesus began his public ministry and knew a fair bit about the story of Jesus. So he asks Festus if he could talk to this man Paul. Festus agrees, and it will take place the next day. The next day turns out to be a great occasion. The Romans knew how to 9 put on a good ceremony, full of pomp and circumstance. The hearing was held in what was called the audience hall, and I am sure it was a splendid place. Agrippa and Bernice made their entrance, dressed in their royal purple robes. Festus was attired in the scarlet dress of the Roman governor. With them were the Roman Legionnaires, other court officials, civic officials, and interested onlookers. My, it must have been an impressive sight. Last to arrive was the accused, Paul the Apostle. The contrast with the other officials could not have been greater. Though we don t know for sure 10 what Paul looked like, one ancient reference says he was bowlegged, strongly built, a man small in size, with meeting eyebrows, with a rather large nose. The description goes on, that he was also full of grace, for at times he looked like a man and at times he had the face of an angel. I don t know about you, but I would be shaking in my boots to face such a grand gathering of the secular soul. I don t believe, however, that it fazed Paul one bit. Paul s defense before Agrippa in Acts chapter 26 is the high point of the book of Acts and is a brilliant testimony of his faith. In verse 8, Paul says, Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? This is the question of the ages, the question on which the secular soul

5 Page 5 stumbles every time. Why should anyone think it incredible? As Paul continued his defense, finally Festus had enough. You are out of your mind, Paul! he shouted. Your great learning is driving you insane. Some years ago a woman came to faith in Jesus Christ, accepting as fact that Jesus rose from the dead. Her husband, a lawyer and newspaper reporter, was a skeptic. Skeptic theology says there is far too much evidence against the idea of God, let alone the possibility that God became a man. God [in the 11 skeptic theology] is just mythology, superstition, or wishful thinking. The woman s husband later said, As far as I was concerned, the case was closed. There was enough proof for me to rest easy with the conclusion that the divinity of Jesus was nothing more than the fanciful invention of 12 superstitious people. Or so I thought. Or so I thought, he said. That comment came as a direct result of what he began to see in his wife since her embrace of the Christian faith. After the predictable rolling of the eyes and fears of his wife being the victim of a bait and switch scam, he noticed some very positive changes he found attractive and intriguing. The reporter in him eventually wanted to get to the bottom of this and he launched his own personal investigation. Setting aside as best he could his own personal interest and prejudices, he began reading and studying, interviewing experts, examining archaeology and the Bible. Over time the evidence [this man found] began to point to the previously unthinkable. His secular soul, confronted by overwhelming evidence which had been carefully dissected by his trained lawyer s mind, led him to fall at the feet of Jesus and proclaim with Thomas, My Lord and my God! Fortunately for us and for all the secular souls of the world, this man

6 Page 6 wrote a book about his quest for faith. It is appropriately entitled The Case for 13 Christ, and the former atheist-author and now committed Christian disciple 14 is Lee Strobel. Can we stand with Paul and Lee Strobel and millions of others who embrace Christ and his resurrection? This is the most critical question you will ever face in your life, for this is a question with eternal consequences. In closing, let s allow Paul to help us with understanding what salvation 15 is all about : There is no one doing what is right, not even one. (Romans 3:10, ERV). All have sinned and are not good enough to share God s divine greatness. (Romans 3:23, ERV). Sin came into the world because of what one man [Adam] did. And with sin came death. So this is why all people must die because all people have sinned. (Romans 5:12, ERV) When people sin, they earn what sin pays death. (Romans 6:23, ERV) But Christ died for us while we were still sinners, and by this God showed how much he loves us. (Romans 5:8, ERV) If you openly say, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from death, you will be saved. Yes, we believe in Jesus deep in our hearts, and so we are made right with God. And we openly say that we believe in him, and so we are saved. (Romans 10:9-10, ERV) Yes, everyone who trusts in the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13, ERV) Let us pray together: Dear God, we so thank you for Paul and his fearless defense of the Saviour before the secular soul. Help us, too, to fearlessly share the hope of eternal life with others, never forcing our beliefs upon anyone, but humbly giving Christ the glory for the work he did within us. Amen

7 Page 7 I wish to thank my friend Dr. Ray Pritchard for his insightful thinking on these two chapters in Acts, +==+==+==+==+==+==+ All Scripture references are from New International Version, NIV, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc., unless otherwise indicated. +==+==+==+==+==+==+ Sunday Sermons from Suffolk Christian Church are intended for the private devotional use of members and friends of the church. Please do not print or publish. Thank you. Suggestions for sermon topics are always welcome! 1. This is Agrippa II, the son of Agrippa I, and a member of the Herod family. He heard Paul s defense, as recorded in Acts 25: With his death the Herodian dynasty came to an end. 2. Bernice was Agrippa II s sister and spent much of her later life in his court. 3. Caesarea is a port city on the Mediterranean Sea, about 21 miles south of Mount Carmel. 4. Festus was the successor of Felix as procurator of Judea (Acts 24:27 ), from A.D. 60 until his death in A.D. 62. Procurator, also called governor, was a Roman military office which developed into a powerful position in New Testament times. The procurator had control over entire countries under the Roman system. They could issue death warrants and have coins struck in his name. Three procurators are named in the Bible, Felix, Festus, and Pontius Pilate. 5. Felix became procurator of Judea in A.D. 52 and remained in office until A.D. 60, when the emperor Nero recalled him. See Acts 24. Contemporary historians Tacitus and Josephus paint Felix as a brutal, incompetent politician who was finally replaced. From Felix, Holman Bible Dictionary, edited by Trent C. Butler,

8 Page 8 6. Contemporary English Version (CEV), copyright 1995 by American Bible Society 7. The Message (MSG), copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson 8. Easy-to-Read Version (ERV), copyright 2006 by World Bible Translation Center 9. Pomp and circumstance is a splendid celebration with ceremony and fuss. See dictionary.com. 10. From The Acts of Paul and Thecla, quoted at Unless otherwise noted, all the quotes in this story come from Sometimes the Evidence Doesn t Stack Up, written by Dr. Ray Bohlin, at Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ, Grand Rapids Michigan/Zondervan Publishing House, 1998, p Cited in the previous endnote above. 14. Lee s bio on his website says, Atheist-turned-Christian Lee Strobel, the former award-winning legal editor of The Chicago Tribune, is a New York Times best-selling author of more than twenty books and serves as Professor of Christian Thought at Houston Baptist University This is the popular Romans Road. This is Matt Slick s version, from Matt Slick is the President and Founder of the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry.