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Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ. Back to the Bible for the way of life. Welcome to this period of Bible study. We are delighted to have the opportunity to spend just a few minutes in a consideration of God's Word with you today and hope that you find this to be profitable, that you find it to be faithful to the word of God, and that you find it to be clear and understandable. This program is called Back to the Bible. That is our aim, that is our desire, that is our hope, that is our intention. And if you find us to not be going back to the Bible for the things that we say, then we hope that you will reach out to us and ask us about that or clarify for us how we can be more faithful in a consideration of God's Word. I realize that as we go through lessons like this that it will be from time to time that there will be things with which people disagree. And when we are confronted with things that we disagree about, there are only a few options. We can either ignore it, or we can be angry about it, or we can investigate it, and if it's found to be true, then we can make alterations to our life. And what I would like to do is if there's something that you and I disagree upon, I would like for you to reach out so that I can consider that and that you'll consider what it is that I have to say that perhaps the case that I'm making is the biblical Back to the Bible case. But whatever the case may be, we would love to hear from you and we would love for you to reach out to encourage us. If you have questions that you would like for us to cover on the program, then we would be interested in hearing from you about that. And so as we study today, we're going to be looking at the middle to the end of Acts, chapter 25, and making our way, we hope, into chapter 26. And I realize that we have stayed in the Book of Acts for several weeks in a row as I'm recording this, but what we're trying to do is finish the Book of Acts before the end of the year so that we can make preparation for some new projects that we have coming in the beginning of 2026, and hopefully those will be helpful and available as well. When we come to the end of Acts 25, we have Paul in prison in Caesarea under the rule of Festus. So if you'll remember, all the way back in chapter 21, he was arrested in the middle of that riot where there were people who were accusing him of desecrating the temple. In chapter 22, he gave his initial defense to the crowd where he basically said that he had once been in their position, that he believed that he was being faithful to the law, but not to the law alone, but to the fulfillment of the law in following Jesus, that he had been converted, that he had had his mind changed because he had seen the risen Lord on the road to Damascus and that he had been baptized to have his sins washed away. And then he had petitioned the Lord to be able to preach to the Jews. But the Lord told him that the Jewish people would not listen. And so he was to go to the Gentiles. Now, it was at that word that they got so upset and called for his death. Well, the Roman commander Claudius Lysias said, we need to figure out what's going on here. And he couldn't beat Paul. He thought that he would. But then he realized Paul informed him that he was a Roman citizen. So he told Paul he had the Sanhedrin Council, the highest Jewish council meet. And Paul went to make a statement before them. Well, because he could see the hypocrisy in the high priest and because he knew he would not get a fair trial, and because he saw division within the group, he simply said that he was on trial with regards to the resurrection. Well, that was right. And that divided the court so much because the Sanhedrin was made up of both Sadducees who did not believe in a resurrection, and Pharisees, who did believe in a resurrection. And so this split them. And they were in such anger that. That Paul was almost killed in the middle of their conflict, in the middle of their disagreement. And so Claudius Lysias, the commander, comes down and gets Paul again. And he was going to send them back before the Sanhedrin, send Paul back before the Sanhedrin. But there was a plot against Paul. And Paul learns of that and sends his nephew. Actually, the nephew learned of it, came and told Paul. And Paul then sent the nephew to Claudius Lysias, who listens to the nephew, sends Paul by night to Caesarea. Now, the first thing that Paul will do there in Caesarea is he will give his defense before Felix. Now, Felix leaves him in jail for two years, even though it is evident that there's nothing with which Paul really is accused of that would violate Roman law. And so Festus is going to come into office. After those two years, Paul will be able to make his defense before him. And Festus basically says, there's nothing Roman wrong with what you've been doing. It seems to be this is just a Jewish thing, so you need to go before the Jewish court. Well, Paul does not believe he needs to go before the Jewish court because he doesn't think that he's violated their law either. And he knows that they're going to be lying in wait to kill him even after these two years. And so he says, no, I'm a Roman. I have the right to be where I am. This is right where I need to be to evaluate whether or not I've broken this law. And so he says, I appeal to Caesar. And Festus says, well, since you appeal to Caesar, to Caesar, you will go. Well, now we come to the middle of chapter 25. Here is verse 13. Now, when several days had passed, King Agrippa and Berenice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus. And while they were spending many days there, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, there is a man who was left as a prisoner by Felix. And when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it is not the custom of the Romans to hand over any man before the accused meets his accusers face to face, and has an opportunity to make his defense against the charges. So after they assembled here, I did not delay. But on the next day, I took my seat on the judgment seat and ordered the man to be brought before me. When the accuser stood up, they were not bringing any charges against him for evil deeds I was expecting. But they had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, a dead man whom Paul asserted to be alive. And being perplexed about how to investigate such matters, I was asking whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there to be tried on these matters. But when Paul appealed to be held in custody for the emperor's decision, I ordered him to be kept in custody until I sent him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said to Festus, I also would like to hear the man myself. To morrow, he said, you shall hear him. So on the next day, when Agrippa came together with Berenice amid great pomp and entered the hall accompanied by the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at the order of Festus, Paul was brought in. And Festus said, king Agrippa and all you gentlemen here present with us, you see this man about whom all of the Jews have appealed to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly declaring that he ought not to live any longer. But I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death. And 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 all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after investigation has taken place, I may have something to write for. It seems absurd to me in sending a prisoner not to indicate also the charges against him. So one week after Paul's appeal to Caesar, Festus and Agrippa are together. Now, this man is known as Agrippa in the New Testament. His name was Herod Agrippa ii, and he was the son of the Herod that was referenced in chapter 12. Now, I don't know if you remember back to chapter 12, that Herod was the one who had beheaded James. He was the one who imprisoned Peter. He was the one before whom Jesus would have stood trial. Most significantly, his father would have been the one that was King Herod the Great when Jesus was born. And so this is Herod, this Herod here, it would have been his grandson, Herod Agrippa ii. Now he also is with Bernice. Now, this was Agrippa II's sister. But there is a lot of rumor and accusations, and there were suspicions at the time of incest between them. But they come to Caesarea. Now, Festus explained the situation to Agrippa. Paul was an inherited prisoner from Felix that the Jews wanted to try in their own courts, but Festus did not want to give him up to them, mostly because Paul did not want to give it up to them, be given up to them. But Festus tries to frame this as a search for justice. But we really know that he did not want to upset the Jews. But there does seem to be at least some awareness that it would not be right to hand Paul back over to them. Now, the problem, as far as Festus could see it, is that their charges were religious questions, especially about Jesus, who they disagreed over whether or not he was dead or alive. Festus here calls him a dead man who Paul says was raised. But when Festus asked Paul if he wanted to go to Jerusalem to have his case tried, Paul appealed to Caesar. Now, Festus was sure that Caesar would not appreciate getting a prisoner on these terms and wanted help in deciding what charges to send along with Paul to Caesar. Agrippa was interested and wanted to hear the case. So he and Berenice came In the next day, with lots of show and pomp and circumstance, and Festus introduced Paul as the one that the Jews did not want to live any longer, but in whom Festus found no guilt for such execution. But Paul had appealed to Caesar. But of course, Festus did not want to send him without real charges to indicate against Paul. That would have been crazy in Festus view. So we come into chapter 26 with this setting Agrippa is interested in hearing. Festus wants to know what to charge him with. And we're going to have Paul be able to speak to give his defense. So chapter 26, beginning at verse one, Agrippa said to Paul, you are permitted to speak for yourself. Then Paul, stretching out his hand, began to make his defense. Concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I regard myself, blessed King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today, especially because you are an expert in all customs and questions among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently. So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem, since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion. And now I am standing here being tried 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 unbelievable among all of you if God does raise the dead? So then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus the Nazarene. 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 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 furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them, even to foreign cities. So Agrippa gives Paul the opportunity to speak. Now, I think that this is perhaps Paul's fullest case that he's going to be able to make in his commitment to Jesus. And of course, this is in some ways a defense of himself. But I think what he does here is he makes a full defense of the reason for which he has made this transition. This is a powerful statement. Now, the reason I think this becomes his fullest case is in chapter 22. It's kind of in an odd moment, isn't it? He's going up the stairs to the barracks and he's trying to make the case to these Jewish people. And as soon as he mentions that his purpose was to go to the Gentiles, they explode in anger. So he didn't have an opportunity really to make the full case there. Chapter 23, he sees that it's going to be a hypocritical situation and so he just mentions the Resurrection. And they're so divided about the Resurrection they can't hear him. Then in chapter 24, he goes before Felix and, and Felix doesn't know enough about the situation. He knows about the way the text tells us, but it doesn't tell us that he is able to discern between all of this and doesn't let Paul go because he wants to do a favor to the Jewish people. But here it seems that he has a chance to make his defense before King Agrippa. And Paul actually expresses this with a lot of thanks. He is thankful to speak to Agrippa because he knows that Agrippa was familiar with Jewish customs. Maybe that's not the case with Festus, since he hadn't been around that long. So Paul begs for a patient hearing. So Paul says in this that he is. He's not really focused in this text about the riots that he supposedly caused or the trumped up accusation that he defiled the Temple. Rather, his focus is going to be on the reality of Jesus and how that had transformed Paul and his work. So Paul explains that he was well grounded in Judaism and that that was well known. He had been raised in Jerusalem under the strict training of the Pharisees. His commitment to the law was undoubted among the people that knew him. But he had the hope of the Resurrection, just like the Jewish fathers, just like the 12 tribes, just like even the Pharisees of that day looked forward to. But oddly, he was on trial for the hope that all the other seemingly faithful Jews claimed to have. Now, God made promises to the fathers. And Paul asks this great question. Why would you think it's crazy that God raised Jesus from the dead? Why does that seem impossible to you? Because the point here is that if God could create the world and make man and he could divide the Red Sea and he could do all of these things miraculously, then why couldn't he raise someone from the dead? Now what he's doing here is he is foreshadowing his key point, God's promises of the resurrection that will have been fulfilled in Jesus. Well, he himself had once been so set against Jesus, the Jesus that he was now following, that he was hostile to Jesus and to his people to the highest degree. He persecuted them. He tried to make them blaspheme. He gave his vote for them all the way, even till death. And he describes his attitude as being furiously enraged. So what Paul is showing here is that his hope was for the resurrection, but that he was, just like his Jewish accusers, in a position of hostility to Jesus and to the way of Jesus. So notice this. This is chapter 26, beginning at verse 12. The text there says, while so 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 fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goad. And I said, who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise up and stand on your feet. For this purpose I have appeared to you to appoint you a servant and a witness, not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you, rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in me. So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring, both to those of Damascus first and also those at Jerusalem, and then throughout all the region of Judea, and then even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, practicing deeds appropriate to repentance. For this reason, some Jews seized me in the temple and were trying to put me to death. Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand here bearing witness both the small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place, that the Christ was to suffer, and that as the first of the resurrection from the dead, he was going to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles. Now Paul was engaged in this furious rage, going after Christians, but Something had happened to change his mind. Why? Here Paul recalls his experience on the road to Damascus. Now Luke records that experience for us in chapter nine. And Paul recalls that to the crowd in chapter 22. He had authority to do this anti Jesus work in Damascus. But he was surrounded by a brighter than the sunlight. Now notice that the voice said that Paul was persecuting me. That is the source of the voice. Here Paul says that the voice said it was difficult for Paul to kick against the goads. Goats were used to prod plowing animals forward and in the right direction. The Lord had been orienting Paul in the direction he needed to go. But Paul was pushing and kicking back. He was kicking against the spikes that were intended to point him in the right direction. Now Paul asked, who is this? The voice responded, it was Jesus. Now Jesus, who Paul was persecuting by hurting his people, told Paul that he was going to serve as a witness. God promised to rescue Paul from the Jews and the Gentiles. Note that it was to the Gentiles that he was going to be sent to. His work was going to be to open their eyes so that they could turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that they could be forgiven and be part of the holy people who had given their allegiance to Jesus. Of course, Paul explains he couldn't be disobedient to this heavenly vision. So he began to tell the people in Damascus, Jerusalem, Judea, and ultimately the Gentiles that they needed to repent. They needed to have that change of heart. They needed to break their allegiance to sin and self and Satan and give their allegiance to Christ and then have deeds, have actions, do things that were in keeping with that repentance. And then it was because of that work that the Jews arrested and attempted to execute him. But as he stood before Agrippa, Paul explained that God was helping him. Paul said that he was preaching. And what he was preaching was nothing but the fulfillment of the scriptural promises. He argued that Moses and the prophets had pointed to the fact that the coming king would suffer, that he would rise from the dead, and that he would proclaim light to Jews and Gentiles. Now, specifically, it was because of the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead that he was able to be the first to proclaim light to Jews and Gentiles. This was not diverting from the way of faithfulness to God. Rather, Paul was proclaiming its fulfillment. So we come to verse 24. Now Paul was saying this in his defense. Festus said in a loud voice Paul, you are out of your mind. Great learning is driving you out of your mind. Paul said, I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, But I utter words of sober truth, for the king knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you believe. But Agrippa replied to Paul, in such a short time, are you persuading me to become a Christian? And Paul said, I would pray to God that whether in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am, except for these chains. Paul is told by Festus that he's going crazy. Now, perhaps the much learning here is Festus's reference to the Scriptures. Paul objected. He said that his words were not out of mind, but that they were true, that they were rational, that they were sober truth. In fact, Paul said that someone like Agrippa would be aware of these things. Paul turns the attention to Agrippa, asking, don't you believe the prophets? I know you do. He's saying, you know the prophets, you. You know the promises that they've made. If you know the prophets, then this should not seem out of mind. So verse 28 has been translated differently now for a long time. It had been rendered, communicating the idea that Paul almost convinced him. Newer translations render it to suggest that Agrippa is saying, do you think you can make me a Christian so quickly? So the question is, is whether the word should be translated as almost or in a short time. Of course, we can understand the difficulty because we use the word almost to mean in a short time. Some even make the case that Agrippa is saying he is being little convinced, that is, Paul isn't having any significant effect on him. In that case, Paul's response would be, I don't want you to be convinced a little, but all the way. I probably lean toward in a short time, but I wouldn't be contentious about it. I take it to be that Agrippa is saying, you think you can convince me to be a Christian in one sermon. Paul's response in either case is to put the weight right on a grip of shoulders, whether it takes a short time or a long time. Yes, I'd want to persuade you to be a Christian. I would want you to be just what I am. Paul says, except the chains. Now the king stood up, and the governor and Berenice and Those who were sitting with them and when they had gone aside, they began talking to one another, saying, this man is not doing anything worthy of death or imprisonment. And Agrippa said to Festus, this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar. Ultimately, Agrippa concluded along with everyone else, that not only did Paul not deserve death, he didn't even deserve imprisonment really. He could have been set free if not for his Caesar appeal. Now, it doesn't seem as if they are wrestling with the truth of Paul's case about Jesus at all. And what I mean by that is they do seem to be concerned about Paul, but are they reckoning at all with the fact that they are saying that Paul is saying that Jesus is the risen Lord? They don't seem to be dealing with that at all. So they are going to be concerned about whether or not they're. How they're going to send him to Caesar. So he is going to go to trial before Caesar with no charges against him. And they say, well, he could have been set free if he hadn't appealed to Caesar. And it doesn't really seem like that up till now, right, because Felix didn't set him free for two years. Festus was going to send him back to the Sanhedrin and Paul had to appeal to Caesar really, to get out of this territory. So this appeal is going to get Paul safely out of that hostile territory and is going to make it possible for him to reach his long desired destination of Rome and proclaim the good news of King Jesus there. Now, this was not the way, perhaps, that he had intended to arrive at Rome. And yet we will see that through this process, God is going to take him to Rome and he is going to be able to preach the gospel even while he is in prison under Roman captivity. Well, until next time, we bid you a pleasant good day. Back to the Bible. Let it be our plea. God's word alone, our authority, every word, every step in the name of Christ back to the Bible for the way of life.