Let's open our Bibles to the 26th chapter
of Acts.
Paul was rescued by Lysias, the captain of
the Roman guard from the mob that was
attempting to beat him to death in Jerusalem
on the Temple Mount.
He was taken into protective custody by the
Roman government, sent under special guard to Caesarea
for his own protection, where he appeared before
the governor, Felix, who held Paul a prisoner
for two years, more or less as a
political pawn.
When Festus became the governor in Felix's place,
who had been replaced by the Roman Empire
because of his corruption, Festus heard Paul's case
and began to give Paul the runaround, saying,
are you willing to go to Jerusalem and
answer these charges?
And Paul said, I appeal to Caesar.
And being a Roman citizen, Festus was obliged
to send him to Caesar.
But he had a problem.
The problem was this.
He could not really send him to Caesar
without legitimate charges being made against him, and
there were no legitimate charges.
And so he explained his problem to Herod
Agrippa, who came to pay a courtesy visit.
And Herod Agrippa said, well, I will hear
his case.
And the whole idea now of Herod Agrippa
hearing Paul's case is that there might be
made formal charges to send with Paul as
he made his appeal unto Caesar.
And so as we get into chapter 26,
we find that Herod Agrippa, who is the
great grandson of Herod the Great, who ordered
the murder of the children at the time
of the birth of Christ, who was the
grand nephew of Herod Antipas, who had ordered
the death of John the Baptist, the son
of Herod Agrippa I, who had put James
to death and had imprisoned Peter, Herod Agrippa
II.
And Paul is now standing before him there
in Caesarea to declare his cause.
And the idea is that they might formulate
charges against him to send with him as
he goes to Rome.
Then Agrippa said unto Paul, after Festus announced
the whole thing, Agrippa said unto Paul, you
are permitted to speak for yourself.
Then Paul stretched forth his hand and answered
for himself.
Now we usually see portrayed in the Roman
court and all, you know, friends, countrymen, you
know, and all.
And you usually see them with a wave
of the hand.
And evidently, Paul had probably picked up this
Roman custom.
So now appearing before Agrippa and all, you
know, I count it a privilege, Agrippa, you
know.
So he stretched forth his hand to answer
for himself.
And he said, I am really happy, King
Agrippa, to be able to explain to you
today the things that I'm accused of by
the Jews, especially because I know that you
are an expert in all of the customs
and questions which are among the Jews.
Wherefore, I beseech thee to listen to me
patiently.
And so it was true that Herod Agrippa
had become a real student of Jewish law,
of Jewish custom.
And he was noted for his vast understanding
of the Jewish religion.
Having read the scriptures and studied the prophets,
he knew them well.
And so Paul said, I'm really very happy
to be able to explain to you my
case because I know that you have a
background in these things.
He said, my manner of life from my
youth, which was first among my own nation
at Jerusalem, all of the Jews know.
And those which knew me from the beginning,
if they would testify, would tell you that
after the straightest sect of the religion, I
was a Pharisee.
And the Pharisees were indeed the most orthodox
of the orthodox.
They were the radicals.
They were the ones who went the second
mile, in a sense, to be very exacting
as far as the religious practices work and
everything had to be just perfect for the
Pharisee.
They had their traditions and their customs.
And now he said, I stand and am
judged for the hope of the promise made
of God unto our fathers.
He is referring to the promise of the
Messiah.
And Paul said, it's because of the promises
that were made to our fathers, because I
hoped in these promises that I stand here
to be judged.
Interesting.
Knowing that Herod Agrippin knew the prophecies, he
brings him right to these promises that God
had made.
Unto which promise are twelve tribes instantly serving
God day and night are hoping to come.
All of the Jews are hoping for the
Messiah.
For which hope sake, King Agrippa, I have
been accused of the Jews.
Now, why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should raise the
dead?
Now, Paul the Apostle, I am certain, was
praying and hoping that somehow, some way, he
could convert King Agrippa to the faith in
Jesus Christ.
I'm sure that Paul was thinking if this
guy would just get turned on for the
Lord, being the king over this territory, what
an influence he could be.
And so, Paul's whole defense has one real
purpose, and that is to convert Agrippa.
And so, he begins right away drawing Agrippa
in, saying, hey, why should you think it
a thing incredible that God should raise the
dead?
Most of the problems that people have today
is with their concept of God.
Most of the problems that people have with
Scriptures today is because of their concept of
God.
J.B. Phillips wrote a book, Your God
is Too Small.
And that is true of many people.
Their concept of God is too small.
It's too limited.
They have what they call the anthropomorphic concept
of God.
Man's concepts of God, man's idea of God,
or man creating God.
And whenever a man creates a God, he
creates him too small.
There are people who are concerned today with
many problems in the Bible.
The parting of the Red Sea, the preservation
of Jonah in the belly of the whale,
things of this nature.
And they bring these up as troubling, difficult
Scriptures to deal with, only because their concept
of God is too small.
You know, God could have actually made a
triad submarine to surface and take Jonah in.
Then people wouldn't have so much of a
problem with it.
But surely if he could make the universe,
he could make a fish large enough to
house Jonah.
God prepared a great fish.
It wasn't just any old shark or whale
or whatever.
It was a prepared fish that God had
prepared.
And so if your concept of God is
all that it should be, why should you
think it a thing incredible that God could
create a fish large enough to keep Jonah
for three days, you see?
Why should you think it a thing incredible
that God should raise the dead?
Difficulty must always be measured by the capacity
of the agent doing the work.
Now we look at this structure in which
we worship tonight and you say, oh, this
must have been a hard building to make.
No, it wasn't.
We had skilled workmen doing the job.
We had men who knew what they were
doing, skilled men on the job.
It was a very easy task for them,
for they had the proper skill and proper
equipment.
Now to look at this building and say
that we hired a bunch of trained dogs
to put it up, then indeed it would
have been difficult because of the capacity of
the agents that we've called upon to do
the work.
Go grab the board, Rover, and bring it
over to me.
I want to nail it down here, you
know.
Well, you could have great difficulty because of
the agent you've called upon to do the
work.
But when God is the agent doing the
work, any talk of difficulty is absurd.
So the idea of resurrection from the dead,
oh, that's hard to take, you know, that's
hard to believe.
And of course it was the resurrection of
Jesus from the dead, which was the thing
that was really troubling.
It was the stumbling block.
So Paul zeroes right in on that area
of difficulty and he shows the inconsistency of
the difficulty because God was the one who
raised him from the dead.
Why should you think anything incredible that God
should raise the dead?
The Bible begins with these words.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth.
If you can swallow that, you should have
no problem with Jonah.
If you can believe the first verse of
the Bible, you should have no difficulty with
the rest of it.
A God who is big enough to create
the heaven and the earth is big enough
to do anything and everything else that the
Bible says that he did.
Why should you think it a thing incredible
that God should raise the dead?
I think that our lack of faith is
always demonstrated by our great surprise when God
has done something and respond to our prayers.
And we so many times, even when we
see the work of God, we can hardly
believe it.
Our concept is so limiting.
God help us and God free us from
a narrow concept that we might see him
in the fullness of his glory and power
and majesty and abilities.
Now unto him who is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or
think.
Oh, God, help us to get a correct
concept of God.
God free us from our narrowed, limited concepts.
Now, Paul begins with his own testimony.
I really thought within myself that I ought
to do many things contrary to the name
of Jesus of Nazareth, which I also did
in Jerusalem.
And many of the saints I shut up
in prison, having received authority from the chief
priest.
And when they were put to death, I
gave my voice against them.
Again, Paul, no doubt, was a member of
the Sanhedrin.
He is talking about the voice in the
Sanhedrin, the vote against the Christians, putting them
to death.
He said he consented to the death of
Stephen and those other early Christian martyrs.
Paul consented to their deaths.
I gave my voice against them and I
punished them often in every synagogue and compelled
them to blaspheme.
Don't you know that that must have troubled
Paul in his later Christian years when he
thought of what a havoc he had wrecked
upon the church before his conversion?
I imagine he thought about those people that
he had forced to blaspheme God or to
blaspheme Jesus Christ.
And I imagine it just really cut Paul
deeply.
It is interesting how that here we have
seen God do such a marvelous work, especially
among those people who were drug oriented.
And we have seen the glorious hand of
God working in their lives, delivering them from
hard drugs and setting them free from bondage
and from addiction and all.
And in many cases, we have had people
come to the Lord here who were once
dealers.
In fact, some of the major dealers in
Southern California are now pastoring Calvary chapels.
But it was interesting to me that so
often when these fellows were converted who were
dealers, we had several of them who immediately
went to all of those that they were
dealing drugs to, to tell them that they
weren't going to be dealing anymore, but to
tell them that they had something better than
drugs now that they wanted to share with
them.
And they sought to undo the evil that
they had done by sharing Christ with these
that before they had dealt the drugs to.
Because it bothered them that they were guilty
of helping to destroy lives.
And I imagine such was the case with
Paul.
It probably really bothered him that he had
actually forced Christians to blaspheme the name of
Jesus.
And he said, whereupon, as I went to
Damascus with the authority and commission from the
chief priest at mid day, O King, I
saw in the path, a light from heaven
that was brighter than the brightness of the
sun.
It was shining all around me and those
which were journeying with me.
And when we were all fallen to the
earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me
and saying in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me?
It is hard for thee to kick against
the pricks or the goads.
In those days when they would put the
yoke on a young ox, the young ox
wouldn't like that yoke and often it would
begin to kick.
And so the fellow with the plow, if
he had a single plow, would have this
pole with a sharp point on it.
And every time the ox would kick, he
would hold that goad there at the back
of the heel of the ox.
So the ox soon learned not to kick.
You go ahead and object, but it's going
to hurt.
And so the Lord said, it's been hard
for you, Paul, to kick against the goads.
The spirit of God was no doubt dealing
with Paul before his conversion experience.
I believe that watching Stephen's death no doubt
had a tremendous effect upon Paul.
The Bible said that Stephen's face was shining
like an angel.
And as they were stoning him, Stephen prayed,
O Father, don't lay this sin to their
charge.
Into thy hands I commend my spirit.
And I'm certain that this had a powerful
effect.
It was a goad.
Paul found himself kicking against it.
But somehow there was a conviction there that,
hey, I've never seen anybody quite like that.
I've never felt anything quite like what I
felt when he was speaking.
And I said, Paul answered, Who art thou,
Lord?
And he said, I am Jesus, whom you
are persecuting.
But rise and stand upon your feet, for
I have appeared unto you for this purpose,
to make you a minister and a witness,
both of these things which you have seen
and of those things in the which I
will appear unto you, delivering you from the
people, that is, from a ministry to the
Jews and from the Gentiles unto whom I
will send thee.
So his commission, basically from the beginning, was
to go to the Gentiles.
Now, his purpose or the purpose of the
gospel, of the gospel itself, entailed the opening
of their eyes.
That implies blindness.
Paul, later writing to the Ephesian church, said,
The God of this world has blinded their
eyes that they cannot see.
A man who does not know Jesus Christ
is blind to the truth many times.
It's worse when he's not blind to the
truth, but still doesn't believe.
But the God of this world has blinded
men's eyes that they cannot see the truth.
So Paul was to open their eyes and
to turn them from darkness to light, from
the power of Satan unto God.
There are two kingdoms in the world today,
two spheres of government, the government of God
and the government of Satan.
They are mutually exclusive and antagonistic.
Every man exists in one of these two
kingdoms.
You tonight are living in the kingdom of
light or the kingdom of darkness.
You're living under the control of Satan or
under the control of God.
There are only two governing spheres of the
universe.
In the beginning, there was just one, the
kingdom of God, all things in obedience and
in subjection unto him.
God created angelic beings, one special being known
as Lucifer, the anointed cherub, rebelled against the
authority of God and formed a second government,
the government of death and darkness.
Ultimately, Satan's kingdom is going to come down.
In fact, it is close to the end
of Satan's reign now.
When Jesus returns, and I believe it will
be very soon, to establish God's kingdom upon
the earth, at that time, Satan will be
bound and cast into the abyssal.
After a thousand years, he will receive a
short reprieve from the abyssal.
And at the end of that short period,
he will then be cast into Gehenna, into
outer darkness, the kingdom of darkness cast into
outer darkness.
How far out does space go?
Well, it would seem that space probably goes
to infinity.
I can conceive of space just going out
forever.
Now, they do say that the universe as
we know it, the galactic systems, go out
probably some 12,000, I mean, they go
out some 12 billion light years.
Now, those galaxies that are 12 billion light
years away, their light is so faint that
they can only be seen by the most
powerful telescopes.
And of course, then I think that there's
just a lot of, you know, how do
they know they're 12 billion light years or
10 billion light years when you get that
far away?
But let us say a person could travel
out into space a hundred billion light years
beyond the furthest galaxy, so far out into
space that the light of the universe does
not penetrate that far.
The Bible speaks of unto whom is reserved
the blackness of darkness forever.
There is something very foreboding about darkness.
I was in the Oregon caves when I
was a child, and way down there in
the caves as we were deep inside the
earth there, they turned off all of the
lights and they said, this is total darkness.
It's the first and probably only time in
my life I've been in total darkness.
Total darkness is something that is very eerie.
It is so dark you can almost feel
it.
I know that as a child, the first
thing I did is just put my hand
up and wave it in front of my
eyes as close as I could to see
if I couldn't perceive any kind of movement
at all, which I couldn't.
Total darkness unto whom is reserved the blackness
of darkness forever.
The kingdom of darkness will one day end
in the blackness of darkness forever, and in
the universe there will be only one kingdom
again, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of
light and life, and all of those within
it subject unto God and to his authority,
and what a beautiful universe that will be.
How I long for that day when every
rebellious act, thought is put out and God
reigns supreme.
So Paul's ministry was to deliver people from
this kingdom of darkness and bring them into
the kingdom of light, to free them from
the power of Satan that they might come
unto God in order that they might receive
the forgiveness of their sins, which is the
effect of the gospel and the inheritance among
those that are set apart by faith in
Jesus Christ.
So we who have come to believe in
Jesus Christ have a inheritance.
The Bible speaks about the inheritance of the
saints in life, sons of God, if sons
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs
with Jesus Christ.
As Jesus said, in that day I will
say unto them, come ye blessed of the
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundations of the world.
And it's so easy to become a part
of that kingdom just by believing in Jesus
Christ, those who believe in him, who have
submitted to his lordship.
It is a kingdom.
You believe that Jesus is king.
You bow to his authority and by that
bowing to his authority, yielding yourself to the
authority of Jesus, you become a subject of
his kingdom.
And so Paul said, whereupon, O King Agrippa,
I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision,
but I showed first unto them of Damascus
and then in Jerusalem and throughout all the
coasts of Judea and then unto the Gentiles
that they should repent and turn to God
and do the works that demonstrate repentance.
And so Paul was calling upon people, even
as John the Baptist and even as Jesus
did to change, to turn, to turn from
a life dominated by the flesh to the
life dominated by the spirit.
The word repent means actually to change and
it isn't a true repentance unless there is
a change.
There are many people who confuse sorrow with
repentance.
Now I would imagine that if you would
take a poll at San Quentin of the
inmates there and if you ask them, are
you sorry for, well you just ask them,
are you sorry?
I'm sure that you'd get the answer yes.
If they were honest, are you sorry for
your crime that brought you here?
I don't think that the answer would automatically
be yes.
If you'd say, are you sorry you got
caught?
Yes.
There's the difference between sorrow over what you
have done and sorrow over being caught at
what you have done.
There are a lot of people that are
sorry for their sins.
They say, I repent.
No, you didn't.
You haven't changed.
You're still doing the same thing.
That isn't repentance.
Repentance means to change and so Paul was
calling on people to change from a life
lived after the flesh to a life living
after the spirit and for these causes the
Jews caught me in the temple and they
were trying to kill me.
Now having therefore obtained the help of God,
I'm here today.
I mean if God hadn't helped me, I
wouldn't be here today but you know and
it's interesting having obtained the help of God.
Now God uses human instruments.
Actually it was the Roman soldiers that came
and rescued Paul from that angry mob.
Again we need to recognize the supernatural in
the natural.
God works in natural ways.
We are looking always it seems for some
you know ethereal hocus-pocus kind of thing
and yeah now God is you know I
feel chills oh I feel you know tingling
God is here but we need to recognize
God more in the natural.
It is a spiritually insensitive person who can
only recognize God in in the violent you
might say.
Only if there's a great shaking or a
great fire or a great movement of some
kind oh God's here but you need to
recognize the work of God in very natural
ways.
There was the farmer who in the midst
of this heavy storm was warned by the
sheriff at 10 o'clock in the morning
that he better leave his farm that they
were expecting a flood in that area and
the farmer says thank you sheriff but I've
lived here for all my life and so
I'll just you know stay here.
I've never seen any flood come up to
the house yet.
It continued to rain and the river started
to rise and at two o'clock in
the afternoon a highway patrolman came by the
water is beginning to get up close to
the house and he called to the farmer
and he said we're evacuating this area you
better leave.
The farmer sitting there on his porch says
well he said I've lived here all my
life and I'm not really worried I know
the river and you know I'll be all
right thank you for your warning.
The water continued to rise came up three
feet in the house and so the farmer
climbed up on the roof and the coast
guard sent a helicopter over and they shined
the light down on the farmer and they
said we're here to evacuate you.
They said no that's not necessary I've lived
here all my life and I'm not worried
about it you know and so the river
continued to rise until the farmhouse was swept
from its foundation and went tumbling down and
the farmer drowned.
He said lord I don't understand I trusted
you all my life why would you let
me drown in a flood when I was
trusting you?
I don't understand that lord it seems when
I trusted in you that you would have
rescued me from drowning.
The lord says well let me look at
the record here a minute.
He said according to my records I sent
the sheriff by at 10 in the morning
and then I sent the highway patrol by
in the afternoon and I even sent the
coast guard in the evening but you see
we don't recognize God in the natural things
which we need to do.
We need to recognize God in the natural
things.
So Paul talking about the fact that the
Roman soldiers actually came and rescued him from
the mob he is saying that I obtained
the help of God.
God helped me and delivered me from them
who were trying to beat me to death
and thus God has sustained me to this
day recognizing that God uses human instruments to
accomplish his purposes in his work but seeing
God in it that's our problem.
We don't see God in the everyday commonplace
things.
God make me more conscious of him.
We are prone to take so many things
for granted and Paul said I've been witnessing
both to the small and to the great
and I've not said any other things than
those which the prophets and Moses said would
come.
I haven't added to the scripture.
I've only been preaching the scripture the things
the prophets and Moses said would come that
Christ should suffer.
That is that the Messiah should suffer.
Now this was something that was foreign to
Jewish thought.
This was the thing that offended the Jews
concerning Christ.
They had in their minds the concept that
the Messiah was going to set up a
political kingdom and to run the Romans out
and to establish a kingdom over the earth
with Jerusalem as its center and those scriptures
that prophesied the Messiah being despised and rejected.
Those scriptures that prophesied the Messiah being cut
off and received nothing for himself.
They spiritualized those scriptures.
Now we find today a sequel in that
many people spiritualized the scriptures of the coming
again of Jesus Christ.
Well actually he's coming in us you see
and we are to be manifested and the
church in its glorified state upon the earth
will be the second coming of Jesus.
We are the body of Christ and they
spiritualized the actual coming again of Jesus Christ.
Even as the pharisees, I mean the Jews
were spiritualizing those prophecies that related to his
suffering and only accepting those prophecies that related
to his kingdom, his glory, his power.
So Paul said I was only telling them
what their scriptures told him that Christ was
going to suffer and that he should be
the first that should rise from the dead
and should show light unto the people and
to the Gentiles.
And as Paul was speaking, festus, the Roman
governor broke in and he said with a
loud voice, Paul, you're beside yourself.
Your much learning has made you mad.
Now a man beside himself was the man
who talked to himself.
You know when a person gets in conversation
with himself, he's usually in serious trouble.
And many times this is a sign of
mental incompetence when a person, you see them
talking to themselves and answering themselves and arguing
with themselves and all.
You're beside yourself.
Your much learning has made you mad.
He was probably able to observe Paul's tremendous
study habits.
Paul was an avid student.
Read all the time.
He said, Timothy, please come and bring me
the parchments when you come.
You know, he was looking for study material.
But Paul said, I'm not mad, O noble
festus, but I speak forth the words of
truth and soberness.
For the king knows of these things of
which I am speaking freely, for I am
persuaded that none of these things are hidden
from him.
For this thing was not done in a
corner.
Now, I'm sure that King Agrippa is aware
of these things.
He's aware of Jesus Christ.
He's aware of the crucifixion.
He's aware of the prophets, the scriptures.
These things weren't done in a corner.
And now Paul turns to nail him.
King Agrippa, you believe the prophets?
I know you believe the prophets.
This is known as the presumptive close.
You know, you show them the various colors
that they can buy these towels in.
We have all these lovely shades of color.
Now the presumptive close, you say, now let's
see, which color did you want to order?
You know, you don't say, do you want
to buy these towels?
You presume they're going to buy and you
say, which color now did you want or
which color did you like?
Oh, the purple.
I, you know, how many of those did
you want?
You know, I'm just presumptive.
Paul's using this presumptive close.
Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?
Oh, I know you believe the prophets.
Agrippa, wait a minute, hold on, hold on,
hold on.
Almost thou persuadest me to become a Christian.
Now, just what Agrippa said is the matter
of great controversy among many Bible commentators.
I don't intend to enter into the controversy.
Some believe that Agrippa was saying it scornfully,
such as almost thou persuadest me to become
a Christian.
Are you out of your head?
You think you're going to persuade me?
Are you trying to persuade me to become
a Christian?
Or did he actually say almost thou persuadest
me to become a Christian?
Was he close really to conversion?
We don't know.
We'll have to leave that with the commentators
to find out.
Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest
me to be a Christian.
And Paul said, I would to God that
not only you, but also all that hear
me this day were both almost and altogether.
Now, Paul's answer seems to indicate that he
was just really saying, hey, Paul, almost thou
persuadest me that there was actually a real
persuasion of Agrippa.
Paul said, I wish it wasn't just almost,
but altogether.
I wish you were just like I am,
except I wouldn't wish these bonds on you.
Not almost, I wish it was altogether.
I think the tragedy of Agrippa so close.
I think the tragedy of many lives today
so close.
You see a person who comes very close
to the kingdom, almost persuaded, but just somehow
they don't take that final step in.
And you think, oh, how tragic to be
so close to eternal life, so close to
the kingdom of God, so close to freedom
from sin.
Oh, would to God it was not just
almost, but altogether persuaded.
And so when Paul had thus spoken, the
king rose up and the governor and Bernice,
who had been married twice before she moved
in with her brother and Bernice and King
Agrippa were brother and sister.
Later on, she was to become the mistress
of a couple of Roman emperors.
Having heard this witness in the story of
Jesus Christ, they now rose up.
And when they were gone aside, they talked
among themselves saying, this man has done nothing
worthy of death or of imprisonment.
And Agrippa said to Festus, this man might
have been set at liberty if he had
not appealed to Caesar.
You know, you could have set him free.
God had plans though for Paul in Rome.
And so to Rome we go.
When it was determined that we should sail
into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other
prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of
Augustus's band.
So Julius is another Roman centurion were introduced
to.
And interestingly enough in the scriptures, we are
introduced to several centurions and all of them
were very commendable men.
The Bible really speaks in a very favorable
way of each of the centurions.
There was a centurion who came to Jesus
for the healing of his servant.
And Jesus said, I will come to your
house.
And he said, oh no, Lord, I understand
what authority is about because I'm under authority
and I have under me men.
And I can say to this one, go.
And he goes, I can say that one,
come.
And he comes and I understand what authority
is about.
And I'm not worthy.
You should come to my house, but you
just speak the word and my servant will
be healed.
I understand authority and I understand your authority.
You just speak the word.
And Jesus said, I haven't found this much
faith in all of Israel.
The centurion at the cross at the death
of Jesus said, truly, this was the son
of God.
Cornelius, a Roman centurion was the first Gentile
converted in the church.
And it was upon his household that the
Holy Spirit was poured forth.
Now, Julius is a very commendable man.
He takes an interest and a liking to
Paul and he shows all special favors and
he actually spares Paul's life on this journey.
So they entered into a ship and they
launched intending to sail by the coast of
Asia.
And Aristarchus from Macedonia was with them.
Luke was with him also.
The next day, we touched at Sidon, that
area that you hear so much about today
in Southern Lebanon.
And Julius treated Paul courteously and allowed him
the freedom to go to his friends in
order that he might refresh himself when they
were there at Sidon.
And when we had launched from there, we
sailed under Cyprus because the winds were contrary.
And when we had sailed over the sea
of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra,
a city of Lycia.
And there the centurion found one of the
ships from Alexandria.
It was a corn ship, which were about
the largest ships in the sea at that
time.
And it was sailing to Italy and so
he put us on it.
And when we had sailed slowly for many
days and were barely come over against Cnidus,
the wind not allowing us, we sailed under
Crete and over against Salmoni.
And hardly passing it, they came to the
place that is called the Fair Havens, which
is in about the middle of the island
of Crete, which is south and slightly east
from the tip of Greece.
Now, when a long time was spent, the
sailing was getting dangerous because we were coming
into the month of October.
Now, it was dangerous to sail on the
Mediterranean much after October because of the winter
storms and all that would whip up the
Mediterranean Sea.
So Paul admonished them and said unto them,
Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be
with great hurt and a lot of damage,
not only to your cargo, but also to
our lives.
Nevertheless, the centurion believed the master and the
owner of the ship more than those things
which were spoken by Paul.
As they were harbored there in Fair Haven,
Paul said, hey, fellas, I don't think we
ought to sail.
I perceive that there's going to be a
bad voyage.
We're going to lose the cargo and we
could lose lives.
But the captain and the owner of the
ship said, oh, I've been on the Mediterranean
for years.
What does this guy know, you know?
And, you know, we can do it.
You know, I've got a good ship and
all of this.
And because it wasn't a very large city,
it wasn't really commodious to winter in.
There wasn't enough entertainment for the sailors through
the three months of the wintertime.
The most of them advised them to depart
in order that they might get to a
larger city in Crete, the city of Phenis,
which is on the western end of the
island of Crete, that they might winter there
where there was all kinds of entertainment for
the sailors.
And so when the south wind was blowing
softly, they figured, ah, this is perfect, you
know, we'll just let out and we'll head
up to Phenis there at the northwest point
of the island of Crete.
But not long after they had set sail,
there arose against it a tempestuous wind called
the Eurocleidon.
It's like our Santana.
And when the ship was caught and could
not bear up into the wind, they just
let her drive.
And running under a certain island, which is
called Clotta, we had much work to come
by the boat, which when they had taken
up, they used the helps and the undergirding
of the ship, fearing lest they should fall
into the quicksand.
They strayed sail and were so driven, they
pulled in the sail and just let the
storm drive them.
But they would gird up the boats, they
would put these big undergirdings, these ropes, and
they would tie the boat together so the
thing wouldn't break apart in the heavy surf.
And so these big rope type things that
they would put under the ship and then
they would tighten them with a winch to
hold the thing together.
And so they were doing everything they could
physically to survive this furious storm.
And we being exceedingly tossed with the storm,
the next day they lightened the ship.
And the third day, Luke is talking, we
cast out with our own hands the tackling
of the ship, the ropes and the tackling
and all.
And so Luke was involved in throwing overboard
the tackling.
And when neither sun nor stars in many
days appeared, of course, they lost their bearings
without the sun or the stars.
They couldn't, they really couldn't tell where they
were.
And no small storm lay on us.
All hope that we should be saved was
taken away.
But after a long abstinence, that is the
time of fasting, Paul stood forth in the
midst of them and said, Sirs, you should
have listened to me.
Don't you love that?
Don't you love to hear that?
Oh, I hate that.
You should have listened to me.
The first church that I pastored was in
Prescott, Arizona.
We had a boulder pile beside the church
that I decided to move a bit so
that the church would have a better view
coming up the street.
And so I got the pry bars and
the hydraulic jacks and all and I was
rolling those boulders down and I was having
a great time rolling these huge old boulders.
And so they had this one boulder and
I've been prying and I got the jack
under it and started to jack it up
and have it ready to go.
And my wife came along and said, Honey,
you better be careful.
I wouldn't roll that boulder down there.
It's apt to go through the church.
I said, No, no way.
I said, It's going to slide right down
and it's going to lock right down there
between those two boulders.
And I've got it all figured out.
Honey, you better not do that.
And I said, No, no.
So I was jacking the thing up and
got it to that point of balance.
Honey, you better not.
And the thing started over and started tumbling
down and landed right where I figured it
would, right between those two boulders.
But then the inertia within it carried it
over once more and right through the wall
of the church and wiped out three pews
inside.
Guess what my wife said to me?
You should have listened to me.
So Paul said, You should have listened to
me and never loosed from Crete.
You would not have gained this harm or
loss.
But now I exhort you to be a
good cheer.
Hey, this guy's really flipped, you know, 14
days.
We haven't seen the sun.
The wind is still raging.
The waves are still beating against us.
We're being driven.
We don't know where we are.
We've given up hope of really being saved.
And this guy is saying, Be a good
cheer for there shall not be the loss
of any man's life among you.
We're only going to lose this ship for
there stood by me this night, the angel
of God.
Who's I am and whom I serve.
Jesus, you remember, came to Paul when he
was discouraged in Jerusalem, in the prison there
and said, Paul, be a good cheer.
Even as you have borne witness of me
here in Jerusalem, so shall you bear witness
of me in Rome.
Now, Jesus stood by Paul during the night
when they had given up hope of ever
getting to Rome.
Now, I mean, you know, we've had it.
We're going to die out here in the
Mediterranean.
We're going to be part of the statistics.
And the Lord stood by Paul assuring him,
Hey, I told you, you're going to get
to Rome, Paul, you'll make it to Rome
yet.
And so Paul in the morning stands up
and says, Hey, fellas, be a good cheer
last night.
The angel of the Lord, the word angel,
there is messenger of the Lord, whose I
am and who I serve.
Jesus Christ stood by me.
And he said, Fear not, Paul, for you
must be brought before Caesar.
And lo, God has given to you all
of them that sail with you.
You know, it's great to travel with a
godly man every once in a while on
the airplane.
I have people come up to me.
Oh, I'm so glad to see you get
on the plane.
This is my first flight and I've been
so scared.
And oh, you don't know what it did
when I saw you get on board, you
know, I don't know.
I would hate to be on a plane
that it was the pilot's time to go.
But for Paul's sake, I've given the, all
of them that are sailing with you.
Wherefore, Paul said, sirs, be of good cheer
for I believe God great testimony that it
shall be even as it was told to
me.
Cheer up, fellas, because I believe God it's
going to be just like that.
But now notice he said, Jesus actually stood
by me and talked to me.
Now he's saying, I believe God now somewhere
in geometry, equal sides and equal angles mean
equal, you know, something else.
I forgot my geometry, but we had some
kind of a theorem of that, you know?
And so if he says, Jesus talked to
me and then he says, I believe God,
you put it together and that puts Jesus
as God.
How be it, he said, we will be
cast on a certain island.
But when the 14th night was come and
we were driven up and down in Adria
about midnight, the shipmen realized that they were
drawing near to some land.
They probably heard the surf pounding.
And so they sounded and found that it
was 20 fathoms.
And then when they went a little further,
they sounded again and it was 15 fathoms.
And so they realized that they were reaching
some land.
And so fearing less, they would have fallen
upon the rocks.
They cast out four anchors from the stern
and they waited for the day.
And some of the sailors were about to
flee out of the ship for they had
let down a little boat into the sea,
but they were acting as though they would
have cast out some anchors from the four
ship.
But Paul said to the centurion and to
the soldiers, unless those men abide in the
ship, you cannot be saved.
Notice how Paul's taken over here.
He's now giving the orders.
The captain's probably, you know, down in the
hold, someplace of the ship, probably in chains
at this point for his advice to sail.
But Paul has taken over.
He's giving the commands and the orders now.
And so the soldiers cut off the ropes
of the boat and let it fall off.
And while the day was coming on, Paul
besought them to take meat, saying, this is
the 14th day that you've tarried and you've
continued fasting, having taking in nothing.
They're probably so seasick they couldn't with all
of that storm.
Wherefore, I pray you to eat some meat
for this is for your health.
Paul recognized again the natural and the supernatural,
but a man needs strength.
And so Paul is saying, now this is
for your health.
You better eat something for you're not going
to not a hair of your head is
going to perish.
And so when he had thus spoken, he
took bread and he gave thanks.
And so we have a custom, and I
think it's a beautiful custom of giving thanks
to God for our food before we partake
to just give God thanks for his provision.
And he gave thanks to God in the
presence of them all.
And I like to see people in a
restaurant, bow their heads and, and ask God's
blessing upon their food.
It actually gives you a great opportunity to
witness when we're out with the family, we
bow our heads in the restaurant and we
ask God's blessing upon the food.
And it, and a lot of times it
opens up the doors of opportunity to witness.
People will come over and say, oh, that
was such a beautiful thing to see you
and your children praying.
There's not enough of that today and all.
And we can then say, well, are you
a Christian, you know, and it gives opportunity
to share.
And so in the presence of them all,
when my wife and I were going together,
there was a crowd that we were running
it with.
And we used to often go to Vandy
camps out in Glendale in the evening for,
you know, the evening hamburgers and, and, and
stuff.
And it was a popular place.
And there was usually quite a few of
us and they had some kind of a
little rule that when the food was served,
everybody would put up their finger like this.
And the last one to put up their
finger was the one that had to pray.
And I was busy talking.
And my wife, this I think was just
our second date or so.
She didn't know me very well at the
time.
And I think I was busy looking at
her and, and talking to her.
And when I looked back at the table,
everyone had their finger up, you know.
And so I knew that I was stuck
with the task of praying.
But, you know, I like to pray, but
I don't like to be stuck with the
task of praying.
So I thought, well, all right, you know,
you want me to pray, I'll do that.
So I stood up, lifted up my hand.
I'll never forget the expression on Kay's face
when she was wondering, what am I going
with?
I decided to play the Pharisee.
And so when he had broken the bread,
he began to eat.
And they were all of good cheer.
And they also took some meat.
And there were about 276 people in the
ship, plus the load of corn that they
were bringing from Egypt, because Egypt was really
the breadbasket for Rome.
And most of the grain was and all
came from Egypt.
And they had many of these cargo ships,
but they also carried passengers.
276.
So it was a pretty good size ship.
And when they had eaten enough, they lightened
the ship and they cast the wheat that
they were carrying into the sea.
And when it was day, they did not
know what land it was, but they discovered
a certain little creek with a shore.
And they were hoping, if possible, to steer
the ship on into this creek to get
close to shore.
And so when they had taken up the
anchors, they committed themselves to the sea.
They loosed the rudder bands and they hoisted
up the mainsail to the wind.
And they began to move toward the shore.
And they fell into a place where the
two seas met and they ran the ship
aground.
And the fore part of the ship stuck
fast and remained unmovable.
But the back part of the ship was
broken up with the violence of the waves.
And the soldier's counsel was to kill the
prisoners, lest any of them should swim away
and escape.
But the Centurion, willing to save Paul, kept
them from their purpose.
Again, the Centurion, a very honorable person.
And he kept them from their purpose because
he wanted to save Paul.
And he commanded that those which could swim
should dive in first and get to land.
And the rest of them, some hanging on
the board, some under the broken pieces of
the ship, floated on into land.
And so it came to pass that they
all escaped safe to land.
We'll finish the book of Acts next Sunday
night.
Next Sunday night, when we finish the book
of Acts, in as much as we just
have one chapter, I'll try to bring to
you a brief account from history of
what happened to Paul after the close of
the book of Acts.
Not only from history, but from some of
the epistles, we get a little further insight
of the things that took place in Paul's
life after the end of the book of
Acts.
And so we'll give a sort of a
little history of Paul the Apostle next Sunday
night after we have taken the 28th chapter
of Acts to carry it on up to
the year 67, when Paul was beheaded by
Nero.
And so we'll sort of complete the life
of Paul in history form next Sunday night.
You'll find, I think, very interesting, this guy,
Paul.
I just really desire to meet him,
to spend time with him.
I have such great admiration for this man,
for his courage, for his strength, for his
dedication, the commitment.
He's just one of a kind, really.
And I love him because of his great
love for my Lord.
Eternity, the kingdom of God is going to
be just a wonderful place because we're going
to be able to spend time with so
many wonderful people there in the kingdom.
I hope to spend time with Paul.
I hope to spend time with David.
I hope to spend time with John.
I hope to spend time with you when
we get there.
And man, we've got all eternity, so why
not, you know?
And it's just going to be great when
we come into God's glorious eternal kingdom.