A Treasure for all people

Back in 1984, a Christian pastor in Iran was imprisoned on charges of apostasy in that country.

Such charges, if found guilty, would mean that he would be executed. And he spent nine years

in prison before he finally got a chance to answer these charges in court. And so on the 3rd of

December 1993, he wrote his defense to the court of justice. And as part of that defense,

he summarized his life in these words. He says, I am a Christian. As a sinner, I believe Jesus has

died for my sins on the cross and by his resurrection and victory over death, he has made me righteous in

the presence of the Holy God. In response to his kindness, he has asked me to deny myself and to be

his fully surrendered follower and not to fear people, even if they would kill my body.

Life for me is an opportunity to serve him and death is a better opportunity to be with Christ.

Therefore, I am not only satisfied to be in prison for the honor of his holy name, but am ready to give

my life for the sake of Jesus, my Lord, and enter his kingdom sooner, the place where the elect of God

enters everlasting life. Now, whatever your perspective on life of religion, philosophy of life is, I got to

say this, hardly a person in the world that does not want to be able to face trials, hardship, difficulty,

in fact, even daily life itself, like that man in that moment. To face life with boldness and contentment

and poise with satisfaction, settledness, security. In fact, to even face death with so much life.

In Acts 26, Paul is giving an account of his life in Jesus Christ before King Agrippa II.

His life, like that Iranian pastor, has been turned inside out and upside down by Jesus Christ.

That is, like the Iranian pastor who followed him centuries later, he has discovered a treasure

that truly satisfied, a treasure in life that truly satisfies. It is the gospel treasure

that is to be known and experienced by all people that, in fact, has driven the entire agenda of the

book of Acts as we've been discovering it again and again. It is this gospel treasure that is the

heartbeat of this church at St. Paul's and it's my goal for us today that we grasp a little bit more of it.

So I've got really three points and if you got the St. Paul's app, it'd be great if you could open it up

and there's three things. A treasure for all people, a treasure that makes sense and a treasure that truly

satisfies. So the first point, a treasure for all people. King Agrippa II, his great-grandfather,

was King Herod who ordered the murder of all the male infants in the vicinity of Bethlehem because he

feared that Jesus was the challenger to his throne. That was how insecure Herod was on the inside.

His great-uncle had John the Baptist executed and his father, Agrippa I, had executed James,

the brother of Jesus and imprisoned the apostle Peter. And so now we have Agrippa II, the latest in

the line of a morally bankrupt and insecure family. Acts 25 verse 23, we are told that Agrippa and

Acts 25:23

Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with high-ranking military officers

and the prominent men of the city. Now the phrase there, great pomp, comes from a word that means

fantasy. That is, if you saw the picture of Agrippa entering this audience room, it looks like a scene

from a fantasy movie. This is a big show of importance, of self-importance. It is designed to show power,

significance. It is designed to intimidate Paul. But despite the outward appearances of wealth and

power and prestige, what we have here with Agrippa is an inner bankruptcy, an inner insecurity.

Bernice, who is accompanying Agrippa in this moment, is Agrippa's younger sister. She was once engaged

to the nephew of the philosopher Philo, but instead she married her uncle. But now, having moved away

from that, she is living incestuously with her brother Agrippa. This woman had a notorious

reputation, even in the days of the Roman Empire. And so here we have Agrippa and Bernice.

They're a sick, sin-infested couple, and yet on the outside, it's fantasy. It's pomp. They dressed up nicely.

Rome considered Agrippa as an authority on the Jewish religion because his family had lived in Judea and

oversaw the Jewish religion in the area for several generations. And so he's brought in to bring some

expert advice for Festus because he didn't know what to do with his prisoner of Paul and the dispute that he

was happening with the Jewish leadership. And so Festus is hoping Agrippa is going to write him a report

that he can hand on to Caesar. And so Agrippa calls Paul to speak. And Paul shares his testimony

of Jesus' work in his life. And then eventually Agrippa catches on to what's actually happening in this

moment. Do you think, this is Agrippa, do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to become

a Christian? By a short time along, I pray to God that not only you, but all who are listening to me today

may become what I am, except for these chains. So Agrippa hearing Paul's testimony, hang on a minute.

Paul, are you trying to convert me? And Paul, without mincing his words in any way, oh, absolutely, Agrippa.

You and everyone here, in fact. That is Paul's goal of this whole chapter, this whole speech. That is his

aim, that everyone would become followers of Jesus Christ and discover the hope and the treasure that

he has. From the religious to the secular, from the upright to the immoral, from the Jew to the Gentile,

from the pompous to the pompous to the pompous, all would come and be followers of Jesus Christ.

And that's, in fact, what we've seen right through the book of Acts.

That's exactly what has happened right through the book of Acts. This gospel, this treasure has

penetrated all kinds of cultures and people groups and classes of people and cities,

for the major cities, for the little villages, for the Jew to the Gentile, and it still does across the

globe 2,000 years later. And so the question for you, the question for Agrippa in this moment,

having been confronted with the fact that Paul wants him to become a Christian, why would Agrippa want to

do that? Why would anyone want to do that? Well, that brings us to the thrust of Paul's message.

It's because the core message of the Christian faith, the gospel, this treasure, makes sense.

Agrippa says to Paul, do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian? And Paul is trying here,

obviously, to persuade Agrippa that the Christian faith makes sense. Firstly,

that the Christian faith makes rational sense. Paul says he met the resurrected Jesus Christ

on the Damascus road. In verse 22, he says the Messiah would suffer and as the first to rise from the dead

would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles. This is when Festus

interrupts Paul in verse 24. When he hears Paul talking about the resurrection, he just can't hold it.

He just jumps in and says, you are out of your mind, Paul. Your great learning is driving you insane.

It sort of sounds like he's being partly polite, but it's actually pretty derogatory. It's like,

Paul, you've got all these PhDs, but you're mad. You're crazy. That's the sense of it.

But Paul comes back respectfully in verse 25. I am not insane, most excellent Festus.

Paul replied, what I am saying is true and reasonable. True and reasonable.

And verse 26 is Paul's appeal to the true and reasonable. He at this moment turns to Agrippa

and says that this king, Agrippa, is familiar with these things and I can speak freely to him.

I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice because, and this is a pregnant statement,

it was not done in a corner. Not done in a corner. In other words, Festus, I understand you may not be

familiar with the story of Jesus Christ or the resurrection. You know, you're not an expert in

Judea. You haven't lived there. I understand that. But Agrippa's different.

Family dynasty have lived in Judea for generations and the events surrounding Jesus Christ was so

significant that anyone living in the area around Judea in the past 20 years could not laugh off as

insane the events of the resurrection of Jesus Christ as you yourself, Festus, have just done.

There is way too much evidence. Agrippa couldn't escape it. The events were all public.

You see, in the New Testament accounts, there were dozens of miracles performed by Jesus, let alone the

ones that are not recorded. And those miracles were witnessed by thousands of people.

Public, obvious, brilliant, spectacular miracles over three years. You can't just laugh it off.

You can't just laugh it off. You can imagine workers building roads or something, sitting down at

smoke-o time, drinking their coffee.

And someone says, these Christians. I mean, what a joke. I mean, come on.

The other bloke goes, yeah, I don't agree with it. I as well.

But then again, we did go to Lazarus's funeral, didn't we?

And there's no denying he did stink.

Like, he really stank. He was dead for four days.

His body was decomposing. We all went to his funeral. Now he's back at work.

I mean, I don't know how that happened, but there he is.

How do you explain it?

Thousands of people saw it.

They may not believe it or be able to explain it, but it wasn't done in a corner.

And then there's the empty tomb.

Hundreds and hundreds of people said that they saw Jesus alive.

Not a fuzzy, out-of-focus photo of Jesus.

Not a piece of toast with a burnt bit that sort of looks like Jesus.

Actually alive.

Talking, eating, walking, fishing, touching.

Alive.

And so many of these people had lived transformed lives because of seeing Jesus alive.

And many of those people died because of their trust in the resurrected Jesus.

I mean, who dies for a hoax?

Who does that?

Paul says to Agrippa, you know all about this, don't you?

It wasn't done in a corner.

You know this stuff.

In fact, these conversations would have been conversations you had in the palace.

Of course, there's the public thing that you set out to everyone,

the written scripts, the speeches you gave.

But behind, you and your dad must have been talking.

I don't know what happened.

I'm not sure how to explain it.

You know, Agrippa, that I'm not crazy.

You know that there's lots of evidence for what I'm talking about.

You may not believe it, understand that,

but you cannot ignore the fact that this is public evidence.

Agrippa here does not say,

with Festus, you're mad, Paul.

You're a lunatic, Paul.

Notice that he doesn't argue with Paul.

He jumps straight to a diversion, a concession.

Are you trying to persuade me to become a Christian too?

And what's more, in the last two verses of this chapter,

Agrippa and others declare Paul,

as he has been declared three times previously in the book of Acts,

innocent of all charges.

Agrippa is dodging the real issue

because he doesn't want to submit to the evidence.

He certainly isn't saying that Paul has got the facts wrong.

It makes rational sense.

There's way more evidence, obviously,

but Christianity claims to be fact.

It claims historical evidence that can be tested.

Jesus Christ rose from the dead.

That's the heart of it.

Christianity makes a whole lot of rational sense.

But, like Agrippa,

no one comes to or rejects the Christian faith

purely on the grounds of rational evidence.

We're more complex than that as people.

And so, secondly,

Christianity makes personal sense.

Now, in verses 4 to 12,

Paul is really kind of making one basic point.

He says,

I was a committed Pharisee,

a strict Jew,

who lived to honour the law of God.

In other words,

my whole life was to honour God with the law code.

My whole goal in life,

my whole vision in life,

was to obey the law.

That's my passion,

was to please God by being obedient to the law.

All of my zeal in persecuting the Christians

was because, as far as I was concerned,

they were lawbreakers,

and they had to be persecuted for breaking the law.

But at some point,

before he became a Christian,

Paul realised he couldn't obey the law.

He couldn't achieve the very thing

that his heart was driving him to do,

desperately trying to achieve.

And he writes about this in Romans chapter 7.

Romans 7 · chapter mention

The commandment not to covet came home to him,

and he writes there that,

I read the commandment and it killed me.

It slew me.

It put me to death.

I died.

It's like he's sitting in bed at the end of the day

with his 10 commandment checklist,

patting himself on the back

as he ticks off each one.

Obeyed, obeyed, obeyed, obeyed.

Does it every day.

Goes through his diary,

obeyed all the 10 commandments.

God must be so pleased with me.

Haven't committed adultery,

haven't murdered anyone today.

Fantastic.

Then he gets to number 10,

do not covet.

And he goes,

coveting cannot be understood behaviorally.

Coveting has to do with the motivation of the heart.

And the law that he was driven to obey

helped him to see that he in fact couldn't obey it.

He was never, ever got to the point

where he was content with what he had achieved.

Ever content with his zeal for God.

He needed more.

He was never sure that his law obedience was enough.

And in the inside,

he coveted more and more and more and more and more.

The law helped him to see that he had a heart problem.

No matter how much law obedience,

it was never enough.

He was never content.

He was never satisfied.

On the outside,

he was confident,

law abiding,

fiercely religious,

persecuted the Christians.

But on the inside,

he was unsettled.

On the outside,

he was superior,

condescending,

self-righteous.

And on the inside,

he was inferior.

Fear,

guilt,

shame.

Which normally happens in life,

day by day.

The people who are the more verbose,

self-confident,

a brash kind of person,

tends to be really,

really insecure on the inside.

And that's Paul.

So you can see here how Paul is trying to sort of get under a grip of skin and into his heart.

All the pomp and the fantasy and the power and confidence.

And yet what is obvious to all is the sin,

the shame,

the guilt,

the brokenness on the inside,

the insecurity.

Most scholars agree that God started to get in to Paul's heart,

started to target Paul's heart,

when Paul stood there in all of his religious seal,

giving his assent to the execution of Stephen.

Paul had never seen anyone in his life so content as Stephen.

So not needing more.

So content in God,

in fact.

Someone with poise and respect and boldness,

even in the face of death.

Someone who loved and prayed for his enemies.

And while Paul went on to persecute the Christians,

God was working on the inside,

in his heart.

And then finally on the Damascus road,

Paul met Jesus.

Now this is the third time in Acts,

that Paul recounts his testimony of meeting Jesus.

But this is the only time,

that he tells his testimony,

and he includes these words in verse 14.

It is hard for you to kick against the goads.

Now a goad was a sharp stick,

that shepherds used to get sheep to go on the right direction.

We always have these views,

and the shepherds are,

they just spend their time cuddling their sheep.

But in actual fact,

they had sticks,

and they whacked their sheep as well.

And God had been poking and prodding Paul on the inside,

unsettling him on the inside.

And kicking against the goads was an expression in Paul's time,

that means you cannot keep resisting the deity.

There is a God who is poking in your heart,

Paul.

Paul had been driven to please God,

as his passion in life,

and that drivenness caused him to persecute Jesus.

And then this Jesus,

who Paul immediately calls my Lord,

before he knows it is,

my Lord,

my Lord,

and then discovers that in actual fact,

it's Jesus.

The one he'd been persecuting,

in his zeal for God,

he discovers was in fact,

God himself.

And then Jesus makes all the difference to Paul.

In particular,

the gospel message.

We get a glimpse of the gospel in verse 23,

that the Messiah would suffer,

and as the first to rise from the dead,

would bring the message of light to his own people,

and to the Gentiles.

Paul needed the gospel light,

in his dark heart.

Now the gospel is the good news of the Messiah,

the Christ,

the King of Kings.

Jesus of Nazareth,

though innocent,

would suffer and rise again,

for the salvation of humanity.

Jesus Christ,

is the only one,

who totally lived,

a perfect life.

Paul had strived,

all of his life,

to do that,

in order to please God,

and yet he couldn't.

And Jesus lived,

the life that Paul,

should have lived,

and that we,

should live.

And he died the death of Paul,

and we should die,

because we failed to live,

the life that we should live.

And so,

the gospel,

helped Paul,

understand,

why he was so,

eaten up inside,

but it also provided,

the solution for him.

The gospel explained,

why he was guilty,

and it resolved his guilt.

Christian faith,

makes rational sense,

but it also makes personal sense.

It is only in Jesus,

any of us,

will ever get the thing,

that we have been striving for,

all of our lives,

whatever it might be.

It might be significance,

it might be love,

it might be acceptance,

it might be justice,

it might be beauty,

it might be eternal life,

it might be a clear conscience.

Only Jesus,

can give us,

the thing that drives our hearts.

The thing that we covet,

but we will never achieve.

It will never be enough.

Only Jesus,

fills our hearts.

You see,

the gospel of Jesus Christ,

doesn't just make rational sense,

it makes personal sense,

it fills up our hearts.

You see,

we are complex beings.

When it comes to persuading,

we're complex.

It's not just rational evidence,

there's a lot more things.

We are persuaded,

something is true and right,

partly because it's facts,

but also relationships,

and emotions,

and all these things,

have got a part to play

in us being convinced.

For instance,

if you're a boss

employing a new staff member,

your goal is to be absolutely,

completely certain

that this is the right person

before you hire them.

You want that.

You want to make sure

this person is absolutely

the right person for the gig.

You want watertight proof

that this person

is the right person

for this role

before I hire them.

If that's the case,

you will never hire

a single person.

You can use reason

to get you

to the place

of probability

that this person

might be the right person.

reason can get you

to the point

of probability,

but it can never

transfer you

to the point

of certainty.

How do you make

that transition

from probability

to certainty?

You have to hire them.

You have to take a risk.

You have to jump in.

You have to make

a commitment.

Time and a commitment

to the person

will either make you

certain

or make you

uncertain.

You need to use

reason

to get you

to the point

of probability,

but reason

is not enough

for certainty.

You must commit

your whole self

to get certainty.

You must

jump in

reasonably.

And so to the skeptics

tuning in here now,

what if

God did not

give you

a watertight

argument

about his

existence

and about

the truth

of Christianity?

What if he didn't

do that?

You might be

searching for that

now,

but what if he

didn't do that

for you?

What instead

he gave you

a watertight

person

against whom

there is no

argument?

What if he did

that?

And so I

challenge you

to read

the gospel

of Mark

in the New

Testament

or John

and engage

with the person

of Jesus.

Do it with

someone else.

I mean,

make contact

with us here

at Supports.

We would love

to do that

with you.

You see,

when you look

at the claims

of Jesus

and the character

of Jesus

and the activities

of Jesus,

it is so hard

to dismiss him

as being

anything else

but what he

says and who

he says he is.

You just

can't explain

him away.

So lastly,

when you

finally do

come to Jesus,

you discover

a treasure

that truly

satisfies.

The good

news of

Christianity

is for

everyone.

It makes

sense and

are truly

satisfied.

And Paul,

what we

notice here,

is just so

incredibly bold

with a gripper.

And yet,

at the same

time,

he's not

arrogant.

He's respectful

and he's

poised,

but he's

not afraid.

Verse 18

is the source

of Paul's

contentment

and boldness.

Jesus

mentions the

fruit of the

gospel in our

lives,

the fruit of

this treasure

being worked

out in our

lives.

And he

says,

that they

may receive

the forgiveness

of sins

and a place

among those

who are

sanctified by

faith in

me.

Those who

put their

faith in

Jesus Christ,

it says,

receive.

That means it's a

gift.

You don't work

for it.

Paul has spent

all his life

trying to get

this and he

says,

I receive it.

I don't achieve

it.

we receive

forgiveness of

sins and

a place.

Paul had

been working

for that to

achieve it,

but he

couldn't.

And Jesus

offers it to

him a gift.

The word

place there

means a

home.

It's a place

where you

belong.

It's a place

where you

fit.

It's a place

where you

finally rest,

content,

satisfied.

When you

become a

Christian,

you're not

just forgiven

of sin,

which is a

negative thing,

but you're

also given

a place.

You are

adopted.

You are

brought into

the family

of God.

You are

loved.

You're

accepted.

You've

got a

place.

You've

got a

place where

you go,

where you

rest,

where you're

satisfied,

where you're

content.

That's the

good news of

the Christian

faith.

Jesus Christ

left his

place in

heaven.

He lived

amongst us

and while he

lived amongst

us, he

said, I've

got no place

to lay my

head.

This is

not my

home so

that we

could have

an eternal

place of

rest and

contentment

and satisfaction

in him.

He told his

disciples, I'm

about to

depart to

prepare a

place for

you where

you would

dwell in

his presence

forever,

a place where

you belong,

a place where

you are

loved.

And as

Paul stands

before Agrippa,

he knows

that he has

in that

moment the

delight, the

regard, the

affirmation of

the king of

kings, the

king of the

universe in

Jesus.

As he stands

before king

Agrippa, he's

got the love and

the affirmation of

the king of

kings.

Paul had

seen this

kind of

boldness in

Stephen before

he himself was

a Christian

and it got

under his

skin.

If you want

to be

persuasive,

then you

need to be

persuaded by

the truth of

the good news

of Jesus

Christ.

That's for you,

Christian.

If you want to be

persuasive, you

need to be

persuaded.

You need to be

contented and

rest in Jesus.

To the degree

that you are

is the degree

to which you'll

have the same

kind of security

and boldness

and poise

and freedom

and contentment

in life,

whatever your

circumstances.

Thirteen weeks

into a lockdown,

do you want that

sort of contentment,

boldness now,

satisfaction in life

now because

with the

treasure of the

gospel, you

have everything.

Do you want

that?

I want that.

Let's pray.

Gracious God,

we are,

with all the

complexity of

this life that

you've made as

complex beings,

we are

so grateful

that in Jesus

you offer us

everything.

I pray that you

would help us,

first of all,

for those who

don't know you,

to come to

grasp this

treasure that

is the gospel.

For those of us

who do know you,

I pray that this

treasure will

grow and increase

in our hearts

more and more

and more

and all other

earthly treasures

will be put in

their proper place.

Give us this

poise,

this contentment,

this satisfaction,

this boldness in

life that only

you can give us

because we have

rest in you,

eternal rest in you.

Amen.