Confession
Today may be a rabbit trail day. I might take small points in the text and
take them down paths of thought that they were not entirely meant to travel. So I confess it up front.
Paul and Agrippa
I am curious about the interaction
between Paul and Agrippa. This is Herod
Agrippa II, which would be the son of Herod Agrippa I (I know, that is a “Captain
Obvious” statement there). But Herod
Agrippa I is known for having James beheaded and he planned to do the same
thing to Peter before God intervened (See Acts 12). Herod Agrippa II is the grandson of the Herod
who had all the babies killed in response to Jesus’ birth.
Given that back-story, Paul says to Herod
Agrippa II, “Because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of
the Jews.” Oh, Paul knew just how
familiar the Herod line was with the Jews.
The line of Herods did just about anything they could to retain their
power and even increase it. They killed
babies to stay in power. They killed
Jewish prophets (John the Baptizer specifically) because they spoke out about
the fact that they were not living their life according to God’s ways. They killed righteous men in order to appease
the Jews. They held people in prison to
keep the Jews happy.
Oh, Paul knew his audience, all
right. He knew his audience so well that
he makes sure Agrippa II understands just how righteous a Jew Paul was. Paul identifies himself with the Pharisees,
which was quite a powerful sect of Judaism in those days. Before Paul does anything else, Paul makes
sure Agrippa understands that to vote against him will put him at odds with the
Pharisees because a vote against him will be a vote against the resurrection of
the dead, something the Pharisees took very seriously.
Paul’s Recap of His Calling
Moving on, of all of Paul’s summaries
in Acts about his calling I think I like Acts 26:22-23 the best. Paul speaks the truth so brilliantly and so
succinctly. Paul says his message is
rooted in Moses (Law) and the Prophets.
The Messiah will come. The
Messiah will suffer. The Messiah will
rise from the dead. The Messiah will be
a beacon of light to the Jews and the Gentiles.
Those are two powerful verses right there.
Paul’s point is that his message is
rooted in Hebrew tradition! It isn’t like
Paul is going against the tradition; he is merely taking that tradition and
going to the next step. To be more
precise, I should be clear that this is not Paul’s idea but work being done at
the request of God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, and in the name of
Jesus Christ. Paul is not anti-Jewish as
his adversaries claim him to be. He is
the next generation Jew. To use modern
terminology, Paul is “Jew mark II.” To
use post-modern terminology Paul is “Jew 2.0!”
Festus
Then we get the wisdom of Festus. {Hopefully
the sarcasm came through on that sentence.}
“Paul, your great learning is making you insane!” Ha!
What is insane is living a life that is outside the grace and will of
God! What is insane is going through
this life only concerned with one’s own desires. What is insane is only worrying about 80 or
so years of life when you are offered an eternity instead!
Self-mongerism is insane, Festus! Doing whatever it takes to stay in the favor
of the people so that you can continue the lavish lifestyle is insane. All we have to do is read the Old Testament
book of Ecclesiastes to figure that out.
All vanity is useless: Vanity of Wisdom, Vanity of Self-Indulgence,
Vanity of Living Wisely, Vanity of Toil.
All came from dust, and all will return to dust. What is insane is to deny this truth and live
as though we can put off death and the judgment to come.
The sane thing is to turn to God and
realize that life outside of Him is insane.
Turn to God and do His will. Turn
to God and obey His ways. Turn to God
and receive the promise of eternal life to be fulfilled once the insanity of
this sinful world has been cast aside!
The sane response is to see the insanity around us and know that only
when we surrender all to Christ are we actually doing something smart!
Conversion
The last point I will give today is the
concluding argument Paul states before Agrippa II. Agrippa II asks Paul if he plans on
converting Agrippa II. Paul says,
“Yes.” Granted, he says it more
loquaciously than that. But Paul’s
desire is that Agrippa II would come to know Christ! Paul sets the bar of expectation high and
shoots for it!
We could learn much from Paul in our
pursuit of Christ in this world. We
settle for the meager scraps of faith people throw at God once a week when we
should pursue their true conversion! We
settle for the polls that say “95% of Americans believe in God” when we should
pursue not only their belief in God but their repentance to Him and their
discipleship in His ways. We settle too
often for the “one hour a week that brings money in the offering plate” when we
should be setting a high bar of life-on-life discipleship that leads to
obedience to Christ all throughout the week!
Yes, I am as guilty as the rest. I point the finger at myself first when I
write paragraphs like the one above.
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment