Paul Before King Agrippa (Part 1)

      Earlier today I gave a message for the youth group at my church. The Scripture I spoke about was Acts 25:23-26:32. I thought I would share it like I shared my other message before. I hope you are able to learn something from my message and be encouraged.
      The first couple of verses tell us the background of the events that will take place in this passage. Let’s read chapter 25, verse 23 together. “The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the court. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.” What does this tell us about the passage? If you take another look at the verse, it says that “the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room.” Let’s stop there. King Agrippa and Bernice came in with great pomp, meaning they came with splendor and showiness. While they may not have been boasting about their high status with their words, they came into the room in a boastful manner. From this we can see that this isn’t really a court trial, because King Agrippa and the others in the room lacked seriousness. Another key thing we can see is that they were in an “audience room”, not a courthouse. Right away we can see that this isn’t an official trial, but is just a public hearing of Paul. The purpose of this hearing is evident if we keep reading the passage. Let’s read verses 25-27 together. “25 I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. 26 But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. 27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.” What Festus says here is absolutely mind-boggling. First, he affirms that Paul did nothing deserving death. To us, it seems like Paul has been imprisoned and put on trial for only a couple of chapters, but keep in mind that in reality Paul has been captive for years. After all these years, Festus determines that there is nothing that Paul has done to deserve death, or even imprisonment. Second, because Paul appealed to Caesar, Festus has to give Caesar a letter to explain why Paul is going to him. However, Festus has nothing to write to Caesar! Third, we learn that the sole purpose of this hearing to give Festus something to charge Paul with so he can send Paul to Caesar. You would think that since Paul had been through so many trials they would at least have come up with something to charge him with. It’s impossible to have a court case without charges against the defendant. That’s the whole point of a trial. We did learn of a couple accusations the Jews made against Paul in previous chapters, such as Paul blaspheming and destroying the temple. However, none of these charges could be substantiated in court. Do any of you know what two important things you need to prove your statements in court? You need evidence and witness testimony. The Jews claimed that Paul was a blasphemer, but they had no evidence to prove it. Furthermore, their testimonies were not consistent, so Festus couldn’t validate any of their claims against Paul. Festus has to find out another way to charge Paul and send him to Caesar.
Now we know that the point of the hearing is that Festus could write something to Caesar about Paul. The next question is, why did Festus consult King Agrippa? Let’s read chapter 26, verses 2 and 3. “2 King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently.” Agrippa was a king, and he was well acquainted with Jewish practices. King Agrippa probably knew about the differences between the Sadducees and Pharisees, the Jewish view of Jesus, the Christian view of Jesus, and other religious matters. Festus knew that if anyone would be able to appropriately judge Paul, it would be King Agrippa. Not only that, but King Agrippa was curious about Paul and Paul’s views on Christianity, as evidenced by chapter 25, verse 22. Looking again at verse 2, Paul says that he considers himself fortunate to speak before King Agrippa, even though Paul has been on many trials before. Paul hopes that King Agrippa will be able to use his understanding of Jewish customs to understand Paul’s testimony. Paul has spoken to many religious leaders before, but now he hopes that King Agrippa will be the one who accepts his message.

What Commands Your Time?

"But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you."
-Matthew 6:33
      I talked about my fears going to Grace Retreat in my last post, but today I am going to talk about my hopes after attending Grace Retreat. At the Grace Retreat there were many good messages and seminars, but one seminar really stood out to me. The seminar was titled "Teach us how to Pray", based on the passage where Jesus teaches His disciples the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). The speaker went over all the different parts of the Lord's Prayer and how to pray based on those parts. While I learned from that, what really convicted me was when he talked about actually spending time to pray.
      When Jesus was in Gethsemane, He took three disciples with Him to go pray. Jesus leaves a bit on His own, and prays for an hour. When He comes back, He sees His disciples sleeping. He rebukes Peter by saying "could you not keep watch for one hour?". Normally when I read this passage I focus on Jesus' prayer and the disciples failure to stay awake. The speaker said something interesting regarding this passage- take Jesus' words as a challenge. We should take Jesus' rebuke to keep watch and pray for at least an hour as a challenge. We should ask ourselves "how much time do I spend in prayer?"
      No one can develop a skill without spending time refining that skill. Similarly, no one can develop a relationship with another person without spending time with that person. While I know these as true, I often do not carry these principles into my spiritual life. I expect to grow in my relationship with God without spending time with Him. Unfortunately, that is impossible. I realize that spending so little time in prayer is hindering me from developing my relationship with Christ. Often times I blame my lack of "spirituality" because of my sins, weaknesses or shortcomings. No matter how I try, I won't be able to stop committing sins, and I will never overcome my weaknesses and shortcomings. This is especially true if I don't spend time in prayer.
      The reason my relationship with God is stagnant is not because I am sinful; it's because I am not spending time in prayer and in the Word. So why am I not spending time in prayer? There are many reasons I have, and I'm sure that we all share some of the same excuses. One reason is because I can find prayer to be boring. I wonder how people can spend so long in prayer, since it can be repetitive to me. Also, I wonder how people can find so many things to pray for. Often times, I just run out of things to pray for. Another reason I do not spend a lot of time praying is because I value other things over prayer. What you spend your time in reveals what you care about. The fact that I spend so little time in prayer reveals that I don't value prayer as much as I should.
      How can I spend more time in prayer? That is my question to myself and perhaps your question to yourself as well. The easiest way to spend more time in prayer is to learn to enjoy it. I know that this can be a weird concept to grasp, but prayer should be enjoyable. I haven't discovered how to "make" prayer enjoyable, but if God is as good as we say He is, how hard can it be? A practical way to spend more time in prayer is to set aside a certain time everyday to pray. I'm going to try and set a time where I can pray and read the Bible everyday. This certainly can be difficult, but it's a good way to teach us how to value our time with God. There are many things that we let take priority over prayer, but let's give God first priority of our time.
-Smart      

Inadequate

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me."
-2 Corinthians 12:9
      Every year my church's youth group go to a retreat known as the "Grace Retreat". The last time I attended was two years ago, but this year I decided I would go again as a small group leader. The small group leaders have a lot of responsibility, as they have to lead a group of 5-10 youth members in Bible study. It's very difficult to be an effective small group leader because they youth get really tired and disinterested if you are not engaging. Also, the leader gets very little sleep, having to attend early prayer meetings and going to bed late. By the way, this is all stuff I observed and heard from previous leaders. This year will be the first time I will be a leader for the Grace Retreat.
      After I decided to become a leader, I realized something that troubled me a lot; I am not an adequate leader. Recently I haven't been reading the Bible as much as I should have, and I have been struggling with sin. My spiritual life has been very dead, and I feel very hypocritical. At church I put on this facade of being okay, but in reality I am not. I've been doing the things I want to do rather than seeking the things God wants me to do.
      I wouldn't say that I am a fit leader for the Grace Retreat. Not even close. I've let my laziness and indifference make me inadequate to be a leader. However, I'm reminded of one thing that my friend told me- "God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called". I am also reminded of is the song "All in All", where the lyrics read "You are my strength when I am weak, You are the treasure that I seek, You are my all in all". If I try to fix my inadequacy on my own, I will achieve nothing. God is the only one who can treat my spiritual needs, and change my heart. Only in God can I find the strength to do His will.
      The truth is, no one is truly fit to be God's child. We are all inadequate. None of us can do anything on our own, because we all fall short of God's glory. The good news is that God can and will help us. Furthermore, God has given us brothers and sisters that can encourage us and lift us up in prayer. One thing that I admire about my church is how we always make it a point to pray for each other. God didn't leave us on our own to try and live Christian lives; He gave us each other. We just have to accept that we are all inadequate and are in need of God's grace. Then we can build each other up in Christ.
-Smart

Enjoying God

"For who can eat and who can have enjoyment without Him?"
-Ecclesiastes 2:25
      Today I played soccer with friends from my church as we often do on Sundays. I had a good time playing even though I am now quite tired and sore. Later in the day, I was cleaning the bathroom in my house. Like many people, I do not enjoy cleaning at all, especially when I have to clean the bathroom. As I was cleaning the bathroom, a thought came into my head. Why do I enjoy playing sports but I don't enjoy cleaning? That sounds like a weird and foolish question to ask, but it got me thinking.
      Why don't I enjoy doing chores? They're tedious and require time and effort, and I often don't feel like doing them. However, I do like having a clean house. I'm sure many (if not all) people would prefer to live in a clean house than a dirty one. So why do we dislike cleaning our house so much? I think it's because we don't like the process of actually having to work at cleaning and possibly getting ourselves dirty. We like the result, but we don't like the process.
      So why do I enjoy sports? First off, I want to establish the fact that I am a very competitive person when it comes to sports. I love winning and I don't like to lose. Despite this fact, I enjoy sports whether I win or lose. Of course, I am a lot happier if I win, but regardless of whether I win or not I still enjoy playing. The reason I like sports so much is because I like the actual process of playing a sport. I like running, jumping, defending, and competing. This is why I can enjoy sports regardless of the result.
      What is the point I'm making here? The point is that it is much easier to do something if you can enjoy the process as well as the result. The reason I don't like cleaning is because although we like the result we don't enjoy the process. The reason I enjoy playing sports is because I enjoy the process of playing regardless of the result. Playing to win is just another way to motivate me to play harder and enjoy myself more.
      I believe the reason I find it difficult to spend time with God is because I don't enjoy the process. I understand the result of spending time with Him is desirable, but I don't find the actually process of it appealing. I believe that this is why many people struggle to maintain a close relationship with God. We think that spending time with God is tedious and requires effort, and we often don't feel like taking that time to spend with Him. I think in order for us to really grow close to God, we need to learn to enjoy the process of knowing Him.
      Think of your friends; you spend time with them because you like being with them. You don't spend time with them simply because you can gain something from your friendship; you do it because you enjoy the process of being with them. We have to learn to enjoy God in the same way. We shouldn't think of spending time with God as some way we can gain something from Him. We should think of it as a way to enjoy Him. Growing in a relationship with God is much easier if we can learn to enjoy knowing Him. And really, how hard can it be? God loves us, He adores us, He cares for us, and lastly, He enjoys being with us.
-Smart    

Objectivity

"Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things."
-Romans 2:1
      In my engineering ethics class we talked about the idea of subjectivity and objectivity. Immediately people in the class talked about how nothing can be objective, since everyone is subject to their own views and beliefs. I've written before about truth and whether it is relative or not. I concluded that it cannot be relative, because truth has to be consistent in order to be truth. The topic I want to talk about today is similar, just more in depth.
      There are many things that are subjective, such as people's opinions. Some people like action movies, other like dramas, and still others prefer horror. These are all subjective views; there is no such thing as an objective preference of movie genre. However, when raised with the question of objectivity versus subjectivity, people often forget that there are things that are objective as well. For example, a movie is a movie, not a book. That is an objective statement, and there is no room for debate on that.
      When talking about objectivity and subjectivity, the previous example was trivial. What people really want to know is whether there can be objectivity in morality. Is it possible that our morals are objective? Is there a definitive "right" and "wrong"? Or is everything relative to the individual? Many people these days would say that morality is subjective to a person. A person's morality is just a result of a person's upbringing. They argue that since everyone has a different set of morals that there cannot be any absolutes. Everyone should be allowed to decide their own moral standards.
      While I agree that everyone has a different set of morals, I don't agree that this means that morality is subjective. As an example, think about the laws we have in our country. Take speeding for example. The law says that if you drive over the speed limit, you will be given a ticket (given that you are caught). That is an objective law- if you speed, you will be penalized. However, people might differ on what they believe regarding speeding. Some may think that you can go ten miles an hour over the limit and you don't deserve a ticket. Others may believe that speeding limits are ridiculous and shouldn't be a law. Regardless of what you believe, if you speed, you will be given a ticket. What am I saying with this example? People do have subjective views on morality, but there is objective morality.
      So what is objective morality? I couldn't go into full detail, but let's start at the core of the issue; where does morality come from? I recently heard Ravi Zacharias pose this question, and his answer was fascinating. His answer was that there is no such thing as morality without purpose. Think about it; if I gave you a baseball bat, you know the purpose of the bat is to hit a baseball. However, if you use it to hit a person, you are violating the purpose of the bat. I think it is the lack of understanding of our purpose that causes people to misunderstand morality. If there is no clear purpose for our lives, then there is no way we can violate or fulfill our purpose. In other words, there is no way we can do anything "right" or "wrong". People can try to justify their morals, but in the end they can't really rationalize them. So what is our purpose? To "glorify God and enjoy Him forever".
-Smart