In Our Own Defense

Summary Acts 20-26 

The apostle Paul was being opposed by his own people, the Jews, who were plotting evil against him. And at one point he gave a defense of his ministry to the elders in Ephesus. Later on, when he was in Jerusalem, the Jews stirred up a crowd of people against Paul, and they began to beat him, and then he was arrested and bound with chains. But Paul was given permission to speak in his own defense. But the people shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live” (Acts 22:22).

But now the Jews had made a plot to kill Paul. Paul was made aware of their plot to kill him, and his nephew informed the authorities, and then Paul was transferred to Caesarea, and then some of the Jews came there to accuse him before the governor Felix, and then Paul was given permission to speak again in his own defense. But then Felix put him off and kept him in custody, but he would listen to Paul occasionally. After two years of this, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and Felix left Paul in prison.

Now Paul was brought before Festus. Again Paul argued in his own defense. Festus wanted to send Paul back to Jerusalem to be tried, so Paul appealed to Caesar, and so Festus ordered him to be sent to Caesar. But before that happened, King Agrippa arrived in Caesarea and he wanted to hear Paul, so he then gave Paul permission to speak in his own defense. And now we are in Acts 26 where Paul gave his testimony to King Agrippa. And so he told him of his life as a Pharisee and of his persecution of Christians.

But then he told him of how on a trip to Damascus to persecute even more Christians, he had met Jesus. Jesus asked Paul (then Saul) why he was persecuting the Lord, for he was persecuting Jesus by his persecution of the Lord’s servants who were followers of Jesus Christ. But there the Lord Jesus called Paul (then Saul) to be one of his followers:

“But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your 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 power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:16-18 ESV).

Paul then declared to King Agrippa that he was not disobedient to the vision from heaven, but he declared to the people that they must repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. And he said that this was the reason that the Jews seized him and tried to kill him. But in his own defense, he stated that in the power of God he stood testifying both to small and great, giving testimony to the gospel of our salvation. But then Festus accused Paul of being out of his mind, which Paul then denied.

Application

If we are followers of Jesus Christ, and if we have a testimony to give of God’s saving grace in our lives, and if we are now doing the will of God for our lives, doing whatever ministry God has called us to do, we may, too, face the same kinds of opposition as what Paul faced, and from our own people, and even from our own family members, and even from people who are in positions of spiritual authority over “the church.” And this is because so much of the church today has gone the way of the world.

Especially if our ministry involves us declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ in public on a daily or consistent basis, and if what we are teaching or sharing is the truth of the gospel, and not the altered gospel message that is permeating the American church today, we are going to be opposed, and strongly by some (or many) people. And we may be called “crazy” by those who feel as though we are wasting our time or that what we are doing is “not normal” and that we need to be more like them.

But we must not let their rejection or their persecution of us to keep us from doing the will of God. And there may be times, like with Paul, where we will have to give a defense for our ministry and for why we do what we do. I know that for me I have been called of God to this ministry, and I am not largely accepted in the Christian community, for I am considered strange or odd or as fanatical, or whatever, because what I do every day in ministry is just not culturally accepted, even by many Christians.

But there is a need for what I do because so many professing Christians, including pastors of church congregations, have gone the way of the world, and they have diluted and altered the character of God/Christ, and they have altered the gospel message to make it more palatable to human flesh and to the ungodly of the world. And they have also altered the whole meaning and purpose of “the church” to where it largely is not functioning as the body of Christ as God intended for his church to function.

And so the Lord has called some of us to not only share the truth of the gospel of our salvation but also to confront and to expose the lies of the enemy which have infiltrated the church, at least here in America. And this is a call to repentance, to turning from our lives of living in sin and for self to now follow Jesus Christ with our lives in obedience to his commands. And that is the message of the gospel. But along with that are warnings that if sin is what we practice, and not obedience, we will not have eternal life.

And we get no glory from doing this. We may get a few encouragements here and there, but we also get rejected, cast aside, forsaken, forgotten, ridiculed, falsely accused, and called “crazy,” and the like, just like Paul was treated, and just like Jesus was treated, and much by the same people, i.e. the people who claim to be of the family of God. And sometimes we do have to come to our own defense, and to the defense of the gospel of our salvation for the sake of the truth of the gospel continuing to spread.

But regardless of how we are treated, those of us who are dedicated to following Jesus with our lives and to getting the truth out to the people, and to exposing the lies of the enemy, will continue in doing what the Lord has called us to do. For it is not those who give lip service to the Lord who are his and who have eternal life with God. It is those who are putting sin to death, by the Spirit, and who are walking in obedience to our Lord in holy living. For those who continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in obedience to the Lord, will not inherit eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

Oh, to Be Like Thee, Blessed Redeemer 

Lyrics by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1897

Music by W. J. Kirkpatrick, 1897

Oh, to be like Thee! blessèd Redeemer,

This is my constant longing and prayer;

Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,

Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Oh, to be like Thee! full of compassion,

Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,

Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,

Seeking the wandering sinner to find.

O to be like Thee! lowly in spirit,

Holy and harmless, patient and brave;

Meekly enduring cruel reproaches,

Willing to suffer others to save.

O to be like Thee! while I am pleading,

Pour out Thy Spirit, fill with Thy love;

Make me a temple meet for Thy dwelling,

Fit me for life and Heaven above.

Oh, to be like Thee! Oh, to be like Thee,

Blessèd Redeemer, pure as Thou art;

Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;

Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrYhiK2nQBg 

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