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Sermons and messages from Pastor Jason White and others at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Tyler, TX
If you have your Bibles, I want to go ahead and invite you to open them. Maybe you have a device with a Bible app on it. We're going to be in Acts chapter 25, and we're going to be starting in verse one in just a moment. After taking a short break last Sunday, we're picking back up in this Life in the Spirit sermon series, where, as many of you know, we have been going verse by verse through the book of Acts, and and and what we've been doing is recognizing that in Acts, this is the time period that we see Jesus send the Holy Spirit. It happened after His death, and after His resurrection, after His ascension, and at Pentecost, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, and now each person ever since that day who receives salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone receives that same Holy Spirit, making us a new creation in Christ, making us joined together and uniting us to Jesus Himself in a spiritual relationship with Him, and honestly, even uniting us to each other as brothers and sisters in God's family and part of His church today. And so, what we've been doing, again, as many of you know, looking at Scripture through the book of Acts to see what life in the Spirit looked like when it was first sent, when He, the Holy Spirit, He sent was sent into their lives. Therefore, we can look to see what it will look like even in our lives today, since we share the same Spirit. Now we have made it again, as I mentioned a second ago, all the way to Acts chapter 25, and here lately, it's all been about the apostle Paul, and Paul's been on trial not because of anything that he's really done wrong, but because he's traveling around telling everybody about how Jesus changed his life and how he could change their life, and the Jewish religious leaders of his day did not like it, and remember, Paul used to be just like them. He hated Christians. He persecuted Christians. He was public enemy number one. He was trying to destroy the church because he did not believe that Jesus was who Jesus said he was. He certainly didn't believe that he had been raised from the dead. That was until on the road to the road to Damascus he encountered the risen Lord. There's something about encountering the risen Jesus that will affect your theology. That says that Jesus didn't really rise from the dead, and it transformed and changed his life, and he put his faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, and his sins were forgiven. And that same Holy Spirit that we said deposited gets deposited, and everyone's life got deposited into his. Paul then became a new creation in Christ. He was joined into that spiritual union with Jesus. He became brothers and sisters with others who have done so and became part of the church, and then he was used by Jesus to travel around and tell other people about Jesus, how they could be saved, how they could become a part of the church, and he planted churches and discipled believers and equipped them to be able to share their faith and gospel, but now many of these powerful Jewish religious leaders who still did not believe in Jesus and that Jesus had been raised from the dead was trying to destroy Paul because now Paul, in their eyes, was polluting Judaism, and so this is what they've been trying to do. They put him on trial. The Romans had to get involved because it was causing a riot and a scene. They've been trying to get at the bottom of what's going on. And last time that we looked at Acts, we were in Acts chapter 24, and there was a Roman governor named Felix, and he had put Paul on trial before him and talked to him about these things, Paul got a chance to share the gospel, and then he just left him in prison. Luke tells us he left him in prison for two years, and then we're told at the very end of chapter 24 that Portius Festus has now taken over for Felix. He's no longer in charge, and so with someone else in charge, Luke begins to tell us what happens with the apostle Paul next?
Acts chapter 25, beginning in verse one, says: Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, where the chief priest and the Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. So this was their first time meeting Festus. He just now came into power. A few days after coming into power, he travels to Jerusalem to meet with some of the people that he's overseeing. And and right off the bat, they start telling him about Paul. It's two years, and he's been in jail, and they're already bringing these charges before the new leadership. Verse three says they request request. Festus as a favor to them to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. If you were here for our earlier series or have read through the Book of Acts on your own, you know this is not the first time that they have plotted to try to ambush and kill the Apostle Paul. They know, they know truly that he hasn't broken any Roman laws. That there's nothing that they can do to really convict him, and so they're like, I guess we should just try to kill him. And so they're setting these ambushes, trying to make sure that they take care of him. But we have seen God protect him all along the way, and he continues to do so as we see next, verse four says, "Festus answered, Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. Let some of your leaders come with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there. And so we don't necessarily get the sense that Festus knew anything about this ambush, but he's just feeling led to say no to this request, and because really the Lord has already met and appeared to Paul and said, "You will testify about me in Rome, and so he's preparing the way. He's working in and through even these secular leaders of the Roman Empire to cause his will to happen and protect Paul and move him in that direction. Verse six says, after spending eight or 10 days with him, Festus went down to Caesarea. In the next day, he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them, and they couldn't prove them because they were not true. Paul was being falsely accused. They were trying to frame Paul under Roman law so that they could get rid of him. I don't know if you've ever been falsely accused of something before. Most likely, you have, in at least some small way. And I think we would all agree that any time that's ever happened in our lives, it doesn't feel good. I mean, you know in your heart that you've done nothing wrong, and yet someone is accusing you of doing something that you didn't do, and so you know that. But you're being attacked by someone telling you and telling everyone around you most of the time that you were the one who did something wrong, and so when that happens, I mean, let's be honest, it hurts. I mean, it hurts deep down within us. It can cost us our reputation based on the way people falsely accuse us of things. It could cost us our job or our friends, maybe even even our family, because unfortunately, we may say that we're a society where we're innocent until proven guilty, but it feels a lot more like we're guilty until we're proven innocent. And even when we are, they're still like, "Yeah, but I bet he really did it. You know what I mean? I mean, that's just the way it kind of seems to go. And so when we get falsely accused of something, I mean that is a hard thing to go through, and that's what's happening with Paul here. Verse eight. Then Paul made his defense. I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law, or against the temple, or against Caesar. He went into detail about this earlier, so he just kind of makes a statement.
And so then Festus in verse nine says, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges? And so Festus has, he's been in charge for a few days now, maybe a week or two, and we're already seeing the politician come out, right? I mean, he's he's saying he knows that he's probably innocent. There's nothing that he should really do to him, but he knows the Jews. He can't just let him go because the Jews are going to get really mad about that, and he wants them to be on his side. He wants them to like him and participate together. So he can't just completely let him go, and and so he's asking Paul if he'll come to Jerusalem, which is what the Jews would want, but then to stand trial under Roman law, not Jewish law. So it's kind of this compromise, right? And in kind of the politician style of things, where you're trying to keep both sides happy with that. But Paul is is not falling for it. Look at how he responds in verse 10. It says, Paul answered, "I am now, like right now today, standing before Caesar's court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done anything wrong to the Jews, as you yourselves yourself know very well. If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not." Refuse to die, but if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar. Festus at after Festus had conferred with his council, he declared, "You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go. When we see Paul talking to him here, I mean one of the things that I think is worth pointing out, I mean, is that Paul says, "If, however, I am guilty, like if I'm guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die, like I haven't, but I'm just saying that if if you find something that I have done wrong, I'm not refusing the punishment that I would deserve in that case. But also, Paul is able to say that because of the assurance that he has of what would even happen to him if he was to die, even if he was innocent, and this was something that they did to him. He's like, I will be okay because I know I would just go get to be with Jesus forever, not based on anything that he had done, but on what Jesus had done for him to forgive his sins and put him in a right standing with God the Father, and so I just want to encourage you with the same thing. If you've put your own faith and trust in Jesus, and the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in you, you have eternal life. First John 512 said, "He who says he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son does not have life. And if the Holy Spirit's come to dwell in you and you're spiritually in union with Jesus, then you have Jesus and you have eternal life. You don't have to sit around and worry and become consumed with, 'Am I going to make it one day? Am I not? You can rest in what it is that Jesus has done for you. But the other thing that we see here is that even though He's okay, I mean, I'm at peace either way with what happens. He does appeal to Caesar, right? He doesn't just sit around and wait to be martyred. He uses the legal system led by the Holy Spirit, I appeal to Caesar. Right, even though I I won't refuse to die, I still am going to work through the legal system to prove my innocence here. And so, this is one of the things that we see about how God works through the Holy Spirit on both sides of those things. And we'll talk more about that later. Verse 13, Luke goes on and says, a few days later, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus, who again was new in power. So this was kind of a formality.
Verse 14, since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul's case with the king. He said, "There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. When he, when I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned. I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus, whom Paul claimed was alive, I was at a loss how to investigate such matters. So I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the emperor's decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar. Okay, so why is Festus? Why does he feel the need to tell all of this to King Agrippa? Well, here's why. King Agrippa was Jewish, right, and so he was more familiar with what it was that this dispute entailed? Like he just kind of said, "Hey, I didn't expect them to charge him with with any of these things. They were talking about things that had to do with their own religion and this this guy named Jesus, who Paul says was raised from the dead. And so, what is he trying to do? Well, Paul appealed to Caesar. He can't just send him to Caesar and and not have a charge against him. That's going to make him not look very good and like he doesn't really know what he's doing in leadership and power. And so he's going, you know, King Agrippa's Jewish. I wonder if I start to tell him about this situation, he might get a little intrigued by it and. And listen to his case, and then help me make some actual charges, so I look a little bit better in front of Caesar whenever I send him there. And this is what he's trying to do, and it it worked. I mean, verse 22 says, "Then Agrippa, King Agrippa, said to Festus, 'I would like to hear this man myself.' And so he replied, "Tomorrow you will hear him, Luke says. 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 city. And at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. Festus said, "King Agrippa and all who are present with us, you see this man. The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. I found that he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the emperor, I decided to send him to Rome. But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore, and here's where we see it, right? I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa. Why? So that, as a result of this investigation, I may have something to write. I don't have anything to go on right now. For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him, and he's right. It would be completely unreasonable for him to do so.
And so again, Festus is looking for King Agrippa to be able to help make these charges against Paul before he sends him to Rome, and and and now he's going to get to hear him, and and this is all going to be detailed out what Paul has to say in this trial now before King Agrippa, if you will, in chapter 26 and there's a lot that's being said there and some dialog that's taking place that will be important for us to slow down and dive a little bit more into to see what it means for us today, and so we're going to wait and dive into chapter 26 next week. But I want us to pause now and ask the Lord what He has to reveal to us and make applicable to us through what we see in chapter 25. In other words, what does life in the spirit, look like today, based on what we saw life in the spirit look like for Paul in Acts chapter 25. And again, it may not look like there's a lot there. This is kind of a narrative section where it's just Luke kind of filling us in in a story of what's been happening and going. And you could read it at first glance, and go, yeah, I don't really see anything that applies to me in this. But if you look a little bit more closely, we do see what life in the spirit was like for Paul in a couple of different situations, and really what it says to us today. We've talked about both of them a little bit along the way, but let's touch on it a little bit more. The first thing that I want to point out is that Paul mentioned earlier that he was not afraid to die. Paul had the assurance of where he would spend eternity. We know that Paul even wrote in Philippians 121, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. His philosophy was: Listen, I'm good either way. I really am. I mean, if I get to go on living, I have Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one who is the way, the one who is the life, the one who is the truth, living in me, and I get to go on experiencing His way and His truth and His life working in me and through me and getting to participate in His kingdom work and so it's great. And if I was to die, I get to go be with Jesus in heaven for all of eternity in a place where there is no more sorrow or pain, and I have a no shadow of a doubt, 100% guarantee that I'll be there. So yeah, for me to live is Christ, and to die is even gain. And so this was his philosophy, and and really, this applies to us in a couple of ways. I mean, first and foremost, again, if you've put your own faith and trust in Jesus, then life in the spirit means that He will give you assurance of your salvation. Life in the flesh, allowing the enemy to speak into your life and deceive you, will cause you to wonder if you really are saved. What he will do is take your mind back to places of choices that you've made, things you've done in your past, things that you're currently doing right now that you said you would never do again, and going well. I must not really be saved, and it's all based on things we're doing or things that we're not doing, and. That is not life in the spirit. Life in the spirit will take you not to your own work, speaking into whether you're saved or not, but the work of Jesus Christ and what He accomplished and He alone accomplished for the forgiveness of your sins through His finished work on the cross. And so, life in the spirit means you can take a deep breath and you can rest because God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God. And if you put your faith and trust in Him, that's happened to you. You are the righteousness of God. He says so, and what He says is true.
If you have never put your faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, and you're wondering about where you will spend eternity, and you're nervous about those kind of things, or maybe you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, and you're like, eh, I guess I'll be okay. I mean, we're all going to get there at some point, right? I mean, I'm not perfect, but but I'm not as bad as most people. Then you need to know the truth this morning, and the truth is is that there is a real place called heaven. There is a real place called hell. In those who receive Jesus's free gift of salvation for the payment of their sins, he who has the Son has life. He who does not have the sign does not have eternal life. But no matter who you are, no matter where you've been, no matter what it is that you've done, Jesus loves you. He came to die on the cross for you and for your sins, so that they could all be paid for, and so that you could be forgiven and have eternal life if you receive that salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and maybe that's the way it applies to you today. That's the step that He's leading you to take in your life today. But there is something else that we see in chapter 25 that we touched on earlier as well, and I want to make sure that we don't miss it, and see what life in the Spirit looks like for us today when the same kind of thing happens to us, guys. We continue over and over seeing the Apostle Paul being falsely accused in how the Holy Spirit, how life in the Spirit led him to walk through those trials, that time in his life where he was being falsely accused, and it shows us those who have the same spirit how to walk through times in our lives when we might be falsely accused of something. The first thing that we see is that Paul maintained his integrity. There was repeated pressure. The Jews were plotting and scheming and accusing and trying to kill him. He was in prison for two years, and one under one ruler, and now under another. and And when the new ruler comes, Paul doesn't get defensive. He doesn't change his story. He doesn't start some kind of circus ring, trying to get out of whatever it's going on. He just simply maintained his integrity, led by the Spirit, empowered by the Spirit, and just continued to say, "I'm I'm innocent. I'm innocent. We, when we get falsely accused, again I say we. I assume a lot of you are like me. But if someone falsely accuses me, the first reaction that I have a lot of times is to accuse them back. Is to make sure that I scream louder than they do. My first reaction is to want to control and manipulate and make sure that every person around me who may be hearing what this person has to say, that I make sure that they know that's not true about me, and control everything there is to control about the entire situation, to get defensive in those ways, and not that it's not okay to defend ourselves from false accusations. But what we see from the Apostle Paul first and foremost is that he doesn't attack them back; he just simply stays in the situation, maintains his integrity, and just simply declares, "I'm innocent. He even went through the second thing that we see so far as to say, "And if I'm not, if it proves to be otherwise that what I feel like I'm being falsely accused of is actually true, then I will not avoid the punishment. You can kill me. That applies to us as well because sometimes we're being accused of some things and our mind goes to that's a false accusation when it's really true, maybe not completely, but partially true, and we want to do everything that we can to yell and scream and try to prove it's a false accusation. And so, life in the spirit means that He will lead us if we've done something wrong to own up to what it is that we've actually.
Done and be willing to receive the punishment, the consequences for whatever it is that we have done through the justice system. The third thing that we see, though, is that if in fact we are innocent, to not necessarily sit idly by and wait for martyrdom. Right? The apostle Paul was willing to take whatever consequences, but he used the justice system and allowed the Holy Spirit to work in and through those. And the Spirit can work in and through our justice system even today to prove our innocence if it went that far, and through our relationships with other people, if we just don't allow, or put ourselves in situations in the system that lead something to go against our integrity and character, and ways the Lord would lead us to walk through those things. And then the final thing that we see is that the Holy Spirit continued to use Paul even in this situation while he was in prison, in facing false accusations, to actually share the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, even with those who were accusing him of doing what he's doing, life in the spirit will not lead us to attack them back, and to wish that they would go to a place that isn't a very nice place to end up in, but to go, I am innocent, but I also, even though you're attacking me in this way, want to share the good news of Jesus and the forgiveness that is available to you, who can change your life as well, which is the way that we see Paul working constantly while he is in prison. Now you may look at this situation and go, "Yeah, that was 1000s of years ago. It was the Apostle Paul and this major accusation against him. And I don't know. Does that really apply to us today? Is that what life in the Spirit looks like today as well? Let me give you a real-life example to show you how this worked in someone else's life in a relatively close time frame to where we're at today. Back in 1985, when some of us were alive, including me, Anthony Ray Hinton was a 29-year-old Christian man. He was falsely accused at 29 years old of murdering two people. There was no fingerprint evidence. There were no eyewitnesses. His boss even testified that he had clocked in at work 15 miles away from where the murder had occurred, but he was still found guilty and he was sentenced to death row. Anthony Ray Hinton was offered a plea deal as he was walking through the trial. When they could see some things weren't necessarily going his direction, and says, "If you would declare that you are guilty, then we will take the death penalty off the table. Anthony Ray Hinton refused to declare that he was guilty and say that he was guilty from something that he did not do. This is life in the spirit, leading him to maintain his integrity and trusting God in his sovereignty with whatever the results were that were going to happen through the justice system. But this also didn't keep him from fighting for his freedom and using the justice system. He continued to appeal in as many legitimate ways as he possibly could to to be exonerated from this crime that he did not commit. But let me also tell you what Anthony Ray Hinton was doing in how he was using his time while he was in jail serving a sentence for a crime that he did not commit. First and foremost, he continued to trust God. He continued to look for all that he had in Christ rather than all that he was missing out on life outside of prison, he was quoted as saying, and I quote, "I knew that I could get angry, or I could have faith. That it was always a choice. They took my 30s, they took my 40s, and even my 50s. But what they could not take was my joy. I kept a smile on my face and love in my heart, guys. No matter how dark the situation you ever find yourself in, Jesus is there. He is your life. He is your peace. He is your joy, and no one can rob you of that. Your situations and circumstances don't have to change in order to experience peace.
They don't have to change in order to experience real abundant life. They don't have to change to experience joy because peace, joy, and life are found in a person, not in circumstances. And so, even in the darkest of circumstances. Anthony Ray Hinton had joy. He had abundant life, and he had peace, and he experienced all those things in Christ as he kept his eyes fixed on Him. But listen, that was not the only way that the Holy Spirit was at work in his life. He was also at work in the same way that he was at work in the Apostle Paul's life to share the gospel with the other people around him in the situation and circumstance that he was in. See, there was this other inmate in a cell next to him whose name was Henry, and Henry was the son of a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and Anthony Ray Hinton was a black man, so Henry was someone who hated Anthony simply because of the color of his skin. But Anthony is quoted as saying, and I quote, "I had a job to do, and that was for other men to see Christ in me. End quote. So he prayed for Henry. He loved Henry. He served Henry, and he even shared the gospel with Henry. And according to Anthony, Henry did eventually put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ to be his Lord and Savior. He became his brother in Christ, part of God's family, along with Him, and whom He believes that He will see in heaven one day, because He was executed in 1997 for His crimes. The good news is that 30 years after Anthony was found guilty, Anthony's conviction was finally overturned, and he was released, and he became a free man. But instead of complaining, instead of being bitter about all the time that he spent in jail for a crime that he did not commit, he's quoted as saying, "I truly believe that God sent me. Listen to this: "I truly believe that God sent me to death row to meet Henry Francis Hayes in order to show him what real love felt like-real love that had no color. Guys, we see every bit of what we saw in chapter 25 happen in the Apostle Paul's life from being falsely accused, because life in the spirit today is the same as life in the spirit back then. Anthony maintained his integrity when he was falsely accused. He continued to use the justice and legal system to fight for his innocence, but during that time, he looked to Jesus for his joy and his peace, and even for how Jesus would work through him to share the good news of Jesus of of what he did on the cross with other people around him. It may not be that you ever face a situation as dark and as difficult as that, and I pray and hope it's not. But is still going to come, most likely at some point, where you will face or have faced some sort of false accusation, and that can happen at your school, that can happen from some of your friends, your classmates, your teammates. That could happen at work. It could happen with sometimes even your own family, but when you are falsely accused of something, the Holy Spirit will lead you to walk through those situations with integrity, to look for ways to peacefully prove your innocence, to walk through those times with joy, and still experience His peace in the life that you have in Christ, no matter what you're being accused of, and the Holy Spirit will lead you to even find ways to love and serve and share the gospel with those who might even be attacking you and accusing you in that moment. That is what life in the Spirit looks like when we face situations where we're falsely accused, and that's what we see in chapter 25 today.