Welcome to the River Mountain Church Preaching Library. It is our prayer and indeed our hope that this message might inspire your life. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the preaching of God's Word. And I want to talk a little bit about a life well spent. We're going to be looking at Acts 23 through 24. Because sometimes when we read the Bible, and by the way I picked this picture here because I don't know if anybody would think of the Apostle Paul when they looked at this. Because Paul was a type A personality. He was very active. But the Lord brought him to a place where he could be content in every situation. Now, he was passionate for the world, but he was also content in the things of God as we're going to see today as we look at his life. Because sometimes when we read the Bible and see all these great stories, all these men of God, all the signs and wonders, all the miracles, we think that, you know, they must have lived lives that was just one exciting event after another. You all know that's not true, right? that in our life there are many times that not much seems to be happening. And when we look at the life of Paul, do not be deceived, Paul had a lot of downtime. We talked about this as we started this, that there was 11 years of Paul's life from the time he got saved till the time he was called on his first missionary journey. Where yeah, he visited the churches a few times, but he wasn't really involved in active ministry or his calling. It wasn't until 46 AD that the Lord got a hold of him. The Holy Spirit said, set Paul out on the path that I have appointed for him. And then for 11 years, he is full throttle. 11 years of nothing and 11 years of full throttle, but now in the life of the Apostle Paul, we come to the fact that he is arrested, and this time he is going to spend two years doing, in a way, almost nothing. He's not going to write any epistles from prison, because that's where he's going to be. He's going to be held. He's not going to write any epistles. He's not going to have a lot of input into the community. As a matter of fact, his entire ministry comes to a squeeching halt. For two years. And Paul has to learn how to be content in these quiet times. He says, I'm content in weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. He learned that. He also says, I have learned to be content in whatever situation I find myself. Doesn't matter my circumstances. But perhaps the greatest thing he said was godliness with contentment is great gain. Do you all know you're not defined by what you do? What are you defined by? by who you are. I'm sure if I had you guys try to guess for a long period of time, you eventually would have come up with something. We're all called to bring glory to the Lord and our contentment is found in what Christ has called us to do. And sometimes it isn't exactly what we might want. One of my favorite devotions is Charles Spurgeon, his morning and evening, if you don't Have a good devotional. This is a wonderful one. I read it, especially the morning, all the time. And he was talking about this scripture and lamentations about the Lord being our portion. And he says, but all that we can wish for is found in our divine portion. Our portion is what God has for us in our life. So, he goes on to say, so we can ask, whom have I in heaven but you? And besides you, I desire nothing on the earth. Do you understand that? That if you have the Lord, you have everything. If you are filled with God's purpose, that is all you could possibly ask for in life. We are most glorifying God when we are most satisfied with whatever He has put on our plate. And in the case of the Apostle Paul, what God has put on his plate is two years of nothing. Two years in which he's not active in any type of ministry. How did he get here? You remember, he was in Jerusalem. He was bringing a gift from the Gentiles to the church at Jerusalem because they were going through a blight of poverty. And then he was purifying himself in the temple. He was then apprehended. There were 40 men who were out to kill him. 40 men who had made a vow before the Lord that they're not going to eat or drink until they kill Paul. Now, it's interesting, these men never were able to assassinate him, so the question is, do you think they all died? Or do you think they all were hypocrites? Eventually, after a while, they were like, I think I'll eat something. My guess is none of these men died. Of course, it's pure speculation, but knowing the hearts of humans, Yeah. So how was Paul rescued? Well, it's ironic. It was his nephew. His nephew hears about these 40 men. He runs, he tells Paul, and then Paul tells him to tell the authorities. And here's what happens next, and here's where we pick up the story. So once they are informed, that is to say, the Roman leadership is informed about this plot to kill the apostle Paul, here's what it says. The head of the tribune called two centurions, and he said, get ready, 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, 200 spearsmen, and go as far as Caesarea in the third hour of the night. Did you all do the math here? 470 soldiers are now protecting Paul. That's a lot. And they are going to take him to Caesarea. I mean, the closest thing we can imagine to an envoy for one particular person would be like the Secret Service. Right? All these armed men protecting one individual, the Apostle Paul. That's crazy. Paul's just an itinerary preacher. But God's protection through the Romans, because he's a Roman citizen, is going to involve this massive army of men. And they are going to move him to a place called Caesarea. Now, here's Jerusalem. right there, and Caesarea is right here. It's about 60 miles away. So they're going to make this long trip to Caesarea. And the reason why, we are told, is he is going to have to stand trial. The letter is written from the local representative. Claudius Listius, and he is talking to the governor of the region, the governor of all Palestine, and that is a guy by the name of Felix. And he basically says, listen, this man was seized by the Jews, and they were about to kill him. And when I came upon him, I rescued him when I learned he was a Roman citizen. So you can imagine the governor, picture the governor of Pennsylvania, getting something from the local representative of Luzern, and this big convoys heading to the governor's palace. because here's what the representative wants. He says, I found that he was accused of questions of the law, but he was charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. So he says, when I found this out, he says, at once I ordered his accusers also to state before you what they have against him. In other words, he sent everyone who was accusing Paul to Caesarea to Felix for a trial. So here they all come. They're all coming into the city of Caesarea, which is the capital of Palestine, as far as the Romans are concerned. And he is going to meet with the governor of Caesarea. Anybody here been to the Holy Land? No, okay. Well, if you ever go to the Holy Land, one of the places they always take you is Caesarea, because there are so many amazing ruins that are still in place. This Colosseum existed at the time of Paul. As a matter of fact, Paul could have stood in that Colosseum, and he could have witnessed to Felix, the governor. This area right here is where they believe the governor's palace was. This is what it looks like today. There is the big auditorium. Here's another stadium, an arena for sporting events. But here's the area where Paul's going to be taken. This is what it would have looked like. Beautiful, right? This was built by King Herod the Great, and Paul was going to be probably somewhere in here. There's a courtroom in here, and he's going to stand trial in this beautiful city. Imagine Paul coming up the road with all the soldiers, and there's going to be a major trial, kind of like a Supreme Court of sorts, right here at this location. Caesarea is named, of course, after Caesar. Some quick facts about it. It's the capital of Palestine, as I already said. It was built by Herod the Great. There are a lot of wealthy Jews. As a matter of fact, God has always blessed the Jewish people, right? So there is a lot of wealth in this city because of the Jews. As a matter of fact, Herod was a Jew. There's a large Greek population. Like I said, this is the home of the governor. And it's also the home of one of Paul's closest friends, Philip the Evangelist. Remember the Bible said earlier that in Caesarea, Philip was there and his daughters who also prophesied. So Paul has been to Caesarea a few different times. Most of the times he stayed with Philip the Evangelist there. Someone wanted the houses that were located here. But now they see this. Imagine Philip is out there, the church is out there, and they're all watching Paul come into the town. And here's the trial. And what I love about the Bible, it could have just skipped over this trial, but it doesn't. So I think since the Bible doesn't skip over it, neither should we. So here is Felix, the governor, little bit about him. He was a former slave. He was only appointed to this office because his brother was in a position of power. He has a reputation of hating the Jews. He's very corrupt, and he's on his third marriage. That's who Felix is. Here's a testimony from a Roman historian. Listen to this about Felix. Because you've got to know who your judge is, because your judge is going to determine the outcome of this trial. Historians say about him, he practiced every kind of cruelty and lust. He yielded the power of a king with the instincts of a slave. That means he was like a really low-class kind of base individual, but he was given power. Not exactly the guy you want to stand before, but that's who Paul is standing before. But there's another key player in here, and it's this woman right here. She is sitting next to him. Why is she sitting next to him? Anybody guesses? You guessed it, it's his wife. His wife, Drusilla, is a Jew. And this is going to play into this whole trial. Her father happens to be King Herod Agrippa. Now, in case you don't remember who King Herod Agrippa is, he was the guy early on who killed James, the brother of John, by sword, and then put Peter into prison. That's his daughter. She's now hearing one of these guys who were connected to all these guys, her father, who dealt with them very, very severely. She is on her second marriage. And here's the cool thing, here's the weird thing about this. According to the historians, she was lured into this marriage by this man through witchcraft. So, this Jewish woman married to this despot, and that's who Paul is standing in front of giving his case. So, here comes the group from Jerusalem. Remember, they were summonsed to bring this case, and so it says, after five days, the high priest, there's nobody higher than the high priest, and as he comes, some of the elders that are members of the Sanhedrin, and they bring a guy with them, Tertullus, who is a lawyer. We don't know if he's a Jewish lawyer or if he's a Greek lawyer, but he is going to lay the case out. And again, the Bible wants us to see the accusations. First one, insurrection, rioting. The way he describes Paul is, we have found this man to be a plague. What is a plague? A plague is some sort of disease that comes into your community that spreads real quickly, that if you don't do something about it, it's going to wipe everybody out. This is a term that the Romans would use for anyone who tried to destroy their peace. They were called a plague. So that's not a bad way to start. He stirs up riots among the Jews, and he does this throughout the whole world. In other words, King, you better pay attention. This is a plague that is spreading everywhere. You better do something about it. He also goes on to say that he is the leader of a sect. He is the ringleader of the sect. In other words, the lawyer makes the case that these Christians have a ringleader, a main guy, a guy that is kind of pulling all the strings, and that is Paul, and he's of the sect of the Nazarene. What is a sect, by the way? It's not a good word. It actually would be very close to a cult. So what he's saying is, Paul's a cult leader. This is a cult. Paul's a cult leader. Matter of fact, he's the ringleader of this cult. And by the way, this was important because no cults or sects were recognized by Rome. But the final charge was that he was profaning the temple. What does this mean? It says, he even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. What? The question really being asked here, is Paul a Roman troublemaker or is he just a Jewish troublemaker? Paul is going to give his defense. He doesn't have a lawyer. So again, the Bible is very methodical. It's like it wants us to know what the charges were and how Paul answered the charges. So first of all, rioting. Here's what he says. They did not find me disturbing anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogue or in the city. They have, he goes on to say, neither have they any proof, nor did any eyewitnesses come up who could bear witnesses. Remember what Paul was doing. For seven days he was just in the temple purifying himself. That's all he was doing was purifying himself. And these charges of profaning the temple, obviously not true. How about this? He is the occult leader. He says this, I profess to you that according to the way, which they call the sect. By the way, Christians followed what? The way. Paul calls it the way. Christians were called the way. Why would they call themselves the way? Who were they following? Jesus. What did Jesus call himself? The way. They were following Jesus, and Jesus was the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus was the way to God, He was the truth of God, and if you followed Him, you got the life of God. They were following the way that Jesus set out before them. But here's the key point. This way was a fulfillment of the Old Testament. It wasn't something new. It wasn't a sect. It wasn't a cult. It was simply a manifestation of the Old Testament. Listen what Paul goes on to say, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down in the law and written in the prophets. I have not departed from the Bible. I've not departed from the law. I've not departed from the prophets. Jesus is a manifestation of the prophets. Preventing the temple, what? When they found me, he says, they found me purified in the temple. I had no crowd. There was no turmoil, he says. And then he goes on to say what really happened. He says, well, what really happened is some Jews from Asia came down. They ought to be here before you to make the accusations. They were the ones who saw me. They were the ones who apprehended me, but they're not even here. So this is the key point. Paul goes on to say what this trial was really about. And listen to how he puts this. He says, it's with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you here today. Why I'm here is because I preach the resurrection of the dead. How many of you, most of you folks are Christians, right? How many of you would defend the preaching of the gospel this way, that what I do is preach the resurrection of the dead. It's an interesting way of putting it. He would say earlier that they accept this idea of the resurrection of both the just and the unjust. This is the only time Paul talks about the resurrection in the context of it being of the just and the unjust. He is saying here in the latter part, he's saying, they believe in the resurrection, I believe in the resurrection, we all know that the just and the unjust are going to be resurrected. I don't know if you know any Jewish people today, but if you ask them, do you believe in heaven? A lot of them say no. If you ask them, do you believe in a judgment day? A lot of them say no. Do you believe in hell? A lot of them say no. So the question I have is, what do Jews really believe? Do they really believe what Jesus taught and what Paul taught? And you know the answer to that question is, they absolutely believe that. But their minds are blinded to it. Let me put out a scripture for you about what happens after you die. How many people know that your death is the most important event you'll ever go through? You better know what happens after you die. This life is nothing more than a valley of decision. When you die, what do the Jews believe? Let me tell you from one of their, well, let me tell you. I kind of almost gave it away. Listen to these words. There's going to come on the earth a time of trouble that has never been in the nation until this time. And in a sense, at that time, when we see this tribulation happening, people shall be delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found in the book of, or in the book, let me read that again. Everyone whose name shall be found in the book, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake to everlasting life, some to everlasting life. But then he says that some of them are going to awake to shame and everlasting contempt. It's everlasting, right? It's everlasting life or everlasting contempt. Why is it determined if your name is written in a book? If your name is written in a book, you're going to have everlasting life. If it's not, you're going to have everlasting contempt. And it all happens after the time of trouble, the tribulation. And if I ask you, if you just read that, if I ask you, is this found in the book of Matthew, 2 Corinthians, 1 Thessalonians, the book of Revelation, or is this found in the Old Testament? The answer to the question is it's found in Daniel. Jews believe this! Let me rephrase that. All Jews should believe this. They all should believe in heaven. They all should believe in a book, that if your name is written in it, you are going to have everlasting life. The Apostle Paul, obviously, as a Jewish rabbi, taught this. He says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due, and what they have done in the body, whether good or evil. Everyone is going to have to be judged. When you die, let me put it to you very simply, if you've never heard it before, when you die, there will be a resurrection of everyone who has died. Everyone who has died, it's appointed unto man once to die, and then a judgment is coming. And what you're gonna be judged on is very simple, is your name in the book. Name in the book, you'll receive one kind of judgment, name not in the book, you will stand before another type of judgment. Remember, Jesus said, listen, I know you get all excited, get all goosebumps when powerful things happen, when demons are subject to you. But he says, don't rejoice about that. That doesn't mean anything, really. Everything comes down to, is your name written down in this book? It's all about that. If your name is in the book, the Bible says you are going to go to find out if you're going to receive any rewards. If you did good in your body, you're going to receive a crown or other rewards in heaven. If you did not do many good things, the Bible simply says everything that you did will be burnt up. But you'll be saved because your name is in the book. If your name is not in the book, You go to this, the great white throne judgment, and you will not have Jesus presiding and standing in your defense at this throne. You will give an account for your life. You will be declared sinful in the sight of God, and there will be no mediation. There'll be nobody who comes to your fence and say, I took their punishment. You will be judged. Is this what Paul preached? You better believe it's what he preached. He says, I'm preaching this, that a judgment is coming, a resurrection is coming, and that's why I'm on trial. So, when this king hears this, It's funny, because it says, he has an accurate knowledge of the way. This pagan king knows about the way. How did he know about the way? Obviously, his wife, who was Jewish, and her father. They knew all about Paul and all about the way, and they simply put off the decision, and they say, we're going to decide this sometime later, when Lais comes to us, and he's already, as a matter of fact, he's the one who wrote the letter, he's already decided what he thinks. So, wow. So then he gives orders for the centurions to keep Paul in custody. Give him some liberty, he says. Don't prevent any of his friends from attending to his needs. Keep him here, and that's where Paul stays for two years. But my question is, who's really on trial? Two years Paul is going to spend in this custody under this governor, although he was found innocent by him, technically. He wanted to do the Jews a favor, so he kept Paul in prison. But here's the interesting thing about the story. Very interesting. It says, someday after this, Felix came with his wife, who was Jewish, right? And they sent for Paul, and they wanted to hear him speak about faith in Christ. This is kind of curious. And Paul is going to give a sermon, and here's what he's going to preach on. Paul says, this is what the scriptures say, he reasoned about righteousness. Was this guy righteous? No. He ministered about a thing called self-control. Did this guy have self-control? No. But his final point was about the coming judgment. You are going to be judged. As a matter of fact, let me just say this. It doesn't matter how you live. Live any way you want. I mean, just have as much fun as you want. Much pleasure as you want. If there's no God, what's the point? Just enjoy your life. Take 80 wives if you want. Do whatever. Doesn't matter. But if there's a coming judgment and you're going to have to give an account for your life, well, that changes everything. So the Bible says that when he talked about these things, Felix was alarmed. In other words, I believe he was convicted. So what does he do? Does he fall down on his face and say, man, okay, give me righteousness. Let me practice self-control. No. It says, he said, go away for the present. And when I get an opportunity, I'll summon you. Want to see the saddest thing about the story? You want to see why Felix kept asking for Paul to come and preach even though he had no interest in what Paul had to say? He said that every time Paul came and preached, at the same time, he hoped that money would be given to him by Paul. Because remember how this king is thinking. This guy's the ringleader. He told me about a big offering he had. He's the main guy in the sect. Surely they'll want to get him out of prison at some point. Surely somebody's going to say, hey, is all you want is money? Okay, we'll give you money. So it says he sent for him often, every time thinking, Paul's going to give me money this time. Would you have given money? Do you think the church should have gave money? He's the ringleader of tens of thousands of people, and for two years he's doing nothing. Maybe it would behoove us to give money. To drop a sack right there. To get Paul out in his ministry again. Let me ask you this, where was God? Huh? Ever wonder that? God could have provided money out of a fish's mouth, right? He did that to Jesus. He could have provided an earthquake. He did that before. He could have sent an angel. He did that before. But no, he chooses to let Paul sit in prison for two years, not writing any epistles, not doing anything, but standing before this guy who wants him to give money. Is this a waste of time? Is it? Is this a life well spent? Do you all know something? A life well spent has nothing to do with what you do, it has to do with who you are. What's the point of our Christian life? To give glory to God with every breath we take. To bring glory to God is the point of our life. And Paul said, listen, whether you're eating or drinking or whatever you're doing, do it all for the glory of God. I believe Paul was giving just as much glory to God in this state as he was when he wrote the epistles, or when he preached in planted churches, because he was just consistently faithful in the small things. We are not defined by what we do. We are defined by who we are in Christ, and most importantly, we are defined by whether God knows us, and whether our name is in that book of life. Do you understand that? Jesus warns us. He says, listen, on that day, many are going to say to me, we did a lot of stuff. We prophesied in your name. We cast out demons in your name. We did mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty works. And it's not going to mean anything to him. Why? He's going to call all of that lawless because he didn't know you. He didn't know your name. This is so scary because it tells me that you can do a lot of amazing things for God and God not know you or you not know God. Is your name in this book? That's it. Don't rejoice that demons are subject. Is your name in the book? What is it? Are you sure? Are you sure that your name is in this book? Are you sure that God knows you and you know God? Thanks for listening to this message from River Mountain Church. If you'd like some more information, visit our website, rivermountainchurch.org.