So our question and answer from the Westminster Shorter Catechism this evening is question and answer 98, what is prayer? The answer given to us is prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to his will in the name of Christ with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement of his mercies. So in our congregation, we talked quite a bit about prayer this morning with the sermon, but as we see, the catechism gives a much more succinct answer than me, so we're gonna be looking at what these wise words that have been compiled in the past have to say for us, but one of the things we see is that we are offering to the Lord in our prayers our desires. Notice that it doesn't say demands, this says desires. And these desires that we are offering up to the Lord need to be agreeable with His will. So we cannot ask God to do something that is sinful, we cannot ask Him to bless our sins, but also to This might answer why, at times, when we offer our prayers to the Lord, He doesn't answer them quite in the way that we ask them. Because His will, which is a perfect will, which ours falls short of, He may have something bigger in mind for us. And so, maybe we are going through some suffering of the body, some suffering of the soul, that we ask that God would take that thorn from our side. And yet, maybe His will for us in that moment is that He wants us to be humbled, to reflect upon some sin that is in our life, that we would be shapened more and more into his righteousness. And if he takes that thorn from our side, like we see the Apostle Paul pleading for, we would be losing out on the great mercies of understanding that the sufficiency of the grace of Jesus Christ is enough for us. And so sometimes God does, according to His will, let us suffer so that we would be given that greater mercy of righteousness and peace and rest in Him. And so perhaps what we need to be praying if there is that thorn that is not removed quickly from us is, God, is there a lesson that you want me to learn? Please teach me this lesson and free me from this misery. We see that the prayers that we offer, we offer in the name of Jesus Christ. So we don't do this on our own authority. It's not the, hey, look at me, how impressive I am, so God, please answer my prayer. It's the, no, Jesus Christ, who has, through whom I've been adopted into this family, by whom I have the privileges of calling you Father. It is through him, who is my intercessor, sitting at your right hand, it is in his name, his authority, that I offer this prayer. And since our prayers are not a list of demands, but a pleading with our desires, we see in addition to a giving of our desired needs, there's also the confession of sins and the thankful acknowledgement of His mercies. God continues to work in us, but also just that thankfulness that he has already done incredible things for us. And so we have this wonderful gift of prayer that we can offer to the Lord. So I invite Pastor Alan Flowers to come up and share with us this evening from Acts chapter 25, verses one through 27. But brother, it is a joy to be with you and have you share God's good word with us. Thank you. I'm gonna get a cup of water for you. Thank you. Good evening, our text tonight will be from Acts 25. As the pastor mentioned, I'll give you some backdrop. At this point, Paul has been arrested. He is in custody. He has been before Felix in the previous chapter. Now we get to chapter 25. Let's pray and ask God to open up the scripture to us tonight. Sovereign God, even as we hear the psalm that you laugh when people rage. We are comforted, Lord, that the gospel is the solution to mankind's enmity against you, that no amount of reasoning can ever dissuade people from their hatred of the gospel, but only the gospel alone can change the human heart. And so let us have courage in these uncertain days, Lord, that you are in control of all the whims of mankind. In Jesus' name, amen. Acts 25. Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea, and the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul. And they urged him, asking a favor against Paul, that he summon him to Jerusalem, because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way. Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly. So he said, let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him. He stayed among them not more than eight or ten days. He went down to Caesarea, and the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. Paul argued in his defense, neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense. But Thestis, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and be there tried on these charges before me? But Paul said, I am standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews, I have done no wrong, as you yourself know very well. If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar." Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, "'To Caesar you have appealed. To Caesar you shall go.'" Now when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus. And they stared there many days. Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, There is a man left prisoner by Felix. And when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid out their case against him, saying, For a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him. So when they came together here, I made no delay, but on the next day took my seat on the tribunal and ordered the man to be brought. When the accusers stood up, they brought no charge in his case of which evils as I supposed. Rather, they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive. Being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them. But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar. Then Negrippa said to Phesis, I would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, he said, you will hear him. On the next day, Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunals and the prominent men of the city. Then at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man about whom the whole Jewish people petitioned me, both in Jerusalem and here, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. But I found that he had done nothing deserving death. And as he himself appealed to the emperor, I decided to go ahead and send him. But I have nothing definite to write to my lord about him. Therefore, I have brought him before you all, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after we have examined him, I may have something to write, for it seems unreasonable in sending a prisoner not to indicate the charges against him. So we see in this passage there has been a transfer of authority from Felix to Festus. Now Festus is the one that we are dealing with, and there is a two-year time gap between chapters 24, where Paul had appeared before Felix, and chapter 25, where he now is going to appear before Festus. Yet the Jews' hatred for Paul had not waned. Let me ask you a question. How is it that you hate someone so much so that you want to murder him two years after the so-called events in which supposedly Paul had brought Trophimus the Ephesians into the temple. Now that was the accusation, whether he had anything to do with Trophimus the Ephesian, a Gentile, being brought into the temple, Luke really does not go into. This brings me to my first observation. will never overcome the hatred of the gospel in any other way than giving them more of the gospel. You cannot reason your way out of people's hatred of the gospel because in their mind it is the most obnoxious thing. And my suspicion is the reason it is so very obnoxious is the gospel is going to hold me accountable. The gospel is going to say to me that I am a sinner, there is a judge, and there is a day coming in which all my thoughts will be judged against him. The rage had not subsided at all. Do not kid yourself. that the enemies of the gospel are going to be reasoned out of their position. Think of Saul of Tarsus. It was only the blinding light of Jesus Christ, brighter than the noonday sun. How many of you have ever stared long at the sun? I don't recommend it. He says that Jesus was brighter than the noonday sun. That was the only thing that was going to knock Saul of Tarsus out of his position into being a lover of Jesus. Do not ever suppose that the world is going to sue for peace. Now, the gospel is lowly and meek, and we think to ourselves, why is it that there is so much enmity and friction between us and the world? Understand this, Jesus says, the world hates you because it first hated me. You're not of the world. If you were of the world, the world would love it so, but because you are not of the world, but I have called you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. That's what the world does. And we see this enmity in the passage, and we see this enmity in what the pastor read in Psalm 2. The people of the nations rage against God and His Messiah, and God laughs about it. Isn't it good that God laughs when we do what? We fret. Oh no! Somebody doesn't like me because I'm a Christian. The Jews had hoped to have better results, persuading Festus to transfer Paul down to Jerusalem. There's a very similar plot in the previous chapter where the Jews had tried to get an ambush on Paul. In fact, there were several men who had taken a vow not to eat, not to drink any water, anything, until which time as Paul is dead. And they had told Felix, well, we just need some more information. Let's send Paul down," and they had their ambush and wait. They did not know that Paul's young nephew was crouched off on the side, overheard the whole plot, and then Paul is harried away in the night with Calvary. in place. Now, whether Festus is wise to this plot or not, I cannot tell. He tells him, look, I'm heading back to Caesarea. If you want to come and meet with me in Caesarea where Paul lives, we'll do that. And that's what happens. Eventually, they do meet back in Caesarea, and Paul is accused before the Jews. Luke adds they were unable to prove anything they contend. I take it in offering to send Paul back to Jerusalem, perhaps, this is in the category of perhaps, I want you to hear it that way. Festus is thinking, well maybe he'll get jumped, maybe he'll get assassinated, maybe I can get myself out from under this whole mess. Festus must think, this is somebody else's mess. We see this often with the Romans. We see it with Pilate, I'll talk about that in a minute. We see that the Romans not really interested in whether Jesus is the Messiah or not. Whenever I always tell my congregation, what is the motivation for taking over a nation? To tax them. That's it. And it's very hard to collect taxes when there is revolution in the streets. they want to shut down revolution. Whether Jesus is Messiah, whether he's raised from the dead, the Romans do not care about these things. The Romans want there to be peace so that they can collect taxes. That's the impetus here. So Festus is simply looking for a way out. If to hand Paul over to the Jews, you want to go to Jerusalem, Paul? Not a chance. Paul had already figured out that subtlety before. Not a chance I'm going to Jerusalem with these guys. I have done nothing wrong before the Jews, their temple, not to Caesar. You send me to Caesar. I'm a Roman citizen. I have the right to ask of that. Both in the Gospels and here in Acts, the Jews are portrayed as viciously persecuting Christianity, and Rome is just kind of passively allowing it to happen. Remember Pilate, what does he do? I wash my hands of this. He doesn't want to get involved in this mess. And so he washes his hands trying to get himself out from under it. The Roman troops in Jerusalem send Paul on to Felix, who does nothing but leaves him in custody for two years, really with no charges. And the end of today's chapter, it's almost ludicrous. Jewish man, Grippa, can you help me write some charges?" Two years later, I still don't even know what the charges are that we might send him on to Caesar. Many suppose there to be no offense in this sort of passive approach, and I do suppose it's somewhat less offensive than the active persecution of the Christianity, nonetheless, the state has an obligation under God to protect all of its citizens, including the high calling of protecting God's church. I'll read to you from City of God by St. Augustine. Rome never was a republic, because true justice had never a place in it. But the fact is, true justice has no existence save in the republic whose founder and ruler is Christ. If at least any choose to call this a republic. We may at all events say that in this city is true justice, the city of which the Holy Scripture says, glorious things are said of thee, O city of God. This is one of my favorite lines out of Augustine's massive work. Though there was a semblance of justice in Roman law in the sense that one could appeal a capital case known as Lex Valeria, Nonetheless, we see how minuscule justice humans have when they do not appeal to the scriptures. If you have a society that has never had the gospel take its roots in that culture, you will have a culture whose jurisprudence system cannot have true justice. Because they are basing justice on what is left. What is left? All but human reason. That's the best thing they've got. And human reason, here's the irony, is not reasonable. Because human reason is fallen. Even the best of the philosophers and those who would make what would consider to be good laws cannot have, therefore, good justice. Now, Pilate, he makes every attempt to let Christ go free, but in the end, he takes the coward's way out and washes his hands. The Roman troops, they rescue Paul from what I have called the unholy tug of war. that had gone on in the temple where they were about to rip the poor man apart. But what do they do? They bounce him around from official to official over the period of two years with no trial, with no justice, with a few assassination attempts thrown in there. Where's the justice? Paul asserts justice is fine with him. He says, if I've done something worthy of death, I don't refuse to die. Paul is okay with justice. He's not okay with being railroaded. And here's an important point for Christians. We are not pacifist. We are not pathetic. We are not stoic. We want to fight for our lives. We want to fight for our rights. And we need to say, demand of the courts, you have an obligation not only to truth and to the citizenry, but the God himself who has called you to be leaders, to show true leadership. reminds us as the church of our prophetic role towards the states. I'll read to you from the Westminster Confession, chapter 23, verse 3, or not verse 3, paragraph 3. Yet as nursing fathers, it is the duty of civil magistrates to protect the church of our common Lord. You catch that? It says that the civil magistrate and the church have a common Lord. They may not know it, but they do. Keep reading. Without giving the preference to any denomination of Christians above the rest, in such manner that all ecclesiastical persons whatever shall enjoy full, free, and unquestioned liberty of discharging every part of their sacred functions without violence or danger. Well, the Roman rulers are doing what is expedient to them, not justice. And so the church must remember our prophetic relationship towards the state. We are that prophetic voice in the culture reminding them, you have a duty, you have a responsibility, and you will be held account to how you exercise that. The state has been given by our common Lord the civil authority, and we are to respect and uphold the civil authority in the honor to which it is given. But there is a corresponding obligation. The state now has an obligation to protect the unarmed, non-violent, peaceful preaching Church of Jesus Christ. but as seen when Nathan rebukes the King David, so the church must continually call the state towards greater fidelity." I read also to you a paragraph from the Barman Declaration, this was written by Karl Barth, against the intrusion of the Nazis into the church during World War II. It starts out, fear God, honor the emperor. Scripture tells us that by divine appointment, the state in this still unredeemed world in which also the church is situated has the task of maintaining justice and peace so far as human discernment and human ability make this possible by means of the threat and use of force. The church acknowledges with gratitude and reverence toward God the benefit of this, His appointment. draws attention to God's dominion, God's commandment and justice, and with these responsibility of those who rule and those who are ruled. It trusts and obeys the power of the word by which God upholds all things. We reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission the state should and could become the sole and total order of human life and so fulfilled the vocation of the church as well. I'm going to stop there in my reading to give this challenge to us. I think that this is where our culture has headed. We have yielded to the state the sole vocation of which, much of which, the church should be doing. And this is the language you hear, I want the president to be nice. I want the president to come to the funeral, to cry with me, to hold my hand. Isn't that what you want of your pastor? But why has the culture shifted all this emotional compassion that ought to be on to the church on to now the commander-in-chief who's supposed to break and blow up stuff? They have done that because they have forsaken God's church and now all that emotional need that we rightfully have as spiritual beings has now been shifted over to the state. The state's not prepared to do such things. Since we reject the false doctrine that beyond its special commission, the church should and could take on the nature, task, and dignity which belongs to the state, and thus become an organ of the state. The state is not an organ of the church, and the church is not an organ of the state. God has ordained the two swords of the church and the state to rule, because again, as the Confession says, we have a common Lord. Paul does something no one expects. I'm not going with these turkeys back to Jerusalem, no way. I appeal to Caesar. Now, this was the best news Fessus could have had. This is his automatic out of the situation. He doesn't have Paul's blood on his hands, he doesn't have to keep dealing with these pesky Jews, they can't say that, you know, you're the one who let him go, and the Jews cannot hold him responsible for letting him go. I point out here again the yet repeated theme, in Luke's book of Acts, Christianity is not subversive to the Roman Empire. That is the theme continuously throughout that book because every time a Christian is arrested, what happens? An angel comes and breaks them out of jail. or the civil magistrates have to come and say, you know, we really shouldn't have whipped you, we shouldn't have really arrested you, and we owe you an apology, and would you please just come on out of the jail and head on out of town. Again, twice in this passage he says, I examined him. He has some argument about their superstitions, about their religion, about some guy named Jesus who's dead, but Paul assures us that he's alive. Other than that, I don't know what he's done wrong. So that's it. Verses 13 through 22. Though Paul appeals to Caesar had alleviated one of Festus' problems, he no longer has to deal with Paul, it's created another one. I've got to send this guy to Caesar. And I still, after two years, don't even know why he's here. Well, here's the solution. Here comes Agrippa. He's Jewish. This is, by the way, Agrippa II. He's the son of Agrippa from chapter 12, who had killed James, imprisoned Peter, and was smitten by an angel because he refused the worship of his own people. Agrippa II had only been 17 when he had taken over, and he winds up ruling for 50 years. He lived incestuously with his sister, Bernice. Agrippa had come to salute the new governor, Festus, and he decides to seek some advice for his dilemma. I got this dilemma. I got this Paul, he's going to Caesar, but I don't even know why I'm sending him to him. You know, I've been in Jerusalem and Felix had custody of him, but now Felix has held him over and I don't know what to do with him. This brings me to the point, and I'll point this out in American politics also, everyone wants to The politicians want to make nice with the American public. And so they know that they need to say something nice about God, what I call generic godism, broadly, or faith, which again will never be defined in the American public political system. But giving lip service to the king of kings when he has called you to responsibility to give honor to him as the only true God and the very monarch of both heaven and earth who which gave you the position to rule as a civil magistrate. To give only lip service to him is very dangerous. Westminster Confession, chapter 23, God the Supreme Lord and King of all the world has ordained civil magistrates, I want you to get this language because this is really good stuff, to be under Him, over the people, for His glory and the public good, and the only one the American public even basically considers is for our public good. That's what the civil magistrate is there for. To make my life a whole lot better. The Confession has much more to say about it. Under God. That means they're answerable to God. Over the people. We kind of get that. They're our sovereigns. In a small-s sort of way. And for His glory. Did you know that the civil magistrate is there for the glory of God? Well, Festus, he's got to render some sort of decision so that he can intelligibly write to Augustus, and so the church... must say to the state, you must render some verdict on who this Jesus is. The problem is, the state, the population wants to say this Jesus is some historical, as it were, dead man. And we assert with Paul, he's not a dead man. He's an alive man. He's an alive man who calls you to account. The church stands lowly and accused, but it is the state who has the dilemma. Not for the reason that many of us populists agree Jesus is raised, but because he is raised. You know, answering to one's constituents may be sticky, but answering to the God of eternity is a lot bigger problem. You recognize from our own Declaration of Independence, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. This is not a Christian thought. This is an age of reasoning thought. We say, as Jesus said to Pilate, you would have no authority were it not given to you by my Father in heaven. That's where all authority comes from and must give an account to, not from the consent of the governed. So how long is the culture going to be insane and crazy? Well, how long was Nebuchadnezzar insane and crazy? Remember what Daniel says to him? That's how long you're going to be crazy. The only way to take the hatred and enmity out of people that they have towards the gospel is to give them more of the gospel. Paul before Agrippa. During Christ's series of trials, he was brought before Herod. When Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad for his desire to see him for a long season, because he'd heard many things of him, and he'd hoped to see some miracle done by him. Along the same lines, here comes Curius and lifted up Agrippa II. He, like the Athenians, loves to hear something new, and he feels sure that Paul at least will entertain him throughout the afternoon. He enters as a curious observer, but soon will realize that he's the one being examined. And this is the funny thing. He and his incestuous sister Bernice come in with all this pomp, with golden dress and great clothing. And here comes the man dressed as a prisoner in iron bands and he's the one, Paul's the one, conducting the interview. Why is that? Because we have the truth. We're the ones who are unashamed to say that we have more truth on our side. Foolish, foolish Agrippa. Foolish, foolish Bernice. God has always chosen to hide the greater wisdom under the guise of weakness. But by and by, it is going to appear who is weak and who is glorious. The peasant man who goes up the mount is transfigured and his face is shining as the sun and his raiment was as white as light. The gentle, unimpressive man gave sight to the blind, strength to the lame legs. And hearing to the deaf, the one who hung on a despised cross left an empty tomb. And the prisoner of Paul is going to leave Felix trembling, Festus confused, Agrippa bewildered, and as the church comes to the world today, ready to reveal that we have resurrection power under the guise of weakness. And finally we see Paul reason, we see the reason Paul may have had such strength, because he had already accepted to live as Christ, to die as Cain. Whatever happens to me is of no consequence. When a man has the fear of death stolen away from him, he becomes a very dangerous tool in the hands of God. I think of the psalmist, he said, the Lord is on my side, I will not fear, what can man do to me? And I love the reassuring words of Jesus, fear not little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. For now I suppose the church in its head, Jesus Christ, will remain as a puzzlement, much as Paul did to Thessalonians. He can't figure out this man. Why is this man in iron bands not begging for his release? Why is this man talking to me as if he's the one who has all the authority? because he met a living Jesus. And so I leave you with this challenge tonight. Whatever fears you face, whatever stupid thing the politician says tomorrow, understand this, Jesus is alive and Jesus is king. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you that you are in control, that nothing escapes your attention, that you are from everlasting to everlasting God Almighty. And so, Lord God, we thank you for sending Jesus the Savior. And also, Lord, for giving us hope that in the end, Lord, every knee will bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. In his holy name we pray, amen.