Standing Firm: Paul's Trial and the Cost of Discipleship

But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. [00:02:25]

And this being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men. And now after many years I came to bring alms and offerings to my nation, in the midst of which some Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple neither with a mob nor with tumult. [00:02:45]

The narrative encourages believers to be bold in their witness, even when it means being labeled as troublemakers. Boldness, coupled with love and humility, is essential in proclaiming the gospel and standing firm in our convictions. [00:30:28]

Paul, this man is a plague. Creates dissension “among all the Jews throughout the world. He’s a ringleader of that sect, that cult of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to the law.” [00:15:31]

Notice, and it’s often said that a person who defends himself has a fool for a client and it’s always wise to have somebody else speak in your defense than to speak yourself. But in this case, the Sanhedrin hired the hottest gun they could find to be the prosecutor, and Paul’s left to defend himself without any professional help with any attorney. [00:17:20]

He has no advocate. But I wonder if on that day if he remembered the occasion of a similar tribunal when Stephen was martyred and when the stones were falling off the body of saint Stephen the heavens opened and he looked up and he saw his Advocate, Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, standing in his defense. [00:17:53]

He had no one to defend him on earth, but Christ himself to defend him in heaven. And Christ has promised Paul that Christ would be his Advocate. So though it was Paul who was saying the words, he was saying them in the power and in the presence of the Holy Ghost, who was a much better defense attorney than anyone else Paul could ever find. [00:18:19]

And even here before this hostile group again he bears witness to Christ without compromise. And he said the L stands for loving. Paul’s the most loving Christian that ever walked the face of the earth. He took an oath saying I bear witness to you by the mercy of God that I would trade my salvation for the salvation of my kinsmen according to the flesh Israel. [00:28:51]

He said I preached to my Jewish neighbors, my Jewish kinsmen, my Jewish friends. I preached them Christ not because I hate them but because I love them. Now this man who gave this acrostic he said it this way. He said usually when people say something they’ll say Paul was uncompromising, but he was also loving. [00:29:25]

No, no. He was uncompromising with the truth of God, therefore, loving. So, you’ve been taught since you were this high that to be uncompromising with respect to Christ is to be unloving. That’s a lie. If you love Christ and if you love people, then you will never compromise his gospel. Let Paul be an example for us in our own day. [00:29:55]

But if you say Jesus is not the Messiah and I say Jesus is the Messiah, one of us is wrong, and one of us is against God at that point. Because if Jesus is not the Messiah and we come here today to worship Jesus as the Son of God and he’s not the Son of God and he’s not the Messiah, we are false witnesses of God and we are idolaters in the extreme. [00:25:55]

If Jesus is the Messiah and somebody rejects that, they’re rejecting the only Son of God and calling him a false prophet, and the consequences of that are eternal. But we live in a culture that says it doesn’t matter what you believe just as long as you’re sincere. Beloved, the devil is sincere. He sincerely hates Christ and everything Christ stands for. [00:26:40]