In this special baptism service sermon, Pastor Joe Babij looks at Paul’s testimony before Agrippa in Acts 26:1-32. Pastor Babij identifies three key parts of any person’s salvation testimony by looking at Paul’s model: what a person was like before conversion, what happened to a person in conversion, and how a person became different after conversion. Pastor Babij challenges listeners to ask whether they have a true testimony of transformation in Jesus Christ as a result of the gospel.
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it’s time to get back at it and and um and do that for yourself for spiritual growth and understanding all right this morning I want you to take your Bibles and turn to the book of Acts and if you are using the Pew Bible I don’t know where the page number is but you have to go to the gospel of uh the gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John and right after John you find the book of Acts all right in Acts chapter 26 which we read this morning and I want to look at giving testimony for Christ this is Paul giving a testimony for Christ now this is a passage we have our membership CL class read as they prepare for their testimony and um so that’s a really good passage of scripture Paul gives his testimony about three times in the book of Acts and this is about the last time he gives it and uh he gives it before a group of people before King agria and so we’re going to look at that and I want you to follow along as we look at that passage but let me have a word of prayer before I go there Lord thank you this morning for your grace and your mercy to us today for bringing us here and Lord for allowing us to Fellowship together as a church body allowing us to have the word of God in our hands that we can not only read it and uh hear it but we can also study it and Lord thank you so much for working within uh your church in which when people uh who are brought out of the kingdom of Satan or the domain of Satan to the kingdom of your dear son uh become Believers that even in this dark world you’re still building your church you’re still bringing people to Faith and Lord this morning as we hear the testimonies of those who come to faith in Christ and now are going to walk in the waters of baptism Lord what a great blessing that is to to be able to hear their testimony and know Lord you’re still at work in the world and so thank you for allowing us to be a witness to that and bless us our our time together in worship and hearing the word of God this morning I pray in Christ’s name amen let me ask you a question uh this morning maybe several questions if some of them were to follow you around for a week and they were uh they were able to observe your manner of life and even read your thoughts do you think you would be able to persuade them that you are a Christian a Biblical Christian a person who loves and serves the Living God and that Jesus Christ is indeed your lord so are are you able to do that now permit me to ask you uh go one step further with that line of questioning and suppose you were given the opportunity to freely give testimony to someone about your past and your present life do you believe that you would be able to persuade someone else using the historical events in your life story that Jesus has become the most important Central person in your life what do you think the outcome would be do you think you can almost persuade someone so that when they left you you would have given them something to ponder concerning their Eternal Soul concerning judgment to come concerning the hope of sins the hope of sins forgiven and eternal life only to be had through repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ do you think think you would be able to do that I pray you would because just a search a brief search of scripture you find there’s many admonitions concerning testimonies and people giving testimonies before groups of people like Matthew tells us Let Your Shine Your Light Shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify the your father who was in Heaven even in the Old Testament in Psalm 22 it says I will tell of your name to my brethren in the midst of the assembly I will give praise to you and then in Psalm 35 I will give you thanks in the great congregation I will praise you among the mighty throng so all over scripture we get these scriptures that tell us about people giving a testimony about the great things God has done in their life like in Psalm 107 it says let them give thanks to the Lord for his loving kindness and for his wonders to the sons of men let them extol him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the seat of the elders all these passages scriptures give t testimony testify uh to what God has done that they have experienced the true and living God in their life and they want to tell people about it they can’t hold it back they have to tell it and so when given the opportunity to testify we should be doing it with joy it should be a joyful experience in fact the word of God uses uses the word defense in scripture which we get the word apologetic from and that means for someone who defends the faith on one or more points of teaching it was the Apostle Peter who wrote but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account of the hope that lies within you and to do that with gentleness and reverence and now we come to acts chap 26 and you find In this passage of scripture right in verse number one it tells us here AG grippa said to Paul in verse one number one of Acts 26 you are permitted to speak for yourself then Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense right and then it says in regard to these things of which I am a Accused by the Jews I consider myself fortunate King Agrippa that I am about to make my defense before you today especially because you are an expert in all the customs and questions among uh among the Jews and therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently so in giving testimony the Apostle Paul lays out his past his old past life before conversion the C circumstances which he came to believe in Jesus Christ and the change that took place in his life something has happened to him and he wants to tell people about that and that’s the same for all Christians you don’t you’re not born a Christian you’re not you don’t give you don’t give birth to a baby they’re automatically a Christian they’re they’re a uh person who comes into the world and there a sinner they have a sin nature they’re going to sin and it’s the sin that we commit uh that keeps us out of the presence of God so remember all Christians once they come to Christ and know him as Lord and savior they have a testimony now they have an apologetic a defense of the hope that is in them because they came to Jesus Christ now the question I would have for you this morning is do you have a testimony for Christ I pray that you do because excuse me I want to really look at this passage of scripture and look how how the Apostle Paul unfolds his testimony he gives before a public audience and the first thing he does he gives his past old life before conversion now if you don’t know anything about about the Apostle Paul his name before he was the Apostle Paul was the name Saul now before that he was a very very religious person he was a zealously religious person in fact Paul was a quintessential religious person his upbringing was he was brought up it says in verse number four he he says I’m thoroughly Jewish yes to the uttermost where he says so then all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up which from the beginning was spent among my own Nation at Jerusalem and then in verse number five since they have known about me for a long time if they are willing to testify that I live as a Pharisee according to the strict strictest sect of our religion so in his upbringing he was strictly Jewish and then his vocation was he was a Pharisee he was a teacher of that religion he was a leader in his nation in teaching the Old Testament but they really bore testimony specifically to the law that they were to keep the law of God so the real ground of his arrest and persecution was not his having left his old religion Judaism but having too Faithfully adhered to it and I stand he says on trial for the hope of the promise that is the expectation of the hope of messiah messiah is coming all right that was the question did he come or is he coming and Paul is saying to them he’s already come so Paul was not embracing something entirely new but something entirely true and three very important things about the hope of Messiah was number one The Hope was promised by the Patriarchs he says this in verse number six he say now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made to by God to our fathers and what was this Pro promise who is this promise to this promise was that God was going to provide a a messiah he was going to provide a deliverer he brought this first to Abraham and then to Isaac and then to Jacob and all the way down the line and it got right down to the Apostle or to Saul who became the Apostle Paul also this Hope was prefigured in the law in verse number seven the promise to which our 12 tribes hope to attain now that’s important that phrase as they earnestly serve God night and day for this Hope Oh king that’s what I’m being accused of by the Jews now what were they what were these people trying to obtain well they were trying to obtain a righteousness before God by the law by the effort of keeping the law that they were trying to obtain a righteousness that would be acceptable to God by keeping by but they kept failing because of their own transmitted Sin from Adam and their own inherent sinfulness so you see that the law Ten Commandments kept showing them that they needed someone to deliver them from a greater slavery than the slavery that they were they experienced in Egypt they were to be delivered from the slavery of Their Own sin and so are we to be delivered from the slavery of our own sin which keeps us out of a relationship with God and not of the presence of God slavery which only leads to bondage and ultimate Le to death so this separation from life and separation from a living God that’s what our sin causes and then he said in verse number seven as they earnestly serve God night and day now this is reference to the levitical priesthood and what did the L litical levitical priesthood actually do they offered sacrifice on behalf of the people year after year after year after year and it never really dealt sufficiently with the problem of sin so it couldn’t have been that religious judaistic system that saved anyone or any religious system it cannot save anyone in fact Hebrews chapter 7 verse 27 and 28 listen what it says it says who does not need daily like those High priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sin and then for the sins of the people because this he did once for all when he offered up himself so in other words Jesus didn’t have to offer sin for himself like the old test high priest because he was sinless he was dying for those who were sinners like you and I in fact Hebrews 10 tells us priests stand daily ministering and offering Time After Time the same sacrifices which could never take away sin but he Jesus having offered one sacrifice for sin for all times sat down at the right hand hand of God so here’s Paul giving his testimony about what he was trying to obtain and what he was getting other people to try to obtain being righteous on your own making yourself acceptable to God by your own and and that’s what religion actually is that’s why when you talk to people about the gospel and you ask them hey if you uh have you come to a place in your spiritual life if you die today you know for sure you’re going to heaven and they would say well no I I don’t really and if you stood before God and when you die and God were to ask you why should I let you into my heaven what would you tell him well I’m a good person see that’s what it does it shows that listen we have some kind of goodness and ability within ourselves to save ourselves and so Paul that’s what Saul thought and he did it zealously so the Mosaic law always aimed and continually pointed toward the hope of Messiah that he would be the one who delivers his people from the guilt and the condemnation of sin this has always been the Common Thread woven into the fabric of Israel’s daily life and history it was common to Paul and it was common to every Jewish hearer and you see that the hope of Messiah was prefigured in the law in that what the law could not do and what what could the law not do it could not forgive sin it could not deliver someone from the condemnation of sin and it couldn’t save anybody see Christ did all uh for all time forgiving sin washing it away and declaring one right before God based on a righteousness of another man and that man would be Jesus Christ so not only is is the Hope promised by the Patriarchs not not only is it prefigured in the law but is a hope which was predicted by the prophets and this is what he says in verse number eight of Acts 26 where he says why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead and what did that have to do with anything well Messiah was the one who would be risen from the dead and he Paul gives this testimony in a very affirmative way before his audience and the reason why because he knew from the Old Testament like from psalm 16 verse number 10 which he actually quotes here he says because you will not abandon my soul to Hades nor allow your Holy One to undergo decay in other words Jesus will be in tune doed as one dead but no decomposition or flesh rot would touch his holy body which lay in the grave and the reason for that is is he was without sin he was design dying for the sins of other and the Bible says in Acts 2:31 this Jesus God raised again to which we were all Witnesses so the resurrection divides Jesus from the rest of humanity his eternal deity was strikingly and clearly manifested through his physical Resurrection in other words the resurrection is what essentially makes Jesus different than all Earthly wouldbe prophets and Messiahs he did not rise from the dead none of them rose from the dead of other faiths not one of them rose from the dead they all died and left their decaying corruption in the grave not so with Christ he is risen like Romans 1:4 says who is declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead so my friend the resurrection enables us to see Jesus as he really is and who he he is God In the Flesh this is the good news that without Jesus there is no good news without Jesus there is no hope for everlasting life without Jesus there is no freedom from the slavery of sin without Jesus no being can be made right with god without Jesus there is no future hope no future Resurrection to hope for even for us who believe so there is one other thing mentioned in our text about Paul’s past life before conversion his passion and this one this is one thing I want you to see because some people may may not know this about what we know to be the Apostle Paul that his past life was a wicked life all right and notice what it says in verse number 9 through 11 because here we see this was his reason for living and what was his reason to destroy this new movement called the way the preaching of the gospel and he was driven to anger and rage so Paul didn’t see he was breaking the law by persecuting the way essentially in his offense he is saying I did not believe Jesus to be the Messiah so what I did well I did the same thing you are doing holding me in con holding me under trial and the only difference was I was more Angry than you and I was more aggressive than you and he now refers to himself as the chief of Sinners look at what it says in verse number nine so then notice all the eyes so so then I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth and this is just what I did in Jerusalem not only did I lock up many of the Saints in prisons having received Authority from the chief priests but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them and as I punish them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme and being furiously enraged at them I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities so Paul is saying here quite strongly I used all my passion all my influence all my powers to destroy this movement and why is that because this movement was saying that was going against what he was trying to obtain righteousness through the judaist IC Old Testament keeping the law system right that this new gospel he thought was saying no salvation is free it’s by Grace the grace and the mercy of God alone it’s not by anything you do it’s by everything God has already done and so you come and believe that all the work is done already believe what he has done and Paul was furiously against that message as some still are today the Jews have really have never have not changed their position nationally at least on this matter how could God save anyone who in reality hated the father’s way of Salvation like this how could God save someone like the Apostle Paul well you know why I don’t really have an answer to that but I would say he saves anybody who’s a sinner no matter how great a sinner a person may be there’s nobody Beyond saving no matter what they have done and you know what if we go back to the pr Patriarchs and we go back to uh Saul he was a murderer he may have not actually killed somebody but he cast his vote for their death right so he wanted to keep his hands clean while somebody else did the dirty work so so so see his life was definitely before he became a Christian was he was zealously religious and yet he was lost he was lost as could be he was angry as could be he was hostile as could be and he did everything to stop this so that was his defense before these people before his conversion but something happened he came to a place where he was going off and journeying to Damascus and what was he going to do in Damascus in verse number 12- 15 his actual conversion all right so he was a religious rebellious person who needed to be rescued and who would rescue him who would rescue someone like Paul I’m sure anybody even Christians who came in contact with him were afraid of him well notice what it says here while he so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and the commission of the chief priest I have the whole religious uh Authority behind me to do these things in verse 13 He says at midday oh King I saw on the way a light from Heaven brighter than the sun shining all around me and those who were journeying with me and when we had all Fallen to the ground I Heard a Voice saying to me in Hebrew dialect Saul Saul why are you persecuting me it is hard for you to kick against the gos meaning this Saul you’re kicking against me and you’ll never win you’ll never win and then what is of course what does Saul ask he says who are you Lord and the Lord says I am Jesus who you’re persecuting so by him going against the way or believers he was going against Christ himself so Christ met him on that road and you know what everything changed on that road Paul Saul became the Apostle in the sense the Apostle Paul’s name was given to him a little later on but he came face to face hearing the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and uh at that point what happens is that the signs of the divine presence of God uh came to rescue Saul from himself from his old religious system that he was trying to justify himself by God by attaining a righteousness he could never obtain nobody could obtain this righteousness and so he experienced a chain change by repenting of his sin and believing in Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior and at that point he became a redeemed man and that redeemed man has now returned or has now heard and come to know Jesus as his Savior and when you do and as the Apostle Paul maybe have more of a dramatic conversion than we have but when you do come to Christ the next thing that happens is everything’s new Everything’s changed Everything’s changed now you know the true message on how to be saved by repentance of your sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ because Jesus is the one who paid the full price for our sin Jesus is the one who kept the law for us because we could never have kept the law he fulfilled it completely and so in this in his present new life after conversion from verse 16 all the way to verse number 23 Jesus gave him a new reason for living what was the new reason J Jesus gave him in verse 16 but get up and stand on your feet for this purpose I have appeared to you Jesus said to him to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen but also to the things which which I will appear to you in other words he was saying to him listen I’m going to call you to be the Apostle not to the Jews but to the Gentiles and of course to the Jews but specifically to the Gentiles I’m sure that was pretty hard for the Apostle Paul to wrap his mind around at that particular point but that’s what God called him to do and not only that but I going to give you more Revelation and that part that Revelation became much of the New Testament that God gave to Paul himself so he gave him a new reason for living also he gave him a new protection because now Paul became the enemy of his own system and the leaders of that system and they want you know what they wanted to do with him they wanted to kill him that’s what they wanted to do in verse number 17 God gave him a new protection rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles to wh to whom I am uh sending you so he’s protecting Paul in this new Mission and then he gives him a new message in verse number 18 a new message and in that message there are five things in the gospel and those five things are this that you could never yourself open up your spiritually blind eyes and make you yourself spiritually alive you could never do that also you could never deliver yourself from the domain of darkness which is Satan’s to the kingdom of his beloved Son you could never do that you could never transfer yourself from the Comming uh the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and God unless God did that for you and you could never free yourself from the slave market of sin where you were dead to your sin you could never set yourself apart to God and receive an inheritance you could never do that notice what it says in verse number 18 all the things I just mentioned this is his Now new message to open their eyes eyes so that they may turn from Darkness to light and from the do Dominion of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been Sanctified by faith in me so only Jesus can do these things Christ not only set us free and transferred us to a new New Kingdom but he also cancelled every sin debt so that we cannot be enslave to sin again sin can no longer be uh something that condemns us in God’s court of law Jesus has taken all of it all of it for us so Satan can’t make any indictment stick anymore no matter how much he accuses us he can’t do it anymore because of what Jesus has done so not only did this conversion give him a new reason for living a new protection from God a new message to preach but most importantly it gave him a new heart it gave him a heart of Flesh remember he was a stubborn pigheaded angry driven or anger driven coveted religious fellow and he went from that to an obedient humble servant of Jesus Christ and notice what it says in verse number 19 so King Agrippa I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea and even to the Gentiles that they should repent and turned to God performing Deeds appropriate to repentance and then Jesus gave him a new position in verse 22 so that having obtained help from God I stand this day testifying both to small and great stating nothing but what the prophets and Moses said was going to take place that the Christ was to suffer and and that by reason of his resurrection from the dead he would be the first to Proclaim light to the Jews to the Jewish people and also to the Gentiles so he now came under God’s care in what God was calling him to do he went from being lost to be being found that’s really what conversion is to Christ see and the gospel message is a command he was obedient to that heavenly vision it says there it’s a command to come repent and come to Jesus to believe uh is the command of God and God graciously gives uh allows people who have been given by God the desire to want to repent of their sin and turn to Jesus Christ gives them the ability to actually turn from their sin and Trust Jesus alone now you would say if someone gave a testimony like that how would the response be and we noticed in scripture here there’s several responses in chapter 26 and claims to the defense of the faith that Paul gives the first one is of course the response that often many people would give Paul you’re insane verse 24- 26 Paul you’re out of your mind and then he finally says there listen uh your great learning has made you uh insane and of course Paul said I am not out of my mind most excellent fesus but I utter words of Sober Truth you know know what’s interesting is that when people actually come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and been given the scripture and been given the Holy Spirit when you become a real Christian you finally for the first time time in your life have actually come to your senses you come to see things the way they really are you come to see yourself how you really are you come come to see what God has actually really done for you on the cross it’s not just the holiday where you celebrate this and you say you know yeah I believe in that and I believe in Christ and all that stuff no but you actually know why he came he actually know what he he’s done for you and so we become actually in verse 27 and 28 claims to sanity where before King AG grippa he says to him your argument sound uh are sound and per per persuasive king of grippa said Do you believe the prophets king of Paul says king of grippa do you believe the prophets I know that you do AG grippa replied to Paul in a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian it’s like somebody saying you you know okay I heard it but maybe later you ever hear that maybe later you give somebody the gospel you know what not right now not right now maybe later we’ll talk about this again maybe you know and that these are responses either you say listen the person’s insane they’re nuts uh you don’t know what you’re talking about there’s many ways to God so you’re you’re crazy uh there’s not just one way through Jesus Christ and so they say you’re insane others say well yeah it sounds it sounds like good argument but I just don’t believe it right now you’re almost persuading me but I’m not letting you take me any further than that and then also there’s another claim the claim for the Cure of humanity it says in verse 29 of verse of chapter 26 and Paul says I would wish to God that whether in a short or long time not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am except for this chains so Paul knew that it wasn’t just the upper Society he was preaching to he was preaching to anyone who was in that chamber we know that there was probably soldiers there there was probably attendants there secretaries there uh people a part of the government and Paul says I wish uh that not only you believe what I believe now in Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior but believe it but not with these chains remember Paul was in prison and he was chained up I don’t I don’t wish that on you so now we we know that he was a transformed man he was a forgiven man he was a saved man and he was waiting for the Future Hope of Messiah when he would come a second time and then there’s a claim to innocence notice in verse 30 and uh 31 30-32 it says the king stood up and the governor and Bernice and those who were sitting with them and when they had gone aside and began talking to one another saying this man is not doing anything worthy of death or imprisonment and Agrippa said to fesus this man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar now there’s something ironic in that statement because who is the one really free it was Paul might have been in Chains and he may have been physically bound but spiritually he was free while Felix and Drilla and fesus and agria and his sister B Bernice remain spiritually enslaved to sin and you know what most of these people probably lived a pretty good life and they probably were on the top of the pile as far as the economic status so they thought walking away I’m doing all right I feel the blessing of God you know not the true and living God but the gods that I worship so they Paul remained free and everyone remained enslaved to their sin but that’s the message that he gives and that’s the testimony that he gave before this group of people so there’s always just two ways to live either our way and that’s our old that’s the old life of Paul where he rejected really God God as the rule ruler he tried to run his own life by his religious system and what would the result be if if Saul never met Jesus Christ condemned by God facing death and judgment anybody who does not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior they’re still under God’s condemnation they’re not forgiven also what’s their future like they’re facing death and judgment that’s what they’re facing and then there of course there’s God’s new way and what is that way that is to submit to Jesus as our ruler to rely on jesus’ death burial and resurrection and what is the result when we come to Christ and now we’re new the result is we’re forgiven by God we’re made clean by God we have now God’s righteousness on our account and we’re given eternal life by him so I don’t know where some of you are today that if you ever heard that question that I mentioned when I started have you a comfortable place in your spiritual life that you know for sure if you died right now you would go to heaven or is that something you’re still working on you would say you you could say yes or no to that question but that’s a very important question because the second question is that when you stand before for godten and you will everybody will and God will say to you why should I let you into my heaven I’m a holy and just and righteous God what’s your answer if you say I’m religious if you say I’m a good person if you say you know I never kicked a dog or treated people badly as much as possible it would all be the wrong answer and the only answer is to come and repent of what you’re trusting in what you’re putting your hope in and what you’re banking on for eternal life and forgiveness of sin and turn from that and many times it’s a religious system in my case it was I was trusting in My Religion what my religion taught me I was trusting also in my good works my my desire to want to be merciful and help people and stuff like that but that could never save me no amount of works could save you it had to be Christ who died in my place who took the wrath of God for me and you who paid for all every one of my sin who satisfied the Justice of the father because the father is a just God and then to shed his blood unto death to wash away all that sin and then to take my sin and all the sins of all believers and nailed that sin to the cross and put his righteousness on our account so when the father looks down on us he does not see your sin anymore he sees the righteousness of Christ on our our our record and that’s the only way that’s the only way anyone could come into the presence of God so what must you do well the first thing a person needs to do if they don’t know that yet if they haven’t come to the place where they trusted Jesus as their lord and savior yet well you pray for God to change your heart and so that you may also submit to Jesus as ruler or Savior and Lord and then rely on Jesus for the Forgiveness of sins and eternal life and when that happens you go from being lost to Bec coming saved from being dead to to being alive from being blind to see from being held captive by sin and Satan to be free and only those who have submitted in obedience to the call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are saved and then once they’re saved they have a testimony because God did something in your life I had a past life I had a conversion experience and now the Lord’s been working in my life I have a future and a hope see that’s the difference and only Believers know that and when you know that you are truly free no matter the world nobody’s going to really do anything to us because of all that God has done for us so only those who submit in obedience to the call of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are saved and have a testimony a defense of the faith and have a new position before God because of Jesus Christ and it’s only because of Jesus Christ amen now this morning we have three people getting baptized I like to those three people to you can depart now and go to the back and get ready and what we’re going to hear from them is we’re going to hear their testimony because they have come to Christ as Lord and Savior and they’re going to share with us now the interesting thing about sometimes a testimony is uh some have been able to fill in a lot of the blanks because they’ve been around the truth for a while but never really uh uh believe to the point where they’re going to be baptized and then there’s others who just got saved and they don’t have a whole long testimony they just know that Jesus loves me this I I know for the Bible tells me so and so that’s what we’re going to hear this morning and so let’s uh let’s Stand Together As we sing a song and we’ll get ready for uh the baptisms