Life In Need Of Change Series

LIFE IN NEED OF CHANGE

Text: Acts 26:4-11

Introduction

1. Two brothers were convicted of stealing sheep. For their crime they were each branded on the forehead with the letters "ST," for "sheep thief."

a. One brother immediately ran away from the area and attempted to build a new life in another country. Even there, people asked him about the "ST" burned into his forehead. He continued his wanderings and finally, unable to bear the burden, he committed suicide.

b. The other brother took a different approach. He said to himself, "I can’t run away from the fact that I stole sheep. But that’s the past. I can stay here and win back my self-respect and the respect of my neighbors." The years passed and he built a reputation for integrity.

c. One day a stranger saw the brother, now an old man, with the letters "ST" branded on his forehead. He asked a resident of the town what the letters stood for. The townsman replied, "It happened a long time ago. I’ve forgotten the particulars, but I think the letters are an abbreviation for Saint."

2. We all have a past. For all of us there was a time when we didn’t know Jesus. Some of us lived a life that was godless and filled with carousing. Others of us weren’t obviously living lives of sin, but we lived far from God.

3. Even the Apostle Paul lived a life far from God.

4. Read Acts 26:4-11

Transition: Let’s go along as Paul takes us on his journey before Jesus.

I. Paul Had a Past

A. In my last message to you, we talked about Paul pleading his case before King Agrippa II. After his opening statement to the Agrippa, Paul began to share about his life before Christ.

B. In vv. 4-5 Paul says, “As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion.”

1. Paul makes it clear that the Jewish leaders who were bringing the charges against him, and wanted to have him killed, knew all about him.

2. They understood from his childhood he had been trained in the beliefs and laws of the Jewish people.

3. In addition, they also knew that he was a Pharisee, a sect of the Jewish religion that was very traditional and strict. Today in our world they might be referred to as “fundamentalists.”

4. They also were aware that he had been trained in the Scriptures and believed what they believed.

5. Most importantly, like all Pharisee’s, Paul believed in the resurrection. This would be one of the main points of Paul’s message.

C. Paul then continues his speech to Agrippa. In vv. 6-7 he says, “Now I am on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise made to our ancestors. 7 In fact, that is why the twelve tribes of Israel zealously worship God night and day, and they share the same hope I have. Yet, Your Majesty, they accuse me for having this hope!”

1. Here Paul talks about his hope in the promises God had made to their people. Of course, the promise that Paul is talking about is the coming of the Messiah.

2. Paul believed that this promise was fulfilled in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, whom God proved to be the Messiah when he was raised from the dead.

3. But Paul says that the Jewish leaders think that he is wrong in believing this and having that hope.

4. He says that it is absurd that these people who believe in the resurrection deny that Jesus did just that!

D. Then Paul asks the question, “Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?”

1. If they believed in the resurrection, which they did, why did they think it so incredible that God could raise someone from the dead?

2. If they believed in the idea that God could raise someone to from the dead, and since so much of the Jewish faith was centered on this belief, why were the Jews now denying this is possible?

3. Furthermore, they were denying a resurrection that had hundreds of eyewitnesses, when their law only required two or three witnesses.

4. And these people were putting their lives on the line in declaring what they had seen with their own eyes, yet that is exactly what they were doing. Why would a person risk everything on a lie?

E. Then Paul begins to talk about the horrible things he did before becoming a Christian. In v. 9 he says, “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.”