A man was having difficulty communicating with his wife and concluded that she was becoming hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a test without her knowing about it.
One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him and she could not see him. Very quietly he whispered, "Can you hear me?" There was no response.
Moving a little closer, he asked again, "Can you hear me now?" Still no reply. Quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer.
Finally, he moved right in behind her chair and said, "Can you hear me now?" To his surprise and chagrin, she responded with irritation in her voice, "For the fourth time, yes!"
(From “Do You Hear What I Hear” by Pat Cook on Sermon Central)
Acts 26:4-15, “The Jews all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our fathers that I am on trial today. This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?”
“I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.”
“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’” ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.”
There are a lot of people in our society that can relate to the man in the story. They give all of their complaints to God and then wait for Him, to answer, but when He does they either can’t hear or ignore the answer. It may be because they can’t hear His voice, it may be because they don’t like the answer, often times I think it may be because we don’t even stop to listen for God’s answer, or perhaps we already know the answer we want so we just put our words in His mouth.
One of the reasons that we’re going to look at today for why people can’t hear God’s voice is a simple word from today’s passage, “religion.” In this passage it appears in verse 5, “They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.” We have seen Paul in the past few weeks point back to his own life and say, “What have I done wrong.” It was a defense to claim his innocence. But here I think we see a bit of a different tack, here we see Paul begin to point to his past and say, “This is what I have done wrong.”
It begins with living with religion. It’s such a common word, a word that is used so frequently in our society but it means a lot of different things to different people and in different contexts. Simply put religion is a set of beliefs in supernatural powers. But it has also come to refer to the rules, rituals and traditions that we use to follow or show obedience to those powers.
To some people that is all that Christianity is, it is a type of belief in God and a set of rules and rituals of how we choose to worship God. To those people it would naturally make sense that all religions are basically equal. Those no real belief that the God that is defined to be behind them is real or that he, she or it would actually want to move in our lives.
That is the crux of the case that is being dealt with here, Paul says that when it comes down to it, when all the emotion is stripped away, the reason that they are having a dispute is because Paul was preaching what Christ did, and that because of that, God’s action in the world, not someone’s opinion about it, everyone should “turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. It’s not a turn to a god, or a set of beliefs, but turning to the God, the one who came to have a relationship with us.
Here’s an interesting trivia fact from the Bible, for a religious book, it sure isn’t that interested in religion. I did a search this week and discovered that in the NIV version of the Bible the word religion only appears six times. One of those is a section header in Jeremiah 17 that simply says, “False Religion Worthless.” It’s interesting that for a religious book, the Bible sure doesn’t seem to care much for religion. That’s because to too many people religion is just someone’s, maybe theirs, opinion about the supernatural. Or maybe that do profess to believe in the one true God but then you look at their lives and the practice of religion has taken the place of the relationship with God. For too many people the practice of the religion of Christianity has robbed them of the heart of Christianity. Let me ask you this question which is the greater good, going to another Bible Study, or helping with a project to show the love of God to the people in this community? Going to another Bible study or helping with a project like Kits for Kids? Before you answer consider the words of James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” It’s not that we’re not supposed to have Bible Study it’s not that we’re not supposed to go to church on Sunday these things are the example and command of scripture. It’s that these things are done out of love for God and should result in showing love to our neighbor and to each other. Living a life of love is the only way to reflect what Jesus said was the greatest commandment, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
But this concept of love for God and from God is lost on so many people. Religion for many people is something to turn to a “higher power” for deliverance or comfort in times of disaster. You know the drill, “Oh God if you just get me out of this, I’ll stop lying, cheating and stealing, and will go to church every Sunday…this month.” When things go terribly wrong, people cry out to God, they pray like never before. It’s interesting we don’t want “In God We Trust” on our money but we’ll sing, “God Bless America” at a baseball game. Why? Because that’s what we started doing after 9/11.
Of the people that were present in this room, Bernice was an example of this. Years later the relationship between the Romans and the Jews would go horribly wrong, there was rebellion in the air and the Roman Army would come to crush it. But they didn’t just fight battles according to the Jewish historian Josephus they were also abusing the people. During this awful time it is recorded the Bernice stood up for the people, she put her life in danger to try and save them, and she stayed in Jerusalem longer then she should have because she had taken a religious vow. When disaster struck this woman of questionable relationships turned to God and played lets make a deal. The problem is that God doesn’t work that way, there’s nothing we can offer that is a sufficient bribe for Him. He wants to have a relationship with us to be an insurance policy for us.
For others religion is a set of rules and rituals that gives comfort and guidance for everyday life. Paul was an example of this. Paul who in many ways was the example of what we should be doing starts off his testimony by admitting that for a long time he had been an example of what not to do. He said, “That according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee.” Paul was admitting that not only had he been religious but the strictest version of his religion. As a Pharisee he was required to either keep all of the law or offer sacrifices for his failures. But he had to live his life in such a way that no one could point to anything in his life that was wrong.
It sounds good to a lot of people doesn’t it? I mean according to the tenants of his religion Paul was doing everything right. The problem is that we’re human and when we start to think about all of the stuff that we are doing right, we begin to be tempted to focus on what others are doing wrong. We begin to think that it is our place to judge others, lives, their spirituality, and anything else about them. The Pharisee’s even had an excuse right, we’re not being judgmental, we have a position, we’re not being condescending we’re just doing our job. We’re required to do this. The tragic thing for so many of them is that they were so busy judging Jesus, that they missed Jesus. Do we do that? Are we so busy judging what going wrong that we miss what’s going right?
That was the trap that Paul had fallen into, and not just Paul but most of the religious leaders. They were so concerned with their religion that they missed what God was actually doing. It’s not that they were bad people it’s that their focus was off. Look at the first half verse 7, “This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night.” He’s saying that they are looking for a promise of God they are looking for God to move in the world. They were looking so hard for it, so expecting it to fit their expectations that they missed what God was doing as they were doing it, and then they were so set on their opinion of what God should have done that they couldn’t even admit it after He was done. Look at the second half of the verse, “O king, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me.” The religious leaders were so caught up in the trap of judgmentalism, so caught up in the fact that they thought it was their job to judge everyone else that they not only missed God when He came, but even afterwards, when people were sent to tell them they chose to judge those people instead of listening to them. It’s a sad and tragic thing because I think in their hearts these were good people but somewhere they missed it and instead of listening to God, they began to try and enforce their will in the name of God.
Look at what they did, we know that Paul started off persecuting the church but look at what he says in verse 12, “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.” Paul was lost and so were the rest of them. They were going about doing religious things in the name of God but without the relationship with God. That is what God calls us to a relationship with Him.
But that brings us face to face with the greatest reality of all, being a follower of Christ is a relationship that is initiated by God. When we try to make deals with God we need to understand that the offer is already on the table, He will be our God, if we will become on of His people. He is the one who calls to us. He is the one who crossed time and space to dwell among us, the God who has a face and a name. He wants to be with us, to be a friend to us. Not because of what we have done, but because of what He has done.
The thing that people trapped in judgmentalism miss is that offers us this out of His grace. God is willing to give us grace. This relationship is available to us despite our failures. Paul had messed us, in fact when God finally got a hold of him he was in the process of messing up. The religious leaders had messed up, but God was desiring a relationship with them. God’s grace isn’t just for those people who think that they have their act together God’s grace is for everyone.
Look at what happens, verse 12, “On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.”
A an aside if you’ve ever wondered what “goads” were, they were pointed sticks used to direct draft animals. Kick against the goads was a phrase used to describe stubborn resistance. In other words, “Saul why do you persecute me, why are you being so stubborn.” But notice who called on who first, God was calling to who, God is the one who called to Paul. God is the one who calls to us, in our sin, in our rebellion, in our judgmentalism, in whatever it is, God is the one who calls to us first, when we finally get to the point that we cry out to Him, we are really calling out back whether we’ve heard Him before or not.
In this conversation we see the difference between Christianity and every other religion. God not only calls to us, but when we call to Him, He can answer. I’ll admit it I was watching the Bachellorette the other day, they were in a foreign country and on a date they went to a temple and there were all these different shrines to all these different gods, and all these people praying. They said it was so inspiring so here all these people chanting to different god’s all these people with different hopes and requests. I thought it was tragic, because none of those god’s lower case “g” would or could answer. But our God not only answers, He has plans for our lives. He has desires for us. So He wants to move in our lives to give us things that we might never have wanted for ourselves. That is why many Christians say, “I don’t have a religion I have a relationship.” Because what we have goes beyond rules and rituals. It goes beyond calling to a god of wood or stone who can’t answer, to talking with and hearing back from the one true and living God.
So God calls to us to have a relationship with Him, but it is a relationship that we must fully accept. Look at what God says to Paul who was then named Saul, verse 16, “Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, (why so they can follow a bunch of rules and rituals? No!) so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” God calls to Paul and decades later, even though it has meant arrest, stone, and imprisonment, Paul is still following with everything he has.
Why? It’s not just because of obedience it is because in this relationship we find a cause that is worth living and dying for. Paul wasn’t just getting people to come to church. He wasn’t just getting them to do nice things for their neighbors he was introducing them to Christ. Because of Paul people were receiving “forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” So many people talk about their mission in life, or what their life goals are, for Paul the thing at the top of his list was real simple, tell people about Jesus, whenever possible, wherever possible, and however possible. It is that attitude we hear reflected in the words he wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:22, “I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.”
It is interesting because one of the names that Paul, among others, used for Christianity was “the way” singular. Why because Christ wasn’t a way to God, it wasn’t a set of beliefs in the supernatural, it was the way to actually have a relationship with God and it was the way to live your life. You want to know what you life goal should be, live it for Jesus. You want a mission in life, help people to know God. It is not just the way to have eternal life, it is the way to fulfillment in this life. As Paul is describing what he had found though we run into some tragic stumbling blocks that we still see today.
The first one we see is in Festus. You see Festus already has great respect for Paul, but a low expectation of the divine. Look at verse 24, “At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. ‘You are out of your mind, Paul!’ He shouted. ‘Your great learning is driving you insane.” Notice if you will that even in his shout he pays Paul a complement, he refers to Paul’s great learning, but he calls Paul’s claims about God crazy. People today still have this problem, that is why they want to take a middle road about Jesus and say that He was a good teacher or prophet, some people who will even go so far as saying that He was the Son of God will still question His miracles. Why? Because somewhere they have lost their awe of the supernatural and they slip into the worst kind of judgmentalism, they begin to judge God whether they know it or not. Well God wouldn’t do that, or God could do that. I mean is that story really credible? That is the crux of Festus outburst. Paul has claimed the resurrection of Jesus and Festus can’t believe it because to his mind it is impossible. In doing so he stumbles over the same trap as the Pharisee’s. It was the concern he addressed in verse 8, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?”
If God is who He has said He is then the resurrection should be surpising it should be expected. He has told us through out history that He is God and that nothing is impossible for Him. I think the reason that people fall into this trap is because they have listened to too many religions that set the bar too low for their gods. But hey if you’re praying to a piece of wood, or stone, or the moon, you have to set the bar low, you’re “god” can’t actually do anything for you. But if your God is real then you can set the bar high because He must be high, he must be powerful.
We can hold our God up above all of the false gods because He is real. We proclaim not just what God will do one day but what He has done. Notice how Paul replies in verse 25, he doesn’t say, well I just believe it, he doesn’t just say, I know it in my heart to be true. He says, “What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”
I love Paul, he would share the gospel boldly and well, as I’ve said before, whenever, wherever, and however. Here’s he’s just shared his testimony and been called crazy. Most people would stop there not Paul. Not only does he appeal to Agrippa, pointing out that the king would and should know about Jesus, but what he has really put Agrippa at the point of decision. Agrippa you know who Jesus is, you should confess him. But rather than accept Agrippa shows us another stumbling block. Agrippa is familiar with religion and the events of the early church, but he still won’t commit. Notice he doesn’t call Paul crazy, he doesn’t dispute Paul’s testimony or claims about Jesus. He had all the head knowledge he needed to confess. But instead he replies, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”
It is a tragic answer because what if tomorrow never comes. But all of us know people that are in this position. Yeah I know about church, I believe in Jesus, but I’ll make a decision for Him later, I’ll get busy serving Him later, or there are other religions I have to check out first. Maybe their with Agrippa, don’t you know who I am, I’m too smart to convert right away, you’ll need to convince me because I need to check out all of the angles, besides I don’t need God right now. It was a tragic answer for Agrippa because as far as we know even though he lived past this day, the day never came that he confessed Christ and as such he is now separated from God for all eternity.
That is the same fate for all of those who don’t accept Christ, no matter how nice you are, no matter how many good things you try and to, or how religious you are, if you don’t have a relationship with Jesus you doomed for all eternity, because it wasn’t about what you’ve done it’s about what God did.
It’s interesting we’ve looked at all of these people in the story, all of the represent something wrong. But only one ended up in Heaven and that was Paul You see even though he started off the picture of religion because he listened to the voice of God Paul demonstrates the commitment that leads to completion. He heard the voice of God and responded to it, that decision changed the course of his life and his eternity. What is the voice of God telling you to do today? Maybe He’s calling you into a relationship with Him today for the first time. Maybe He’s calling you into a deeper relationship with Him. Maybe He’s calling you to throw off the blinders of religion and start looking with the eyes of love a people and start seeing what He is doing rather then falling into the trap of judging what you think should be happening.
