Pastor Allan Kircher
Shell point Baptist Church
Dec 30, 2012
Acts 26:24-25
I’M NOT CRAZY, I’M SAVED
Intro: Allow me to set the scene before us of this marvelous text.
• The great Apostle Paul/King Agrippa and his wife/Bernice
• Outstanding leaders of both Jews and Roman Govt.
• Roman Governor Festus/5 Regiments were/in Caesarea
• So their 5 Regimental Commanders/in attendance.
• The elect/elite/intelligentsia/sophisticates/full regalia.
The place..
• “Audience Room” in the Palace in Caesarea.
The pomp and pageantry
• State function/filled/fanfare/blowing of trumpets.
• Tapestry/tinsel filled the hall.
• Purple/Agrippa/pearls/Bernice
• Gold braids/brass hats/Roman Empire.
Here comes Paul
• Let this stir your imagination.
• The great throne room doors swing open.
• Prisoner in chains/ushered in the colorful scene.
• dressed/garb/prisoner/chained/two guards.
• Unimpressive/appearance
• Before all this glitter/pomp/glory of the world.
So, King Agrippa in charge, tells Paul to speak….
Remember Paul is not on trial, not making a defense before Agrippa, he is preaching the gospel.
• Uses/setting/opportunity to share his salvation testimony.
• What would you have done with that audience?
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When these pagan rulers hear what Paul is testifying about
• all that happened to him
• what the Savior he claims to serve has called him to do
• Festus speaks up and calls Paul a “mad man”.
He tells Paul all/his education/learning/driven him over the edge!
He says, in effect, “Paul, you’ve lost your mind! You’re a lunatic! You’re crazy!”
He says:
You’re two fries short of a Happy Meal,
You’re a few shades beyond blond,
Paul, the wheel is spinning, but the hamster's dead,
Paul There's a rip in your marble bag,
You’re as crazy as a monkey on a tricycle,
You haven't got both oars in the water,
You’re knitting with only one needle.
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You get the idea, right?
• He says, “Paul, You’ve gone crazy!
• You’re mad as a hatter!”
• That is a colloquial phase signifying a crazy person.
• It means “to rave, to be mad, to be out of one’s mind.”
Mania is defined as:
Obsession; an excessive and intense interest in or enthusiasm for something. A psychiatric disorder characterized by excessive physical activity, rapidly changing ideas and impulsive behavior.
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When these pagans hear what Paul/before he met Jesus Christ
• what happened to him when he met Jesus Christ
• what he is saying about Christ now
• what he is doing for God’s glory now
• They concluded that he’s gone absolutely, stark raving mad!
• They think he is crazy!
When Paul hears this charge he responds by saying, “I’m not crazy, I’m saved!”
When the world looks in on this thing we call Christianity
• when they look at the life we live for Jesus
• They conclude that we are crazy!
• I would say to them, I’m not crazy, I’m saved!
I want to point out three areas of Paul’s testimony that Festus and the others thought was crazy.
By the way, the world thinks your testimony is crazy in these areas as well!
I just want you to see that what the world thinks is crazy is nothing more than mere Christianity!
• I want to preach in the thought: I’m Not Crazy, I’m Saved!
• Let me show you the reasons why Festus, and the others who heard Paul preach that day, thought Paul was crazy.
I. V. 13-22 HIS TEACHINGS SOUNDED CRAZY
1. What were the claims that Paul made?
• He Said He Saw A Light - v. 13.
• The light was supernatural
• Revealed the Glory of God from Heaven.
• Blinded Paul/3 days
• Spiritual eyes had to be opened/behold the living Christ.
• The light/not enough/hear the Word of God.
2. He Said He Met The Lord Jesus Christ - v. 14-18
The One Paul said he met/road/Damascus, was the same man everyone knew had died on a cross outside Jerusalem by order of Pontius Pilate.
Now, here/crazy preacher preaching/dead Jesus was alive again.
• By the way, that is what galled this crowd the most.
• They knew that Jesus had been crucified
• Now here/Paul/bunch/people/preaching Jesus was alive.
• They were upsetting the applecart.
• They were disturbing the peace.
• They were preaching the doctrine/resurrection
• People thought they had lost their minds.
No wonder they thought Paul had lost his marbles.
Paul’s statements may have sounded bizarre/pagan Romans
But to anyone who knows/Lord Jesus/they make perfect sense!
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Here’s why:
1. Every Saved Person Has Seen the Light
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 2 Cor. 4:6.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Pet. 2:9.
Everyone who is saved can remember what it was like to be “dead in trespasses and sins,” Eph. 2:1.
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You can remember…..
• What it was like to be one/“children of wrath,” Eph. 2:3.
• The way the Holy Spirit “drew” you to Jesus, John 6:44
• The conviction over sin
And when that light came on/you saw/first time/Jesus, and Jesus alone, was your only hope.
• you remember the day life came!
• It came on when you ran to Him for salvation.
• If you remember those things
• You aren’t crazy, you are saved!
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2. Every Saved Person Has Met The Risen Lord That Paul Preached
Every person who/ever been saved has been saved/same way.
• Saved thru personal faith encounter with Jesus. Rom 10:9
When the Spirit of God shows us our sins and points us to Jesus Christ for salvation, and when we look by faith and believe, at that moment, we meet the Lord.
• When we meet Him
• We are said to be “in Him” - 1 Cor. 12:13.
• We have been reconciled to God by Jesus and His death and resurrection, Eph. 2:13-22.
• He has taken us in one hand and God in the other and brought us together in Himself!
• If you go around talking about the time when you met Jesus Christ
• You are not crazy, you are saved.
When the world hears the testimony of the redeemed saints of God, they think we have gone crazy!
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After all, we talk about things that cannot be seen or handled, Ill. Heb. 11:1.
• We talk/baby born/virgin
• a Savior Who/crucified/buried/rose again.
• We talk about His blood, and how it washed our sins away.
• We believe in a God Who we say created the universe
• And all that is in it.
• We say that we have a home in a place called Heaven.
We believe that Jesus is coming in the clouds to raise the dead and call them home to Heaven.
• We believe that, when He comes
• He will call the living saints into the air
• change us into His image
• and take us all home to Heaven.
We believe things that sound crazy to a lost world.
But, to those who have been lost in the depths of sin and have made the trip to Calvary by faith and have met the risen Savior, it all makes perfect sense.
• When we speak of such things
• we do so because We’re not crazy, we’re saved!
We simply believe the Bible and take God at His Word.
• It may sound crazy to the lost
• but we have no doubt that it is all true.
• That does not make us crazy;
• it simply proves that we are saved!
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II. V. 4-12 HIS TESTIMONY SOUNDED CRAZY
Think about all the things Paul was before he was saved:
1. He Was A Religious Man
2. He Was A Zealous Man
3. He Was A Man Of Considerable Wealth, Position, Power And Influence
• Paul’s soul is now flooded in a new light.
• Yet, when Paul met the risen Lord
• He simply walked away from the old life and began to serve the Lord. Ill. v. 19-22.
• He was feared by the church and respected by his peers
Now, just because he saw a light and talked to a man everyone believed was dead
• Now he has thrown everything he ever knew and loved away.
• He has abandoned everything that defined his old life.
And it seemed absolutely crazy to those who saw and heard about the changes in Paul’s life.
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3. Every Saved Person Has Abandoned The Old Life
• When/lost sinner comes/Jesus Christ by faith
• Everything in that person’s life changes.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 2 Cor. 5:17.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph. 2:10
These verses point out:
• Everything changes
• There is a radical change period.
• There has to be.
There are differences that show up/lives of the righteous.
• Differences in the godly.
• Differences in the holy.
• Differences in the saint.
• God’s word said there has to be.
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The redeemed still have their old natures and that old nature is still controlled by its old desires and lusts.
• There is still a hunger within the flesh
• A hunger for “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life.”
• But, when a lost sinner is saved
• That redeemed sinner is indwelled by the Spirit of God.
They literally become/Temple of the Holy Ghost, 1 Cor. 6:19-20.
At the instant of salvation, a battle commences within the saint of God that will last until they lay down the flesh in death, Rom. 7:24-25.
The flesh and the Spirit both desire to control the life of the one who is saved, Ill. Gal. 5:16-18.
Which one we yield to determines who we serve, Rom. 6:16.
• Paul fleshes this truth out in Rom. 7:14-23.
• While/saint/God still has/old nature/craves sin
• While/saint/God/still capable of committing any sin that can be imagined
• The saint of God has help on the inside now.
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They are indwelled by/Spirit/God and He acts as a spiritual buffer.
• He strengthens the child of God
• Helps him in his fight against sin.
• He empowers us and enables us to say
• “No” to the flesh.
• That is why we are said to be different.
That is why the Bible says we have been “changed.”
• The flesh still desires the things of this world
• but the new man, the spiritual man
• Desires things the saint was dead to before salvation.
We were dead, and only desired the things that pertained to the realm of our deadness, Ill. Eph. 2:1-3.
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When we were saved, we were made alive by Christ, Eph. 2:4-6.
Now, there is a desire within us for the things of God.
• The Bible, the church, His worship, His glory
• Ministering to the lowly.
• Witnessing to the lost. and much, much more
• It becomes the delight of our souls when we are saved.
• We are difference, and it shows!
This transformation within us/result/“new birth.”
• You can’t meet Jesus Christ and stay like you were before you came.
• He changes every life He touches!
Jesus says, You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ John 3:7
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Pet. 1:23
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If you have/testimony/Jesus changed your life/you are not crazy.
• If you can’t go where you used to go
• do what you used to do
• be who you used to be
• talk like you used to talk
• walk like you used to walk
• or live like you used to live
• You are not crazy, you are saved!
When you encounter that old crowd and they think you have lost your mind, remember, you’re not crazy, you’re just saved!
When you find yourself being ridiculed because you won’t do the things the lost around you do, you’re not crazy, you’re saved!
• When no one seems to understand you
• and the stand you take for God
• and when they tell you that you are missing out,
• you are not crazy, my friend, you are saved!
III. V. 16-22 HIS TASK SOUNDED CRAZY
He claims to have seen a light that was brighter than the sun.
• He claims to have talked to a dead man
• Who is now alive again.
Paul says this once dead man/called him/leave behind his life.
• A life of influence, power, position, prestige
• Prominence and prosperity
Lose all this to go all over the world telling everybody they should follow this once dead now living Lord.
• It must have sounded insane!
• As crazy as it sounds of what Paul was called to do.
• It’s crazier still that he did it.
• He had lost his mind!
The change was so real in Paul’s life.
So compelling as the Bible said it would be
That he could not help telling others about Jesus and what He has done.
• You see, Paul couldn’t help it
• He couldn’t help it because it wasn’t up to him any longer.
• He couldn’t help to tell them/Jesus could do for them too!
• Why you say? If he is truly a new creature in Christ.
• He is infused with the Holy Ghost.
• And the Holy Ghost says..
For when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, since I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me. 1 Cor. 9:16
You see, “Paul was a conscript.
• He had been arrested/Damascus road.
• He had been given a vision of the Man/Glory.
• Sent forth/bond slave/ascended Lord to evangelize the great Gentile world.
• He had a driving force in his soul
• a vision of the Lord from heaven
• A realization that he dare not trifle with his call.
This same compulsion gripped the heart of Jonah, and Ezekiel.
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Did you know that the same call that rested on Paul’s shoulders has been placed on ours as well?
• The Bible is clear
• we are to tell the world what Jesus has done for us
• and what Jesus can do for them if they will only believe!
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Matt. 28:18–19.
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.
Mark 16:15.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8.
• When you feel compelled to tell someone about a crucified, risen, returning, reigning Lord named Jesus Christ
• it does not mean you’re crazy.
• It simply proves that you’re saved!
• If you know Him
• you can’t help but tell others about Him.
Sharing the Gospel is as natural to the child of God as breathing.
• When you turn your back on the world
• When you live for Jesus and tell the world about Jesus
• It does not mean that you are crazy!
• It just shows us all that you are saved!
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Conc: In that kangaroo courtroom that day all the roles were reversed!
The only sane man in the room was in chains while the nuts were running the show!
The craziest people in the world today….
• are not in mental institutions.
• are those who are lost in sin
• are those who will not come/Lord Jesus Christ!
The real lunatics are those who hear the Gospel and turn a deaf ear to it.
The nuts are those who refuse to come to Jesus that they might be saved!
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May we who are saved…
• never be ashamed of who we are
• or what the Lord has done for us!
• We are not crazy! We are saved!
If you have believed the Gospel and trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior
• you are headed to Heaven
• you are saved by grace
• Your sins have been all washed away.
• You are not crazy, you are just saved!
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That crowd that does not know Jesus, they are the crazy bunch!
• They’re the ones running here and there looking for love,
• Looking for help and satisfaction in all the wrong places.
• We are the ones who have found the answer to all life’s questions
• All the solution’s to all life’s problems.
• The answer, the solution is Jesus Christ!
Don’t be intimidated by a bunch of people who have been driven insane by their sin.
• They are the ones with the problems.
• They are the crazy ones!
• As for us: We’re not crazy, we’re saved!
• Are you saved today?
If not, you can be, if you will come to Jesus Christ.
• If so, you ought to thank Him for it!
• Are you thankful for your salvation?
• Come praise Him for what He has done for you.
Are some trying to convince you that you are a nut for following Jesus?
Come pray for them and ask the Lord to help you stand against their lies.
