Faith on Trial Part 1

Pastor Mike will be speaking on Faith on Trial Part 1. He will be reading out of Acts 24:1-21.

As a believer, we are rewarded for our good works at the resurrection. We are rewarded for our faithfulness and our obedience to God, and we will receive those rewards based upon our commitment to the cause of the gospel here on this earth. Hello. This is pastor Mike Sanders from the Open Door Church. And today, you are listening to our radio broadcast, Hope Worth Having.

And we wanna welcome you to this radio program, and we are broadcasting from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and we’re excited to be able to share God’s word with you today. We are beginning a new series, Faith on Trial, Acts chapter 24, and we’re gonna look at the life of the apostle, and we’re gonna learn more about his faith being under trial. Now I want you to take your bible this morning to the book of Acts chapter 24. We’re gonna be covering verse one through 21. When we come to Acts chapter 24, the apostle Paul was called on to defend his faith in a hostile world.

When even some of the Jews were known for their doubt about what they even believed, Paul was accused of being a troublemaker. He was accused of being someone who was leading a divisive sect. There was misinformation out there about the apostle. If you remember the last time we were together relating to the book of acts, that we were addressing the very issue where he was brought before the Sanhedrin a religious court. And he had learned and was wise enough to recognize that it was a mixture of what we call Sadducees and Pharisees, which were different religious points of views within the Jewish faith system.

And so the apostle was wise enough to get the Pharisees and the Sadducees to disagree. But it almost led to a riot. And so the commander who was in charge of the apostle decided that he would get the apostle out of there, and he would take him before a governor, and his name was Felix. Now Felix was not the most upright of a person. He was known for being susceptible to bribes.

He loved that people who were in trouble or were dependent upon his judgment, that he would go their way if they would give him money. And you could see politicians haven’t changed much, have they? But I want you to understand this is the kind of person the apostle is standing before, and that’s what we see in chapter 24. All throughout the scriptures, especially the book of acts, we have been seeing the different ways that religious people, unbelievers, have been persecuting the church. We saw in Acts chapter six that they were using deception, and then they were making threats in Acts chapter four.

They were ridiculing the apostle, ostracizing him, and even sometimes it came to the point of violence. But here in chapter 24, we see something very important, and that is how does the apostle respond when his faith is on trial? He stands as an example for you and I. What do we do in living in a world today that is hostile to the gospel, is hostile to the truth, is hostile to believing that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven? When our faith is on trial, how do we respond?

Well, let’s pick up in verse one of chapter 24. The bible says, now after five days, Ananias, the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. And when he was called upon, Tertullus began his accusation saying, seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity is being brought to this nation by your foresight. So he’s buttering up the governor because he wants the governor to agree with him.

Verse three. We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear, by your courtesy, a few words from us. For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law.

But the commander, Lysias, came by and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you by examining yourself, you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. Now I want you to jump down to verse 14, and here we see that the apostle is giving his response. I want you to follow along beginning in verse 14. The apostle says, 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 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.

This brings so I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and men. 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. They ought to have been here before you to object if they had anything against me, or else let those who are here themselves say if they found any wrongdoing in me while I stood before the council. Now what I want you to focus on this morning is the different ways in which the apostle responds to the hostility, the false accusations, and the mischaracterization of his ministry and his life. And the first thing that I want you to see is that we have faith in all the bible, and that definitely is not naive on our part.

That’s how the apostle begins his rebuttal to these accusation. Tertullius was a orator. He was a lawyer. He was eloquent, and he stood before Felix, and his job was to persuade the governor to convict the apostle of being a rebel rouser or someone who was trying to defy the government and cause problems and to somehow resist the government. But the apostle talks to us in verse 14 in his rebuttal and says, this I confess to you that according to the way, the way, that being the way of salvation.

In the early church in the book of Acts, they referred to those who believed in Jesus Christ as the way. The people who followed the way. Remember that Jesus said in John fourteen that I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes unto the father but by me. And so that’s how this was picked up, and they were referred to as the way. The apostle picks up on that description of the believers, and he says 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. Paul argued that his faith had its roots and its history in Judaism. He was trying to show them that he was not a part of something that was contrary or conflicting with what the prophets had already said because they had made the accusation that he was going against Judaism, that he was going against the Jewish faith. And the apostle says, no, I worship the God of our fathers. I’m right there with you.

I worship Jehovah Yahweh. I worship Elohim. He is the God of our fathers, and I worship him. And then he goes on to say, I believe everything. And not only do I believe it, but I agree with all that the old testament, the law has given us.

And what I want you to see here is that it’s essential for us as we are dealing with a hostile world, that it’s important for us to be people who have faith in the bible. We are blessed in the new testament. We are blessed in this new covenant. We are blessed as believers in the age of grace to be able to have the old testament and the new testament to understand that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the old testament and all that the prophets proclaimed and all that they prophesied about our savior are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We don’t reject the law.

We don’t reject what the prophets have taught us. We don’t say that the Old Testament is nonessential or it is not even helpful or that it is even biblical. No. We say just the opposite, that it is the inherent, infallible word of God, and every aspect of it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Now the reason that we believe in the second coming of Jesus, and the reason that we believe that it is a literal second coming, and that it is a physical second coming, and that it is a visible second coming, is because the prophets said that from the seed of David, there’ll be one referring to Christ who was of the seed of David, that he will sit in the seat of the throne of David in the city of Jerusalem, the city of God, and that he will rule and reign in his kingdom, and we will rule and reign with him.

And we have great anticipation in the fulfillment of these prophecies. The Bible prophesied in the old testament about the first coming of Jesus. It prophesies about the second coming of Jesus. And if God fulfilled the first coming, how much more will he fulfill the second coming? We walk in this world, and we say, what’s the matter with this world?

Friends, you are witnessing the tea leaves of the signs of the second coming of our savior, Jesus Christ. Do not be shaken. Do not be startled, but be excited. Be excited that you are living in some amazing times. And how would you like to be a part of the generation that is raptured out of here, and that we get to be a part of the unfolding of the prophecies of the old testament.

Think about that. I mean, that’s part of our hope. That’s why we’re so excited. Church, do not be upset that you are seeing the tea leaves of the signs of the coming. Do not be frazzled because you may be a part of that generation that gets to experience all that is unfolding in God’s redemptive plan.

And so I want you to rejoice. I want your head up. I want you to be excited for God. And the way that we can be sustained and fortified to be excited for the Lord Jesus Christ is to have faith in all of the Bible, is to believe it from Genesis all the way to Revelation, is to understand as the scriptures teach us in second Timothy chapter three verse 16, that all scripture is given by inspiration of God. It is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

Here’s what I want you to know about the Bible. It is inspired of God, not just some moment of inspiration, but rather it is the very breath of God. It’s the idea of that word that it came from the mouth of God. We know in first Peter chapter one and verse 19 through 21 that the spirit of God moved upon the prophets and moved upon the apostles, and they pinned down the very words of God. You are blessed to live in America where you have the freedom to carry a bible to church, and you have the freedom to open that bible, read it, and study it because there’s many countries, church, that cannot have a copy of the literal word of God.

You give praise to God today because you can hear the word of God taught, that you can go home and study and see if what these things are true that the pastor has proclaimed to us, you have the inspired word of God. But I want you to know something else. It’s not only inspired, it’s infallible. Now every once in a while, I run into somebody who wants to try to tell me that the Bible is contradicting, and that only parts of it are right and other parts are not. But I’m here to tell you friends that from beginning to end, the Bible is infallible.

That means it has no fallacies. It has no airs. It is the literal word of God, and we have been blessed with the word of God. And you need to understand that it is the perfect word of God. But not only is it inspired and infallible, but here’s what I want you to get, and this is what I think the church is facing the most challenge today, that the word of God is sufficient.

The word of God is sufficient. Did you see that in the text? That he not only taught us that it’s inspired of God, which only concludes that if it came from the mouth of God and God doesn’t lie, it has to be perfect. It has to be infallible. But he says it’s profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.

That means it is sufficient to do what God intended the word of God to do. Many people have given up on the Bible, and they don’t get up and stand and declare it to you, but they show it in their actions. They rely on every other trick and razzle dazzle to try to move people to come to salvation rather than proclaiming the word of God. The Bible teaches us that God’s word will not return void. That doesn’t mean that everybody will get saved, but what it does mean is that God’s word will do its work in the hearts of people.

Now people have to respond to it, people have to receive it, and some people don’t receive it, they reject it. We understand that, but that does not negate the power of the word of God that it’s sharper than any two edged sword and it pierces the very soul. We need to get back to believing in the word of God that it’s powerful enough and sufficient enough that we don’t have to rely on other people. We need to get back to believing in the word of God that it’s powerful enough and sufficient enough that we don’t have to rely on other mechanism to win people to Christ, but rather we can proclaim the word of God. There have been doubters of God’s word in every age, but the word of God has withstood every attack.

Jesus put it like this. He said, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. Kingdoms, empires, leaders, kings, presidents, powerful people throughout this world have tried to ban the Bible, burn the Bible, destroy the Bible, get rid of the Bible. Many of the great reformers, men and women who stood strong for the word of God and in secrecy would translate the Bible in the common language of the day. John Huss, for standing up for the Bible and translating it from Latin to English, he was burned at the stake.

He was burned to death, church, just so people could read it in their known language. And friends, I want you to understand, even though John Huss was burned, that what happened, that the word of god just spread more. It spread more. Tyndale was a great man of god. I’ve read many biographies about Tyndale.

So many people have sacrificed so that we could have the word of God today, and we need to have faith in it. We need to have faith and understand that the Bible is an amazing book. It is a living book. It is a lasting book. It is a life giving book.

It is a book that is powerful, profitable, and it is productive. If you will read the word of God and study the Bible, it will do a great work in your heart. When your faith is on trial, go back to the bible. Don’t be afraid to stand and speak the truth as the apostle did. He did not back down.

Now the second thing I want you to see that the apostle did is that, I’d put it like this, we have hope for all the dead. That is not narrow. Look at verse fifteen and sixteen. I have hope in God. Now here he is.

I want you to know something. The apostle is he’s in custody. He’s already been brought before a religious court. Now he’s brought before Felix. He is not gonna get justice.

Felix is a crooked governor, and he’s hoping that the apostle will give him a bribe, give him money, whoever gives him the most money. That’s the way this decision’s going. There’s a lot of injustice going on here. And he is not in a situation that would make us say, well, man, he ought to be happy. But you know what?

The bible says that the apostle stood before them, and he said in verse 15, I have hope in God. I want you to go back to verse 10. Go back to verse 10 of chapter 24. Then Paul, after the governor had nodded to him to speak, answered, in as much as I know that you have been for many years a judge of this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself. Now look, the apostle wasn’t a negative person.

He wasn’t always hateful and rude, and he wasn’t always the kinda guy, just because he was facing tough times, that he was just all discouraged and defeated and ready to throw in the towel. But rather just the opposite. He was cheerful, the Bible says. The Bible says that he declared to Felix, who was an unbeliever, who was crooked in his morals. He said, I hope in God.

I hope in God. Back in verse 15, he says, I have a hope in God, which they themselves also accept that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Friends, he had a hope, and that hope was rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we think of hope, sometimes we think of something that is vague and something that we anticipate that might happen depending, but I want you to know the Christian hope is different from the world’s hope. The world’s hope is a dying hope.

You think about people that don’t know Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m not even certain why they have a smile. Because they get up every day and all they got to do is live for the day. Whatever they can please their flesh with, whatever their desires can be fulfilled, that’s all they have to live for. But for you and I who love Jesus Christ, we know that there is life beyond the grave. Amen?

We know that we have something to look forward to that’s even better and greater than anything this world can offer. So the hope of the world, it is a dying hope, but the hope of the believer, It is a living hope. Romans eight twenty four says this, for in this hope, the hope of Jesus, we are saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? Friends, our hope is in the future.

Our hope is that one day, God is gonna raise us from the dead, and that our hope is that one day, we are going to live with Christ, and we are gonna live with Him forever. And you say, pastor, how do you know that’s gonna be true? Well, let me put it to you this way. Jesus Christ is the hope of the believers. And the reason that He is the hope of the believers, it is because of his resurrection.

The psalmist said, you are my hope, oh lord god. You are my trust from my youth. The hope that we have is in the resurrection of Christ. Is it any wonder that we love to sing? Because he lives, I can face tomorrow.

Because I have a living savior, not a dead savior, not a savior like the dead religions of this world where their leader is still in the grave, still in the tomb, our savior lives, and we have a hope, Jesus said in John chapter 14, because I live, you shall live also. You understand that? Now I was telling my Sunday school class a little bit of this, and helping you understand as well. And that is this, that his life is my life, and that his death is my death. His resurrection is my resurrection.

You say, how do I know? The bible says that Jesus is the firstborn of the resurrection. And then in first Corinthians 15, it tells us that he is the firstfruits of the resurrection. Now sometimes when you read the bible, you gotta make sure you take it into context. Firstborn, firstfruits has nothing to do with chronological order.

Firstborn has to do with the fact that he is the leader, or it is a title of exaltation. We could say it like this. He is the captain of the resurrected. He is the leader of the resurrection. He is the prototype of the resurrection, the first fruits.

The farmer goes out and he sees that crop coming up and he says, you know what? As I see this early fruit coming forward, I know that this is what is to come. So it is. You look at the resurrection of Jesus Christ, you know what is to come for you and your loved ones, those who have died in Jesus Christ. What is coming forth for them is the Bible says the dead in Christ shall rise, and we which remain will be caught up together with them.

I don’t want you to forget that, that part of this great hope is reunion with our loved ones. Can God’s people say amen? And the Bible tells us that the righteous will arise, and we will share in the heaven’s joys. We will be blessed. Again, first Peter one verse three.

Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. I know sometimes that life gets tough, and I know it’s hard. And I know sometimes the challenges and the trials that we face in our life can be very difficult for us to process and to work through. But friends, the hope of the resurrection and the hope of eternal life should continue to inspire and stimulate us to keep moving forward for the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want you to remember what second Corinthians four verse 14 says, knowing that he which raised up the Lord hang on to this church.

You ought to mark this in your bible, you ought to memorize it, and you ought to read it to yourself over and over again, knowing that he which raised up the lord Jesus shall raise up also by Jesus and shall present us with you. Here’s what he’s saying. He’s gonna raise up us also. He’s gonna raise up us also by Jesus. This same God who raised up Jesus is gonna raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you.

Colossians chapter one verse 23, we’ll be presented as blameless and holy and above reproach. We’ll be presented in his sight, not because of our perfection, but because of the perfection of Jesus. Not because of our achievements, but because of what Jesus achieved in the crucifixion and resurrection of our savior. Not because somehow we were more religious than somebody else, but because Jesus was righteous and obedient and dedicated, and he was obedient to the father that you and I will stand before God one day as a holy people and a blameless people and a people who are above reproach, and we will be presented by the savior to the father in his sight, Colossians one verse 23 says, and this says that we shall present us with you. Paul is saying that just like I’ll be presented, you’ll be presented to the father, and we will be resurrected again.

Can God’s people say amen? Now here’s the thing I want you to understand. I don’t want you to miss out what the apostle said here as he taught us in verse 15 at the end. He says both the just and the unjust. Maybe some of you as believers have not really put a lot of thought into this, but not only will the righteous be resurrected, but the Bible teaches us the wicked will arise and receive their judgment.

Jesus put it like this in John chapter five verse 28 through 29. Do not marvel at this, for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear his voice and come forth. Those who have done good to the resurrection of life. Those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation. Think about that.

You and I, our resurrection is under life, eternity with Jesus. And for those who do not believe, it is the resurrection unto condemnation. Now I don’t want you to misunderstand the words of Jesus. I don’t want you to think that somehow he’s teaching us to those who are good, the resurrection of life. To those who have done evil, the resurrection of condemnation.

He’s not saying that you are saved by your good works, But he is saying this as a believer. We are resurrected, and we are rewarded for our good works at the resurrection. We are rewarded for our faithfulness and our obedience to God, and we will receive those rewards based upon our faithfulness and obedience and our commitment to the cause of the gospel here on this earth. Do not, church, think that somehow that if you get a more conservative president, you’re gonna save America. Friends, the only way you’re gonna save America is being a part of the great movement of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ and winning souls to the lord Jesus is what’s gonna save America.

It’s gonna save the world. I mean, we’re not just limited to America. The gospel’s about winning the whole world to Jesus Christ. Now he says to those who’ve done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation, that there are degrees in hell. That Jesus said, you mess with the kids, you mess with the little ones, you have a greater condemnation.

You might as well tie a millstone around your neck and be thrown into the ocean. I want you to know that there is a greater degree of punishment. And Jesus spells those things out, and we’ll learn more about them. There are degrees in hell, and you say, why is he judging their evil works? Because they will be punished in different degrees of hell based upon their evil works.

Now sometimes people say to me, I don’t believe in hell, and I don’t believe that if we go to hell that we have a physical body in hell. I like to take them to John chapter five verse twenty eight and twenty nine because here Jesus taught us that the wicked will be raised in a body of flesh, and they will be judged and they will be condemned. Jesus also said in Matthew chapter 10 verse 28, fear not them which kill the body, but also not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Now I wanna encourage you to make sure you go to our YouTube channel, Hope Worth Having. Just go to Hope Worth Having, and there you will be able to subscribe to our channel, so take advantage of that.

This is pastor Mike Sanders reminding you that in Christ, there is hope worth having.