from verses 21 to 27, and then 1 through 3. And then we'll just go from there. Acts 25, starting with verse 21. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I might send him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself tomorrow, and he that shall hear him. And on the morrow when Agrippa was come, and Berenice with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city, at Festus' command, Paul was brought forth. And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer. But when I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him, of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my Lord. Wherefore, I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O King Agrippa, that after examination had, I might have somewhat to write. For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him. Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews, wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. We'll stop there just for now. Who's Augustus? We've seen the name Augustus several times leading up to this. Who is Augustus? We've been talking about Claudius Laetius, Tartullus, Felix, Festus, Bernice, Drusilla. All these people and all these names have come up. But who is Augustus? Caesar. Who is it? Does anybody have any idea? That's who exact, that's his position. But which one is it? It's easy to get confused because there are several Augustus Caesars. Does anybody know why? Well, there's what's called, there was a triunvirate, basically what was called, because there at one time there was a man named Octavian, a man named Lepidus, and then a man named Mark Anthony. You've heard that name in Greek history and all. Those three were actually the emperors of all the provinces around including Greece and all these Roman provinces and Jerusalem. They controlled it. Then all of a sudden there was a battle that broke out. Octavian defeated Mark Anthony and he took over and I can fill in all the blanks. We'd be here till tomorrow. But now you had the ushering in of Augustus Caesar. Now, does that sound familiar? Does anybody remember Augustus Caesar in the greatest event that ever happened in the history of mankind? What happened? I'll give you a hint. That all the world should be taxed. Yeah, that's right, they got knifed. That's right, one of them did. All the world should be taxed. And who came when that beautiful narrative was given with the song of Mary the Magnificent and the song of Elizabeth? Here's the first advent of our Lord. Augustus Caesar is the one who was in charge. And he only lived to 14 AD. So if he only lived to 14 AD, what happened to him? He died. So that left other kings that came in. But there was an edict that was made. It was made basically a Roman tribunal or whatever. You have all these names for all these important places. It's just as confusing as American legislation now. And the tribunal basically said, anyone that becomes empowered as the emperor over Rome now must be called Augustus Caesar, in honor of this Augustus Caesar. So then you had Tiberius, you had Claudius, now you have another Augustus Caesar. Who's this one? Does anybody know? His nickname is the Beast. He was a... I think his name was Nero Obama. It was Nero. This is Augustus Caesar Nero, and that's who they're talking about. So we see Augustus Caesar, we're talking about Nero, who we had talked several weeks ago about how he actually was trained and he was educated under a man named Seneca, and at the time he actually was a very normal human being. Once he was empowered, he just came apart at the seams. He was awful. The amount of Christians he murdered, this man, he was a pre-Hitler Hitler, as bad as he was. And here he is now, Paul is saying, I want to stand before Nero and talk. So we have a question to answer this morning. If he only wants to talk, to Caesar, what's going on here? This is the fifth defense we've gone through. We've already gone through the first four. This is the fifth defense of our precious brother in Christ, Apostle Paul, who has left us with this wonderful information, and he'll have one more in chapter 28. So let's go forward and see where we're at here. So that's who Augustus, this is Augustus, Caesar, Nero. Once again, and I'd like to make this the opening for the Sunday school class because I think this is important. Some of this seems repetitive. Paul gets taken in, Paul gets tried, Paul gets up and he stands up and he preaches, and this goes on many times. But I just wanted to say this. Once again, I trust no one here is saying, oh no, not again, not another arraignment in trial of Paul. It seems like this has been rehashed class after class. Paul is moved from one venue to another, and seemingly it's the same situation and the same charges, it seems, against Paul. But always remember this. In Scripture especially, repetition is good. And let me remind you, God has never uttered a boring word in eternity. If He has the Holy Spirit inspire this book and it's somewhat repetitive and it pleases the Holy Ghost to give to us this for our edification, then there must be something profitable for us in this record. So let us give attention to the text and the learning of this once again. It's some different faces, basically the same objective and the same kind of thing that's happening here to Paul. But what happens? First of all, let's go back for those that weren't here. Who was Festus? I'm going to go through this quickly because we've talked about this. At this point, who is Portius Festus? As soon as Festus entered into the province of Caesarea, he took full possession of the government and was set He reminds me a lot of Pilate. He reminds me a lot of Pilate because he was a coward. Doesn't say that, but that's my opinion, and I like to give my opinion every now and then. That's kind of what you earn when you do this. My opinion was he was a coward. Why? He wanted to wash his hands of Paul the Apostle and he wanted to hand him over to Agrippa because he was scared of the Jews. Porcius Festus was scared to death of the Jewish council because they were killing. They were very upset at what was happening with these Roman procreators and they made it very hard on them in their local towns. And so basically what Porcius Festus was saying is, If I can just get a grip or two here, he's going to come in to Caesarea and he is going to come in and honor my newfound position as the governor. He takes over for Felix, who if you study further, Felix actually is in such big trouble right now with the Roman Empire. He's now being pushed back and he's going to be tried later on. And he turns Paul over to Felix, I mean Felix turns over Paul over to Festus, and now Festus is saying, what do I do with this mess? One man! Isn't it incredible that one man could make so much upheaval in a whole empire? Where does this sound familiar? Just a few years before this, where does this sound familiar? This one little man from Nazareth. tender plant, root out of a dry ground, comes in, heals people, never does a bad thing in his whole ministry here on this earth, our precious Savior does everything perfect, and they hated him. That even to the point where even the disciples who followed him even left him. And one man, look what he did, he overturned the whole Greek The Greek mythology lies. And the Roman Empire was upheaval there. The Pharisees and the Sadducees and Pilate. Pilate says, I find no fault in this man at all. I wash my hands. And even his wife told him, you be careful with this guy. You be careful with him. And he wanted to wash his hands. And that's exactly what Porcius Festus did. He washed his hands of Paul. And he hands him over to Agrippa. And actually Paul, he's like, this is good. Festus has no idea about Jewish law and Jewish customs. And me being partially a Pharisee and a Roman citizen, because my father was Roman, Agrippa will listen to me. And you know what? Agrippa did. He did listen to him. Look what happens here. Festus had availed himself of the aid, and he turns over Paul to Emperor Grippa II for the express reasonable purpose of having an agent with experience in Jewish Roman law and an apparent understanding of the alliance between the two. Evidently, Festus had no desire to judge Paul. You go back to 25-26, "...of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord." Now, what does that mean? Festus is afraid. Look at what I just read. Look at chapter 25. We just read it. Someone please read verse 26 again, the whole verse. Just shout it out real quick. Thank you. Why do you think Festus, if we're reading, we've been studying this for weeks, why is Festus afraid? He turns Paul over because he's afraid. Well, I'll give you a little hint as to what happens here. These procurators, Agrippa, now the question here, is Agrippa as powerful as Augustus Caesar Nero? Is he as powerful as Augustus Caesar? Thank you, Charlie. I mean, up till now, nope, he can't be. Because why would he, why would Paul want to ultimately face Augustus Caesar instead of Agrippa? He didn't ask for Agrippa. He asked for Caesar. I want to go to Caesar. He says that in early part of chapter 25. We looked at that. Why? He wanted his case. Dave, go ahead. Yes. Caesar is it. He's the end of the line. Caesar, Augustus, Nero is the end of the line. He's asked to go speak to Caesar. Why does this happen here? And then I'll try to identify that in a minute. But the question is, what is Festus' problem? Well, I'll tell you what his problem is. The governors and the procreators, they have an objective or they have an absolute obligation to keep record and paperwork and turn it in to the king. They have to report everything that happened. And since Festus had no idea about Jewish law and customs, he didn't. You can read all kind of commentaries and everyone agrees. He didn't know much about it. And he says, I do not know what to write unto my Lord. Now, he's not talking about his Lord Jesus Christ. None of them would ever say that. Their Lord was Caesar. He was deity to them. and he has to be able to somehow give an account why this man is standing before them facing death because of the Jews and why we are trying him and he's been stuck in jail all these years and he's done nothing wrong. Paul himself has already said, I've done nothing wrong, and he's proved it. They have no evidence against him. He has absolutely no witnesses. Paul has no witnesses. They've given him no witnesses. They've given him absolutely no counsel. And he's there by himself, just like our Lord's facing Pilate and facing those kangaroo courts that he had to go through. And he's there. Why does Paul do this? Why does he stand there and want to speak to them? He could have easily have said, wow, why can't I just wait until I wanted to see Caesar? You have said it's OK that I go to see Caesar. I want to wait. I don't want to talk about it. Well, we're going to find out. And I think it's fascinating why it does it. It's going to encourage us as Christians. So Festus availed himself. And then we see Festus' compromise wound up giving the Jewish leaders all they had hoped for seemingly. This council always believes they will come out ahead, but something foils their desire to kill Paul every time, and that something is God's determined counsel. Remember, the Jews did not want to hear Paul. Two times there was a clandestine event that they wanted to take him and they wanted to murder him on the way to Jerusalem. And that's one of the reasons Paul didn't want to go to Jerusalem. Remember his nephew came and warned them in front of Claudius Laetius that there were 40 men that availed themselves basically and said, we will starve ourselves until we kill him. And so he was facing death with the Jews. And so basically what happens here, Festus and Felix both have told Agrippa, hey, we preserved his life. We kept his life and we did everything fairly. Well, from what we know up to this point, did they really treat Paul fairly? Anybody? Why not? Why did they not treat him fairly? Lisa? Yes. He's still in chains. Not necessarily. He's still in kind of like a sort of like a federal prison at this point where he was able to see other people. We read that. But it gets worse for him. Why would they let him go? There were no witnesses against him. Well, we looked at this two weeks ago that he had done nothing to their property. He had done nothing to harm anyone. He was not an insurrectionist, although the Jews were basically accusing him of that. He had done nothing to steal or to rob or do anything. So why is he still incarcerated here? That's the point. Well, we know it's because of this. Matthew, could you look up Acts chapter 2 and read verses 22 and 23? And yet there is nothing outside of this in anyone's life in all of the time on this earth that nothing that can go outside of this. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. This was done, I think, if you want to remember, it's one of my favorite phrases, one of my favorite titles in the Bible, that describes the attributes of the session in heaven, which is comprised of the triune God, is it is the determinate counsel. It determines everything. There's nothing outside of God's providence. There's nothing that God doesn't know. Nothing ever occurs to our Lord God Almighty because He knows everything perfectly. And Paul and we see Dr. Luke reifies that in chapter 2 verses 22 and 23 to show that everything that happened Especially with our Savior, when He goes in and He's taken. And how many times did He say, My hour has not come. My hour has not come. My hour has not come. And then He says, My hour has come. Because He had it all planned and determined. when the Jews and the Romans thought that they had defeated this little man from Nazareth, here they were messing with God. And it was the determinate counsel that did everything. And it's the same thing here. And there is a reason that our Lord wants Paul here this day. And let's look at that. Agrippa II, or Junior, We come to the conclusion that if there was an Agrippa II, then there was an Agrippa I or Sr. He arrested Peter. Agrippa I had arrested Peter and had James executed in 44 AD. Agrippa II, who Paul is facing right now, he is commanded and he has the authority transferred to him. And he was there to preside over this. And so we see that Festus had already confirmed that, basically, in order to protect himself in his writings, he used the Latin term, aude et alterem pardum, which means, hear the other side. And he told Agrippa, I let him talk and I've heard some of his side, but I want you to hear it. I want you to do that. John 7.51 says, "...doth our law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doeth." Now, where was our Paul the Apostle when we had the trial and the voir dire set up here? We were talking about the jury members that would be for or against Paul a few weeks ago. Where's our Apostle Paul here this morning? Matthew? You were Apostle Paul. You're now standing in the court after everything's been done. You're now standing. Can you read verses 4 through 11 in Acts chapter 26 for us? Yes, sir. Chapter 26, verses 4 through 11, please. Thank you. which was at first among my own nation at Jerusalem. Now all the students and they would testify that it was created. greatest sect of our religion, I went to Paris, and now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which he promised our twelve tribes instantly, searching God day and night, hoping to come, for which folks say, King of Gripa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you? that God should raise the dead, I barely thought with myself that I ought to do many, contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests. And when they were put to death, I gave away what was against them. So what you're doing is you're reading the fifth defense, the part of it, and it gets better. If you can even say that. I shouldn't even say that. It's all incredible. The question is, if you're the Apostle Paul and you're standing here in front of Agrippa, and by the way, Festus is still sitting in with Agrippa and he opens his big mouth in a few verses and says something very disrespectful, which you wouldn't expect anymore out of a coward. When you're saying all these things, why are you speaking? Why is it that you're speaking? Why are you saying these things? That's the big question here. Amen. Amen. That's perfect. So the question is, why is he speaking? And I'll answer that in a minute. I'll give a better understanding of that. What is Paul's ultimate defense? What's he trying to do? What's his objective here? Yes, thank you. He's been given an opportunity to stand in front of all of these people and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. He could have easily have said, I'm a Roman citizen as per my father. I will not speak and say a word until I go before Caesar. I'm going to stay in jail. And they probably would have allowed him to do that. He could have said that, but Paul's taking this. This is an opportunity to witness. He takes this upon himself. He says, how do you think it's such a strange thing that I am a Jew and that I believe in a resurrection? Well, what was the problem? There's other Jews involved. If Paul believes in a resurrection and the Jewish council, the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all these different types of Jews, if they believe, well, the Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection and there was a problem with them and the Pharisees. If the Pharisees believe in a resurrection and Paul believes in a resurrection, why are they angry at him and they want him dead? That's another big question. Lisa. Right. That's right. What was the ultimate question Pilate asked our Lord? Yes, three incredible words. What is truth? Well, the question is, what are the details that hold the truths and the beautiful doctrines of the resurrection? Paul the Apostle holds the truth. His resurrection is predicated upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Pharisees' definition of resurrection had nothing to do with the Messiah. And there's all down through the centuries and all down through day to day one, it's always been a problem. What think ye of Christ? Well, Paul wants them to think of Christ here. What Paul, the apostle, has proclaimed thus far in Romans 1.18, I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. As a Christian, that's a wonderful verse to remember. So what does Agrippa do? What does he do with Paul? He permits him to speak. And Paul will give an answer of the sole objective. He gives Agrippa assurance that he knows the king understands Jewish law and custom. Paul's plea, he says something very, very profound, I see, I think here when he says in verse three, we move around a little bit here. He says, I beseech thee. Once again, he says that a lot. I beseech thee, I beg thee, speaking as a pastor, I beg thee, hear me patiently. Hear me patiently. Do you think there's an application that Paul says this and the Lord has him write this, has him put this down, Dr. Luke writes this. Do you think that there's a lesson for us to learn with Paul? Tell he begs, he begs the Roman tribunal, he's standing up there and he could be facing death. And he says, hear me patiently. You think that has something a little more beyond what we're reading here, just about what the details are here? I think there is, and I know there is. What do you think that he's trying to say? Anyone? Hear me patiently. Right. That's right. There's riots. There were riots and he couldn't speak. Remember that? And they were carrying him. That's a great point. Exactly. Hear me patiently. Lisa. That's kind of part on the line of where I'm going with this because he says to hear me patiently. I think it's very important. Why does Paul ask this tribunal to hear me patiently? Is our Lord instructing us through this request of Paul something? How can congregations, or I should say attendees, to learn the Word of God with entertainment, short messages, and ritualistic vain babblings hear the Word of God patiently? How can a pastor stand and listen to two hours of guitar music, talk for 15 minutes, and have a congregation hear him patiently? Well, I've got some verses here that'll prove with the wayward of worship. Noah, could you look up 1 Corinthians 14.23? And I'd like to ask Charlie, could you look up 1 Timothy 6.20? And I'd like to ask Brother Dave, can you look up 2 Timothy 2.16? I like to read these verses. 1 Corinthians 14, verse 23. First, for Paul the Apostle to speak impatiently, he has to speak in a known tongue and to be understood. and not speak in vain babblings or repetitions and try to get through it with some kind of entertainment. And basically what we're seeing here is that Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians, how can I talk to them and speak with tongues and with these vain babblings? All right, Charlie, you have 1 Timothy 6, verse 20? That's interesting. Boy, it seems to me like our educational system today has basically placed science way over creation and over a true living God. And Paul tells Timothy, he says, oppositions of science, falsely so-called. 2 Timothy 2.16? It takes time to articulate the Word of God. We don't just stand here for 15 minutes and go through a Max Lucado handbook and then check off a few things and then just get out of here and go have coffee. We're learning the Bible. This is a worship service, whether it's Sunday school, whether it's a Sunday morning worship, whether it's Wednesday night prayer meeting. We look at the Bible together and we learn it slowly. And it's basically, I was listening to a message last week about how to interpret and how to teach the Bible. It is a craft. And just as we're little babies at one point, and as we grow and we get older and older, it takes time to develop our skills. And that's what we need to do with Scripture. Patience is extremely important. To take our time, to tune everything out, all the social media, all the phones and all the junk, and sit down and read a real Bible and read it patiently. And it should be preached and it should be taught patiently. And look at these two Bible verses. In Romans 15, verse 5, Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus. And then Hebrews 6, 12 we read, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. It's patience, it's what Paul is saying, take your time and listen to what I have to tell you, Lisa. And when people go to college, they take the subject, they're studying, and they're studying so high slowly. I mean, some people have a better ability to grasp things quickly, but a lot of people They have to study something more than once. And they have to keep repeating the text because it's something that's ingrained to remember for a test or to call upon to write a paper or whatever. And so the Bible's the same way. It's never different. There's really no difference. It's like when a professor said, well, pastor, you're not going to a university, but you're going to a church. That's right. Christ is the professor and that man standing in front is just one beggar telling another beggar how to find bread is what he is. And it has to be done patiently. And it has to be done. I remember Pastor Olson preaching many months ago talking about here a little, there a little. He's reading the book Isaiah about the Word and how we take our time. And I find it fascinating that not only does Paul want to do this, but he proves it in detail. Dr. Luke says he stretched forth his hand. That was a way of saying, basically, I'm ready to speak. I'm going to do an oration. I'm going to give a speech. That was a way of doing that. So he stretched forth his hand, and then he probably had this big ear-to-ear smile on his face saying, I am happy to stand here and do this for two reasons. A cripple will listen to me, but the main reason is I'm not here to defend myself to get out of trouble. I'm not in any trouble because I didn't do anything wrong. Paul considers real trouble being in trouble with the Lord God Almighty. And since he hasn't done anything wrong, he is there trying to bring Agrippa and Bernice and Festus and all these other people in his tribunal to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's his defense. He's not defending himself. This is apologetics. That's what apologetics does not mean, I'm sorry for being a Christian. Apologetics is defending the faith and knowing the truth, and you have to do it patiently. It's no wonder that Eutychus fell from the window and died. Paul was doing it very patiently that afternoon. For hours he would preach. And so, of course, Paul raised him from the dead. And so we see in Acts 12, 17, "...but he reckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison." And then we go, when Paul was at Antioch, in chapter 13, verse 16 in the book of Acts. Then Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand, said, Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience." Listen, and this is another time where he stretched forth his hand, and he was getting ready to speak. But what did he say? Well, we're not going to be able to do a whole lot of that this morning, but we see specific detail about Paul's demeanor. He was happy to do this. He says to Agrippa at one point, especially because I know thee to be an expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. You know, we were talking about this thing called a voir dire a few weeks ago about jury members and who down through Paul's life would have been for him or against him. I think, Dave, we were talking about him being one of the ones at Stephen's stoning. If he was one of those in there, he would not have been a very good jury member for Paul. And then I think we were talking, Teresa was Ananias, and then we had Bernice, and we had another, the other Ananias, there were two Ananias, one that was before Paul, one that would be against Paul, because the one Ananias was the one that was to take care of Paul when he was blind, the other Ananias was a priest. My question is, this morning, where would Festus and where would Agrippus stand in this? Would they actually be for Paul or against Paul? I think that's a very good question because Agrippa seems to be for Paul. As wicked as he is and as a nut as his sister Bernice was, you do a study on her, that woman, she's a nut. And there they are trying to defend Paul's right to live, Lisey. That's it. You're bringing it, I love that, you're bringing it all together. because I'm going to go ahead, since you said that, that's a window into the future. That is basically the bottom line to what comes out of their mouths. Festus says, Thou art mad. He's telling Paul that he's mad? Oh, we could really play with that. Agrippa says, Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. I think that's one of the most tragic Bible verses in all of Scripture. Almost. Doesn't cut it. That's serious. But at this point, I almost believe that if Agripple was a jury member, he would actually be there to exonerate Paul. I really do. Festus and Felix, it would all depend on what would benefit them the most politically, like everybody on this General Assembly in Congress now. All they care about is money and how big of mansions they have. But what does Paul do? What does he do? He speaks about his past education. Life as a Jew in Jerusalem. He goes back and what he's doing first is he's going back and he's telling them, you're telling me that I don't know anything about being a Jew and I'm the one and I'm going against them and I'm defying their law, I'm defying their customs. He's trying to give them a message. I was one of them. And then later on he's going to say, not only was I one of them, but I even went to the high priest and I went to seek papers to go into other areas and to slaughter and to go after Christians. And he's trying to tell them, why do you think I was once one of them and I was a murderer like them and I am what I am now? Only because of the grace of Jesus Christ, ergo I. And that's exactly what he's telling them. That's part of his defense. You go back to Acts 22.3, we read Paul speaking of his past education. I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in the city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. As ye all are this day. He said he called himself a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And Paul is purposing to connect to Agrippa here. He says he speaks of the very sect of Jews that were trying to kill me. I was one of them. He says, why do you think that I'm not one of them now? Acts 23.6 we read, But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee of the hope and resurrection of the dead. I am called in question. And not only does he start there, but he goes, he speaks of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that Christ, He identified himself in the book of John with these great I Am statements, and one of them is, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And that's Paul's part of his defense. But I love how he goes back to the Old Testament. I know we've talked about before. There's a lot of religion out there that basically likes to not only abrogate, but basically take out the Old Testament, saying that it's not beneficial, it's not substantive anymore. We stick with the New Testament and that's it. That's a lie. Paul goes back to the Old Testament here. He says in verse 4, My manner of life for my youth, which was at the first among my own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after most straightest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers." And there you have it. He says, a hope of the promise made of our fathers. He's going back to the forefathers. Remember what our Lord told Moses. You tell the people of Israel, I am, I am that I am. I am the God of your fathers. I am the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. That's what he's saying here. He's going all the way back to the Old Testament. Isn't that what we're supposed to do when we're studying scriptures to be just just love and just and just study and work so hard and go back to the Old Testament? He goes back to the Old Testament. Paul, the apostle, is now taking the pulpit here. He has stretched out his hand. And basically, it's almost as when our Lord would preach it, like Matthew 11, 15, He would say, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And it's almost what Paul is saying to them. When he stretched forth his hand and he starts speaking, will you listen to me patiently? He says, the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. What's the promise that he's speaking about? What a big word. What a massive, massive application, doctrinally speaking. What does he mean by the promise? What is the promise he's speaking about? Lisa? Yes. That promise. He starts off by saying, Jews speak of Moses. They speak of Abraham. Remember what our Lord said? Moses spoke of Me. In the end it was John 8. Abraham rejoiced to see My day. And Moses said, there will be a prophet among you. Hearken unto him. And now Paul's going back to the Old Testament. And he's saying the hope of the promise of the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lisey, could you read Isaiah 7.14? Teresa, Daniel 7.14. Isaiah 7.14, Lisey, and then Teresa, Daniel 7.14. And I'd like to ask Brother Dave Cross, Micah 5.2. This is the hope of that promise. This is that promise. Amen. Daniel 7, 14. And there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all people and nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed. Micah 5, 2. That's a tough one. I know. I'm sorry. Take your time. It's all right. Patiently. Micah 5-2. His goings forth, thank you Dave, they've been talked about from old until everlasting. Going all the way back to the promise of the coming Messiah. His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Everlasting Father. Isaiah 53, which many regard as the very first gospel in the Bible. And we see that there is this coming promise. Paul is the only one standing there that remembers that coming promise. The rest of them missed the Messiah. They missed Him. He was there. The Jews, they missed Him. They wouldn't even regard Christ as anything. But this vermin that came out of Nazareth, basically, is the way they treated Him. And here Paul knows this. And he's trying to even show... The question is, you go all the way to chapter 28 and you keep studying. Did anybody hear? There were many that got saved through this. And look how many people have gotten saved down through the centuries reading this and how important it is. Then he goes to verse 7. This is a comment. What does he say in verse 7? He goes, unto which promise, again, are twelve tribes instantly serving God, day and night hope to come, for which hope say, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. He speaks of the 12 tribes. What he's talking about? He's talking about Israel. That's a common assignment to Israel as Paul here preaches and takes the tribunal and the general audience back to the Old Testament. He refers to the 12 tribes. He goes all the way back to the forefathers. And we see how vitally important history is. He goes back to Genesis, the Exodus, and many other references to the 12 tribes. We look at Exodus chapter 39, verse 14. And the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel. Twelve, according to their names like the engravings of a signet. Every one with his name according to the twelve tribes. Numbers 1-16. These were the renowned of the congregation, princes of the tribes of their fathers, heads of thousands in Israel." And we'll close there, but look at the problems and look what's going on with Israel now. Look what's happening. and how Israel is still being persecuted. Israel is still being attacked. And Israel still has its major problems. And here we are today to learn patiently and to learn these words of Paul. And then next week we're going to be looking at the first thing he does is he goes to the Old Testament. He goes to the coming of the promise of the Messiah. And then he goes all the way back to that incredible event that happened on the road to Damascus, when he goes to persecute the Church of Christ, and Christ basically says, you're done. You want to go persecute them? Now you're going to come through me. And he cries out, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And Paul here fills in some more details about that event. And then he goes into that history. See how important history is? The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection whatsoever. Right, but they were there. They were Sadducees present. Right. I think what he's saying, and I think that's a good question, and I don't think there's a 100% way to answer that perfectly, but I think the perfect way to answer, if there is one, is what he's saying is, why do you think it's strange that I believe that the resurrection is predicated on the resurrection of Christ and He's risen from the dead? Many of them did not believe He was risen from the dead. They didn't believe it. Right? They didn't believe He was God. Is that reasonable, Pastor? That's all I need to know. Oh, it's a tribunal. Yeah. Right. And he's saying beyond that, he's saying, why do you accuse me of being an insurrectionist against the Jews if I do believe in a resurrection? And I believe that the ultimate Jew, the ultimate Israelite is Jesus Christ. Why do you have a problem with that? It manifests itself with over, what did Paul say, over 500 witnesses? saw him resurrect from the dead, and to this day they're still questioning. They're not even questioning it today. They're acting like it's nothing but a total myth that never even happened. Like it's a fairy tale. And so he's saying, this is not just my belief. This is not just my faith. This is what I live. This is my life. That Jesus Christ is eternal life. Why do you have a problem with that? And I love it how he turns the tables on them. And he puts them, basically, with this defense, he basically puts them on trial by himself. If you want to look at it that way. Lisa. Right. He says I was not being Christ-like. Right. Right. Right? And I think beyond that, he's more concerned about the eternal life of their souls, because he believes they're going to hell. Right? Right. That's right. And by history. Well, we'll finish there. And we're just scratching the surface here. Next week, we'll see where the Lord leads us. And I'd like to ask maybe perhaps if Jacob, could you close us this morning? Thank you.