How the Devil Comes After Us – Part 2
Acts 25: 13- 27
As we finished Acts 25, I looked at additional ways the Devil comes after believers. This study focused on the intricate dynamics of spiritual warfare and the importance of our response to his tactics.
In the review, here are the five ways the devil comes after us, which I mentioned in part one.
- The Devil Attacks Through Discouragement
- The Devil’s Attacks are Relentless
- The Devil Wants to See You Ruined and Destroyed
- The Devil is the Accuser of the Brethren
- The Devil Wants to Remove You from the Place of Safety!
It is all too common for us to give far more credit to the devil than he deserves. It can be easy for us to blame him for every bad thing that happens. But did you know that as Christians, we face a threefold enemy? It’s true; the devil is not the only enemy we deal with. The threefold enemy we as Christians face are:
- The World: Not the physical globe, but the anti-Christ culture around us.
- The Flesh: Our old sinful habits and natural reactions.
- The Devil: The tempter who uses the world to lure us into fleshly desires.
The devil will use the world to provoke our flesh and keep us in a perpetual state of compromise or, worse, disobedience. And this holds us back from God’s best for us.
It is crucial for us to remember that we are no match for the devil in our own strength. But he is no match for the power of God that is in us! Being forewarned is being forearmed, so let’s look at two additional ways that the devil likes to come after us.
Satan likes to confuse the truth of Jesus.
Satan is the master of confusion, and he loves to see Christians confused! Confusion can lead us to make poor decisions and even significant mistakes. We often see this manifest in the church through interpersonal conflicts and offenses like hurt, slander, and gossip. The good news is when we recognize confusion as a tactic of the enemy, we can combat it. The Bible tells us in 1 Cor. 14.33 that “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” As we seek truth, pray and ask God for wisdom, we can replace Satan’s confusion for God’s truth and peace.
Satan tries to make us fearful.
Fear is a tactic of the enemy to paralyze and discourage believers. While we may like the path of comfort and predictability, the devil often uses moments of uncertainty and faith to scare us into inactivity, timidity, and even silence. For example, when sharing our faith with a friend or coworker, the devil can scare us with the fear of rejection or ridicule. He gets us to think that we aren’t good enough in the hope that we will give up. Remember, God is faithful to provide strength and courage in unknown and difficult times. When we face our fears with faith it helps us overcome them.
That makes seven ways the devil likes to mess with us. Discouragement, Relentless, Ruins and Destroys, Accuser, Isolation, Confusion and Fear. But it is vital that we remember one more attribute about our spiritual adversary…
Satan is a defeated foe. He fights from weakness, not strength. He can use all these tools to get us off our game, but only if we let him. He is defeated. We know who wins in the end!
Many people question the existence of the devil. In this chapter of Acts we learned some eye-opening experiences about the destructive nature of evil and why it’s crucial to recognize Satan’s tactics. Remember, the devil’s desperation stems from his defeat (Revelation 20:10). Let’s shift our perspective and trust in God’s power to overcome doubt and discouragement. Use the link to hear the teaching in its entirety.
FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Open your Bibles, would you, to Acts 25. We’re going to pick up where we left off last time, and this is part two of the study that I’ve entitled, “How the Devil Comes After Us.” And he certainly does.
Now, when it comes to the devil, it’s all too common for many today to blame the devil for everything. Like, they give the devil credit for far too much. They say it’s all about, you know, anything bad that they do? It’s because the devil made me do it. Can I just tell you? You can never say that. The devil didn’t make you do anything. It’s always your responsibility.
Did you know that in a culture that minimizes personal responsibility, the Bible reminds us that God always lays the responsibility upon the person that makes the decision. I didn’t get one, “amen,” on that, but you just need to know it anyway. You have to understand because in the culture you live in, that there is, you know, the culture, the world, as we’ll see in a moment, always has a replacement for the truth of God’s Word. There’s always a replacement. There’s always something that comes in that tries to undermine truth. And when it comes to personal responsibility, the area that seems to be used by the culture the most is that it’s “easier.” Instead of taking responsibility, to play the victim. And you don’t want to learn to do that as the culture might teach you to do that. Now, you hear that today and you might say, wow, I’m very, very insensitive, pastor, for you to say that. And if you’re thinking that, I just want to help you understand that you would be wrong.
It’s not an insensitive thing. I’m not in any way minimizing the reality that you might have been a victim of something. Something happened to you. I mean, in a real way. All of us have been victims of sin, whether it’s our own sin or someone else’s sin. It’s not that, of course. We walk around wounded and hurt, but to take that on as an identity, to undermine personal responsibility, is not the Lord’s will for your life. And if you want to learn to take responsibility, you can’t blame the devil. You can’t blame someone else. It’s the beginning of change, really, takes place when you and I take responsibility and we come to the Lord and we come clean before the Lord. Now, when we’re looking at the devil – and we are – in these studies, we’re seeing the different areas of his life as he comes against us and comes at us. But the devil is not our biggest problem. You are the biggest problem. I’m my biggest problem.
There’s actually a threefold enemy that we have, not just the devil. So if you’re taking notes, let me remind you of what the Bible teaches – this threefold enemy in our life. Number one, we deal with the world. Or if you’re thinking of the world, don’t think of the globe, but rather think of culture. Or another way I like to teach this is think about the atmosphere in which you live, what you take in. The news media, television, work, people’s opinions, social media. Think about the atmosphere. The atmosphere in which you live is basically anti-Christ. And we live in it. We work in it, we play in it. We breathe it in, we breathe it out. It’s anti-Christ, and we have to have our eyes wide open. Here’s what the Bible says, 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him.” So there’s a competition of your love and your devotion and your commitment.
And it’s either the world…like the world, is always sending this message that, “this is all there is.” This is all there is. This is all there is. And God is always reminding us that there’s a coming Kingdom and a coming King that will make everything right and put everything back in order. And so, you and I, we have a choice of what to love and where to give our devotion. Watch out for the world system.
Secondly, we not only have the world, but secondly, we deal with our flesh, which is our biggest problem. That’s our biggest problem, the flesh. And it’s not just the skin. You know, I like to use the skin as a reminder, but when you hear the Bible teach about the flesh, it’s not speaking of the skin. The Bible definition, the theological definition – and I got this from someone, but I’ve now adopted it as my own – here’s the best way to describe your flesh in a way you will remember it: your “flesh,” represents your old sinful habit patterns or your natural reactions, your natural reactions.
For example, some of you have a natural reaction of anger. You’re just an angry person. So if something happens, you get really angry. You start yelling, punching holes in the wall, whatever that might be. That’s your natural reaction. The Bible will call that your flesh. And it’s going to be really interesting because when we get in after the book of Acts, we’re going to go to the book of Galatians, we’re going to study Galatians verse by verse. We’re actually going to go through Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, because that’s where we’ve been in Acts. It’s going to be fascinating as you put the pieces together. But in Galatians, the emphasis in Galatians is not just legalism and grace. It’s Spirit and flesh. And you’re going to learn about that. And one of the works of the flesh is, “the wrath of man.” Works of wrath, outbursts of wrath, anger. That’s your flesh.
So, that, you know, you might go around and you’re just an angry person. Everybody knows you’re angry, you know you’re angry. And your response is, well, you know, “I’ve always been that way.” Okay, well then just say what it is. You’ve always been a man of the flesh. “Oh, no, pastor, I’m an elder…I’m an important person in the church.” And…you’re a man of the flesh. You’re walking in the flesh, and you don’t please God in the flesh. I had this revelation in prayer last night, but I’ll put it in the Bible study right now. The Bible says, listen, the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. That’s what the Bible says. And some, you know, maybe it’s not that, you know, you just like, “oh, I’ve always been that way.” Or, “You know, I’m just…,” and you state some nationality. Or whatever, you know, “I’m just…this.” And we’re just angry people. No, you’re just a person of the flesh. That’s our biggest problem.
Our biggest problem is not the devil, and it’s not the world – it’s me! And not coming to God and coming clean before him, repenting of my fleshly ways. Galatians 5: 24 says, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires.” So you have a threefold enemy: the world, the flesh, and the devil. We’ve been looking at the devil, and this is how it works. So if you look at these three things and you see the truths of the Scripture, let me show you how it actually….how your enemies operate. This happens 99% of the time or so. I’m making that number up, but I’m pretty, pretty close – 98%, 99% of the time. Here’s how it works, you ready? The devil uses the world to tempt you into the flesh and then leaves. That’s how he works. He devil uses the world to draw you into a place of sinful habits. And then he moves on because you take it from there.
And you’ll deal with the consequences. You might choose to live in sin. You might choose to live in a perpetual state of compromise and weakness, or even worse, disobedience. And that’s how he works. He just uses the world to tempt us, to allure us. Basically, the way he uses the world mostly is to lie to us and just constantly send lie after, lie after lie, waiting for the one that we believe. And then once you believe a lie, then you behave in that lie.
I mean, think about one of the lies. God doesn’t exist. And how many people do you know today that are living that lie? As if God doesn’t exist and they’ve just chosen…they’ve got different theories and different things, and they have a whole alternative life that doesn’t include their creator and sustainer. A life of destruction. Now, believers, you may not go that far. Those of you that are born again or have a walk with the Lord. You don’t believe the lie that God doesn’t exist; you believe the lie that God doesn’t care.
And then you just kind of go off on your line, “I’ll treat my wife however I want because God doesn’t care.” “I’ll go watch pornography because God doesn’t care.” You go, “Pastor, I would never say that!” I know you wouldn’t say it, but you live it; because you’re living the lie that you believe. And that’s how the devil operates. So we’re looking at a little bit of how God, how the devil operates in this realm. And you’ll remember last time we saw the five different elements, really, we looked at five different ways that the enemy works. They’re not exclusive, but it’s specific to the season in Paul’s life. Remember, he’s in a two-year trial. He wanted to get to Jerusalem. He had this heart that’s, “preach the gospel.” They warned him, “don’t go to Jerusalem – it’s going to be bad!” Now he’s living out the bad. He didn’t care. Like, they warned him it was going to be bad. He said, “I don’t care. God wants me in Jerusalem, so I’ll be in Jerusalem.” I’ll take it – good, bad, ugly. It doesn’t matter to me.”
But he gets there. And now it’s been two years of difficulty. I mean, really, I think you could say that Paul is living out what Jesus warned Peter of. Remember what Jesus warned Peter of in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 22, he said, “Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you, that he might sift you as wheat.” And that sifting of wheat speaks of separation. In this case, it’s a very practical illustration of the sifting of the kernel of wheat from all the chaff and the husks that were on the stalk; and you would sift it and beat it and separate the two. And you get the idea that the devil loves to separate us from God, because if he can separate us from God, then he’ll separate us from each other, and he’ll want to sift us through circumstances. A two-year trial is pretty serious. A five-year trial, a ten-year trial, fifteen – it’s very serious.
It’s constant. It’s relentless. Remember, that was one of the elements we learned last time. The devil is relentless. He doesn’t give up. He doesn’t let go. He doesn’t stop. It’s a constant continual. It’s…I mean, you think about it. Think about it. It’s like, well, the best thing we could do, pastor, is just get out of the world. If we could just get out of the world, we won’t have to deal with. So just go. Move to the mountains, live in a cave. We’ll never watch TV again. Never be on social media. We won’t even be attached to the internet. We’ll just live off the grid and don’t worry about it. The problem is, he’s already planted so much stuff in us. We take it with us. It’s all in our head. That’s where the warfare really takes place. And so it’s very important that we do minimize what we take in. But we also have to have our eyes wide open that there’s a lot of it’s already in us and a lot of it’s in us because we invited it in and we live with the consequence of such actions.
Sifting, that’s where Paul is. He’s in a place of sifting. Wanting to separate Paul from his God. Wanting to separate Peter, as we saw. Again, if you’re taking notes, just by way of reminder, in Ephesians 6:12, it says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.” So the battle is not with each other – it’s a spiritual battle. Or again in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, that we know that the Antichrist, in indwelt by the devil himself, “opposes and exalts everything above all that is called God,” all that is worship, “sitting as God in the temple of God, showing himself that He is God.” The devil loves to oppose the work of God in your life. You need to remember that so that the opposition is directly related and proportionate to the amount of work of God in your life. Some of you experienced things this week because of what was going to happen. Let’s say some of you come to service now, and then you’re going to teach Sunday school.
Well, you experienced opposition this week because of your commitment to serve the kids. That’s where it came from. So what had happened? Why did I have such a hard week? Well, part of it is because you’re teaching the kids. Some of you, you made a decision to get right with the Lord. Just, you’ve made a decision, you know, I don’t like my life the way it is right now. Maybe right now you’re in a major marital thing. Your husband wants nothing to do with the church, nothing to do with God. But you finally made the decision: I’m not going to let that hold me back, and I’m going to come and worship God whether you come with me or not. And you go, amen to that. That brings opposition.
That’s why many people don’t make that decision. They don’t want to deal with the opposition, but the enemy loves to oppose everything that God’s doing in our lives. And we stand strong as we’ll learn. When we get to Ephesians, we’ll spend quite a bit of time looking at spiritual warfare in-depth so that you have a very balanced understanding of spiritual warfare, not the weird stuff that’s out there today, just weird, weird stuff, you know, like I remember years ago, I saw it with my own eyes. So some things I read about, some things I’ve seen with myself. And I saw some dude on television on one of the so-called Christian channels. He had…he was there, “fighting the devil,” and he took the devil by the hand and he swung around. “Oh, you devil, I swing around, I throw you out of here.” If that really worked, why does the devil come back every week? I don’t understand it. It’s, like, the dude does it every week. The Bible doesn’t say to take the devil and swing them around your head and throw him out of the building. The Bible says, “resist the devil.” And you know what the response is? “He will flee from you” (James 4:7).
So you want to learn what the Bible has to say. So…I mean, you could be swinging whatever you want around your….you know, whatever that is; but it’s not truth. You don’t win the spiritual battle living in lies. You win the spiritual battle living in the truth. And it’s very important in this day in which we live, because we’re living in the days where, just like the Bible says, it would be very easy “to raise up for ourselves teachers,” that we want to hear, that kind of give us a comfort level, that even though they’re some kind of pseudo-comfort level, they’re not teaching us the truth (2 Tim 4:3-4).
So we’re spending a little bit of time on looking at the devil. And one more thing before we jump back into the text is this: just remember, the devil is not God’s equal. Did you know that? He’s not all powerful. He’s not in the same place, like, he’s not God’s equal. He’s not God’s equal at all; he’s a created being. However, it is important to understand these two truths.
Number one, you and I are no match for the devil…in our own strength. I paused on purpose there. You are no match for the devil in your own strength, your own wisdom, your own thinking. We’re no match. He is more powerful than us, toe-to-toe. It’s like, “I’ll take you on, devil!” All right, let me step back six paces so I can watch this take place, because you’re about to get whooped. However, the devil is no match for the power of God that resides in you. As you abide in Christ, you are stronger.
I want you to consider that for a second, because sometimes I’ll use the phrase “abide in Christ,” and you go, “what does that mean?” Well, the word abide…first of all, we get this teaching from Jesus. He says, “If you abide in me, I abide in you.” The word abide, the Greek word menno, just means, “to stay,” means, “to stay put.” Once you’re in something, like right now, for the last many minutes, or on the radio, or even watching on YouTube right now, you haven’t turned off. You haven’t left yet. Instead, you’ve chosen to abide in this room, or under this teaching. You’re just staying put. You’re not moving, not running, not…you’re staying put. And one of the ways that you can choose to, “stay put,” is reading your Bible. When you read your Bible and pray, you’re staying in one place at one time, receiving truth.
And I don’t know if you’ve realized this or not, but it’s worth repeating; or hearing for the first time. When you are reading your Bible, you are not looking at pornography at the same time. You’re not. So far, I haven’t had anyone email me or text me and say “Ed, I do it all the time.” You don’t! Because you’re in the Word, and the Word itself is the power to keep you away from sin. I mean, you think about it, it minimizes temptation, keeps you out of sin, and replaces lies with the truth. So that the more you’re in the Word of God, the less you are sinning. Not just some big sin like pornography – it could be anything. It could be the what we talked about earlier with anger. But you got to understand, abiding will keep you from sin.
Being here today – 90 minutes! 90 minutes of refuge, 90 minutes of rest, has kept you from sin and has even given you the strength, for some of you kept you from sin, but not temptation. So you got all these temptations and you’re wrestling. But even being in the place where you are pointed toward God, you have been protected even from taking the bait of that temptation.
Imagine! Imagine the power that’s yours, in Christ! If you’re out by yourself, isolated, which the Bible says is not wise. If I choose to isolate myself from the body of Christ, isolate myself from the Christ of the body, then I’m very, very vulnerable. And so remember this: you’re no match for the devil in your own strength. However, he’s no match for the power of God in you when you abide in Christ. He can’t take advantage of you when you’re in Christ. He can’t.
I think sometimes we identify again. We may not play the victim like the world does, but I see Christians play the victim all the time. All they do is talk about how bad things are, how they keep sinning, how they can’t get over it, and, like, you need to start celebrating the victories. You need to walk out here today, especially if you are wrestling with sin or you’re kind of stuck somewhere. You just need to leave here today, starting the habit. You know what? “Thank you God for the minute you gave me a victory.”
Because you know what happens when you start thanking God for minutes? Minutes become days, days become weeks, weeks become years, and years – they become your testimony of the power of God in your life.
All right, let’s get back to the text. Come to Acts 25 now with that introduction, which took most of my time. But it’s very important because there’s not much – it’s just a narrative, right? There’s not much in the text. Sometimes you read ahead and you go, “how is he going to get anything out of that?” You trust me, I’ll pray and I’ll figure it out. You just keep praying for me. Verse 13 now, it says,
And after some days, King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus. When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying: “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him. To them I answered, ‘it’s not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face, and has the opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him.’” Therefore when they had come together, without any delay, the next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in. When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such things as I supposed, but had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. Acts 25:13-19
So now that’s just a repetition of what we learned happened last week. He called for Agrippa. Why? Because Paul said, “I need to go to Rome.” Remember he said, “why can’t I just send you back to Jerusalem, and you can go handle this?” And Paul said, “No way, I’m not going back to Jerusalem; I am a Roman citizen; I want my day in court!”
And he was using his citizenship to progress the gospel. But we know behind the scenes, right? There are things in our lives that we see, but there are things in our lives that we don’t see. And we know what we see: Paul’s standing there, he’s saying, “No, I’m not going back to Jerusalem; I’m going to Rome!” Partly because, you’ll remember, when Jesus came to encourage him in his discouragement, He came personally to encourage Paul (Acts 23:11). He says, “What you’ve done in Jerusalem is right. Great job! But you’re also gonna go to Rome.” And I think that planted a seed. It’s like, “I’m going to Rome; I’m not going back to Jerusalem, that’s backwards.”
Sometimes in your own life you have to think that: “I’m not going backwards; I’m going forward.” I’m not going back to Jerusalem; already done that. I’m going to Rome. But behind the scenes, what was happening? You remember they set an ambush up to kill him (Acts 23:16; Acts 25:3). So what’s seen in the physical realm, which we don’t fully understand, what’s why we might be making a decision or why going forward, there’s something going on behind the scenes that God is taking care of. And He’s literally saving his life as he stands for what is right. So, here, Festus, he calls Agrippa. He knows that he has to get someone that’s more important than him, above him in the food chain of his leadership. And he brings Agrippa in for help. And he’s like, “I can’t…I don’t what their problem is with this guy – there’s no serious charges, everything that they said about him is not true, I wanted to send him back but now he doesn’t want to go.” Now, this brings us to a sixth point of the attack of the enemy. But before we get to six, let me repeat the five.
Remember last time we learned that the bed of all the attacks of the enemy seems to be discouragement? And then we learned that he’s relentless, never gives up. Then we learned that he wants to see our lives ruined and destroyed. We also learned that he loves to use the tool of accusations. And then finally, we learned last time that he loves to removeus from a place of safety.
Here’s number six. Satan loves to confuse the truth. He loves to bring confusion. Do you know the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 14:33, “God is not the author of confusion.” Let that sit right now. Those of you that are confused. Those of you that are uncertain. Uncertain about life, uncertain about the Bible, uncertain about relationships. All the confusion in this room. I want you to understand: God did not author that confusion. It didn’t come from Him. Now it comes from a lot of different sources. Wherever confusion comes from, it is a convenient tool. Imagine this: You’re discouraged, and the enemy just pounding you like a woodpecker, *boom* *boom* *boom* *boom* *boom*. Just constantly – never letting up.
He moving you from a place of safety, so now you’re vulnerable. And then he gets and uses the confusion in your life. Don’t you think just those few things would make you very vulnerable to being destroyed and ruined, and to make a big mistake that you can’t undo? A big, sinful mistake. I think it’s very possible that that’s the environment where difficult things happen. And he loves to use confusion. He’s the master at it. He’s the master at confusing. He loves to see Christians confused, doctrinally, emotionally, spiritually, practically. The more confused we are, the less effective we are for the Kingdom.
Some of his most masterful work is done in the church. Like, here’s one that’s so common, that brings a lot of confusion. And I want you to associate “confusion,” like how you feel and think about something, like, it doesn’t seem right with, “being stumbled.” Like, the idea of stumbling is you’re walking along, you’re not paying attention…or you are walking along, just not really needing to pay attention, and you get tripped. That’s stumbling – you get tripped.’
You go, “what are you talking about? This is a safe place. I already checked! The church is a safe place. How could I be tripped and fall on my face in church?” And here’s how, one of the most common ways in church that this happens: somebody offends you, in the church, another Christian. They hurt your feelings; say something dumb; talk behind your back; lie about you; gossip. I mean, it gets worse. It could be something so simple and it can get so worse. And here’s the response, “I don’t know what to do…I didn’t know that happened in church…I can’t believe it…I trusted her…I trusted him.”
And before you know it, you are so confused of something that is so common. And it’s in that confusion you start to think, you know, “I don’t like this church…I don’t like this pastor…I don’t like this…I don’t….” Before you know it, you live in the realm of confusion when here’s the truth: This church, that church, any church, every church – someone’s going to offend you. That’s the truth. You shouldn’t be surprised about it. I didn’t say you’d have to like it. I just say you need to know it. It’s just the way it is.
Even standing here teaching you a Bible…giving some off notes comment or something, “I can’t believe that pastor offended me!” “He said that to me!” I didn’t. I guess, technically, I guess I did say it to you, but not personally. I don’t have your name on here. I don’t have a big picture, “Make sure you jack with this person,” and, “you got this person sitting in seat number six, row seven, seat six.” I mean…now you guys are all counting to see. It’s like, I don’t have it in here; it’s not there. Like, it wasn’t personal. It wasn’t on purpose.
But if you’re not careful, you go, “I can’t believe it; I just don’t understand!” I don’t understand. Confusion. Stumbling. I don’t understand. Because here’s what happens with confusion: you think that the solution to confusion is explanation. If I just understood it, then I wouldn’t be confused anymore. But that is not what the Bible teaches. The antidote to confusion is not explanation. You say, well Ed what is it? if I don’t understand the whole situation, what is it that God wants to give me to deal with confusion?
If that’s your question, I’m glad you asked. Listen to the Bible, are you ready? Here’s the answer from God – “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Cor 14:33). That’s the answer to confusion – the peace of God. So you kind of piece these all together, it’s almost like a Bible study in and of itself, but if you piece it all together, you have stumbling, you have offense, you have confusion, and then the antidote is peace. You also have to factor together now…now that God is using peace with confusion, you have to go over to Philippians and remember to, “be anxious for nothing….” So now you got anxiety and worry. “…Anxious for nothing, but in all things by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts (that’s your feelings) and your minds (that’s what you think) in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:6-7).
So you have all these together and you see with confusion the enemy disrupts them all. And what he steals from you is the peace that’s yours by faith. That, “settled peace.” You’re just settled. “I trust God; I don’t know what’s going on, but I trust Him.” “I don’t know how it’s going to end, but I trust Him.” It’s the peace of God that surpasses all understanding. Sometimes that’s even misinterpreted. Like, well, it’s a peace that you won’t understand. No, actually, that’s not true. As a believer, you do understand peace of God because you know Him. So you trust Him. It’s the peace that passes all understanding to everyone else outside of your life looking at you – they can’t understand it. It’s almost like that peace that’s drawing them to your hope and your settled peace.
Because this is how it works: people will look at your life and go, “I don’t know…if I was you…if I was living your life, I don’t think I could handle it.” Boom, that’s the open door. Because you would say, “you know, I can’t handle it either, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t understand this, but I tell you this, I’ll tell you what I do understand: I love God because He first loved me, and I trust Him with my life.” And I can think, “Well, I don’t know what’s happening right now, I don’t know how it’s going to end, I don’t know how it’s going to be solved. I do know this: there’s been 20 other things in my life that I didn’t know how it was going to be solved, and God took care of them.” And you might even share one of them.
Your testimony. Just one. That’s where Paul is. He’s just sharing his testimony. “You won’t believe what’s happening. You won’t believe what God has done in my life. These guys are a bunch of liars. Let me tell you something about the truth of God’s Word and the power that He’s shown.” So watch out for confusion. And that phrase, “I don’t understand.” You don’t need to understand. That’s not necessarily the answer. The answer may just be God gives you a peace in your lack of understanding, or in your hurt, or in your pain or in your grief, where you trust Him and you write it out. Or as we’ve learned in other Bible studies, God gives you the perseverance, or the endurance, or the Greek word hupomone, to get through it. You’ll get through it – by faith.
Well notice, verse 20 now, Festus continues to describe the situation. And he says,
“And because I was uncertain of such questions, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there be judged concerning these matters. But when Paul appealed to be reserved for the decision of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I could send him to Caesar.” Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you shall hear him.” So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at Festus’ command Paul was brought in.” Acts 25:20-23
So he continues to describe the scenario. He’s sending him to Rome, and in this, his desire is to share his story with everyone. He definitely wants to be found innocent, I think. But he sees a greater purpose here, that whoever he’s standing before, whoever is in front of him, he’s going to share his life story and point people to the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Which is the call of God upon us, remember? We learned in the beginning of the book of Acts. The believers, the early believers, were told to wait in Jerusalem for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. They will become what? Witnesses. “In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth” (Acts 1:8). So that’s the call of God on our life; that’s the call of God on Paul’s life.
But one thing I found with evangelism, and maybe even the situation where, like Paul here, number one, he has this call to evangelize. But number two, the situation of his life is out of his hands. It’s a very scary place to be, isn’t it? He doesn’t know how it’s going to end. So far, so good – he’s still alive. He doesn’t know he’s been saved by an ambush, by the way. We know that in the Bible, but he doesn’t know that. So far, so good – he’s going from person to person, and it seems like he’s still there. Even though he got thrown in jail for two years. House arrest being restricted, like the whole thing is very, very difficult to live.
Just like your life. I mean, if we heard some of your stories layer upon layer, we wouldn’t know how to live your life. Or how you do it – except by your faith in God. That’s where Paul is. The stories in this room, the challenges, the layers, the difficulty, the trauma, the home you grew up in, the divorce you endured, the divorce of your parents. I mean, on and on the list goes just one after another, after another, after another. This is the danger that we want to look out for in evangelism, perhaps, or even when situations are outside of your control. Here’s another way the enemy loves to use and come after us, and that’s by using fear. If he can just get you scared, you have a tendency when you’re fearful to make irrational decisions. That’s just the way it is.
We saw this in the last few years with government mandates and Covid, the real virus of Covid, where it created a lot of fear among believers. And I spent most of my effort in energy as a pastor to try to keep everybody’s eyes on the Lord. And one way that I did that is to teach you as a church, to stop making fun of people that are fearful. The fear is real. It doesn’t make any sense for us, you know, making all the shirts and you know, “why are you so fearful? God hasn’t given us a spirit of fear.” Like, are you serious? Fear is a tactic of the enemy. What do you mean you’re not fearful? Some people were. It’s like, “well, I have faith!” Well, other people don’t. “Well, I’m so strong in the Lord!” Not everybody is as strong as you. “You got to look out for more others more highly than yourself,” the Bible says (Phil 2:3).
I know what the Bible says. I know. It says right here in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” So to everyone that might be fearful today, like, confusion – you know that that fear did not come from God. It’s not from God, and that God can give you the courage to face whatever you’re going to face that you’re afraid of right now. Standing before Agrippa; standing before Festus; some unreasonable, unlawful thing the government wants to do that instills fear. Look, God can give you the strength to endure anything, especially things that are outside of your control. And it never represents Jesus well when you make fun of people for normal reactions to very scary things – it just doesn’t make sense. It’s not the gospel. The gospel is that He takes fearful people and He makes them strong.
So, “You should be like Daniel!” One day, I would like to be like Daniel, truly. But if you threw me in a lion’s den, I don’t know that…I’d be running around scared, I think. Jumping on their heads or something. I don’t know what I’d be doing, but if I was in a den with lions, I think I’d be freaking out. And even if they were all like kitty cats, you know, I still…I don’t know that I would pet them, so I don’t know what I would do. And sometimes that’s how, like, you have to admit, like you got these great exploits of faith and you go, “well, you know, if I was, I’d be like, Daniel!” I hope I would be like Daniel. That’s the right language, “I hope I would.”
I think I’m closer than that than I was 30 years ago. But I think, I mean, I know I would probably…I mean, I don’t even know what I would do, but I don’t know if I would fully be like Daniel. So I have to remember this: when I’m afraid, that’s a very vulnerable place for me. I need to be careful when I get scared of something. When I hear something and it scares me; when I see something and it scares me; when I think of what’s happening in our world and it scares me. I need to remember that God is my Lord and He will help, even in scary situations. That, “God has not given me that spirit of fear.” I created it; or culture created it; or the devil used the world to make me scared. And when I’m scared, I’m not effective and I need to learn to walk in the wisdom that the Lord has.
I mean, I think of sharing the gospel. You know, when I was a newer believer, I was so scared to tell somebody about Jesus. I was so…I didn’t know what to say. What would they say…if they yell at me? What would they do if I got it all messed up? What if I did it wrong? What if I’m rejected? On and on the list goes? But you know, I got over that fear and then moved on to the new fear and moved on to the new one. Like, I got over it. I got over it. Just like you and I, we will get over it. And just, like, looking back over the last few years, we did get through. Probably the hardest years of our generation – the hardest. And to think that in the coming of the Lord, the closer we get, it’s going to get even harder; and more difficult.
I want to show you a scripture. We didn’t turn at all. Turn over to Isaiah 41 as we wind down here. Finish up this chapter. I want to share the scripture I shared with my kids as I discipled my kids over the years; I shared with myself. There’s actually quite a few verses. If you want to email me, I’ll send you verses on fear. If this is an area of your life where God can just build up faith in you, but this is one of them right here, you might want to start right here – Isaiah 41:10. This is one of those verses you can hide in your heart that God can use in scary situations. Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
So isn’t it interesting? The antidote to fear is not God saying, “I’ll come in and change all your circumstances.” The antidote to fear is, “I am your God.” You’re going to be fine. I am your God. I’m going to be with you. I have a strength for you that you don’t currently have; or feel; or think you’ll ever have in that situation, and you will get the grace that you need to endure the moment you need to endure it. Isaiah 41:10.
Come back now and let’s finish the chapter. It says in verse 23, “The next day when Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp.” If you like to write in your Bibles, you can circle that. Sometimes we use that word today, “pomp and circumstance.” That means it’s a big to-do. It’s a huge, huge gathering. Historians would tell us that Agrippa would come arrayed in his most expensive purple robes and garments, and that Festus would come to this pomp with his scarlet robes. It was a big to-do – a big deal. And they come together and enter the auditorium.
Verse 23, the commanders are there. All the prominent men of the city are there. And, “at Festus’ command Paul was brought in. And Festus said, ‘King Agrippa and all the men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer.”
I mean, the guy’s standing before the leaders of the government with a death sentence, like, they are saying that Paul has committed something worthy of execution. That’s how he’s standing there. Think about how you would feel unjustly accused with the threat, standing before the judge or before the Supreme Court. All the leaders, as corrupt as they are, of the government. They’re standing there, and you’re there, and your life is in their hands. That’s where Paul is. If you want to get a sense of the emotion of the moment, that’s where he is. And we emphasize how strong he is and how faithful he is, and that’s to encourage us. But it’s a very difficult situation that he’s in, and has been. But God gave him the strength.
It says in verse 25, “When I found out that he committed nothing deserving of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him,” which implies the possibility that Festus would have let him go had he not said, “Rome.” But Jesus said, “He’s going to Rome.” He wants to go to Rome, so he stays in custody. Notice, “I have I have nothing certain to write to my lord concerning him. Therefore I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place I may have something to write. For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him.”
So you have this big occasion. You have Paul before these religious rulers on his way to Rome. And Festus doesn’t know what to do. He can’t find anything. And I love this word here in verse 26 that he is examined. He’s been examined. The idea behind that word is he’s being interrogated. This poor prisoner is going to be interrogated. But as we see in the next chapter, and we get there next time, Paul is not going to be the one being examined. Agrippa will be. His whole life will be laid bare before this man that’s been falsely accused. And as we close with Paul standing before Agrippa, understand we have two very powerful men. You got Paul and Agrippa here, it’s chapter 26, Agrippa speaks to Paul in verse one.
You got two very powerful men standing here, except that you wouldn’t be able to see it on the outside, because one is in his robe, standing on the throne, looking down, and the other is in his tattered clothes or whatever, completely at the mercy of Agrippa. But here’s what you would see. One is powerful outwardly, but the other is powerful inwardly. And by the end of chapter 26, you’ve got Agrippa, who is sure and confident. The other is shaky and curious. On the other hand, you have the power of God living in one man, and the power of this world system in the other, and they’re really no match for each other. Which reminds me of the final point when it comes to the devil, and you’ll see it by the time we get to the end of the book of Acts even, or just 26, and it’s this. Don’t forget this – Satan fights from a place of weakness, not strength. He’s a defeated foe and he knows it. He knows it. There’s no question. He knows that he’s defeated. So he fights from weakness and not strength.
Let’s close in Revelation. Would you turn over with me? Revelation chapter 20. Just to remember, the devil knows where he’s headed. He knows that it’s over. He regrets, I believe, the decision he made in rebellion. It’s an irreversible decision for the devil. He can’t undo it. His life has been sealed. And this is the seal. This is the weakness. Yeah, he might be relentless; he might use our discouragement; he might be destructive; he might be the accuser – accusing us day and night; he might be taking us out of places of safety; he might be using our confusion.
I mean, if you think about it, you got all these points that go, whoa, wait a minute. What’s going on? Am I even gonna…how can I possibly have victory? Well, just remember this because the devil knows, Revelation 20:10, “the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
He knows, that’s why he’s so desperate. That’s why he’s taking advantage of our vulnerabilities. He’s desperate, wanting to take as many I believe, like, even as I close, there’s some listening right now. It’s like, come on, Pastor…church, you don’t believe in the myth of the devil, do you? Not only do I believe it, but I’ve seen his destructive ways firsthand. I believe what God has taught us in His Word. And that may be the biggest stumbling block in your life today, friend, you don’t believe God. You just choose not to believe Him and take your life into your own hands. I think most of us have lived that way for at least part of our lives, like, literally, consciously living that way, doing our own thing. But God is calling you away from that. And I do believe in the devil, and I do believe in the attacks, and I do believe in a culture that’s anti-Christ. But I believe in a God that is greater. That He changes lives. And He’s able to redeem even what we might think is unredeemable through the blood of Jesus Christ.
So, Father, we pray for the strength to persevere and to be strengthened in the inner woman and the inner man. I know our biggest…I know my biggest problem is my flesh. It is not people, not situations. As difficult as they might be in my life, my biggest problem is me. And the posture of my life; and the position of my heart before you. And so, I pray, God for that needed strength to abide in You. That You might abide in me. I might enjoy and live a life that pleases You, Lord. Truly. And I pray that for our church. We’re not here to play games, God. You know. You know our seriousness. You know our commitment. You know our desire to know You. And so, Lord, encourage us as we are reminded of the victory that’s ours by faith. That we wouldn’t take on a role and our identity that doesn’t reflect the power, the majesty and the goodness. We are new creations in Christ. All things have passed away. I mean our old sinful habits – they don’t have to come with us anymore. You’ve given us a new direction, new hope, new strength. And I pray…I felt like, today, Lord, I pray for those in difficult marriages. That’s a real thing and I just pray over them right now. I pray God that even when You are doing a work of restoration, that you would also soften hearts. Give patience and strength, In Jesus name. Amen.
