Paul On The Dock (Acts 24)
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Psalm 119.161-168
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Romans 3.21-26
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pastor andrew loginow
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dr. brett eckel
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dr. alex loginow
Acts 24
Paul On The Dock (Acts 24)
Introduction
After the death of C.S. Lewis in 1963 a collection of previously unpublished essays and letters were formatted into a book entitled, “God in the Dock.” The name of the book was derived from one of the essays. The phrase “in the dock” is English and refers to court cases in England where the accused was placed “in the dock” - a half height opened-top box. Listen to this excerpt from “God in the Dock”:
“The greatest barrier I have met is the almost total absence from the minds of my audience of any sense of sin... The early Christian preachers could assume in their hearers, whether Jews…or Pagans, a sense of guilt…. Thus the Christian message was in those days unmistakably the Evangelium, the Good News. It promised healing to those who knew they were sick. We have to convince our hearers of the unwelcome diagnosis before we can expect them to welcome the news of the remedy.
The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man, the roles are quite reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge; if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty, and disease, he is ready to listen to it. The trial may even end in God’s acquittal. But the important thing is that man is on the bench and God is in the dock.”
Lewis argues that ancient culture understood sin and guilt better than the modern man. Even ancient pagans understood that the world was not right so they tried to appease all sorts of false gods to assuage their guilt. For most of human history people have understood that we are the guilty ones, we are the ones on trial, as Lewis says, we are the ones on the dock, but the modern man has reversed the situation in his mind – he has put God on the dock. Don’t forget that C.S. Lewis wrote this essay in the mid 20th century; the situation has only spiraled since. The modern man doesn’t believe he is a sinner; he questions God about war poverty, and disease; modern man puts God on trial – God on the dock.
Ole’ Clive was correct that the ancient man didn’t view himself as righteous as the modern man does but as we saw last week and continuing this week in Acts 24, the ancient Jews and the ancient Romans have God’s apostle on the dock. And while Paul is most certainly not God, Paul is an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ – a representative of God. You know, when you’re on the dock, you are there to give a defense.. I wonder what we’d see if we looked closely together at the defense of Paul here in Acts 24. As Paul stands trial, seemingly heading toward his death, what defense is he giving?
We Worship The God Of Our Fathers, Believing Everything Laid Down By The Law & Written In The Prophets
Paul begins his cheerful defense in verse 14 saying we worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets. When Paul references the God of our fathers he speaks of the 1 true God who created the heavens and the earth and who created our father Adam in his image. He’s the God who spared Noah from the flood and called Abraham and the Patriarchs to a better city. He’s the God who delivered the people of Israel from slavery in the Exodus and who led them through the wilderness into the Promised Land. He’s the God who made covenant with King David that his throne would never end.
This God revealed himself under the old covenant as יהוה. When Paul refers to the Law and the Prophets, that’s what he means – the Old Testament. Under the new covenant the 1 true God has revealed himself even more as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and the New Testament declares that we have seen the fullness of God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ – truly God and truly man. Paul refers only to the Old Testament because that was the totality of Scripture at the time; the NT hadn’t been written yet but for us now we have the writings of the Prophets (OT) and the Apostles (NT).
And Paul’s point is one that the NT makes over and over again – that the good news of Jesus Christ revealed in the new covenant is the fulfillment of what was promised in the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. Jesus is the fulfillment of the 1st gospel promise given in Genesis 3.15; he is the seed of the woman who crushed the head of the serpent. Jesus is the fulfillment of all of the covenants, of the Law, of all of the prophecies, all of the festivals and all of the sacrifices. Christianity is not something new disconnected from the OT, Judaism, יהוה, etc. No! Jesus is the meaning for all of it.
The old covenant promised a new age that would dawn with the coming of the messiah, the anointed one, the Christ. Jesus is the Christ and through his death and resurrection he has inaugurated the new age. But Jesus is not merely the fulfillment and hope of ancient Judaism but also of all humanity. Jesus is the last Adam. Jesus is the one who has come to reverse the curse and crush the serpent’s head. This has been the plan of the 1 true and living God from before the foundation of the world and this is what we believe.
We Hope In The Resurrection
What else does Paul say? In verse 15 he hopes in the resurrection. There’s no doubt in these last 2 chapters that Paul was acting shrewd using the resurrection to divide the Pharisees and the Sadducees, but that doesn’t negate our hope in the doctrine of the final resurrection. Hope is an important word here. Don’t mistake it for how the word hope is often used in English now, meaning wishful thinking, or something of the sort.
No; biblical hope is optimistic, confident expectation. These last 2 years Lions fans have had actual hope, not just wishful thinking, but a warranted optimistic confident expectation. The Lions led the Niners in the NFC Championship last year; the Lions have seemingly only gotten better in the offseason, the NFC North has a lot of young quarterbacks. The Lions are in the rare situation where they are expected to win the division; it will be a train wreck if they don’t. There is actual hope for the Lions this year – optimistic, confident expectation. Well, multiply that to infinity and beyond and that is the hope of resurrection in the bible – it is an optimistic, confident expectation that Jesus will raise us from the dead.
The hope of resurrection saturates the Bible. From the very 1st shadow of the resurrection we see in the 3rd day of creation where God calls the 1st living beings, plants, from the ground, to the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac and Abraham’s faith that yhwh could raise Isaac from the dead, to Job’s declaration that he knows that his redeemer lives, to 1st Corinthians 15 and on to the book of Revelation, Scripture is inundated with the hope of resurrection. The doctrine of the resurrection begins and ends with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ on the 3rd day. Easter is the day for which the world was created. That first Christian Sabbath is the turning point of all of human history; it is where the ages separate.
And the Bible tells us that the same power that resurrected the Lord Jesus from the dead is at work in us. Scripture says that because Jesus physically resurrected from the dead that we will too. In fact, from the last 2,000 years in the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed the church has confessed that we believe in the resurrection of the dead and life eternal. God created the world good and he created his image bearers, humanity, as embodied souls without sin. When Christ returns to raise the dead, judge the world, and make all things new, it will be so again – the world will be good and his embodied image bearers (body + soul) will live forever in the new creation with King Jesus.
We Speak About Faith in Christ Jesus
At this point Paul is nowhere near done with his defense. Luke tells us in verse 24 that St. Paul spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. The Reformed tradition has long defined faith in 3 facets – knowledge, assent, and trust. The 1st component of faith is knowledge. You must receive the knowledge that there is 1 true and living God, that he is holy, and that you are made in his image. You must also know that because of Adam’s sin you inherited a sin nature and that you are guilty because of your sin. You must also know the good news that while you were a sinner Christ died for sinners. The eternal 2nd person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived a truly human life, yet without sin, he died on the cross bearing the wrath of God against the sins of the elect, he was buried, and on the 3rd day he resurrected from the dead, and he has ascended to heaven where he rules and reigns until he will return.
You must take this knowledge and you must assent to its validity. You must confess the gospel. You must not deny the gospel. You must acknowledge this message to be true.
Finally, you must transfer your trust to Jesus Christ alone. You must rest in his finished work on your behalf. If you have faith it will be revealed by your repentance. Repentance entails confession and turning. To repent means to confess your sin and then to turn from your sin. This is what it means to have faith in Christ Jesus.
And Luke reminds us here that we have faith in Christ and that we speak of our faith in Christ. We do this in church every week. We do this as we catechize our children. We do this when we share the gospel with a friend or neighbor. When you train yourself to speak as if the doctrines we believe and confess are actually true, you’d be surprised how much you’ll find yourself talking about faith in Christ.
We Reason About Righteousness
As Paul spoke of faith in Christ Jesus he also reasoned about righteousness. Righteousness is an important element of the gospel because it is what we lack. Adam was given God’s Law but he sinned so all of creation was cursed and we inherit his sin nature. We cannot be in right submission to God without perfect righteousness and so we cannot have fellowship, or community, or relationship with God without perfect righteousness since God is perfectly righteous.
This is why the incarnation of Christ is a matter of orthodoxy. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin so he did not inherit original sin. Jesus lived a truly human life yet without sin, obeying God’s Law perfectly in thought, word, and deed. Jesus succeeded where Adam failed. Jesus is righteous. This is called the active righteousness of Christ.
It is in Jesus’ humiliation that we find the passive righteousness of Christ. God accepted Jesus’ penal substitutionary atonement on behalf of the elect because Jesus is righteous. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And now by faith the righteousness of Christ is imputed to all who believe. By faith our sin, guilt, and condemnation was applied to Christ on the cross and his righteousness is imputed to us.
This is good news because through faith we now have the righteous standing we need before God through Jesus. It is from that position of justified, declared righteous that we move forward in sanctification. On this side of resurrection and glorification we will never experience perfect righteousness in our flesh but we strive for it. We confess our sins, we practice spiritual disciplines, we submit to the means of grace, the Word, the sacraments. The law of Christ consists of loving God and loving neighbor (coincidentally that was what the old Law required too) and that is what we strive for. Because we know we have the righteousness of Jesus, we pursue righteousness in our lives, our homes, our churches, and our communities.
We Reason About Self-Control
Paul also reasoned about self-control. This more than any of these other truths we’ve mentioned stems most from the situation Paul was addressing specifically with Felix and his wife Drusilla. Felix and Drusilla had not been exercising self-control. Josephus tells us that Drusilla was the daughter of Agrippa I and was placed in an arranged marriage at 14. Josephus also tells us that she was strikingly beautiful and when she was 16 Felix convinced her to leave he 1st husband for him, which was all the 1st century Palestinian gossip.
Paul used their adultery to preach the gospel and warn them about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. We can learn something from Paul here. Often times we’re so worried about being winsome when we share the gospel, and that is a good thing, we ought to seek to be winsome. But there are times, especially when someone is rebellious, hardened in sin, mocking God and his Law, that we preach the gospel not by trying to win them over but by warning them of judgment. Jesus did this with the self-righteous Pharisees in his day. Warning people about eternal conscious punishment in hell for their sin is love.
Of course that means we have to be prepared for people not to like what they’re hearing either. Felix was alarmed at what Paul was telling him and Felix left Paul in prison for 2 years. But we cannot let the listener’s reaction determine whether we have been faithful or successful in sharing the gospel. We are faithful and successful when the gospel is shared regardless of the reaction of the listener. How people respond is God’s business; our job is to tell the story.
We Reason About The Coming Judgment
Note finally that Paul reasoned about the coming judgment. This is why warning people about hell and judgment is so loving – because it’s real. Penn Jillette is a magician and actor and he’s a vocal atheist but he was giving an interview one time and said that he hates when Christians try to share the gospel with him but what he really doesn’t understand is Christians who wont. Penn said, “Can you imagine if you really believed that I was going to go to hell after I die if I don’t have faith in Jesus and you didn’t feel compelled to warn me?!”
Let the hearer understand. We believe and confess that Jesus will return to judge everyone. On that day all who lack faith in Christ will be condemned to hell forever. They will receive a verdict of guilty and will face eternity under God’s wrath, apart from his grace.
Conclusion
What did we learn from the defense of Paul here as he’s on the dock? Paul’s defense allow us to see past Paul to what Acts 24 is really about, or should I say who Acts 24 is really about. Paul is following in the footsteps of Jesus in his trial and his future martyrdom.
It was at the trial of Jesus of Nazareth that God really was on the dock – the Son of God humbled himself to the point of being falsely convicted and executed for his people. It is because of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus that we can believe the God of our fathers and the ancient Scriptures. It is because of the gospel of Jesus that we hope in the resurrection. The Holy Spirit has given us the gift of faith in Christ and we share this message. It is because of the good news that we reason about righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. In Christ, God was on the dock, but don’t get this wrong, when he returns it will either be as savior or as judge – and you will be on the dock; what will your defense be?