Be Ready to Give an Answer

We are blessed with a rich heritage which affirms the continuity of scripture, both Old and New Testament Genesis, to revelation, and hope of resurrections plural, from the dead according to God's plan for humanity. For me, it's a beautiful thing to look into what James calls the perfect law of liberty, this word here that we pass.

To see a way of life unique in the modern Christian world, which is the same way of life that our spiritual ancestors followed. The cadence of the weekly Sabbath, the annual holy days, the spiritual battle to overcome our human nature through the power of the Holy Spirit and faith in God that began a good work in me and will continue that good work in you as you yield to Him. Hope for the resurrection which points to a plan not just for me but for all mankind. These are the types of things that I get excited about and to share. But one thing about our faith and belief that is confusing for people who ask is, what church do you go to?

Right? We've often gotten that question, right? What church do you go to?

It is confusing because they're looking for a nice, clean, tidy label which they know.

And, you know, like, I'm Baptist. Or, I'm Jewish, right? Often they say, are you Jewish? No, I'm not Jewish. They're looking for something that they can relate to. Fill in the blank with some moniker that they're familiar with. Now, the simplest response, of course, is to say, I'm a Christian. Okay? Or, I attend the United Church of God. Or, I'm part of God's Church, right? Those are all good go-to answers that I'd recommend for you. And many of us are frequently asked that question. Each of us have our own differing ways of responding to that question about our faith. And, generally, the question is prompted by a statement I know about you, but for me, it's generally prompted by some sort of event that's going on. I might be explaining to my boss why I don't work on Saturdays, right? Oh, you don't work on Saturdays, right? What favor is that? That's typical. Or, it might be when you're asking for time off for the Holy Days. Oh, the Holy Days. What group keeps that? My favorite is that you're at a restaurant with your co-workers and somebody wants to order an appetizer, right? Like calamari, or some sort of, you know, pork dish. And you say, oh, I'm sorry, I'm not gonna have any of that. Oh, really?

What is that all about, right? And, you know, what religion are you, and so forth? So, what do you say, right? Right there at the lunch table, or in the hallway, or at work in front of maybe, you know, or maybe in front of your high school teacher or university professor. And as I said, some people reply, I'm a member of the United Church of God. That's a good response. But often, that kind of draws a blank stare, right? And in fact, it could be the Church of Christ, it could be the Assembly of God, you know, people aren't listening closely, you know, what is it? And so, then you might say, someone might say, well, so are you Protestant? Is that Protestant? To which you might say, no, we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, and we don't trace our origins back through Protestants and through the Catholic Church. But of course, now you're boarding or giving a history lesson, but we're just trying to order food, right? And you don't want to feel awkward about that, right? I told you, I see you in the second century, right? But you're trying to figure that out.

So, you know, some in God's Church will respond by using the term primitive Christian. Okay, that's that's a term that's used from time to time, which it has some uniqueness. A lot of us don't like to be thought of as primitive, kind of makes us feel like we're cavemen, you know?

Like a caveman Christian, right? So, primitive Christian, though, it does have some uniqueness, and it does kind of get to, you know, sort of something about our faith, which is sort of pre-Catholic, sort of, you know, pre- sort of this line of Protestants that we see today. Now, I can go on with some examples, but I get you, I think you get the idea. We've all faced this, right? We've all faced this. How do we describe who we are? And yet, we do need to clear- share our faith in a clear and straightforward manner, which matches the level of interest and the occasion, but when we're at it, sometimes it's a casual question, right? Oh, what faith are you, right? And they're just looking for a casual answer, and they're going to kind of move on. Or, it might be more serious, where we have to really crisply articulate our faith because we've just been offered a job, and now we're sharing something about the fact that we're not going to be able to work on certain days. And now it's got to be really clear, right? Or, in certain cases, it could be even more serious if, for example, when I was 18, I had to write a letter to the Selective Service explaining why, if there was a draft, I would not go to war, and I would reject that. And so I had to write a letter explaining my faith such that if there was a draft and I was called up, I would not be put in prison for rejecting that. Now, that's not something we deal with today in this country, but that's something which people deal with around the world in various instances. Some people lose their jobs in other countries. Many people here have lost their job for keeping their feet. So there are times when, you know, that response has to be very crisp. This issue is addressed by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3 verse 13 to 17. Let's turn over there by way of introduction, and let's look at what Peter said about this. 1 Peter 3 in verse 13. Peter says, and who is he who will harm you if you become followers of what is good?

Now, he's talking about becoming followers of Jesus Christ, and we're going to talk about some of the monikers that were used at that time for followers of Jesus Christ. Who is he who will harm you if you become followers of Jesus of what is good?

That is, do not worry, right? Who is this person that might cause you harm or say he'll cause you harm? Verse 14. But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you are blessed. And then he quotes the Scripture. And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. But verse 15. But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. Now, here is a very clear direction from the Apostle Peter of how we are to share our faith in meekness, in fear, and we should be ready.

We should be equipped. We should know how we're going to describe our faith at various times. And, of course, the Holy Spirit should inspire us to say those things that are appropriate. Verse 16. Having a good conscience, and we'll come back to that notion of a good conscience a little bit later. That when they defame you as evil doers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed. For it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Now, in our country, we have protection. We have laws that help protect us from certain persecutions.

I know, in the case of my daughter, recently, she took her class at university, and her class was, you know, during the week. But then the final exam was a Friday night at 7 p.m., right? Randomly. Friday night, 7 p.m. Well, you know, what is she going to do? And so she went to the professor, and he says, I'm sorry, I'm not going to change that, you know. I mean, this is what the exam is, and you signed up for the class, and you should have known that.

She wasn't aware that that was sort of, you know, said in advance, so she was like, oh no, if I had known, then what I would have known. And she went to the office of student affairs. The office of student affairs said, no, we certainly will honor your religious beliefs. And they advocated for her on behalf of the professor, and the professor made a change to the to the testing. That's the kind of, you know, world that we live in here in the United States. That's a great lesson.

That's not always the case in every place. There are people who have suffered persecution even in the United States. But we have to recognize that at this time, and very likely in times to come, and certainly for our brethren in other countries, this is a very serious issue. This is a very serious issue. I've shared with you the example of my wife's niece, who had four years of college. She finished her fourth year of university. She came to that time, and there was the final exams for the entire year. And that professor refused to change that exam, even though it was on a Saturday.

Even though he provided a makeup exam on another day, which was not the Sabbath, he refused to allow her to sit on that and that second exam, not on the Sabbath, because her reasons were not valid reasons for not being on the test on the Sabbath, even though he was giving on another day. That's persecution, right? That's persecution. And she had to repeat an entire year of school because she was barred from taking that test, and that lowered her grades, that she did not pass the year.

So these are the types of things that go on in our world today, and we need to be prepared both for the simple answer of the calamari over lunch, right? All the way to our position and our jobs and persecution like that. And so Peter, under inspiration, writes this command to us. We have a beautiful calling as first fruits, and we cannot let our light be hidden when people ask us about our faith.

And so today I would like to explain how the early church was described, and look at a key scripture that can give us a biblical basis, and a set of principles to follow when describing our faith, right? So we just don't have to make this up. We can go back to some things in scripture that can give us some guidance. And consistent with the instruction here, instruction from Peter, I hope this discussion better equips us to describe what we believe when we're asked, oh, what church do you go to?

Specifically, we'll examine three primary names for the followers of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. These are not names of the church. This is not a discussion of the names of the church. These are names, the names that were given to the followers of Jesus Christ. And the second part of the sermon will examine the scripture which shows how Paul explained his faith to the religious and political authorities of his day. So let's dive into this.

So what were the followers of Jesus Christ called in the beginning? Some people might know that. They were not called Christians. Okay, let's just make that clear. So in the beginning, we and our spiritual ancestors were not called Christians. Christians was a name that came later. Let's turn over to Acts 9 and verse 1. And let's see what we were called.

Acts 9 and verse 1.

Acts 9 verse 1 says, install, who would later be called Paul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priests, verse 2, and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the way, capital W, the way, were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. The earliest name for what we are was the way. We are people of the way. Now, this context here is right after the stoning of Stephen.

And we can see that in chapter 7. It talks about the stoning of Stephen. And then in chapter 8, it talks about Saul persecuting the church at the beginning of chapter 8. And then we get into chapter 9. So there's some period of time that is gone by. So if we get the context here, Jesus Christ was crucified in 31 AD. That's the dating that the United Church uses. The stoning of Stephen was sometime in AD 34 to 36. A little bit difficult to date, depending on how you're going to analyze that. And so this was sometime after that. So let's just for example, let's call this five years after the death of Jesus Christ. Five years after the death of Jesus Christ, his followers are called followers of the way. Now, the expositor's Bible commentary, volume 9, page 370, says the origin of the absolute use of the way for Christians is uncertain.

So that represents the sort of official position of biblical scholarship. It's unclear where that term came from. I think it's pretty clear we'll look at several scriptures. But in terms of absolute origins, they claim that it is uncertain. If we look over in Acts 19 and verse 8, we'll see another use of... we'll see another time where this is used. This is Acts 19 and verse 8. This is Paul now. His name has been changed from Saul to Paul. And he is now in Ephesus.

He is pastoring there in Ephesus. He's supporting the church in Ephesus. And he says in verse 8, And he went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading, concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the way before the multitude, he departed from them and withdrew the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Teremis. In verse 10, just to get the context, again, and this continued for two years so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks. Now, this is during his third major preaching tour, which is sometime between AD 53 and 57. And so what you see here is this is roughly 20 years later. All right, so now we are at least 25 years after the death of Jesus Christ, and we're still seeing this term, the way that was used. So for at least the first 25 years, our spiritual ancestors were called followers of the way. Now, where did this come from? As I said, official scholarship says it's unclear. But look at John 14, and I think we get some, certainly some, indications from the teachings of Jesus about why we might have been called followers of the way. John 14 in verse 6.

Jesus says here, I am, John 14 verse 6, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He is the only way, and therefore those who follow Him would be followers of the way, the only way. Now, there are some who will say, who will point, and we won't turn there, but point to Isaiah 40 verse 3. You can make that note, Isaiah 40 verse 3. It says, prepare the way of the Lord. And again, that was also used prophetically, and it was described earlier of John the Baptist who came before Jesus to prepare the way of the Lord. So that way is certainly referenced here in John 14 and also in the Gospels. But there's another reference in Psalm 86. And again, this goes back to the continuity of Scripture. Psalm 86 in verse 11.

Psalm 86 in verse 11 says, teach me your way, O Lord, I will walk in your truth, unite my heart to fear your name. So this concept of a way, that is, this is not just a point in time, but this is a way of thinking. This is a way of walking. This is a way of being. This is a way, which is a way of the Lord. This is the way for Jesus Christ to God's kingdom and to salvation, and most importantly, to the Father. This way would have clearly been something that the disciples would have been taught. They would have looked at Isaiah 40. They would have looked at Psalm 86. They would have seen now these prophecies of Jesus Christ coming to reveal these things.

And so there was a clear distinction that the followers of Jesus Christ followed a distinct way of life, a way of having other teachings of Jesus Christ. Let's look at Hebrews 10.

We'll see a New Testament writer speaking about this.

And as we go through this, hopefully you're thinking, like, I'm living a way, right? We live a way of life which is unique, which is different, which sort of defies labels, right? Neat and tidy that people want to place on religious thinking. Hebrews 10 and verse 19, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, which He consecrated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. You see, Jesus Christ gives us access to the Father, right? He gives us access to the holiest of holies through His blood. So it is through His blood, through this way, that is His flesh, that we are able to come to understand God. We are living a distinct way of life, differentiated from other ways of life.

And the teachings of Jesus are based on a oneness of God, the Father being and Jesus being one. If we go to John 10 and verse 30, so we are followers of the way, which is Jesus Christ clearly, but Jesus Christ as He is sharing a way of life and a way of life, which He received from the Father. If you look at John 10, and again, this is where we begin to be differentiated from modern Protestant, Catholic, evangelical Christianity, John 10 verse 30, says, Jesus answered them many good works. John 10 verse 30 says, I and my Father are one.

So Jesus and the Father are one. So Jesus' teachings were those of the Father. And if you look in John 17 verse 25, and I'm sorry to give you so many descriptions at once, we'll slow down here in a moment. John 17 verse 25 says, O righteous Father, this is Jesus praying, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these have known that you sent me. I have declared to them your name, and will declare it, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. So Jesus and the Father are one. He came to reveal the Father. He came to reveal God's ways. He came to magnify the law. He came to fulfill the law. He came to show the way which his followers then walked in, and therefore they were followers of the way. I find it frankly a much richer discussion of who we are than what we'll get to in a moment, which is Christian. Christian is good. I say I'm a Christian. I hope you feel comfortable and proud to say you're a Christian. But I find followers of the way to be a richer discussion of what we are based on our practices. Now we can see a clear line of this teaching in 1 Corinthians 11. 1 Corinthians 11. And this is modern Protestant thinking struggles a little bit with this because you don't want to say who you are by what you do, because that tends to lead to good works, and that leads to salvation by works, and that leads to trying to earn your way into quote-unquote heaven. I'm speaking in modern Protestant terms, right? So this doesn't sit well, but the fact is that we were called followers of the way, which meant there was a way of life through Jesus Christ. There was a way of behaving. There was a way of living. And that way, as I've described, was taught in this way. We see 1 Corinthians 11 verse 1. Paul says, imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. Now, there's a great story in the autobiography of Hibbert Armstrong where he's giving a message, and I guess back then there was a lot of give and take in those messages if you read Mr. Armstrong's autobiography, and he describes a situation where a man raises his hand and says, Mr. Armstrong, what scripture in the New Testament tells me that I have to keep the Sabbath?

And Mr. Armstrong said, I can tell you that scripture, and he said, and there was some sort of wager or something, right? Mr. Armstrong went to this scripture. This is the scripture he went to. Imitate me just as I also imitate Christ. That is, follow me as I follow Christ. Christ kept the Sabbath, so why wouldn't Paul keep the Sabbath? Christ kept the holy days. Why wouldn't Paul keep the holy days? And so this is that scripture. And so what we see here is an unbroken line where Paul is following the teachings of Jesus Christ the way. He was a follower of the way.

Christ, being one with the Father, is following the teachings and direction of the Father. Now mainstream Protestant teaching makes their faith all about Jesus Christ.

And I think it's interesting that Paul wrote here, right here, when he was Ephesus, he wrote the book of 1 Corinthians when he was in Ephesus, when we read that other passage in Acts 19 about the followers of the way. He defined himself, as was written by Luke, as a follower of the way.

And this is that clear unbroken line of Jesus following God the Father, Paul following Jesus Christ, and he asking those in Corinth, as he asked in many other places, to follow him as he followed Christ's example. Now the term, the way, is not widely used as a label for followers of Jesus Christ today, but this term, the way, is a biblically based and not-can-only sound term that can be used to describe who we are. And of course, you'll need to explain further what you mean when you talk about it, but I wanted to put that in our thinking again as we think about who we are. We are followers of the way, the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to God except through Jesus Christ. And there's various other scriptures that we could go through. Now the second term, which is used to describe those early followers of Jesus Christ, is the sect of the Nazarenes. Look over in Acts 24 and verse 5. Acts 24 and verse 5, we should be pretty close there.

These individuals were called a sect, or the sect of the Nazarenes. In Acts 24 and verse 5, we see this example. It says here, For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension, speaking of Paul, among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

The name Nazarene was used for certain types of followers of Jesus down to the modern day. There is a church of the Nazarene. You might have heard that. Protestant church.

This term, in contradistinction to the way, does not seem to be a name that the followers of Jesus Christ used of themselves, but rather was a derogatory and incredulous term that put down people who were of the way. It was used in a negative light.

And Paul refers to being part of a sect in Acts 24 a little bit later. We'll get to that.

So the benefit I think we take away from this description is that it's okay to be called a sect.

Paul dealt with it, and we have to deal with it.

So what is a sect? The very own Webster's dictionary defines a sect as a dissenting or schismatic religious body, especially when regarded as extreme or heretical for a religious denomination. That's what a sect is. So I think we have to recognize that people are going to call us names. They're going to say, well, you're a sect. In fact, I was counseling a woman in France, and she referred to us as a sect. She didn't want to have anything to do with us. You're a sect. Now in French, a sect means a cult. We're going to get into a moment defining a sect in a cult. So people will call us names, and I think we have to deal with it. I think Paul dealt with it. We'll see that. We were called earlier a sect of the Nazarenes. That is, a sect of the people following Jesus who was from Nazareth. That's essentially all it means. You're a follower of Jesus who came from Nazareth. Therefore, you're a sect of the Nazarenes. Now, if you're going to call us names, but if they take the time to examine our faith and our structure, they will see that indeed we are extreme only in our love of the truth as revealed in Scripture, and we are law-abiding citizens of this country. We are a little flock. That's what it says in Scripture. We are a little flock as they were a little flock. We have views which are not part of the mainstream, as they were not part of the mainstream, Jewish religious views of their time. Let me clarify here as well the difference between a sect and a cult. I just read to you the definition of a sect. The definition of a cult, I could go to a dictionary, but instead I'm going to go to the definitive work on cults written by Dr. Walter Martin called The Kingdom of the Cults in the 1970s. Dr. Martin, by the way, was not sympathetic to us at all, so this is certainly anybody independent of the United Church of God. The Church of God could go to him. Mainstream Protestants certainly go to him. He defined a cult in three ways. First, a cult has a devotion to a single leader, typically charismatic in some way. And if you examine the United Church of God in our faith, one would see that we have a governmental structure with the 12-member council and a rotating presidency. The United Church of God rejects charismatic leaders. The head of the Church is Jesus Christ. That's who we look to. The General Council of Elders, excuse me, the General Conference of Elders, a body of about 400 elders, a ballot every year for a council of 12 men who serve on a three-year rotating schedule, who then choose a president who serves at the direction of that council, who then leads the work of the United Church of God for that term that he is president. And that term can be re-upped every number of years.

So the United Church of God, by that definition, is not a cult. The second definition of a cult by Dr. Martin is a cult separates its members from their communities and their families. A cult is going to separate you from your family. It's going to isolate you. And typically the isolation is going to be used to indoctrinate you in some sort of a radical, dangerous, or strange teaching. We do not support that in the United Church of God. Our lights should shine in a bright world and we should respect, and as much as depends on us, as Paul says, live peacefully and respectfully with all people. I hope that you have friends at work. I hope that you are friends with your neighbors. That does not mean we are friends with the world. It just means that we respect the fact that this is the world of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil, and that there is good in the world, and that there are people who do good things in the world, and we should respect those people who do good things. I am humbled by many of my neighbors and my co-workers who have dedicated their lives in service to what they believe is right. I was asked to be a reference recently for an individual who he and his wife are considering going to a very dangerous part of the world to be missionaries for their Christian church. That is a beautiful thing to dedicate your life to do that, and I would not want to speak negatively of that person in any way, even though I would differ theologically from what they might be teaching. So by that definition, the United Church of God is not a cult. Finally, the third definition of a cult, according to Dr. Martin, is the rejection of the belief in the Trinity. Now that sounds a little different than the other two, but then we're defining cults by a particular religious doctrine. By this definition, the United Church of God is a cult, but I take exception to Dr. Martin's definition as he is now beginning to define cults based upon a particular doctrine, and in this case a doctrine which all scholars have agreed was not formulated until several hundred years after the death of Jesus Christ and the New Testament Church. So I take exception with Dr. Martin. You can draw your own conclusions. I would conclude that we are not a cult, but we are indeed a sect.

And so like our forefathers, we will be called a sect, and even in some cases a cult, if people are going to define us in very narrow terms. This we should stand firm and proud about our beliefs, just as the early New Testament Church did. The final term for followers of Jesus Christ is, surprise, Christian. That's the one we're most familiar with. Let's look over at Acts 11, verse 25, and let's see the first use of this term. Acts 11, verse 25.

Mid-Marnamis departed for Tarsus to seek Saul, and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch.

So it was that for a whole year they assembled with the church and taught a great many people, and the disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Now most scholars would point to this time being at about 43 AD. Okay, so again we kind of get that sequence, right? 31 AD, our Savior is crucified and resurrected. 35, 36 AD, we hear this term, the way first used, and it continues to be used all the way into the 50s, AD, 55 AD or so. But now here there is in one place in Antioch, and on 43 AD, the disciples are begun to be called Christians. And this, of course, is the definitive term used to describe followers of Jesus Christ today. Now interestingly enough, this term was only used three times in the New Testament. So the followers of the way are used, it's used much more frequently than Christian in the New Testament. Let's look at another example in 1 Peter 4.

So Peter himself uses this term, which obviously gives it a great deal of weight as a term, which is why we should be very proud to call ourselves Christian. Just as we should be proud to be called followers of the way, and deal with being called the Senate. 1 Peter 4, and in verse 16. And this is echoing some of the themes that we read in the introduction in dealing with persecution. Peter says, if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this manner. And so it's very similar in terms of what he was talking about in his first, in that earlier chapter, where we will suffer as Christians. And if we suffer as Christians, we should not be ashamed, but we should, again, let our light shine and be proud to be a Christian. And again, just to get this in context, Peter wrote a book of 1 Peter, this letter, between 63 and 67 AD. Okay, so now you can see that by 63 and 67 AD, Christian now has emerged as a term that the apostle himself would use. Some scholars believe that the term Christian was originally used in the same way that the sect of the Nazarenes was used, that it was a derisive term, it was a pejorative term, it was a term to put down people.

But in the case of Christian, this term actually became used by Peter and by followers of the way to describe themselves. It became a term that people were proud to use in describing themselves. I refer to myself as a Christian at work. But unfortunately, that term means so many things to so many people, it doesn't often distinguish ourselves from those that practice Catholic or Protestant faiths. So oftentimes, I'll use the term mainstream Christian. I am not a mainstream Christian. I do not have the same beliefs as mainstream Christianity. Or I am a New Testament Christian, for example, or a primitive Christian, if you wanted to use that term, if you wanted to get some sort of description. So now that we've reviewed the three names of followers of Jesus Christ in Scripture, let's look at an example of how Paul described his faith to the religious and political leaders of his day. Let's go to Acts 24 and verse 14. And we'll pick up that story that we briefly saw where he was being accused and there was this reference to the sect of the Nazarenes. Now, we're going to read and we're going to spend some time in Acts 24 verse 14 to 16.

But I want to set the context for this so we really kind of know where we're going. So if you want to just, you can turn your Bible back if you have a book or if you're online, you can just kind of scroll back to Acts 21. Acts 21 is a journey to Jerusalem which ultimately leads at the end of the chapter to Paul's arrest. Paul now has been arrested and in Acts 22 we hear, we see more about a mob that is forming. And just for reference, if you look in Acts 22 in verse 4, I'll just point you there. I persecuted this way, capital W. So we see this again, right? So this way is again how Paul is referring to things here as we get towards the end of the book of Acts. So he talks about persecuting this way. He's addressing the mob. At the end of chapter 22 we find out that he is a citizen of Rome, which has put everybody in a great conundrum because they don't know how to deal with them. They have certain rights now that have to be respected. And so we come to the end of chapter 22 and we get into chapter 23. We see that the Sanhedrin, which is the council of Jewish leaders at the time, Jewish religious leaders, is trying to figure out what to do with Paul. Paul addresses the Jewish council and then there is a plot against Paul's life that's thwarted and exploited by Paul being taken by a very large garrison of men here in 23. Acts 23-23 says here he called for two centurions saying, prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night. Basically this huge contingent is going to go and get Paul and bring him to the palace of Herod in Caesarea. And for the purpose of him being tried formally before Felix, the governor, to see what is actually happening. So there's going to be this this very formal hearing. Felix is not going to allow the Jewish leaders to unilaterally decide what to do with Paul. Paul's a Roman citizen. Paul has certain rights. This has to be dealt with in a very serious and judicial manner. So when we come to the beginning of Acts 24, we see this hearing. And if you want to look, you can google the trial of Acts 24 and you'll see there are various paintings, but this what this thing looked like. There is different part of this rendition. So let's look at the beginning of Acts 24. Now after five days Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullius and these gave evidence to the governor against Paul. So they're going to outline to the governor their case against Paul. Verse 2, and when he was called upon, Tertullius began his accusation saying that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity is being brought to this nation by your foresight. And so he sort of begins by basically saying how great Felix is. This is a great way of ingratiating yourself to the governor. And so he lays out his argument. We read or reread in verse 5. He called them, he called Paul the ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Verse 6, he even tried to profane the temple and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law. But the commander, Lysias, came by and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you by examining him yourself. You may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. And the Jews also assented maintaining that these things were so.

Okay, so basically they've said their peace through verse 9. They have outlined all these terrible things that Paul has done. And the governor now is going to hear Paul's defense in verse 10.

So then in verse 10, Paul, after the governor had not attempted to speak, answered, inasmuch as I know that you have been for many years a judge of this nation, I do more cheerfully answer for myself. So he's going to now answer for himself. Verse 11, because you may ascertain that it is no more than 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship and they neither found me in the temple disputing with anyone nor inciting the crowd either in the synagogue or in the city nor can they prove the things of which they now accuse me. So he's saying, Governor Felix, great Governor Felix, there is no proof or evidence of anything they would say. And I am prepared to share that, basically. This is massive. But now verse 14 is interesting, because verse 14 is now we, where we pick up the story in terms of what this means for us as we describe our faith. Because now Paul is going to say, I don't know about all of that stuff you heard, but I will tell you this about myself and what I believe. Verse 14, but this I confess to you that according to the way, okay, and we've already understood what that means, right, according to the way, which is a very specific thing that he meant, which they call a sect, right? They may call me a sect, that's fine, but according to this way, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets.

Verse 15, I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection unto death, both the just and the unjust, this being so I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and them. That is Paul's definitive statement of his faith before the political leaders and the religious leaders of his day. Now, what can we learn from this? Let's take this apart here, piece by piece. In verse 14, Paul says, I worship the God of my fathers. Now, this clearly shows the assembled crowd that the way, the way, because that's what he defined in the beginning, has a direct connection to the teachings of the patriarchs and the teachings of Jesus Christ and that the teachings of Jesus Christ, because again, followers of the way, are not contrary to the teachings of God as revealed to the great godly men of ancient Israel. Men like Moses, who wrote the Ten Commandments, men like Isaiah, who talked about the Sabbath, and people and prophets like Zechariah, who spoke of the Feast of Tabernacles. That's what we should take away from this.

This verse harkens very much back to Malachi 4 verses 1 through 6. Let's go to Malachi. You can keep your place here in Acts 24. We're going to come back there. But let's look at Malachi 4 verses 1 through 6. We're going to read the whole...we ought to go to 5 and 6. We've read that before, but let's start in Malachi 4 verses 1 through 6.

For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wiggly will stumble, and the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts. That will leave them neither root nor branch, but to you who fear thy name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing in his wings, and you shall go out and grow fat like salt-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this, says the Lord of Hosts.

Verse 4, remember the law of Moses, my servant, which I commanded in the aura of all Israel with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest they should come and strike the earth with a curse.

Paul was pointing back to the patriarchs. He was pointing back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and David, and the prophets they came after, and he was saying, I worship the God of my fathers. As we apply this to our explanations, we should bear in mind that a characteristic of the follower of the way and of a Christian is to worship God the Father, from whom Jesus Christ derived His teaching.

He went back to the God of His fathers. Now, let's go back to Acts 24. Acts 24, verse 14. As if that wasn't enough to make a point, Paul was going to go on, he was going to get even more specific, by saying, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets. This is a reference not just to the first five books of Moses, but of the prophets of Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and of the minor prophets.

And this isn't intended to be a definitive guide to what is scripture. That's not what, you know, well, what about the proper, what about the writings, what about the songs, and such a thing. This isn't intended to be that, but it's intended to provide an affirmation that he believed in the same set of scriptures that the Jews believed in, right? Because he was appearing before the council of the Sanhedrin as well, and representatives, I should say.

And so, he was saying, I believe in the law of the prophets, but essentially what he's saying is, I understand those law of prophets to reveal the coming of Jesus Christ who will magnify the law. I believe in the prophets who predicted that Jesus would come as he did indeed, and that's what I believe. And this is a very important scripture for us as Christians, as followers of the way, because there are modern scholars of Christianity, and I'll name one, Reza Azan. Reza Azan is an Islamic, is a follower of Islam, but he is a modern Christian scholar.

He went to San David, and he says this in his book. He says Peter was a follower of early Jewish teachings, and Paul was the father of modern Christianity as we have it today. And he goes on to say that they were both executed in Rome by the same emperor who felt he was killing two people of the same religion when indeed he was not. This is absurd thinking, and even modern Protestant scholars will argue this point.

But this scripture very specifically refutes this, because if you see Paul affirming the continuity of scripture, now keep in mind that by this time, by the time he has said this, Paul has already written a letter to the first, he's already written two letters to the Corinthians. He's written the letters of first and second Corinthians by the time this happens. He's written the letters of first and second Thessalonians by the time this happens. He's written the book of Galatians. Now, there is a book for modern Christianity, right?

He's written the book of Galatians already by the time he says that I believe all things that are written in the law and the prophets. So Paul is affirming the continuity of scripture here completely, that he wrote those books and he believes in those scriptures before, and there is no difference in those scriptures. We understand that Jesus Christ came to magnify and explain the law and to reveal God the Father.

And so we don't have to go through complicated arguments of why one of the Ten Commandments, the Sabbath, is not really the Sabbath, because you see that's something else and there isn't really a holy time, but of course you can't kill, but you don't need to keep the Sabbath, right? These are very... or go through these theological arguments that, well, Jesus kept the Sabbath until he was killed, and then at that point all of those laws were nailed to the cross and done away with, so we don't have to keep the Sabbath even though we're followers of Jesus Christ, and even though we're supposed to follow Paul as Paul followed Christ, we don't have to do that because you see there's this theological construct about an old and new...

I mean, you know, it gets really complicated after a while to follow these things. We don't need to go through any of those. If you wanted to elaborate on the question of the Sabbath, you could go to the continuity of teaching in Genesis, where God rested on the Sabbath. You could go to the book of Exodus, where the Ten Commandments include the Sabbath. You could go to the book of Isaiah, where Isaiah says, do not trample the Sabbath. You could go to the book of Zechariah, where he says that we will be keeping the Feast of Tabernacles upon the return of Jesus Christ.

You can see this complete continuity of Scripture, and this is what Paul affirms. Let's go to verse 15. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. So now that Paul has described a framework of the law and the prophets, he's going to call out a specific doctrine, and it's the doctrine of the resurrections, which is a unique characteristic of our faith. You see, if you read commentaries on this verse, what they'll say is, this is kind of confusing, because there's only one resurrection, right?

There's only a resurrection of the just, and they'll say Paul never speaks of multiple resurrections, except in this one place. And yet, even scholars will acknowledge that John speaks of a resurrection multiple, and Revelation also clearly speaks of multiple resurrections.

So the resurrection is something that Paul went to as a hope. That is to say, no one's going to heaven.

This would be a great time if Paul wanted to tell Felix that he was going to heaven.

Right? Wouldn't that be a great time? But he's not telling Felix that he's going to heaven. He's telling Felix that he has a hope in the resurrection. So if we apply this to ourselves, if we are asked about a distinctive doctrine of our faith, we could share that we don't believe that people go to heaven when they die. But based on the teachings we see in the Bible, there are multiple resurrections which provide an opportunity for all people who have a chance to know God. This speaks to the concepts of first fruits and the fact that Jesus spoke in parables so the crowds could not understand. You see, my daughter was taught at a non-denominational Christian school that Jesus spoke in parables so that people could understand better.

She was taught that, okay? But the Scripture doesn't say that. He spoke in parables so that the people could not understand Him because it wasn't their time to understand, because it's not everybody's time right now. So there's a concept of first fruits, and so this is what Paul would go to. And finally in verse 16, this being so, I myself always strive to add a conscience without offense towards God and men. Now, you know, there's a lot of discussion of conscience, and let's define conscience here. This word, conscience, is a difficult word to print out, so I'm going to do my best, okay? It starts with sin. S-Y-N, not sin as in breaking the law, but sin as in the Greek word, which means with, okay? Like synonym, okay? Sin, which means with, and eodesis, that's E-I-D-E-S-I-S, which means together, oh, excuse me, which means with, to know, or to know together, or to jointly know. A conscience, and this is a definition by the word dictionary, it's a mainstream Christian dictionary, the definition is a conscience joins moral and spiritual consciousness as part of being created in the divine image. Accordingly, all people have this God-given capacity to know right from wrong because each is a free moral agent. Another way that defines it is innate discernment, or self-judging consciousness.

So he has a conscience. Now, we read earlier about a good conscience. So what is a conscience? Well, a conscience speaks to our frame of mind. And what is that frame of mind? Well, that's a repentant heart that has been justified by God and therefore is aligned to God's law.

So that is to say, a fall of growth away, who abides by the law of the prophets, who understands that Jesus created a new and living way and access to the Father, has and is striving to follow and imitate Paul as Paul imitates Christ, is understanding God's law and has a conscience which then provides a guide as to what his behavior should be, both towards God and towards men. That's interesting. That harkens back to Jesus when he was described as growing up and earning favor before God and men. So it's not just with God. Sometimes, like, I'm right before God. I would refer to that. The first four commandments are very much about our relationship with God and the second are very much, the second and the sixth are very much about our relationship towards man. That's what Jesus described, right, when he said, love God and love your neighbor. So we have a good conscience towards God and man. It is a repentant heart and it's a heart that guides us. So when we make decisions, we just don't think about our relationship with God, but we think about how that comes across to those we work with, those in the church, those in our family, and we behave broadly towards them. And we are convicted and we are not having our conscience seared with our honor and as it says. Now the conscience, by the way, is a great sermon. I'm really looking forward to giving a sermon on conscience. There's just so much there and I hope we can discuss conscience more. That's not my purpose here, is to go into that. But he then finishes this discord, saying he has a good conscience. That is, I treat people justly, fairly. I would not lie. I would not do things which would incite strife in my community, right? These are the things he's being accused of. I would not say that I'm going to destroy this, right, or do something that would be contrary here as a citizen of this country, unless, of course, it is contrary to God's law. This is what he's sharing with Felix. So this is his discord. This is a framework that we can consider, right? All says, I'm a follower of the way. Nice start. Oh, what is your faith? I'm a Christian. Oh, okay. That's great. Order the pizza. I mean, you know, you can just stop right there. I'm a Christian. Oh, good. Oh, I thought you were Jewish. Okay, done. It all goes on to say, I believe in the, as it says here, I worship the God of my fathers. Okay, so the second thing might say, yeah, I'm a New Testament Christian, and I follow the teachings as outlined in the Bible, or New Testament. A little bit different than what you might see in normal Catholic or Protestant teachings. Oh, okay. Again, you can stop there, right? You know, because what Paul is doing is he's marching through, he's peeling back the onion, right, as he describes it. You could stop there.

You could go further. Somebody could say, oh, tell me more about that. Well, you see, I believe in the continuity of Scripture. So things that are said in the Old Testament, I think, are repeated and magnified in the New Testament. And so I believe in the law of the prophets and what's described in the New Testament being just a continuation of that. Oh, wow! Okay, what's an example of that? Well, an example of that might be that I believe that there's a resurrection.

Right? I mean, this is what Paul is doing, right? He's just marching, he's peeling back the layers of the onion, he's giving them a little bit more detail on each level. And you have to judge that, depending on who you're speaking with, right? We'll use the resurrection. A lot of times we don't go to the resurrection. That's kind of heavy. You have to judge who you're speaking with. You might just go simply to the Sabbath. No, I actually believe that, you know, in the 10th commandments when it talks about remembering the Sabbath day, which is Friday night sunset to Saturday night sunset, that actually I'm not supposed to work on that day. And I see that Jesus didn't work on that day. And a lot of his followers, as I read through Scripture, didn't do that. In fact, I can't find any examples where they did do that. Oh, okay, that's interesting. And again, you might stop there.

And then, if you want to go one final step, you know, you might say, and, you know, I have to live by every word that I read here. And I, you know, I really have, my conscience tells me that I have to do these things. So I know that might be difficult in terms of the situation here with the work schedules. But I hope that the work schedule can be reworked, where maybe I can work on a Sunday, you know, and somebody else can cover my shift on a Sabbath. Because my conscience says that I really have to follow that. So here's a biblical framework for discussing our faith. Very matter of fact, you speaking before Felix, just like we were going to speak before people who are not in the church. I hope this has been helpful to go through these three names of followers of Jesus Christ and the example, biblical example, of how it's done.

I would leave you with the final scripture, Matthew 10, verse 33. Matthew 10, verse 33, because it's something that we are told we have to consider. Matthew 10, verse 33.

Part of verse 32 says, therefore whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. For whoever denies me before man, him I will also deny my Father who is in heaven. And if we think about this, I hope I've given you some principles to think about, right? We don't need to stand on the corner and say, repent.

But we also don't need to hide. All didn't hide, and we need to be very confident, very matter-of-fact, ready to go through examples, the Sabbath, the resurrection, whatever it might be, and to stand firm on those principles, knowing that we will receive a great reward, as Peter says. I hope this has been helpful.