A Fact is A Fact

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

A FACT IS A FACT

Acts 26:1-8

26:1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You have permission to speak for yourself." So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: 2 "King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently. 4 "The Jews all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. 5 They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that according to the strictest sect of our religion, I lived as a Pharisee. 6 And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our fathers that I am on trial today. 7 This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. 8 Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

NIV

This defense of Paul is going to take some time and therefore we will need to take some of it at a time. First, Paul lets Agrippa know that Paul was a Jew of Jews and that he held to all the law and in fact, zealously followed the law. Paul makes sure that all the Jews were patiently and anxiously waiting for the Messiah to come because God had promised them it would be so. This is the hope of all the Jews, but the problem is that they could not come to terms with two facts. First, that Jesus was the Messiah, and second, that God raised him from the dead. Paul asked this very important question about why anyone would consider it incredible that God raises the dead. We think it comes down to how we perceive who God is. In the culture in which Paul lived many societies have multiple Gods. We think of when Jesus was in Caesarea Philippi with his disciples and they were near both a temple built for Caesar, a man who wanted to be a god, and a temple built for a god named Pan, who is said of he wanted to be a man. Although Pan was just an idol that could not see, hear, or speak. Nevertheless, here is where Jesus asked his disciples, “who do you say that I am”? Yet, God is almost impossible to completely define from our human perspective. We do have all the scripture which gives us some insight, or at least what insight God desires us to have of his character and his unlimited power and abilities, which include raising the dead. Considering the fact that God formed us from the dirt and breathed his very breath into us, he should by all accounts not only be able to bring life back into a dead body but that he can heal our current living bodies. Jesus gave us that insight about healing in that as many that came to him, he healed. This is also true of having a resurrected life. God gives a resurrected life to all who come to him, through Jesus. Although, we Christians call it our hope, as Paul indicated the hope of the Jews, we cannot understand the word hope when it is fact, because God said it. The Greek word Elpis has this meaning of anticipation, usually with pleasure, but also an expectation or confidence. We think hope is not truly hoping when we are confident of the outcome. If a professional football team were to play against a minor league high school team, we would not need any hope about the professional team winning. We would have confidence in the outcome. Because we have the promise of God and the demonstration of his power to raise the dead, we need not hope that happens, for we are confident it will. There is no doubt, no question whatsoever, that because we believe in Jesus Christ and have committed our life in Him, we will be raised from the dead and have eternal life in the same glorified body that Jesus has after he was raised from the dead. A fact is a fact, and we need not hope that it is a fact and the fact is God will raise us up from the dead.