The World’s View – Acts 25:22-27

It seems that every few months there arises a new phrase or term that begins to permeate our speech.

For example, a year or so ago, I started hearing people talk about so-and-so’s “world view.”

It took me a while to figure out what exactly that means,

and since these terms are often not clearly defined,

who knows if I’ve accurately figured it out.

But, as the name implies, it appears to me that someone’s world view is how that person looks at the world.

The Christian should look at the world as created by God, overcome by sin, and now under the dominion of Satan.

A great many scientists look at the world as a self-operating machine.

The atheist may have a different “world view.”

The animist, who worships his dead ancestors along with the rocks and volcano, has his “world view.”

And the Hindu has his, while the Buddhist has his.

Even within Christianity there are different ways to look upon the world & all the events that take place in it.

And just as there are different ways to look at the world, the world has different ways of looking at you.

There are a lot of things in life about which most people have the same opinions.

Things like pain and pleasure, health and wealth, and of course – death.

I’m sure that there are a few people in this world who enjoy pain,

and there are enough suicides to remind us that not everyone looks at death the same way,

but for the most part the lost world thinks pretty much alike on things like these.

But, the world looks at you in a variety of different ways.

And four of these are brought to us in these closing verses of chapter 25.

I know that we have touched on these before, but let’s think about them once again.

There are a lot of people who HATE who you are and HATE Whom you represent.

In verse 24 Festus said,

“King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, ye see this man,

about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem, and also here,

crying that HE OUGHT NOT TO LIVE ANY LONGER.”

To say that someone “should not live any longer,” is not the same thing as saying that we hate that person.

For example, when there is overwhelming evidence that someone is a mass-murderer, the people who sit on his jury and declare that he should be executed do not necessarily hate the person.

And although it’s not the same thing; it might actually be love when someone decides to end the life of a pet which is in tremendous pain.

That of course, is not true, when we are talking about a human being.

Euthanasia is not an option when we are talking about human life.

But when those Jews were saying that Paul ought not to live, it was clear that their only motivation was hatred.

As I’ve said several times, the years, though which these people’s desire to see Paul dead, proves their hatred.

And generally speaking when people say that they are willing to die to ensure the death of another person, it’s an indication that hatred is at the root of the problem.

Now, let’s say that this was said about you and me, instead of Paul – someone hates you.

I don’t know about you, but this would greatly upset me.

I think that such a situation would demand some investigation and correction if at all possible.

Why are there people in this world who hate Christians?

Do you suppose that Paul had done something personally despicable which provoked this hatred?

Was he a rapist? Had he stolen some widow’s house or retirement fund?

Was he an Elmer Gantry or Jimmy Jones – using some cultic religion for his personal pleasure or to make himself rich?

No. There was nothing in the ordinary personal life, which made people hate him.

Paul was hated for being an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ.

The problem with the Jewish Priesthood was that it refused to recognize Jesus as Christ and as the Son of God.

Paul was uplifting the Saviour, and people were being drawn to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And a result of that was that the power of the Priests and Sanhedrin was being eaten away.

I’m sure that those Jews would have talked about heresy, blasphemy and proselyting,

but the way that they tenaciously attacked Paul proved that in addition to these –

they despised and detested him.

But what course of action was available to Paul?

What could he do to make the people like him, or stop hating him? Not much.

If the Saviour couldn’t or wouldn’t turn the hearts of the people, then there wasn’t much that Paul could do.

His only course of action – YOUR only course of action – is to keep doing what the Master has commissioned us to do.

And at the same time make sure that there aren’t other things in our lives which might offend the lost.

We need to be as kind, as loving, as helpful, as affable, and as godly as we can be.

The lost don’t need any help finding things to hate about us, because we already have Christ.

While we do all that we can to be good neighbors,

we need to pray that the Lord save those people who hate us,

so that their hearts might become one with ours.

They can be won over.

Remember that Paul was among the haters before he became a hatee.

If it can happen to him, it can happen to those who hate us.

A second way to look upon the Christian is with PERPLEXITY.

“Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and specially before thee, O king Agrippa, that,

after examination had, I might have somewhat to write.

For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner,

and not withal to signify the crimes laid against him.”

Paul was a problem to the government of Festus.

The Jews were calling for his death, but so far he couldn’t find any reason to execute him.

And apparently Felix hadn’t found any reason to put him to death either, or he would have done so.

But, on the other hand, if the Jews were so adamant that he should die, there must be something evil in this guy.

But again, Festus couldn’t figure out what that evil was – this Christian and his Christianity were enigmas.

I’ve gone on record saying that this Festus was a better man than his predecessor Felix.

But that doesn’t mean that he was better in every area.

There was something good in Felix which, for whatever reason, Festus never employed.

Felix had sent for Paul quite often “and communed with him.”

Only God can tell us whether or not Festus’ perplexity could have been dissipated if he too would have privately communed with Paul for a while, but it never happened.

Felix was perplexed by this man.

Paul was treated like dirt, and yet there wasn’t any evidence of reciprocal hatred or retaliation.

Actually, this view of the Christian is one of the best that we might expect from the lost man.

It means that we are living the kind of life that the Lord requires.

It means that we are making people around us question things: us, if nothing more.

And if those people give us the opportunity, we should be able to bring their thoughts toward the Lord Jesus.

Perplexity about us is a good thing if we don’t spoil it by displaying our humanity and our sin.

The world’s third world view is CURIOSITY.

As we have said before, curiosity might be a good thing, but then again it might be a flop.

“Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself.”

Curiosity like this might come from a dozen different sources, and it might have just as many goals.

Agrippa’s family had been introduced to Jesus Christ and Christianity at its very infancy.

This man’s kinfolk had murdered the babies in Bethlehem in an attempt to kill the Messiah.

And they had murdered John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Christ.

They had met Jesus after his arrest and just before his crucifixion.

And they had been bumping into the Christians ever since.

So this man, Herod Agrippa II, certainly was familiar with them, and he undoubtedly had met some.

But here he had an opportunity to meet one of the ringleaders of those Nazarenes.

This is something that we should desire for ourselves: not to be curious, but to be curiosity bait.

“Lord, what do I need to do to make the lost curious about you?

“Is there anything in my life which sets me apart from the rest of humanity?

What can I do to enhance that difference and show to the world its source?”

Of course we are different, if we are children of God,

but is there anything in us which can be seen – recognized.

Why is it that Christians want to appear like the world?

Why do they want to blend in?

They say that it’s to win the friendship and confidence of the lost, so that they can eventually bring them to the cross.

But clearly, that is NOT the plan that is outlined in the Bible.

We are supposed to be different from the world.

We are supposed to be like Lord.

And let us not forget that “friendship with the world is enmity against God.”

The fourth view that the world has of us is INVISIBILITY.

For the sake of my message, I’m going to put words into Bernice’s mouth.

As I’ve said before, she was the niece of Herodias, the woman who so hated John the Baptist that she caused about his death.

This Bernice may have been the most hate-filled person in Caesarea.

But then again, we aren’t actually told that.

All that we are actually told is that she went with her husband into the meeting with Paul.

He wanted to meet and to hear Paul, but we aren’t told that she did.

It could have been that she was so full of herself and the pomp and ceremony that went with her luxurious lifestyle, that she couldn’t possibly have cared any less about Paul.

If he lived or died, she didn’t care.

If he served a life sentence in jail or walked the streets of Jerusalem, she didn’t care.

And as far as the Jesus of Nazareth business was concerned, that was a subject for theologians and heresy hunters.

That MAY have been her attitude.

And if it wasn’t that is certainly the way that millions of Americans feel.

It is this “world view,” these people who don’t see us at all, who are the most troublesome.

These can be “good” people, or very evil people.

These can be people in power who are too busy to care, or they can be our neighbors and co-workers.

Can they be won to the Truth? Yes, they can.

But it will take the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit.

Humanly speaking these people may be the hardest of all to bring to Christ.

Like each of the others, they need our prayers.