Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 9

January 9;   Acts 25:3;   9/260(II);   ‘Religion Kills’

 Acts 25:3 asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem — while they lay in ambush along the road to kill him.

 The High Priest of the Jews spoke with Festus, the Governor of Caesarea.  Paul was in Caesarea and the High Priest and the chief men of the Jews asked Festus to send Paul to Jerusalem from Caesarea.  The reason they did this, was to ambush Paul along the way and kill him.  Before his conversion, Paul was a zealous religious Jew.  He went everywhere he could and did everything he could to destroy Christians.  Then, with orders in his hands to arrest Christians, Saul (Paul’s name before he became a Christian), was on his way to Damascus to wreak havoc with the believers.  The Lord Jesus, from heaven, confronted Saul and very clearly told him that he was persecuting Jesus.  This is worth mentioning here.  As we just said, Jesus was in heaven and Saul was persecuting Christians, but Jesus told Saul that he was persecuting Jesus.  Let that comfort you.  When you are persecuted as a believer, Jesus sees it as persecution against Him and He will help you.  Saul changed quickly and became just as zealous for the Lord Jesus as he was for his religious beliefs.  Very quickly, the religious leaders, when they saw the incredible change in Paul, wanted to kill him.  Think of that, these religious hypocrites put on a good front, but when the truth of God’s Word is preached, they will oppose it any way that they can, including murder.  It is no wonder that religion does not help people, religion puts people in bondage.  Since Paul served the Lord Jesus so faithfully, Jesus, knowing the plot of the religious Jews, saw to it that Paul was protected from their murderous plans.  Religion destroys, Christianity brings life.