Real Hope Is More Than Optimism

How to Share Your Faith Without Selling It

The audio of this teaching is available on Spotify.

What Is Acts 26 About?

Acts 26 records the Apostle Paul's defense before King Herod Agrippa II and the Roman governor Festus. Paul has already spent more than two years in custody. He has been arrested, jailed, put on trial, targeted in an assassination plot, jailed again, and tried again. He has appealed to Caesar, which means Rome is legally obligated to send him to Nero. The problem is that nobody can figure out what to write on the charge sheet.

For it seems unreasonable to me to send a prisoner without indicating the charges against him.  Acts 25:27 (CSB)

So this hearing is not really about Paul's guilt. It is a paperwork problem. And Paul, given the floor, does not use his time to argue for his release. He uses it to talk about hope.

Who Was King Agrippa in the Bible?

Paul opens by acknowledging that Agrippa is deeply familiar with Jewish customs and controversies. That is not flattery. It is history.

Bible Nerd Nugget: Agrippa II came from a family line with a long resume of opposing this movement. His great-grandfather ordered the killing of the boys in Bethlehem in Matthew 2. His grandfather beheaded John the Baptist. His father, Herod Agrippa I, executed the Apostle James in Acts 12. Paul is standing in front of a man whose family had been trying to stop this story for three generations, and Paul is about to tell him the story anyway.

What Does the Bible Say Hope Actually Is?

For most of us, hope has become a junk drawer word. We throw everything in it and forget what is actually in there. When our culture says "I hope so," what it usually means is "I am feeling optimistic about this." Hope becomes cliche, a little naive, mildly inspirational, and mostly weightless.

Paul uses the word very differently. In two verses he gives it three working parts.

1. Hope is something you wait for.

And now I stand on trial because of the hope in what God promised to our ancestors.  Acts 26:6 (CSB)

Paul reaches back into the Old Testament. God made a promise of a Messiah, a Redeemer, a Savior. Generations lived and died waiting on it.

2. Hope is something you anticipate.

the promise our twelve tribes hope to reach as they earnestly serve him night and day.  Acts 26:7 (CSB)

Anticipation means a desired outcome is in view. We use hope this way all the time. I hope I get the promotion, meaning I am anticipating that sixty hour weeks will eventually be noticed and rewarded.

3. Hope is something you believe in.

King Agrippa, I am being accused by the Jews because of this hope.  Acts 26:7 (CSB)

Our culture takes those three parts and uses them separately, which is how hope gets reduced to optimism. Paul overlaps all three. Picture three circles pushed together. Whatever sits in the center, the thing you are waiting for and anticipating and believing in all at once, is where your hope is actually attached. Paul's entire argument across the back half of Acts is that the only foundation strong enough to hold that weight is the resurrected Jesus.

Why Does Paul Ask If It Is Incredible That God Raises the Dead?

Why do any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?  Acts 26:8 (CSB)

The honest answer is that it is incredible. That is exactly why people consider it incredible. But Paul is not asking for information. It is a rhetorical question set against everything he just said, and the point underneath it is this: I am standing here in chains because I have the one thing every person in this room is looking for.

Everybody wants hope. Everybody is waiting for something. Everybody is anticipating something. Everybody is trying to find something worth believing in. Paul is not defending a religion. He is holding up the thing the whole room is already searching for.

This is a consistent theme in his trials:

●      Acts 23:6, before the Sanhedrin, Paul says he is being judged because of the hope of the resurrection of the dead.

●      Acts 25:19, Festus summarizes the whole dispute as a disagreement about a dead man named Jesus whom Paul claims is alive.

What Does It Mean to Be a Dealer of Hope?

Here is where this speech is different from Paul's other recorded defenses. He does not stop at telling the room where to find hope. He tells them what he has done with the hope he found. He retells the Damascus road story, the day Jesus met him, confronted him, and reassigned him.

But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.  Acts 26:16-18 (CSB)

Servant and witness. That is the job description. Paul did not just find hope, he became a distributor of it. A dealer of hope.

And this is not a specialty assignment reserved for apostles. The same commission shows up in Matthew 28:18-20 for every follower of Jesus. If you have found hope, you have been sent to hopeless people with it. That is the identity.

From verse 19 forward, Paul gives three clues for how that actually gets lived out.

Why Does Obedience Matter When You Share Your Faith?

Dealers deal.

So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Instead, I preached to those in Damascus first, and to those in Jerusalem and in all the region of Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works worthy of repentance.  Acts 26:19-20 (CSB)

Not disobedient means obedient. Paul got the assignment and he went. Damascus, Jerusalem, Judea, the Gentiles, and now a courtroom in Caesarea.

Wayne Gretzky said you miss one hundred percent of the shots you do not take. Kobe Bryant put it shorter: shooters shoot. Kobe still holds the record for the most missed field goals in NBA history, and he was fine with that, because he would rather miss the buzzer beater than carry the shame of never taking the shot. Shooters shoot. Dealers deal.

Where Does the Power to Share Your Faith Come From?

Dealers depend.

To this very day, I have had help from God, and I stand and testify to both small and great.  Acts 26:22 (CSB)

How long has Paul had help from God? From the day on that road until the day he is standing in chains. Every single day in between.

Every dealer has a supplier. A car dealership is not building cars in the back and rolling them onto the lot. They receive the product so they can do the one thing they exist to do, which is distribute it. Jesus said it plainly in John 15:5, that apart from him we can do nothing, and in John 14 he promised a Helper. Acts opens with the Holy Spirit being given as power for exactly this work.

You cannot manufacture conviction. You cannot manufacture life change. You were never asked to. That is the Spirit's work, and it is a relief, not a limitation.

How Do You Grow a Burden for People Far From God?

Dealers desire.

Are you going to persuade me to become a Christian so easily? I wish before God, replied Paul, that whether easily or with difficulty, not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am, except for these chains.  Acts 26:28-29 (CSB)

Bible Nerd Nugget: The word behind Paul's "I wish" carries the sense of a wish, a prayer, and a longing all at once. This is not a polite sentiment at the end of a speech. It is the thing driving the whole speech. Paul is chained to a soldier and his stated desire is that the king holding his fate would end up like him, minus the chains.

Which puts a question on the table for us. Do we carry a real burden for people who are far from God? Not a general concern for the world. An actual weight for actual people.

What Is the Difference Between Selling Jesus and Sharing Jesus?

Most of us hear a message like this and agree with all of it, and then think: I have no idea how to start. Do I need to get arrested first?

Here is the shift that takes the pressure off. Dealing is not selling.

●      Selling is a transaction. A salesman memorizes every feature, every benefit, every highlight, because his job is to have an answer to every objection and convince you that you need the product.

●      Dealing is distribution. You have something good, and you are simply getting it into the hands of people who already want it.

We are not salesmen of Jesus. We do not have to convince people that their lives are missing something. Most of them already know. They have attached their hope to a relationship, a career, a bank account, a version of the future, and watched it come up short. Our job is not to win an argument. It is to hand over what we have.

Or as one guy put it: if someone is drowning, they do not need you to teach them the Greek word for life jacket or come up with a clever phrase for a personal flotation device. They need you to throw them one.

How Do I Share My Faith When I Don't Know Where to Start?

Three steps, and none of them require a stage, a seminary degree, or a memorized script. They are the three points in reverse.

Step One: Identify Three to Five People by Name

Do not start with the whole world. Paul did not deal in abstractions. Nobody had to explain to him who Agrippa was. He knew the actual person in front of him.

Write down three to five real names of people in your life who do not know Jesus. A neighbor. A coworker. A family member. Someone at the gym. Put the list somewhere you will see it every day. Pastor David keeps a sticky note on his laptop home screen with three names on it.

Step Two: Pray for Them by Name Every Day

Not "bless my coworkers." By name, out loud, daily. Ask God to open their eyes and to hand you a no-brainer opportunity to share the hope that is in you. This is the dependence piece. The Holy Spirit is already at work in that person's story long before you show up.

Peter says in 1 Peter 3:15 to always be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you. Praying by name is how you stay ready.

Step Three: Connect the Next Link in the Chain

Every person is a chain of links, and our job is to add the next one. Start with a shared interest. Get on a first name basis. Be around.

Pastor David has prayed by name for a guy from his CrossFit gym every day for over a year. This week that guy walked up and said he and his wife are getting divorced and he had no idea who to tell. That is a no-brainer moment, and it only exists because of a thousand ordinary links laid down ahead of it. Nobody turns down prayer when their life is falling apart.

You may not lay the final link. Celebrate every one anyway. Every link is a mile marker.

What If I Am the One Still Looking for Hope?

Some of us would say honestly that we are not the dealer in this story. We are the one still searching. We have attached our hope to a handful of things and watched every one of them fail to hold.

Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Matthew 11:28 (CSB)

The invitation is not to try harder or clean up first. It is to trust him with the thing you have been carrying, and to attach your hope to the one foundation that has already proven it can hold. Jesus was beaten, crucified, buried, and three days later walked out of a grave alive in front of witnesses. That is not a fairy tale or a figment of imagination. When Festus told Paul he was out of his mind, Paul answered that he was speaking words of truth and good judgment.

If that is where you are this morning, tell someone. Reach out at bc3.church or find someone on our team on a Sunday. That first step is not as big as it feels.

Discussion Questions About Acts 26

1. Before this message, how would you have defined hope? Where does your working definition line up with Paul's three parts, and where is it closer to plain optimism?

2. Paul says he is on trial because he has the one thing everyone wants. Do you actually believe the people around you are looking for hope? What makes that hard to believe some days?

3. Which of the three is hardest for you right now: dealing, depending, or desiring? Why that one?

4. Where have you slipped into selling Jesus instead of dealing hope? What does the shift from convincing to distributing change about how you would approach a conversation this week?

5. Who are the three to five names on your list? Say them out loud to your group and let them pray with you for those people.

6. What would one link look like this week with one of those people? Be specific enough that someone could ask you about it next week.

This Week's Challenge from Acts 26

1. Identify. Write down three to five people in your life who do not know Jesus. Actual names, somewhere you will see them daily.

2. Pray. Pray for each person by name, out loud, every day. Ask God to open their eyes and to give you a no-brainer opportunity.

3. Connect a link. Take one concrete step toward one of those people this week. A meal, a text, a question, showing up where they are.

Scripture Referenced in This Message

Acts 26:1-32, Acts 25:19, Acts 25:27, Acts 23:6, Acts 12, Matthew 2, Matthew 11:28, Matthew 28:18-20, John 3:16, John 14, John 15:5, 1 Peter 3:15.

All Scripture quoted from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB).

Bear Creek Community Church exists to help people find life with Jesus. We gather Sundays at 10:30 AM in Lavon, Texas, serving families across Lavon, Wylie, Josephine, Royse City, and Rockwall. Plan your visit at bc3.church.

Watch or listen to the full Unstoppable Church series, our verse by verse journey through the Book of Acts, at bc3.church.