The Almost Christian

 

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH 

SUNDAY 31 AUGUST 2025 pm – PASTOR DENIS LYLE

Acts 26 verses 13 – 32

THE ALMOST CHRISTIAN – verse 28

D L Moody, the famous American evangelist.by his own admission made a mistake on 8 October 1871. It was a mistake he was determined not to repeat. He was preaching in Chicago at a gospel mission. It drew his largest audience. His message was – “what should I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” He presented the gospel faithfully. He then said “now I am going to give you a week to think over what I have said, when we come together again I will give you an opportunity to respond.” A soloist began to sing but before the final note the music was drowned out by clanging bells and wailing siren. The great Chicago fire had started. In the ash afterwards hundreds were dead with over 100,000 homeless. Some of those who had heard D L Moody that evening had perished in that fire. He reflected remorsefully he would give his right arm before he would give an audience another week to think about that message of the gospel.

Are you here right at the door of salvation, right at the point of making a decision for Jesus. Perhaps you think you have another opportunity. Maybe you will say “Pastor what you said in the service is true, I agree 100%, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” Is that not what King Agrippa said to Paul? This is one of the most dramatic stories in all the word of God. Anybody who was anybody was in Caesarea that night. If you ever travel to Israel and arrive in Tel Aviv at Ben Gurion airport you would travel up to Caesarea, a beautiful setting, beautiful place. This story took place in Caesarea. Everyone who was anybody was there to welcome Festus, the new Roman governor. King Agrippa came to visit with his sister Bernice. While they are there to pay their respects they are confronted with this man, the apostle Paul. Imagine the scene. These different characters represent people in this audience tonight. Festus represents those who are alienated from Christ. He thought Paul was a mad man, that Christianity was an emotional crutch to get you through life. Paul represents those who are altogether for Christ, he was total committed to Christ – he lived by one motto “For me to live is Christ is to die is gain.” Agrippa represents those who are almost to Christ, he was almost a Christian, not altogether saved. When you look through the word of God this it is not the first time of the tragedy of the almost. Remember Israel at Kadesh Barnea when they turned and walked away. Almost in the Promised Land but not altogether for 40 years they wandered almost in the land of promise but not altogether. Remebmer the man who came to Jesus. Jesus told him “thou are not far from the kingdom.” Almost but not altogether. One of the greatest tragedies is for a  person to be almost saved. What a tragedy to hear the word of God preached yet turn away, never be saved. I wonder in recent days have you been thinking about your relationship with God? Have you been thinking of your destiny, eternity. You have been very close, almost a Christian. I want to talk about the almost Christian.

First, what persuaded King Agrippa? Paul was doing his best to persuade the king to become a Christian. Verse 29. How do you persuade someone to become a Christian? What persuaded him to say this?  First of all there was the persuasion of powerful scriptures – verse 26. What things was he thinking of? Verse 22. Moses and the prophets. The scriptures. What the bible has to say. He used the powerful tool called the holy scriptures to bring Agrippa to the point of salvation. It is the purpose of the word of God. To bring a person to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. The intention of the bible is to bring a person face to face with his sin and need of salvation, with the loveliness, adequacy and sufficiency of Christ. Has the word of God had an impact on your life in recent days? I wonder as it cut you like a sword, crushed you like a hammer, consumed you like a fire? Charles Haddon Spurgeon was checking out the acoustics in Crystal Palace London. He would preach to thousands of people and he was trying out his voice on the platform. He stood and shouted “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.” A workman at the back of the balcony heard the message. The Spirit of God took the word of God and applied it to his heart. He couldn’t sleep, that word of God was searching him, smiting him. He got down on his knees and repents. Those words brought him to faith in Christ. Has the word spoken to you in recent days? He used persuasion of powerful scriptures. He also used persuasion of the personal soul winner.  “I am persuaded.” Paul was the Lord’s messenger to bear his name before Kings and Gentiles. Although all the leading citizens of the city are around him Paul has one purpose. His eye is on one man, his focus was upon King Agrippa. He mentioned his name repeatedly. Verses 2, 7, 13, 19 and 27. What’s this man doing? He is after the soul of King Agrippa. Don’t be surprised if God mentions your name. Don’t be surprised if he takes what I say tonight and makes it personal. God has a habit of doing taking that, the statement of messenger so that you think the preacher is getting at you. Have you ever had that experience, you felt uncomfortable as you listened to the message of the gospel? That no-one else is in the building. That you are answering to God for all of your sins. God was after the soul of King Agrippa. Paul was after the soul of King Agrippa. I wonder if you have ever encountered some Christian who is living for the Lord? They love the Lord. They have challenged you about your need of Christ speaking about salvation. Is God using that as a link in the chain? There was also the persuasion of the precious Saviour. “For this thing was not done in the corner.” He is talking of the cross of Christ, how he went to calvary and died for our sins. He took the king by the hand and led him up Calvary’s hill. Can you see the soldiers gambling for the garments of the Lord Jesus. Can you hear the crowds as they said “he saved others let him save himself.” Hear the cry from Jesus himself “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do. My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me. It is finished. Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit.” When he died on the cross he was dying for your sins. Is there not something persuasive about that? Is there not something deeply moving about that? For the sinless the Son of God, the one who did no sin, knew no sin, was no sin. He was dying for my filthy sin. He was bearing my sins on his body. All my sins were laid on him. Jesus bore them on the tree. Then Paul talked about the resurrection of Christ. No-one could become a Christian. No-one could believe in Jesus without believing the death and resurrection of Christ. Christ died for your sins. God judged them on your behalf. He became your substitute. He was buried and raised on the third day indicating that he was fully satisfied with the work of his Son accomplished on the tree. Able to save. Able to satisfy. Paul confronted him with the truth and he said “almost thou persuadest me.”

What dissuaded the King? Why was the king almost there but not altogether there? Imagine what the King Agrippa felt at this time. The Herods of the New Testament were not such a nice family. They were always opposing Christ and the gospel. Not the first time he had come into contact with the gospel. Some of his family had terrible deaths but now God is at work in his life. He is moved internally and something is happening in his life. He was standing at the gate of almost but never got into the land of altogether. Why? He faced a number of problems. Problem one was corruption, of Bernice. Agrippa was her brother but they had one of the most infamous relationships in all of the scriptures. Here they were brother and sister but they were living in incestuous relationship husband and wife. If he would become a Christian he realised he would have to give up his sin. He stopped short of coming to know the Lord because he realised he would have to turn from his sin. He had a corruption problem sin. Do you recognise that? You have to turn from sin if you come to Christ. “Except you repent you shall all likewise perish.” Many come to the verge of coming to Christ but they turn their backs on the Lord because of sin.  They have turned away because of sin. When you begin to think of coming to Christ what sin is keeping you for the Saviour. There was not only Bernice and the problem of corruption. There was Festus, the problem of courage – verse 24. Festus looked at Paul and said “you are a crazy man.” Maybe Agrippa thought what would Festus say if I become a Christian a follower of the Lamb? Is the fear of man keeping you back friends think, my wife or husband say, the people I work with, the boys I play football with say?  Harry Ironside had a godly mother. She would often talk to him about coming to Christ. He would always say “I would love to become a Christian but I am afraid of what my friends would say, I am afraid they would laugh at me.” She would reply “remember Harry your friends will laugh you into hell but they will never laugh out of hell.” Is the fear of others keeping you from committing your heart to Christ? What was it that dissuaded the King. There was Paul, the problem of cost? Paul might have been one of the reasons why Agrippa didn’t become a Christian. There he stands with chains on his hands, scars on his back, manacles on his feet. He sees it would cost him to becoming a follower. Was he not willing to pay the price? It costs you nothing to become a Christian but it may cost you everything to be a Christian. Have you counted the cost of what it will cost to come to Christ? It certainly means from that moment forward he is charge, he is the Lord. He is the one who maps out the course of your life. What will it cost me? I wonder did he look at Paul and thought what will it cost me? Will I be like Paul and end up in prison? That I might lose my life? I think the real reason that King Agrippa did not come to Christ that day was not the other people in the room that day. There was Bernice the problem of corruption Festus the problem of courage, Paul the problem of cost but there is also Agrippa himself, the problem of commitment. Verse 27.  “Man do you believe it, I know you believe it.” There are different kinds of belief – belief in your head and belief in your heart. “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, then you shall be saved.” Where are you tonight in coming to Christ? How far along are you in the decision process? Intellectually you know you are a sinner. You say “I know that.” Do you believe that Jesus the sinless spotless Lamb of God died on the cross to pay for your sin? Do you believe that? Do you have a desire to come to Christ? Do you believe that sooner or later you would love to come to Christ. If you stop there that is too short. There has to be an act of faith. The only thing a person has to do to go to hell is to do absolutely nothing. Knowing you need to get saved doesn’t make you a Christian. Having a desire to become a Christian is not enough. You must arise you must repent, you must turn from your sin, seek the Lord, place your faith and trust in Christ. Be prepared to say “I will give my life to Christ now.” Are you ready for that last bit now?

What evaded the King. Here’s King Agrippa standing at the threshold, standing at the door of salvation, almost persuaded but lost. Space shuttle Colombia almost completed their mission. They were only 16 minutes from landing. They had been on a 16 day science mission in space. Their families were brought in so they could be reunited after they landed. Something tragically happened. Space Shuttle Colombia broke up and it began to rain down pieces of that shuttle in Texas. Almost completed the mission. They were almost home but almost is not good enough. Are you at the door of salvation? Are you almost there? What will you do in this critical moment? King Agrippa turned his back on Christ. Look at what he missed. He missed grace in the present. He never experienced the saving grace of God. “For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should be boast.” Only 2 basic ideas in the world about salvation – there are those who believe you are saved by what you do and there are those who believe you are saved by what God is able to do. That is the difference between a works salvation and a faith salvation. A salvation by grace. The bible tells us that God has intervened. He has done something we could never do. He has come down in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has died a death that we could never die. He has done a work we could never accomplish. He has made it possible for us to be saved. We are saved by the grace of God. We don’t deserve it, we don’t work for it, we don’t merit it. We are saved by grace through faith. Grace is God doing something for us that we don’t deserve. Faith is the arm that stretches out in gratitude to God for what he has done. Faith has been described – Forsaking All I Take Him. Have you ever taken that step. Agrippa never found Christ, he never took Christ, he never trusted Christ. He missed grace in the present. He missed glory in the future. For to be almost a Christian is to not be a Christian. Heaven’s most gifted persuasive spirit filled messenger had presented the king with the message of the gospel and he shrugged them off. As far as we know the Holy Spirit never gave him another chance. One of the most dangerous things is to come to a meeting like this. Having come you have heard the message of the cross. Stop - what if God had almost loved us? What if Christ had almost died for us? What if the Holy Spirit had almost convicted us? Then there would have been no message to preach, no forgiveness to enjoy, no prospect to anticipate. Ours is not an almost gospel, it is altogether gospel. For all the way to Calvary he went for, he died to set me free. You know the message, you know the gospel, the opportunity is here what will you do? Will you turn from Christ and go into an eternity of regret?

I want to pull back the curtain, to see some of the personalities in hell. There is a man sitting on a throne of fire, he is saying “I have betrayed innocent blood” – Judas Iscariot. He betrayed the sinless spotless Son of God for 30 pieces of silver. Go further and there is another man he is washing his hands in bowls of flames of fire. He is saying “I am innocent of the blood of this just person” – Pontius Pilate. He had the opportunity to trust Christ, to put his faith in Christ but he neglected it. There is another man and he is shouting “when I have a convenient season I will call for you” – Felix. The tragedy of tragedies … Walk a little further and there’s a man screaming “almost, almost, almost.” Who is that? Agrippa. Almost persuaded but lost. Will that be said of you? You say “I am a member of this church” No “are you saved?” You say “I am a member of that church”. “No it will take you to hell.“ Are you saved? By grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Almost there but lost. Come to Christ, come now.