The importance of empty hands.
Acts 25:1-22
God does more to shape us when we have not than when we have.
Paul experienced the empty hands of waiting, 24 v27
Waiting when there seems to be no reason. Two years spent waiting in jail. God had promised him he would be in Rome but here he was in Caesarea.
Little did Paul realise this was actually his greatest protection.
Paul experienced the empty hands of not being in control, v19-22
He has no control of the accuracy being given and has no say in the decisions being made about him.
Agrippa was from a line of Herods, one had murdered the babies at the time of Jesus’ birth and Agrippa’s father had executed James. Beatrice, his sister who had previously been married to her uncle was according to historians in an incestuous relationship with Agrippa. Paul had written earlier, “there is no authority except that which God has established.” (Romans 13)
Paul’s empty hands revealed Christlikeness.
v19 “a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive.” The issue was Jesus.
Jesus who stretched out his empty hands on a cross is your Lord and Saviour and is asking you for empty hands.
Missions Paul 