ACTS 26. PAUL’S TESTIMONY IS HIS DEFENSE With an attitude of respect, Paul waits to speak until he is granted permission by Agrippa, whom Festus had given charge of the hearing. He “stretched out” his hand in a respectful salutation to the king as the one to whom he was happy to address his defense. Paul would have been happy to speak to the king as a soul-winner and the spokesperson for the Lord, who had said he was chosen to speak to kings. Even more so, he could publicly testify as a witness to the living Lord Jesus Christ. He also would have found joy in speaking to one acquainted with Jewish opinions and traditions and who wasn’t already biased against him.
Opportunities will arise in our lives to speak for the Lord, and we should gladly embrace such occasions as God-given privileges to speak for Him. Sometimes, we have time to prepare for what we want to say, and other times, there will be no time. To tell one’s personal testimony about how we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is a powerful witness because people can’t deny what you have personally experienced. There is an order to follow that helps people follow the path that led them from darkness to light. The order in which it is presented may differ depending on how the conversation has developed. The need for salvation has to be spoken of. How God reached us, stopped us, and then saved us is fundamental to the narrative. Changes in one’s life and attitude, as well as inward and outward changes, are all relevant to the personal witness of a believer, especially when speaking to one or more people who want salvation.
Paul was a changed man. In his past, he was faithful to Jewish traditions, including the law and the prophets, as well as the teaching of Pharisees. That led him to being a persecutor of Christians who were known to Agrippa as followers of “The Way.” In that role of a religious zealot, he had been commissioned to eliminate Christians by the same people who wanted to kill him because He was now preaching the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
After God saved him when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was commissioned by the Lord to serve Him as a witness to Jews, Gentiles, those in authority, and kings. Instead of being the persecutor, he became the one who was persecuted. He learned by experience what it meant to be a Christian in a changing world. He still remained faithful to Jewish tradition, in the sense that the purpose of the law was still to function in exposing sin. The purpose behind all of God’s dealing with the Jews was to make them His representatives to the other nations of the world. That was what Paul was doing. He was making the purpose of God, the name of God, and the Person of God known by preaching the Gospel of God.
This came after a radical change in him brought about by God intercepting him and changing him within by awakening his conscience and then revealing Himself to Saul of Tarsus as his own personal Savior. “I am Jesus who you persecute.” This produced a new nature and a new commission by a new Master to a new man who now enjoys fellowship with the One he persecuted. He now knows Jesus Christ personally because he had a time and place where he met Him, listened to His voice, and spoke to Him, who is the Messiah of Israel who had risen from the dead.
Jewish hopes were centered on the promised coming Messiah, and Paul had met Him. He had died on the cross as the Substitute, the Passover Lamb; He had been buried, and three days later, He rose from among the dead. When God raised Him from the dead, that brought to a living reality the hope of Israel. Paul had opposed Him but now embraced the truth that Jesus is the Savior who died and is risen again as the resurrection and the life. He served a living Redeemer and was a willing servant of his Lord.
Paul was an empowered man. Paul had been commissioned by the Lord and given the needed authority and power to be God’s witness to the Jews and Gentiles. God does not commission people to do His work without giving them the power to do it. Strength, wisdom, and power are given to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, which enables them to do whatever is His will for us. He knows what each believer is capable of, and we are responsible for going forward in faith and doing the work He gives us with enthusiasm and vigor.
According to what we read in Lystra, Paul was a powerful orator, and as he spoke for God in front of this king, the subject matter he had to speak about must have kept that audience spellbound. In telling his own personal story, he included the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had their undivided attention right to the end. He knew the impact of Jewish customs and traditions was important to Agrippa. He centered his testimony on the hope of Israel and fearlessly stated that Jesus is the Messiah the prophets foretold in the Old Testament. It is not incredible for us to think that the God who gave life in the first place raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
Paul was an obedient man. To be disobedient to God, as those who have been enlightened as to who the Lord Jesus Christ is, by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, seals their doom. Paul did not dishonor the Lord Jesus Christ by asking other people what they thought about his vision and what he should do about the Lord’s words to him. He believed in the Lord Jesus and had settled in his mind and heart that he would do what his Lord told him.
The first time we read of his testimony in Acts 9, he saw a light from heaven. The second time we read about it was when he publicly gave his testimony and referred to the light as a “great light.” When speaking to Agrippa and those with him, Paul said the light was above the sun's brightness. It is common for those who are used to telling how God saved them to recall events and details surrounding that time of conversion that come to mind as we review all that happened with the 20x20 vision of hindsight. Like Paul, those of us whom God has saved and has given us the privilege of being witnesses for Him tell of the events leading up to when we were saved, what took place at the time of salvation, and what has happened since that reinforces our witness. Confidence increases as we often tell others what God has done for us. Paul was uniquely qualified to be commissioned by the Lord to be a servant of His and witness to both Jews and Gentiles. He was a Jew by the nature of his birth. He was a Roman by citizenship. He was a Pharisee by religion, and now he was a born-again child of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Paul was a man helped by God. Even though Paul faced many hardships and dangers in his life and work for the Lord, he had confidence in God. God never lets His children down. He is there in good times and bad. There will be times of oppression and opposition, of loneliness and fear, of pain and suffering, but through them all God is with us.
From the time God’s grace saved Paul, he was misunderstood, doubted, and questioned about the reality of his faith. He was persecuted but not forsaken. He was cast down but not destroyed. He had experienced the promises of God, who will “never leave thee nor forsake thee.” He knew he was to open the eyes of the willfully and spiritually blind people who wanted things their own way. Through the preaching of the Gospel and the results that accompany it, eyes that were blind and had been darkened by the power of Satan came from darkness to light, and people came from the power of Satan to God.
When a person is saved by grace, many things happen when we trust Christ. From then on, “all things become new.” Things people once did and thought they would never stop doing suddenly become abhorrent. Words they once used commonly now create a bad conscience and embarrassment to them if they happen to slip out. Places they once went, they avoid like the plague. People they once thought were friends now avoid being seen with them. In all of these changes, we need help from God to make a new start in life and commit ourselves to walking with the Lord and His people.
Paul was a devoted man. The Gospel was so important to Paul that he was determined not to know anything but “Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” He gloried “in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Christ was his life. His preaching included the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, “Now is Christ risen and become the first fruits of them that sleep.” A life without a testimony of saving grace that changes and rejoices us in the Lord is powerless and fruitless.
Forgiveness of sins and a new and eternal inheritance that never ends changes our outlook on life and our hope for the future. This all comes through faith that sets us apart for God. It separates us from sin and changes us both inside and out. Like Paul, we can live our lives abundantly when we live in obedience to the heavenly calling we have received. Paul, the persecutor, became Paul the persecuted one because of the heavenly calling he had received from the Lord Jesus. Our calling by God is no less important to each one of us today. We will find the more committed we are to carrying out God’s desire for us in obedience to His will, the more devoted to Him we become.
Paul, by preaching the Gospel, took the teachings and messages of Moses and the prophets to the objective for which they were given in the first place. God desired to have a people for His name, live with them, and enjoy communion and fellowship without barriers. God's final goal with Israel was that they would testify to the nations that there is a God who is over all and wants to share eternity with intelligent beings who love Him for who He is and want to be where He is. Israel as a nation had failed in this, but Paul's message was that God still had the same purpose for everyone. He saves individuals who trust Him and places them in a body, the church, made of all kinds of parts and gifts and yet functions as a whole like a physical body does.
Paul was a misunderstood man. Festus was a “natural” man who misunderstood what Paul was saying about the resurrection of Jesus and the implication that we all will rise from the dead. Like many today, he “perceived not the things of God.” Like the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul was misunderstood and deliberately misrepresented as a man out of his mind. “The servant is not greater than his Lord.” To many like Festus, resurrection and the exaltation of an earthly body to a heavenly one is total nonsense. Paul stated this as a reasonable, sober fact and a message that serious and intelligent people believed.
His appeal was based on facts, not opinions. Many people still alive had listened to Jesus preach and teach when he spoke. They had personally seen the miracles He had done. They had watched Him die on the cross and heard His voice say, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” They had heard the loud voice of the Savior say, “It is finished.” They had seen His empty tomb and had seen and talked with the risen Lord. They had associated with Him for nearly a month and a half after He had risen from the dead, and they had watched Him ascend into heaven. They had heard His promise, “I will come again.”
The Gospel message began changing the world then, and it still does today when God’s people obey the call and commission of the Lord. Agrippa knew what was happening then and knew it was not madness. He also knew it was a convicting message for him personally.
Paul was a courteous man. Even after being called “mad” or insane or out of his mind, Paul maintained his courteous way when he said, “Most noble Festus.” It is important for us to give honor to whom honor is due, even when they are wrong, opposed, angry, and insulting. Paul did not respond in kind to Festus but continued to show him respect even though his credibility was attacked and his testimony discounted.
There are many people who think reading the Bible, believing and living by the scriptures because we know they are the word of God, is foolish and “madness.” They will say teaching the Bible is the infallible truth of God in written form is fanaticism. They will even go to the extent of saying people who believe that kind of teaching are being “brainwashed” and will charge preachers and teachers of the Bible of brainwashing “gullible” people deliberately.
Despite what people may say or do, or even reports they will start to circulate, we must maintain a courteous attitude toward them. “Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, persecute you, and falsely say all evil against you, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
Paul was a faithful man. He did not stop speaking until he had made the Gospel message personal to the king. It was a simple, fearless, courageous, honest, and caring appeal to Agrippa personally. He was about his Father’s business in the same way as his Lord. Seeking to see souls saved from sin and for heaven was of utmost importance to Paul. Paul’s simple question made Agrippa face a dilemma. “Do you believe the prophets?” If Agrippa said “Yes,” Paul would press him to acknowledge their fulfillment in Jesus. If he said “No,” the Jews would challenge his unbelief, and that would affect their acceptance of him as their king. His evasive response was to make a sarcastic remark. “Do you think you can persuade me to be a Christian in such a short time?”
We know that often when we speak to people about the Lord and present them with the Gospel message, spoken or unspoken sarcasm is how they respond. We can do nothing about that, but we can be assured the Gospel seed has been sown, and God gives the increase and makes His truth live in the souls of lost sinners.
Paul was a satisfied man. At last, he had fulfilled the word of the Lord in preaching the Gospel to a king. His reply to Agrippa was that it is better to be a Christian than almost persuaded to be one. Paul would have been a happier man in his bonds than Festus, Agrippa, Bernice, and all the others who were not Christians. They didn’t have peace with God and the assurance of eternal life. They didn’t have a personal Savior and were not forgiven of their sins. Agrippa recognized the truth was coming close to home, and he couldn’t take any more. So, he rose up, and the whole event was closed on the spot. They all knew Paul was innocent of the charges laid against him.
But Paul knew he was going to Rome because the Lord had told him so. He would have been very happy that he had witnessed to at least one king about his faith in Christ. A glittering, wealthy, powerful audience of important people was far outshone by a prisoner in chains who had God's light, life, and love in his soul.
THE VOYAGE OF ONE DOING GOD’S WILL