Paul Before Agrippa, Part 2
Acts 26:4-18
Turn in your Bible to Acts 25 and I just want to get us back in the study of Paul and Agrippa and Bernice. I never realized that there would be such a stir, but all the people who have been named Bernice had a terrible week. I want you to know that, but we're back to Acts 25 and Paul before the court of Festus not really a court in a technical sense, but a kingly court at this point because Agrippa and Bernice have arrived with all their entourage. The title of the section that we're looking at Acts 25:13 through 26:32, which is a large bulk of Scripture, but the section is Are You Trying to Convert Me? Chapter 26:28, keys us in on that title. When Paul is finished with his testimony king Agrippa says in effect, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian? Are you trying with so few words to convert me? And of course the answer to the apostle Paul was yes, that's obviously what I'm trying to do, not only you but everybody else in the room.
I told you at the beginning of our study of the life of Paul as a prisoner that he would give six major testimonies. This is the fifth. Repeatedly he is called upon to answer actuations. He has been accused of sedition. The Jews accused him of stirring up trouble against Rome. He has been accused of sectarianism, of being a religious heretic. He has been accused of sacrilege, of blaspheming God by desecrating the temple. He didn't do any of those things. He was totally exonerated on all counts by all courts because there was no evidence, there were no eyewitnesses, there was nothing that stood up in the court and yet even though he was innocent he maintains his prison status. And the reason is simple. The Roman governors now have him as a prisoner. Felix, even though he was innocent, wouldn't let him go because he knew that would upset the Jews and therefore upset the political applecart in Judea. Festus, then when he came to take the governorship found himself having Paul in custody, he too did not want to release him because he didn't want to upset the Jews for the Jews wanted him dead. And so in a sense, both of these governors had been blackmailed into keeping Paul a prisoner.
Now Festus has run into a stone wall because the apostle Paul has appealed to Rome, since he couldn't get any justice in Caesarea, he decided to do what all Roman citizens had the right to do and that was appeal to Caesar and his case must be removed to Rome. The problem is that Festus has to send him now to Rome without any written accusation because he can't find anything to accuse him of. And so he's struggling with this terrible problem of sending a prisoner to Rome but not having anything to accuse him of that qualifies him to be a prisoner or to be a tried person.
Well at that particular time in the dilemma of Festus, King Agrippa who was a vassal king, Rome really rules, but they allow him to run the temple and appoint the priests, Herod Agrippa arrives on the scene paying a courtesy call to Festus and at this point Festus sees a possible way out. He figures if he can get Agrippa to listen to this man Agrippa may come up with some viable accusation that Festus can write down on paper and use to accuse Paul so that the trial in Rome will have some justification and Festus will be able to keep his balance in terms of the Jews and their attitude toward him.
Now in the midst of this situation where Paul is giving testimony to Agrippa so that Agrippa might be able to come up with some accusation to help Festus out of his problem, in the midst of this what stands out is that more than the testimony Paul gives to defend himself is the testimony that he gives to Agrippa to try to convert Agrippa into a Christian. He actually targets in on Agrippa and attempts to get him to respond to the Gospel and even gives an invitation at the end.
I don't think Paul had to come to this hearing because I think legally his appeal to Rome had to be honored, but I think he came because he saw it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. Festus looked at this thing as an opportunity to get an accusation. Agrippa looked at it as a curiosity. He wanted to hear this guy anyway. Paul looked at it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. And so it's the testimony of Paul in Caesarea in the Roman praetorian before Agrippa the king and Bernice and all their entourage and Festus and all the chief captains and all the famous and high up people in the city of Caesarea are there as well, so it's a very august body.
As we look at this thing we're reminded again of the one great passion that Paul had in situations like that and that is to preach the gospel. It didn't matter to him about his own security, it didn't matter to him about his own embarrassment, it didn't matter to him that people would think he was strange, it didn't matter that they might even think he was nuts, because that's exactly what they did think. But none of that bothered him at all. It didn't matter whether they put him in chains, put him in jail, or killed him. You see boldness is born of the consciousness that I am expendable. For the cause of Christ he believed it so he was bold.
One of the great passions of the apostle Paul we see illustrated here was the passion to preach the gospel. It didn't matter where he was or what the circumstances were that was his desire. And this goes back to what he said and I want you to turn to it. In II Corinthians 5 and this is the theology or the base of theology on which Paul operates in Acts 25 and 26. There are principles out of which he acts. The act of evangelizing in Acts 25 and 26 is based upon his attitudes revealed here. And he tells them to the Corinthians and to us as well.
II Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." In the first place Paul believed that the gospel was a transforming fact. If any man be in Christ he is what, a new creation. Now because Paul believed that, that became motivation for him. You know when you have confidence in the product it tends to motivate you. He believed in what the gospel could accomplish; therefore, he was motivated by it. It's hard to sell something you're not convinced of isn't it? Hard to promote something you don't believe in. Well Paul believed in the transforming power of the gospel and that was the basis of his desire too proclaim it.
Now watch verse 18: "And all things are of God who has reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the ministry of reconciliation." Now the word reconcile is the most interesting word. It literally means to bring back into proper adjustment. To bring back into proper adjustment. The New Testament uses it only of men, never of God. God never needs to be reconciled. God is never out of adjustment.
Some people would say, "Well God is reconciled to man." No. God is not reconciled to man. The proper use of the word is to be out of adjustment, to be brought back into proper adjustment. God is never out of adjustment. Man is out of adjustment. It is man that must be brought back into proper adjustment to God. That's the ministry of reconciliation. So, the Bible here tells us that we have been given the ministry of adjusting people rightly to God. We're in the business of converting people from maladjusted anti God, to well adjusted God oriented people. We're in the business of bringing men to the place where they can become in Christ a new creation with old things having passed away and all things becoming new.
Verse 19 says, "To wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation." He's given us this gospel message, which is the word of reconciliation and we're to carry it out, which is the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors. An ambassador is a foreigner in a land representing the foreign government and that's what we are. We represent the government of God in a foreign land, don't we? We are ambassadors. And what does an ambassador do? What does the ministry of reconciliation involve? "As though God did beech you by us we beg you in Christ stead, be reconciled to God." It is a tremendous driving passionate activity that we must be engaged in. It is begging people to be converted. It is pleading with people. There's nothing wrong with begging people to come to Christ. That's what Paul says, "We beg you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. Be rightly adjusted to God.
We have been committed then to this ministry, the ministry of reconciliation. And there must be connected with it a tremendous sense of urgency. For you'll notice verse 2 it says, or verse 1. Let's read them both of 6. "We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee. Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation." And so Paul says we have been granted the word of reconciliation, that's the gospel of proper adjustment, we have been given the ministry of reconciliation, that's carrying the gospel of proper adjustment, and there is an urgency about it so that today is the day it must be done.
Now we are placed in this world to bring maladjusted men into adjustment with God and that involves conversion. When Agrippa said to Paul, "Are you trying to convert me?" He put his finger right on what is the goal and objective of every believer who confronts an unbeliever. We're in the business of converting people in the power of the Holy Spirit. You know as I mentioned before we can get so smug in our sanctification and so happy in our fellowship, and so blessed with what's going on among the Christians, and so oriented to the Christian community we forget the whole world of people that are going to hell constantly. And we must keep that perspective.
At the end of the gospel of Mark our Lord in laying down the simple commission said this, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." Can't be much simpler than that. At the end of the gospel of Luke in Chapter 24:46 he said to them, "Thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and remission or forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses." You see the commission is clear as to what we are to do.
Going back to Acts Chapter 25 and 26, Paul understood his calling. He understood it from the very first day of his conversion. Look at 26:16, "When the Lord said rise," at the Damascus road there, "He said rise and stand on your feet, I've appeared to thee for a purpose, to make or appoint you a minister and a witness of these things, which you have seen and those things which I'll appear unto you, delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send you, to open their eyes to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God." You see Paul says the Lord told me that I had been given a ministry of turning people from darkness to light, from Satan to God. It was a commitment to turn people, to convert people.
Notice verse 17, "Delivering you from the people," that's the Jews, "And the Gentiles," the Gentiles, "Unto whom now I send you." Now watch. When you were saved God took you out of the world to send you back to the world, you see? Now notice it, "Delivering you from the people and the Gentiles unto whom I now send you." I took you out of the world to send you back to the world. Now that's the ministry committed to us. And I fear in my own heart that we as Christians, especially here when we can become so satisfied with learning and satisfied with fellowship and satisfied with unity and satisfied with growth, forget about the fact that we have been taken out of the world not to be cloistered like a bunch of monastics, but to be sent back to the world to try to transform people in the energy of the Holy Spirit.
This is the gospel call. This is the gospel commission. When the apostle Paul said, "Pray for me," in Ephesians 6:;19, he said, "And pray for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds that in this I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." He says, "Pray for me because I ought to speak the gospel boldly." That's a prayer we ought to pray for each other, isn't it?
When Paul said to Timothy, "Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of the ministry," he was saying that in order for you to make full proof of the ministry you're going to have to do some evangelism. I always remember the kid that said to me, "I don't think I have the gift of evangelism." I said, That's interesting. Nobody has the gift of evangelism. You just have the command." It isn't an isolated gift, it's something that all of us do. Do the work of an evangelist. Change people. Were in the business of changing people's lives. As somebody says, "Are you trying to convert me?" Of course we are. What else, that's our call. We're doing it lovingly, I trust. We care. Paul's task was clear.
We find the apostle Paul has given this opportunity to preach the gospel before these very very highbrow people and he takes seizing the opportunity the marvelous privilege the Spirit of God gives him. Now as he begins his testimony, which as you remember is sort of entertainment for Agrippa, desperately important for Festus whose got to get an accusation, and tremendously opportunistic for Paul because he can proclaim the gospel. We saw last time beginning in 25:13, the consultation regarding his testimony. Festus spoke with Agrippa when he arrived with Bernice and he told him all about this prisoner that he had that the Jews wanted dead, but they couldn't find any justification to kill the guy 'cause it didn't seem like he'd done anything. The only thing he was guilty of was talking about somebody who was dead that he claimed to be alive somebody named Jesus. And Festus said to Agrippa, "Frankly Agrippa, I don't understand all this Jewish questions, verse 20, I don't understand. I'm perplexed about this whole set up of Jewish theology and I don't know what to do about it. Would you stick around tomorrow and listen to this guy and make some sense out of it and maybe I can write some accusation and sent it along to Rome? Agrippa says in verse 22, "I sure will. Tomorrow I'll do it." And he says, "Tomorrow you'll hear him." So the consultation regarding Paul's testimony.
Secondly was the circumstances of his testimony. Verses 23 to 27. Remember what the scene was like? That the praetorian, the auditorium, the place of hearing where Festus was it used to be the Herod's palace. That place was just loaded with all of the higher ups and the king and Bernice came in and all the falderal and it was with great pomp, it says in verse 23, which is the word fantasia. It was just a colossal stupendous display of fancy this and fancy that and all the pomp that goes with the king and the whole big setting was there and into the thing marched the apostle Paul into such circumstances. And at that point Agrippa took charge and began the questioning of Paul and we come to point three the commencement of Paul's testimony, verse 1 of Chapter 26.
The commencement of Paul's testimony: Now this is basically where we left off last time. Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself." Now he begins his testimony here and it begins with a courtesy. He's very courteous and I think rightly so. He's not flattery. He's just being courteous and what he says is true. "I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee concerning all the things of which I'm accused of the Jews." Why are you so happy about it, Paul? "Especially because I know thee to be an expert in all customs and question, which are among the Jews. Wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently." He says, "Agrippa I'm really happy to talk to you because you know you're an expert in all of this," and I think in his mind, as I mentioned last time, he felt that Agrippa would be objective.
The Jerusalem leaders and the Jerusalem Jews were so biased, they were so hateful of Rome, they despised Rome, they hated Paul desperately, but here was Agrippa, though he was a Jew, a man who had been educated in Rome, a man whose total allegiance was toward Rome, a man who played politics with Israel but really down in his heart he was a Roman. And Paul felt number one, this guy being Jewish will understand the character of my argument. Number two being Roman he'll be more objective in evaluating it. He won't be swayed by the terrible Jewish hatred of Jesus Christ, by the terrible Jewish antagonism.
So he felt he maybe had a live one on the wire. Maybe he had a guy who could actually have his life changed, a person who was an open part who could hear the gospel and so he uses this as an opportunity to try to convert Agrippa. And in it he gives his testimony.
Now mark this. His message keys around this: Christ is the Messiah as proven by his resurrection. His resurrection is proven by my transformed life. And in this thing he goes through how his life was transformed when he met Christ on the road to Damascus and in effect he's saying, "Listen I couldn't argue when the Lord Jesus Christ himself, alive from the dead struck me down on the road to Damascus, changed my life, commissioned me into the ministry, how could I argue against that? He has to be the Messiah. He has to be the Savior. That's his whole argument. And we'll see it unfold this time and the next time we study together.
All right let's look and see what happens following the courtesy. Paul then begins to give his testimony and he wants to give his testimony from the first because he wants the people to see the change in his life that Christ made. One of the great proofs of Christianity is it not is the transformed life. Don't you remember that Paul said that in II Corinthians 5:17, which you read. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creation." This is one of the great motives of evangelism. This is one of the great testimonies of the gospel what Christ has done in a life. And he's saying, "Agrippa, I want you to know what this Jesus did." Now Agrippa didn't need to hear the facts of Jesus dying and so forth. He knew all that. He needed to hear what Christ had done in his resurrection power and so that's what Paul wants to tell him and everybody else who hears.
So he begins with his conduct. Look at verses 4 and 5. He describes his early life. "My manner of life from my youth, which was a first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews who knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the strict sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee." He says you know from the earliest years of my life I was educated at Jerusalem. And all the Jews know this. And if they had the courage to testify they would have to admit that I belonged to the strictest sect of our religion. I lived a Pharisee. Now Pharisee was the strict legalist and he was even at the strict end of the strict legalists. He was a right-wing right-wing Pharisee.
So he says my manner of life from my youth I was trained in Orthodox Judaism right here in Jerusalem and all the Jews know this. They know I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. They know that after the strictest sect, and Paul does something here in using the word strictest that Greek writers are allowed to, to that you're never allowed to do in English comp. He uses a double superlative. And a double superlative really lays heavy emphasis in the Greek. What he says is I belong to the most strictest sect. He is laying tremendous weight on this emphasis. He stresses that if anybody ever lived who was convinced that Judaism was the final word of God it was me. I belonged to the farthest farthest farthest extreme legal view and everybody knows I did. You see what he was doing? He's setting them up for the transformation. He's showing them how zealous he was as a Jew in order that they might understand the tremendous cataclysmic effect of the transformation that occurred at Damascus.
And so Paul stresses I believe in the strictest way in all the facets of Judaism, I was a Pharisee. Having talked about the conduct of his past life he now goes into his condemnation, verses 6 to 8. "And now I stand and am condemned or judged. I'm condemned for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers." He says, "I was raised a Jew. I was a Pharisee and now I am being condemned and you know why I am being condemned? I am being condemned for believing the promises that God made to the Jewish fathers."
You say well is this hope? Look at it in verse 6. "For the hope of the promise." Listen what was the Jewish hope? The Jewish hope is this: and this is the context here, the Jewish hope was the coming of Messiah. The hope of every Jew was Messiah would come and deliver Israel. Why Israel had been struggling against bondage from Egypt right up until this time they were still under Rome. They had had some years of independence. They had had some years of successes and enlargement under David. But for the most part they knew nothing but fighting and struggling and slavery.
And certainly from the time of 586 B.C. from the time of the Gentiles right on through they had known abject slavery and ruling first by Babylon and then by the Persians and then by the Greeks and now by the Romans. And they longed for the hope to come, the Messiah to come, and they believed this: that when Messiah came He would set up His kingdom and that even the dead Jews would be resurrected to enjoy that kingdom. They believed that. That was their hope. Why Job even way back said, "Though my body be consumed the worms destroy this body, he said, thought my range be consumed within me yet in my flesh shall I see God whom I shall see for myself and not another." See they knew all along there was a resurrection. The resurrection was their hope that Messiah would come deliver Israel, set up His kingdom, raise the dead Jews to enjoy the kingdom.
Friends, that's going to happen isn't it? They were anticipating it in the past. So he says, "I'm being condemned for believing what all the Jews believe," which is true. He just believed what everybody believed who was at all faithful to Judaism. Now verse 7 he goes further. "Unto which promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God say and night, hope to come." He says, "Look, this isn't anything that I've invented. Our whole twelve tribes agree to this." Want to know something interesting about that statement? Twelve tribes, that proves that Paul was not a British Israelite. Paul didn't believe there were only two tribes and the other ten were lost. You say, "What's that?" Well that's that stuff that's propagated by Herbert W. Armstrong, Garner Ted Armstrong and the World Tomorrow and a few other heretics. Incidentally if you're listening to that man you can probably list about 20 heresies. He doesn't just have one, the worst being salvation by works. But they teach that the ten tribes that went north, the Israel part of the divided kingdom, migrated to England and became the British people and that we; therefore, are descendents of the British; therefore, all the promises given to Israel are fulfilled to the British and to the Americans. What it is is a mask for anti-Semitism.
But Paul didn't believe that because Paul says that the twelve tribes are still together and that's what the Bible teaches. That before those ten tribes had migrated away individual members of all those ten tribes had filtered down into the two tribes in the south so that the two tribes really became a composite of all the twelve. So that even though the people of the north left the twelve tribes are intact in the south.
So Paul says that the twelve tribes still earnestly hope for the coming of Messiah. So he says this is a total Jewish hope. This doesn't just belong to me. I'm only believing what all the Jews have believed, all twelve tribes, and now I'm being condemned for it. Verse 7 in the middle, "For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews." I'm being accused for Messianic hope. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? You certainly can't be hung up on the fact that God raised the dead. I mean that's something we've all believed. Why am I suffering this abuse and condemnation for simply believing what has always been believed? Common Jewish hope in the resurrection, that's not incredible. Can the Pharisees argue against the resurrection? Can the Pharisees say that I am condemned because I believe in the resurrection? Of course not.
Well Agrippa is probably at this time saying, "Sure, sure, Paul we know that. That's it alright to believe in the resurrection, but what we don't buy is that Jesus is the resurrected Messiah." You know Paul knew that's what Agrippa would think. He knew that. He knew Agrippa would be thinking along that line. He knew that the Jews did believe in the resurrection but that they wouldn't accept the resurrection of Jesus. And one of the most startling acts of willful rejection anywhere in Scripture you have Matthew 28:11. Just listen: this is after the resurrection, "And when they were going behold some of the watch, some of the Roman soldiers who were guarding the tomb, came to the city showed the chief priests all that was done." The Romans came in and said, "I hate to tell you this, but there was a resurrection." "And the chief priests got assembled with the elders and took much counsel and gave much money to the soldiers."
Now if you know anything about how the Jews hated the Romans you know they wouldn't want to give them any money. They would have despised the fact of giving them money. You say, "Why did they do it?" What do you think it was? Bribery! They said, "Say this: his disciples came by night and stole him while we slept." Now that's a real bright statement. If they were asleep how could they possibly testify that while they were asleep the disciples came and stole the body? They bought them off. And if you get in trouble with the Roman governor for sleeping we'll take care of that. "So they took the money and did as they were taught and this is the saying commonly reported among the Jews until this day." They still believe it. And it tells in the Bible how it all started. The soldiers were bribed. Willful rejection! So it might have been fine for Agrippa to say, "That's great, Paul. I believe in the resurrection. That's a Jewish hope, that's great, but we just don't believe Jesus rose from the dead." And so that launches Paul knowing that Agrippa's thinking that, and Paul was the master of analyzing the response and then reacting to it.
Look at the book of Romans. He answers all the questions that you're thinking but never ask. The same thing happens here. He knows that Agrippa's question is regarding Jesus, not the totality of the resurrection. So we come down to the fourth concept at the beginning of his testimony, the confession. Now watch verse 9. "I verily thought within myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth." He says Agrippa, in effect I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that's fine, Paul, we're not hassled with the resurrection, its just Jesus Christ that bothers us. And he says, "You know, I had the same problem Agrippa. I thought that it was right to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. I used to, why 25 years ago I was in the same boat you're in. I thought the same way. I understand how you feel, Agrippa." Well you know that's really devastating when you can read a man's mind. Of course that's part of the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And Paul pours out his heart in confession. And I know this is a painful thing for him. If anything in his life sort of rang in his conscience is the fact that he had slaughtered Christians, that he had compelled Christians to blaspheme the name of Christ. Even though he was redeemed that thing was always in his mind that he had done that.
And so this is confession. Verse 9, "I used to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I did in Jerusalem and many of the saints that I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief priests, he indicts them, and when they were put to death I gave my vote, literally, my vote against them and the Greek word is the word for the little pebble that was used in the Sanhedrin to cast a vote, which indicates probably that Paul is referring to the fact that he was a member of the Sanhedrin and he actually voted in the death of Christians.
And so I have my vote against them. Verse 11, "And I punished often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme." In other words he tried to force the Christians to recant their faith, to blaspheme God or else kill them. And being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities. I mean this guy was the chief officer of the Jewish inquisition. He was after Christians. He was a mad man. The Bible says he was breathing in threatening and slaughtering; he was like a huffing puffing dragon slaughtering Christians. He hated it he despised it. By compelled them to blaspheme. No wonder he saw himself as the chief of sinners spending years doing that, and if they wouldn't blaspheme he made them martyrs.
So he says, "Listen Agrippa, I'm being condemned for believing what all Jews believe and I know it isn't just that it's Jesus Christ, and I know how it is because I used to feel that way about Christ and I didn't believe He was the Messiah and I was really strong. I went out under the authority of the Jews and I slaughtered Christians." And then it happened.
In verse 12, begins his conversion. This is the dramatic high point of the commencement of his testimony. He was persecuting them in foreign cities and one of the foreign cities he was heading for was Damascus, a city that still exists and we were there last summer, many memories there. "Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun."