Acts 26:1-18. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on January 26, 2025.
We are returning to our series in the book of The Acts of the Apostles.
Paul has been held at Caesarea, the Roman headquarters for Judea, for two years without any movement on his case. Governor Felix had hoped to be bribed, but that did not happen. Our story picks up at a point where Caesar has recalled Felix to Rome and appointed a new governor, Porcius Festus. Gov. Festus was asked by the religious leaders of Jerusalem to bring Paul to Jerusalem for a trial. Understanding that they intended to assassinate him, Paul appeals his case to Caesar.
This leads to our hearing today. This is not a trial. However, King Herod Agrippa II and his sister Bernice are visiting Gov. Felix to welcome him and try to create a good working relationship between their two areas of authority. Note: Herod Agrippa II is in charge of the Galilee and areas north of it at this time. Though he has the title of king at this point, he is not the king of all Israel like his great-grandfather Herod the Great was.
There are at least two purposes to this hearing. Herod Agrippa II is interested in this curious case of Paul, so Felix favors him with a hearing. However, Felix is not sure what to put in his letter to Caesar when he sends Paul to Rome. Felix is hoping that Agrippa will help him to write something that will not make him look incompetent.
At the same time, this event turned into quite the spectacle. Not only are Gov. Felix, King Agrippa and his sister Bernice there, but the Roman commanders and prominent men of the city have also been invited into this auditorium to observe the questioning led by Agrippa.
Throughout the last two years, Paul has always demonstrated and argued that he is innocent of the charges laid against him. They are baseless. However, it is clear that this is not Paul’s main focus. He is also making the case for why he believes in Jesus of Nazareth. He really is presenting the Gospel of just who Jesus is and what he has done.
Of course, a Roman governor, who is not a Jew, would be unlikely to care about such matters (although not impossible). However, Agrippa is different. He is from the Herodian family. Though they may not be considered exclusively Jewish, they have been in Jewish leadership in one way or another for the last 80 years, and their family converted to the Jewish faith during the Hasmonean rule another 100 years before that. Agrippa knows the Scriptures and understands Jewish thought regarding the Messiah. He may not be a strong observant Jew, but he is not a pagan or atheist either. It will be much easier to make the case without being stuck on foundational issues such as: there is one God, the God of Israel, etc.
Regardless of this dynamic, Paul always defends his faith with the goal that all people everywhere deserve a hearing of the Gospel. You can never know how God can touch the heart of people. Thus, the best you can do is faithfully share the Gospel and leave the rest up to Him.
In verse three, Paul recognizes that Agrippa is “an expert in all customs and questions” regarding Jewish things. He would not see this as “those Jews are fighting again over nonsense.”
Paul also describes himself as “fortunate” to be able to make a defense to Agrippa. This is the same word that Jesus used in the beatitudes of Matthew 5 (“Blessed are those…). How many of us would call ourselves “blessed” after we had been: held in prison for two years, trotted out often for questioning in the hopes of a bribe, and brought out again by the new governor for much the same? Regardless, this hearing won’t change his situation. It is one authority doing a favor for another authority for personal gain. Yet, Paul considers himself blessed to have this opportunity.
Now, Paul is just like us. In his flesh, he could easily be discouraged by these things and give up his faith in God’s loving purpose. But, he learned to trust God when his life was powerfully changed by Jesus. Jesus intersected his life, and now, Jesus is intersecting the lives of these men through Paul. He is the grace of God to this king who is the third generation from the wicked Herod the Great. If Paul was only following his flesh, he would not have done what he does here. Yet, he chooses to speak by faith in work and purpose of Jesus.
Paul tells Agrippa (vs. 4-5) that he had come to Jerusalem as a young boy to study Torah under the Pharisees (Rabbi Gamaliel). He had become an adult there and was quickly rising through the ranks of that group, distinguishing himself as a good Pharisee. He was, therefore, no ignorant common man who had fallen under the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. Everyone in Jerusalem was a witness that he was the quintessential Pharisee and not a follower of Jesus.
Yet, in verse 6, he emphasizes that he is on trial for his faith in God’s promise. He believes that God has kept the promise to Israel that all Jews say they are waiting for. What is this promise and the hope put in it? It is the promise that God would send an Anointed man to fix Israel and send the truth of God to the ends of the earth, a man who would bring all the dispersed of Israel back to the land. He would also be the one to crush the serpent’s (devil’s) head, giving humanity victory over our ancient enemy. Paul says in verse 7 that this is why they “serve” God night and day. This word for serving here is often used of the temple sacrifices and duties of the priests. It refers to the duties and prescriptions laid out in the Law of Moses.
It was common in those days for some people of Israel to give up on the temple service because they had lost hope in the things promised by God through the prophets. How many Christians are giving up on serving Jesus because they have lost hope in the things promised by him? When we assemble ourselves in groups, when we water baptize those who believe and teach them the teachings of Jesus, we are serving the purposes and commands of Jesus in the hope of the things promised by him.
Paul boils it down in verse 8 with the a question. If God can raise the dead, then why do you think the message of Jesus is incredible? Why don’t you want to believe that God has done what He said in His Word that He would do? This is the same question the prophet Isaiah asked over 700 years before in Isaiah 53:1. “Who has believed our report (i.e., our good news, our gospel)?”
It is interesting to note that the Old Testament records at least three instances where someone was brought back from death. In 1 Kings 17, Elijah brings back to life the son of the widow of Zarephath that had been helping him. We are told that “his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.” (1 Kings 17:17), In 2 Kings 4, Elisha brings back to life the son of the woman of Shunem who had help him whenever he was in the area. Later, in 2 Kings 13, we have a story of a band of Moabites invading Israel while a man is being buried. Out of haste, they toss the man’s body into the tomb of Elisha. The man’s body came back to life once it touched the bones of Elisha.
However, we also have prophecies that speak of the dead coming back to life throughout the prophets. A case in point would be Daniel 12:2. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” This was not something made up by Jesus or his disciples.
Paul hadn’t been a follower of Jesus. In verse 9, he emphasizes that he thought he had to do many things “hostile to the name of Jesus,” following the claims of resurrection by the disciples. There is an interesting tension here between Paul’s life of doing what he thought he needed to do, and his later response to the heavenly vision he received on the road to Damascus. We may not have such a powerful vision ourselves, but salvation at its root is a spiritual encounter with God. We must never forget that it is the Holy Spirit that convicts people and brings them to a place where they can choose to believe in Christ or not.
He describes all of these hostile things he thought he needed to do: locking the saints in prison, voting for their deaths, trying to force them to blaspheme Jesus, and pursuing them to foreign cities. We should notice the descriptors that Paul uses of himself: “punished them,” “tried to force them,” “furiously enraged at them,” and “pursuing them.” This is a man trying to do religion according to the desires of his flesh instead of following the Spirit of God. There are people today who do the same thing, whether as “Christians” or any other religion and ideology. They think they need to dismantle what Christ taught and the remnants of that truth throughout our society. It is easy to treat them as the enemy, but the real enemy is our own heart’s desire to please the flesh and a spiritual enemy who works overtime to draw us away from Jesus, who is the Truth.
At verse 12, Paul turns to the event that changed him. As he approached Damascus in order to arrest Christians there, he was struck by a light “brighter than the sun” (verse 13). His whole group was knocked to the ground, and a voice spoke to him in Hebrew. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”
This double address is typically a way of getting someone’s attention, but it is also used to draw emphasis to what is next. This is similar to the way Jesus says, “truly, truly, I say to you.” Of course, a person is not being addressed here, but it is clearly underlining the fact that he is giving them absolute truth. Saul needed to understand (we need to understand) that God had been trying to get his attention along the way, but Saul had been ignoring it. In fact, it is quite possible that the extremity of his hostile acts has been driven by a fear that he is not sure that these Christians are all that bad. He has been so used to being seen as the quintessential Pharisee that the idea of waffling on these Christians scares him. Perhaps, the death of Stephen rattled his faith in the execution of Jesus? We don’t know the answers to those speculations, but one thing is not speculation. God had been trying to goad Saul towards faith in Jesus, and Saul had been kicking against it, resisting it. A goad is a pointed object that sticks out in such a way that an animal pulling a cart or carriage is encouraged to stay in the right position. If it tries to wrest free of the leather straps it will be poked. If it kicks against those goads, it will only serve to bring more pain to itself. This is the picture that Jesus gives to Saul. He had been spiritually injuring himself due to the ways in which he was kicking against God’s conviction.
When Saul asks the voice, “Who are you, Lord?” The answer is, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.” Notice that God, Jesus, takes personal affront to the things that are done against His people. To persecute the saints is to persecute the Lord Jesus. Yet, Jesus does not want Saul to die and go into eternity lost. He has been working to get Saul’s attention so that he would repent and believe.
Saul did not only receive grace on that day and in that blinding moment. No, God had been giving Saul grace all along the way, but Saul had been kicking against it. Saul became a believer that day.
Yet, Jesus had a job for Saul to do. Jesus tells Saul to get up and prepare to do this job. In verses 16-18 18, Jesus tells Saul that he is sending him to be a minister to Jews and Gentiles. He will witness to them of things past (the life, death and resurrection of Jesus), but also things present. God would deliver him from the persecution of other Jews like himself and from the Gentiles. Why? Paul tells of the reasons in verse 18.
Paul’s job would be to open their eyes to the truth. Another way of saying this is shared next, to “turn [them] from darkness to light.” He would help them to get out from under the “dominion of Satan” and “to God.” They would receive “forgiveness of sins” and an “inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” This is the grace of Jesus to Saul, but also the grace of Jesus through him to all those who would cross his path, like Agrippa.
Do you see that God wants to set you free from the dominion of Satan? Do you see that you have an inheritance among the people of God that is both in this life and in the life of eternity to come? In fact, Jesus wants to use you as a channel of His grace to others. You may not go on to do all the same things that Saul of Tarsus, i.e., Paul, went on to do. However, God will help you and use you as you put your faith in Him, say what he gives you to say and do what he give you to do. May God help us to stop doing what we think we need to do, and start listening to Jesus about what we need to do. This will make all the difference in your life!