Paul before Agrippa
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2024 · 14 April 2024
This is a court because Agrippa and Bernice have arrived with all their entourage. Paul as a prisoner would give six major testimonies. This is the fifth. He was accused of sedition which was stirring up trouble against Rome. He was accused of sectarianism, by being a Jewish religious heretic in believing in Jesus. And he was accused of blaspheming God by desecrating the temple.
He didn’t do any of those things. There were no eyewitnesses, there was nothing that stood up in the court. And yet, he remains in prison. Felix, even though he was innocent, wouldn’t let him go because that would upset the Jews. Festus 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.
Since he couldn’t get any justice in Caesarea, Paul decided to do what all Roman citizens had the right to do and that was appeal to Caesar. The problem is that Festus has to send him to Rome without any written accusation because he can’t find anything to accuse him of. Well at that particular time, King Agrippa arrives on the scene paying a courtesy call to Festus. So 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 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. The testimony Paul gives to defend himself to Agrippa is trying to convert Agrippa into a Christian.
He even gives an invitation at the end. Paul had come to this hearing because he saw it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. Festus looked at this as an opportunity to get an accusation. Agrippa looked at it as a curiosity. 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.
We are placed in this world to bring unbelievers 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 objective of every believer who confronts an unbeliever. We’re in the business of converting people in the power of the Holy Spirit. We forget that people are going to hell constantly.
In Acts 25 - 26, 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 convert people. Nobody has the gift of evangelism. You just have the command. The only thing Paul was guilty of was talking about somebody who was dead that he claimed to be alive. And that was somebody named Jesus.
Festus said to Agrippa in verse 20, “Agrippa, I don’t understand all these Jewish questions. I’m perplexed about Jewish theology and I don’t know what to do about it. Would you listen to this guy and make some sense out of it, so I can write an accusation and sent it along to Rome? Agrippa says in verse 22, “I would like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow you’ll hear him.”
What were the circumstances in verses 23 – 27? That auditorium, the place of hearings where Festus was, used to be Herod’s palace. And it was loaded with all of the higher up people. And then the king and Bernice came in. And into this environment marched Paul, And at that point Agrippa took charge and began the questioning of Paul, and we come to Paul’s testimony in Acts 26:1-18.
Verse 1-3, “Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense. 2 “I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, 3 especially since you are very knowledgeable about all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.”
Paul felt that Agrippa would be objective. The Jerusalem leaders and the Jerusalem Jews were so biased. But here was Agrippa, though he was a Jew, a man who played politics with Israel but really down in his heart he was a Roman. Paul felt, that this guy being Jewish will understand the character of my argument. And being Roman he’ll be more objective in evaluating it.
Verse 4-6, “All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 They have known me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived as a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand on trial because of the hope in what God promised to our ancestors.”
And so Paul begins with his conduct in verses 4 - 5. He lived as a Pharisee.” Now, a Pharisee was the strict legalist and he was even a right-wing Pharisee. They know I sat at the feet of Gamaliel. He’s setting them up for the transformation. He’s showing them how zealous he was as a Jew so they might understand the cataclysmic effect of the transformation that occurred at Damascus.
Verse 7-8, the promise our twelve tribes hope to reach as they earnestly serve him night and day. King Agrippa, I am being accused by the Jews because of this hope. 8 Why do any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” 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.
Having talked about the conduct of his past life he now goes into his condemnation in verses 6 - 8. What was the Jewish hope? The Jewish hope was the coming of Messiah to deliver Israel. Israel had been struggling against bondage from Egypt right up until this time. They were still under Rome. They had had some years of successes and enlargement under King David.
Paul says, “I’m being condemned for believing what all the Jews believe,” which is true. Then he says, “Look, our twelve tribes agree to this.” Do you want to know something interesting about that statement? Twelve tribes. Paul didn’t believe there were only two tribes and the other ten were lost. So that even though the people of the north left, the twelve tribes are intact in the south.
“I’m being accused for Messianic hope. Why should it be thought an incredible thing that God should raise the dead? The fact that God raised the dead is something we’ve all believed. Why am I suffering this condemnation for this Jewish hope in the resurrection which has always been believed? Can the Pharisees say that I am condemned because I believe in the resurrection?”
Well, Agrippa is probably saying, “Sure Paul, we know that’s it alright to believe in the resurrection. But is that Jesus the resurrected Messiah?” Matthew 28:11 says after the resurrection, “And when they were going 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 and said, “There was a resurrection.”
And the chief priests with the elders gave much money to the soldiers. “Why did they do it?” Bribery! They said, “Say this. ‘His disciples came by night and stole him while we slept.’” Now if they were asleep, how could they testify that 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. So we come to the fourth concept, the confession. Verse 9, “In fact, I myself was convinced that it was necessary to do many things in opposition to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.” 25 years ago, I was in the same boat you’re in. I understand how you feel.”
Verse 10, “I actually did this in Jerusalem, and I locked up many of the saints in prison, since I had received authority for that from the chief priests. When they were put to death, I was in agreement against them.” 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, “In all the synagogues I often punished them and tried to make them blaspheme. Since I was terribly enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign cities.” Paul was the chief officer of the Jewish inquisition. He was after Christians. The Bible says he was breathing in threatening and slaughtering. He hated them. “I compelled them all to blaspheme.”
Verse 12-13, “I was traveling to Damascus under these circumstances with authority and a commission from the chief priests. 13 King Agrippa, while on the road at midday, I saw a light from heaven brighter than the sun, shining around me and those traveling with me.” And above the midday sun he saw a light. We were drowned in this light brighter than the light of the sun.
Verse 14, “We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice speaking to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” It was like saying, “Saul, you can’t win. Why are you continuing to do this against such odds?” The implication here is that Paul was unsuccessful, that he had a miserable time trying to get Christians to blaspheme.
He was trying to kick against the goads. Goads were little sharp things. When a young ox was first being trained to be tied up to a yoke to pull a single plow, he would naturally kick, trying to throw off the yoke. And so the farmer would have a long stick and the end would be sharpened, like a spear. And as the ox kicked it just rammed its heel right up the goad. And so the ox would stop doing that.
Verse 15, “I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.” Now, this is not in Scripture, but I can imagine that people started talking in that crowd. “Jesus alive? He’s dead. The disciples stole his body.” His testimony was “Jesus talked to him? Paul in verse 15, told everyone the truth. And so Paul shares his conversion.
Verse 16, “Get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and a witness of what you have seen and will see of me.” And by this time, Paul was lying on the ground blinded. The Lord said, “Get up Paul. I just made you a minister. You have been made a witness.” But nobody else heard what Jesus said, this was only for Paul.
Verse 17, “I will rescue you from your people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them[RP1] .” Get up Paul, I just made you an apostle.” And remember an apostle was someone who had to be appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ personally. Called of God to be an apostle involved a direct choice by our Lord Jesus Christ. And here in the case of Paul, he is made an apostle by the Lord Himself.
When people ask, “Are there apostles today?” the answer is, “No.” Because Christ is not here to appoint them. Now, an apostle also had to be an eyewitness of the resurrection. Acts 1 says, “Wherefore of these men who have accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, must be a person ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection.”
A true apostle had to see the resurrected Christ. Paul saw the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The resurrected Christ appeared to him on the Damascus road and twice after that saying, “And of those things in which I will appear to you.” Christ appeared again to him in the temple in the trance in Jerusalem, and again to him in the jail cell, at Jerusalem and told him he was going to go to Rome.
Verse 18, “To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” The first thing you have to do with unsaved people is open their eyes. Jesus said, “It’s the case of the blind leading the blind. They’re both going to fall into the ditch.”
The key to opening a man’s eyes is to uncover the blindness of sin, to take off the scales so he can see his sin. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. It’s a matter of changing their lives turning them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God. You see conversion, don’t you? Transformation, a new creation. You take them out of the power of Satan, placing them in the power of God.
Every man in the world is under the power of Satan or the power of God. And there’s no such thing as a free man. You just choose who your master will be. It’s either Satan or God. And people think, “Well, I’m free to do my own thing, go my own way, do what I want to do.” It isn’t true. Anybody disobedient to the gospel, is guided by the spirit that works in him. That spirit is the power of the air, Satan.
Paul was saying, “Forgiveness is available, Agrippa. Whatever you and Bernice have done, whatever you are, that’s our message.” “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord to whom the Lord charges no sin.” But surely even if you’re a Christian God will lay some sin at your feet. Not at all. “Who shall lay any charge to God’s elect? It is God that justifies. There’s no accusation against you. Let us pray.