Paul’s Testimony before Agrippa
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 20 May 2018
Our study of the life of Paul as a prisoner contains six testimonies. This is the fifth. 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. But he didn't do any of those things. All of them were false charges.
Felix, even though Paul was innocent, wouldn't let him go because he knew that would upset the Jews and therefore upset the political situation in Judea. Festus, then when he came to take over the governorship found that Paul was in custody. He too did not want to release him because he didn't want to upset the Jews for they wanted him dead. So both of these governors had been blackmailed into keeping Paul a prisoner.
Now Festus had a problem because the apostle Paul has appealed 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. Well at that time King Agrippa who was a vassal king, arrives on the scene paying a courtesy call to Festus. Here Festus sees a possible way out if Agrippa can come up with some viable accusation.
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 Agrippa and attempts to get him to respond to the Gospel and even gives an invitation at the end. Paul saw it as an opportunity to preach the gospel. Festus looked at it as an opportunity to get an accusation. Agrippa looked at it as a curiosity.
It didn't matter to Paul about his own security, 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 he was expendable. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we can see his theology, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold all things are become new." Paul believed that the gospel was a transforming fact.
Well Paul believed in the transforming power of the gospel and that was the basis of his desire to proclaim it. 2 Cor. 5:18, “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” Now the word reconcile means to bring back into proper adjustment. The New Testament uses it only of men, never of God. 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. The Bible here tells us that we have been given the ministry of adjusting people to be right with God. We are in the business of bringing people to the place where they can become a new creation in Christ, where old things have passed away and all things have become new.
He has given us this gospel message, which is the ministry of reconciliation and we are to carry it out. We are like ambassadors representing the government of God in a foreign land. It is a tremendous activity that we must be engaged in. It is begging people to be converted. There's nothing wrong with begging people to come to Christ. Paul says, "We beg you in Christ's name to be reconciled to God.”
Notice 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, “We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For He says, “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation.” Paul says we have been granted the ministry of reconciliation, the gospel of proper adjustment, and today is the day it must be done.
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. We can get so smug in our sanctification and so happy in our fellowship, that we forget the whole world of people that are going to hell constantly. And we must always 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." At the end of the gospel of Luke 24:46-47 he said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”
This is the gospel commission. Ephesians 6:19-20 says, "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, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” He says, "Pray for me because I ought to speak the gospel boldly." That is a prayer we ought to pray for each other all the times, right?
Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:2, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” Do the work of an evangelist. Nobody has the gift of evangelism. You just have the command. We are in the business of changing people's lives. As somebody says, "Are you trying to convert me?" Of course we are, that is our call.
Remember what the scene was like? That auditorium, where Festus was, used to be Herod's palace. It was just a display of fancy with all the pomp that goes with the king and everybody important was there and here came the apostle Paul. And at that point Agrippa took over and began questioning Paul and we come to the beginning of Paul's testimony.
Acts 26:1, “Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself.” Verse 2-3, “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, 3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore hear me patiently.”
Here was Agrippa, a Jew 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 that this guy being Jewish will understand the character of my argument. And being Roman he will be more objective in evaluating it. He won't be swayed by the Jewish hatred of Jesus Christ.
His key message is that Christ is the Messiah as proven by his resurrection. His resurrection is proven by my transformed life. And so Paul goes through how his life was transformed when he met Christ on the road to Damascus. And in effect he is saying, “I couldn't argue when the Lord Jesus Christ himself, raised from the dead, struck me down on the road to Damascus, changed my life, and commissioned me into the ministry.
Paul wants to give his testimony because he wants the people to see the change in his life that Christ made. Proof of Christianity is that there is a transformed life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation.” So Paul is saying, “Agrippa, I want you to know what Jesus did.” Agrippa needed to hear what Christ had done in his resurrection power and Paul wants to tell him and everybody else who hears.
Acts 26:4-5, “My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know. 5 They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.” From childhood on Paul was educated at Jerusalem. He is a Pharisee.
Having talked about the conduct of his past life he now goes into his condemnation. Verses 6-8, “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. 7 To this promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. 8 Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?”
What was the Jewish hope of the promise? The Jewish hope was the coming of the Messiah to deliver Israel. Israel had been struggling against bondage and they knew nothing but fighting and slavery. They were ruled first by Babylon, then the Persians and then the Greeks and now by the Romans. The resurrection was their hope that the Messiah would deliver Israel and set up His kingdom.
So Paul says, "I'm being condemned for believing what all the Jews believe." Now in verse 7 he says, "Look, this isn't anything that I have invented. All the twelve tribes agree to this." Paul didn't believe there were only two tribes and the other ten were lost. I am being accused for having hope in the Messiah. Why should it be incredible with you that God is able to raise the dead?
Well Agrippa probably thought, "Sure, but what we don't believe is that Jesus is the resurrected Messiah.” He knew that the Jews believed in resurrection but that they wouldn't accept the resurrection of Jesus. Matthew 28:11-12 says, “Some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened. 12 When they had consulted with the elders, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers.”
This was just bribery! They said in verse 13, "Tell them: his disciples came by night and stole him while we slept." Now if they were asleep how could they possibly testify that the disciples came and stole the body? And if you get in trouble with the Roman governor for sleeping we'll take care of that. Verse 15, "So they took the money and did as they were taught and this is the saying commonly reported among the Jews until this day."
Verse 9-11, “Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them.”
Verse 11 continues, “I persecuted them even to foreign cities.” Paul is referring to the fact that he was a member of the Sanhedrin and he actually voted in the death of Christians. So he says, "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."
Paul begins his conversion in verse 12-13, “While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13 at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me.” That is really bright because the sun at midday in the Middle East is really bright.
Verse 14-15, “And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Jesus said to Saul, “give up, you can't win.” He was smashing his head against a stone wall. “15 So I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
Acts 26:16-17, “But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you.”
Verse 18, “To open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.” Paul says the Lord told me that I had been given a ministry of turning people from darkness to light. It was a commitment to convert people.
Notice in verse 18, the first thing you have to do with unsaved people is open their eyes because they are blind. Jesus even said about Israel in Mathew 15, “They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind, both will fall into a ditch.” When the Word of God comes along men all of a sudden see what they never saw before, and that is sin. The word of God in the hands of the Holy Spirit opens men's eyes.
Every man in the world is under the power of Satan or the power of God. In Ephesians 2:1-2 it says, “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.” Any human being in the world other than a Christian is guided by the spirit of Satan that works in him. He needs a total rebirth.
And in a sense Paul was saying, "Forgiveness is available, Agrippa. Whatever you and Bernice have done.” In addition there is a bright future. He gives you an inheritance among them who are sanctified. And so Paul quotes to Agrippa the words of Jesus, as they were given to him in Damascus. I pray that we too will touch the life of an unsaved person to convert them to become a child of Jesus Christ. Let’s pray.