Agrippa rejects Salvation
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2018 · 27 May 2018
A believer who walks in the Spirit has to be reproductive. What we really want is believers who through the overflow of their spirituality are going to produce disciples. We have learned in the book of Acts that we have to present Christ with boldness and fearlessness. Paul saw, as the directive in his life, to win people to Christ and mature them in the faith.
As we study this passage we see how much the apostle Paul is under all kinds of pressure, he's a prisoner now. Actually the Romans are holding him, but under the pressure of the Jews. He is having to give his testimony many times, and every time he gives his testimony he always declares his innocence. But even though he's innocent they won't let him go because of Jewish pressure.
And every time he declares his testimony it winds up being a presentation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and this always throws everything into chaos. In Corinth he did the same thing. He did the same thing in Philippi. He went into town presented Jesus Christ, and a group of people got saved. He found an evil possessed girl and he just cast the demons out. He got thrown in jail, and then let the jailer to Christ.
Whenever it was time to give a defense it turned out to be an attack. He never defended his behavior; he just zeroed in on whoever he wanted to reach. They were trying to kill him in the courtyard, but the Romans rescued him, and hauled him up the stairs. He turned around at the top of the stairs and preached Jesus to the crowd. He was never on the defense, he was always on the attack.
The Christian is a soldier who has a sword for attacking. And the sword is the Word, and the world is the objective. And we may have to fight through the demons to get there, but that's what we are called to do. It is a spiritual war and we have to be on the offense. Nobody will accidentally be saved by our witness. It only happens if you confront the society.
Here Paul faces this king by the name of Agrippa. Remember that Festus was in a dilemma. Since Paul couldn't get any justice in Caesarea he appealed to Rome. The only problem was that he had no accusation because Paul hadn't done anything. So when Agrippa came along with Bernice to welcome Festus, he figured maybe this guy will help me to explain the reason for his incarceration.
So they put on this big hearing. Everyone of importance was present, and here was Paul in the middle of them. And he is here to defend himself. He is to speak to the issue of his imprisonment and the crimes that he is supposedly to have committed. But instead of being defensive, he attacks Agrippa. And when he's all done Agrippa says, "Are you trying to convert me?" And Paul says, "Yes, and everybody else in this place."
Agrippa said, "All right Paul, speak. I want to hear what you have to say and we will see if we can find an accusation out of this mess." So Paul spoke. And he said, "Agrippa and Bernice, I was a zealous Jew and all the Jews know it. I was a Pharisee. I was so zealous that I went about doing all the things I could do against Jesus of Nazareth. One day as I was walking on the road to Damascus to catch Christians something happened.”
“A light brighter than the sun hit me, and everybody around me and we fell to the ground. And I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' So I said, 'Who are you Lord?' And He said, 'Jesus whom you are persecuting.' And you know what happened? Jesus said to me, 'Get up, get on your feet for I have appointed you a minister and a witness.”
“And I want you to tell the things that you have seen and what I will reveal to you. I will delivered you from the Jews and from the Gentiles to send you back to them and here's your message,'" verse 18. "To open their eyes, turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them who are sanctified by faith in Me."
He says, Agrippa, I was literally transformed by Jesus. He is alive. I was seeking to persecute Christians even in faraway places and sovereignly out of heaven the living Christ, who is not dead, focused on me and spoke to me and blinded me and commissioned me to preach and told me what my message was. How could I possibly resist that?
Paul wants Agrippa to know that he is not a rebel, he is not a traitor, and he is not someone who is against Judaism. He has been selected by Almighty God and the resurrected Messiah has transformed his life in an instant. Now that is a sovereign act of God in the conversion of Paul. Notice in verse 18 a tremendous pattern for evangelism. First thing to do is conviction: open their eyes.
So first when you try to lead somebody to Jesus Christ is to show them what they really are. You can't show a guy that he needs to be changed unless he sees what a mess he is right now. You have to strip away his securities. You have to take away whatever he is hanging on to. And so there must be an opening of their eyes. This is conviction, a recognition of personal sin and judgment by God.
The second thing, after conviction, is illumination and turn them from darkness to light. You have to show them truth. Having been convicted of sin and error, now let me show you the truth. Then you have conversion. When the response comes they are turned from the power of Satan to the power of God. They are taken out of the kingdom of Satan, the kingdom of darkness and brought to God.
And with that comes sanctification that they may receive forgiveness of sins, so they are made holy. The penalty is paid, the power of sin is broken, and their life is purified positionally. This means from God’s standpoint they are covered with the righteousness of Jesus. Then you have the promise, the inheritance together with those who are sanctified. You tell them what is in the future for them.
The key is by faith in Jesus. Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you are saved through faith that not of yourselves, that is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
So you see salvation is an act of faith. There's the gospel right there in verse 18, Jesus says, "Paul, you're to be my gospel presenter. You're to go out and tell men, proclaim." And so he tells Agrippa and everybody else what he was called to do and at the same time gives them the gospel. So we see Paul's testimony commencing. "Agrippa," he says, "It was God who did this to me. The living resurrected Christ did it."
Now notice in any act of the sovereignty of God there has to be human will to respond. And there is an act of the will here in the case of Paul. We see his commitment in verse 19, “Therefore king Agrippa," after I had heard from the living Messiah who wasn't dead, Jesus of Nazareth that I know was crucified, and after He spoke to me, “I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.” I submitted my will as a commitment.
This is necessarily a part of response. There must be an act of the will. There must be obedience. Salvation is a sovereign act of God. But it also involves an act of human response. The call to the ministry is a sovereign act of God. But it also demands a human response. In Galatians 1:16 Paul says, "When the Lord called me into the ministry I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, but I did what God had called me to do."
I didn't seek any human wisdom. I responded instantly to God in obedience. Obedience is the response that God asks for. Now this is part of the paradox of sovereignty and responsibility. God acts sovereignly to bring about His will, but He demands within the framework of that sovereignty a human response. So that when you give your testimony you don't say, "Well one day I was zapped and I was saved while I didn't do anything.”
God sovereignly moves on your will, but your will has to be activated. Now you can resist that. That's true but you pay a high price. Remember Moses in Exodus 4. God said, "Moses, I'm telling you to speak for Me." Moses says, "I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." Then the Lord said, "Because of your unbelief, Aaron shall be your mouth piece and you shall be as God to Aaron.”
What is obedience? Number one: obedience is a mark of conversion. Romans 6:16 says, “Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?” Secondly, it is a recognition of authority. When you obey you are saying you are in control and I am in submission.
When you do not obey God you are playing God. If God says, "My desire for you is to do this," and you say, "No, I'm going to do this," you have replaced God as the controlling authority in your life. Thirdly, obedience is a characteristic of faith. In Hebrews 11:8 it says, "And Abraham obeyed God." And the next verse says, "By faith." Fourth, obedience is proof of love. Don't tell God you love Him, unless you obey.
Paul says, that the central hope of the Jew was the resurrection. The central hope of the Jew was a living Messiah. There is a living Messiah. There was a resurrection. The resurrected one spoke to me. I saw His glory. I heard His voice. I could do nothing but obey. He commissioned me into His ministry, instantly I obeyed. I have preached repentance and turning to God and works that proved that that repentance was real.
Verse 21, “For these reasons the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me.” You know why they wanted him dead? Because he was offering equal salvation to Gentiles. The Jews could not tolerate equality with Gentiles. And so Paul says, "They wanted me dead because I offered an equal salvation to Gentiles." That's how he became a prisoner to begin with.
He says in verse 22, “Therefore, having obtained help from God, to this day I stand, witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come.” Paul had help from God all the time. We struggle and work and discipline ourselves to work as hard as we can to produce as much as we can for the glory of the Lord and at the same time it's all done with His under girding strength.
And so Paul says, “I'm only preaching what the Old Testament taught, which is that the Messiah would have to suffer. Verse 23, “that the Christ would suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and would proclaim light to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.” Here I am two years later saying the same thing I said then and just as boldly saying that there is equal salvation to Jew and Gentile.
What happened as a result of his testimony? Well first came the criticism. Verse 24, “Now as he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!” What made him say that? Paul just said that Christ rose from the dead. Festus couldn't handle that resurrection idea. No Roman with any reason could ever believe that stuff.
But Paul answered. Verse 25-27, “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason. 26 For the king, before whom I also speak freely, knows these things; for I am convinced that none of these things escapes his attention, since this thing was not done in a corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.” Paul says: I'm not mad. I speak with a clear mind and the king knows it.
Agrippa hasn't said a word and yet Agrippa is standing there with his mouth shut attesting to what Paul has said as being true. Anybody who believes the prophets, anybody who believes Moses, and anybody who believes historical fact must conclude that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. Verse 28, “Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”
Verse 29, “And Paul said, “I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me today, might become both almost and altogether such as I am, except for these chains.” Are you trying in such a short time to convert me? Paul says, "Hey, I am trying to convert all the dignitaries that are there. Paul says, "I wish you were all like I am, spiritually speaking."
Verse 30-31, “When he had said these things, the king stood up, as well as the governor and Bernice and those who sat with them; 31 and when they had gone aside, they talked among themselves, saying, “This man is doing nothing deserving of death or chains.” The Holy Spirit includes this here to show that the king and the governor both agreed that Paul was innocent.
True Christianity is guilty of nothing worthy of death or bonds. Verse 32, “Then Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.” There wasn't any reason to appeal to Caesar now. There was no a letter written, but they still hid behind the appeal of Paul.
What hindered Agrippa and Festus? One: big egos. Two: immorality. Agrippa was vile, self-centered, and ignorant, the same things that hinder other people. But it didn't discourage Paul. When he got to Rome the first thing he did was to start preaching Jesus again. It did not change Paul. Let us follow his example. Let us pray.