Beloved, I am pleased to share with you today the above theme from Acts 26:1-2. Indeed, Paul, invited to testify before King Agrippa, solemnly extends his arm laden with chains. As in Acts 22, he tells of his encounter with the Lord and the conditions in which his service was entrusted to him. His own eyes having been opened, he was given the task of opening those of the people of the nations so that they might have access by faith to the light, to freedom, to the remission of sins, and to the heavenly part of the saints (Col 1:12-14). For the circumstances of conversions are not alike. Indeed, Peter was in his boat when he acknowledged his state of sin. Levi was sitting at his desk and Zacchaeus in a tree at the time of the Lord’s call (Luke 5:8-32; Luke 19:1-6). The Ethiopian was converted in his chariot and the jailer in the prison at midnight (Acts 8:26-31; Acts 16:25-32).
On the contrary, Paul was, in the middle of noon, while he was walking on the road:”In the middle of the day, O king, I saw on the way shine around me and my companions a light coming from heaven, and whose brilliance surpassed that of the sun.” (Acts 26:13). The important thing is that everyone can tell where and when they met Jesus. Let us not be afraid, when the opportunity arises, to tell our conversion. For this is not to glorify oneself, since at the same time we must speak of the sad state in which we were found. On the contrary, it is exalting the sovereign grace that wanted to snatch us from it.
Indeed, called by Jesus Christ to an extraordinary ministry among the nations, Paul was not disobedient:”Consequently, King Agrippa, I have not resisted the heavenly vision.” Let us not be so to perform the most modest and easiest services that the Lord has entrusted to us!
For Festus, a man without spiritual needs, Paul’s words are pure rambling:”As he spoke like this for his justification, Festus said aloud: You are mad, Paul! Your great knowledge makes you unreason.” (Acts 26:24). Indeed, “the animal man does not receive things which are of the Spirit of God, for they are foolish to him” (1 Co 2:12-16). Then the apostle speaks directly to the king, with deference, but also with the authority given to him by the Word (Ps 119:45-48). For Agrippa hides his embarrassment by deflecting the question: “AndAgrippa said to Paul: You will soon persuade me to become a Christian!” Unfortunately, to be pretty much convinced or to become almost a Christian is to still be quite lost. And of the king or the poor captive, which one had the most enviable share? For aware of his high position before God, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, does not think of the crown of the man before him, but of his soul! Let us not allow ourselves to be stopped by the appearance of men either; let us think of their eternal fate.
Thus the apostle was successively brought before the Sanhedrin, Felix, Festus and Agrippa. He still has to appear before Caesar who, at that time, was none other than the cruel Nero. For Festus wanted to lead Paul to Jerusalem to win over the Jews, but Rome had to have its share in rejecting the gospel of grace and the church’s witness, and Paul appealed to Caesar. Festus is obliged to send the apostle to Rome, but he is embarrassed to know what crime to attribute to him by sending him there. Sad picture of the injustice of man! But everything accomplishes God’s purposes. By his call to Caesar, Paul here was little more successful than in the effort he had made to please the Jews. This call may have been in the eyes of men the only resource he had left in these circumstances, but he could have (the Holy Spirit is careful to tell us) have been set free, if he had not appealed to Caesar.
But the Lord God wanted to see in front of the world the innocence of his beloved servant. And Paul’s talk has that purpose. He goes further, but the apostle’s purpose is to account for his conduct: his miraculous conversion is told in order to justify his subsequent career, but it is told in such a way as to act on the conscience of Agrippa, who had Jewish knowledge and obviously had the desire to learn something from Christianity, which he suspected of being the truth. So the king greedily seized the opportunity to hear the apostle explain the new doctrine; but it remains to be more or less convinced. For this state of mind of Agrippa, however, opens Paul’s mouth, and he addresses himself directly and particularly to the king who, moreover, challenged him, obviously concerned with the subject that Paul was going to deal with; as for Festus, what Paul said was for him only trivialities.
Indeed, Paul’s dignity before all these governors is perfect: he addresses their conscience with an oblivion of himself that shows a man in whom communion with God and the awareness of his relations with him, kept the spirit above the effect of circumstances. He acts on behalf of God and with perfect deference to the position of those to whom he is addressed: morally he is entirely elevated above them. For Paul’s address to King Agrippa provides us with the most complete picture of the apostle’s entire position, as he himself envisioned when his long service, and the light of the Spirit, illuminated for him all his past.
For this purpose, Jesus had set it apart by separating it from the Jews as well as from the Gentiles, Paul’s mission holding directly to heaven and having its source there; the apostle had been formally sent to the Gentiles by the Lord of glory to change their position vis-à-vis God through faith in this glorious Jesus, to open their eyes, to carry them from darkness to light, from The power of Satan to God, and to give them an inheritance among the sanctified. This was a well-defined work. The apostle had not been disobedient to the heavenly vision, for he had taught the Gentiles to turn to God and act as such. That is why the Jews sought to kill him.
Nothing is simpler and truer than this story; it put Paul’s position and the conduct of the Jews in the clearest day. For on the interpellation of Festus, who naturally saw in Paul’s words only unreasonable enthusiasm, the apostle, with admirable dignity and with the most perfect tact, appeals to the knowledge that Agrippa had of the facts on which his whole account was based, for what he was talking about had not been done in secret.
Then Agrippa, heartbroken and drawn by Paul’s clear and righteous account, declares that he is pretty much convinced that he is a Christian. Paul replied, “Whether it is soon or late, please God that not only you, but also all those who listen to me today, become as I am, except for these bonds! “(Acts 26:29). What happiness and love in God, for these two things go together and are expressed in these words! For poor prisoner, already old and rejected at the end of his career, he is rich in God!… Happy years those he had spent in prison! For the apostle could give himself as a model of happiness, and his heart was full of it: there are states of mind that are expressed without anyone being mistaken. And why wouldn’t the apostle be happy? His fatigues were over, his work in a certain sense finished: he possessed Jesus, and in him all things. The glorious Jesus who had brought him into the sorrows and labor of witness was now his possession and crown. That is still the case.
For the cross that must be loaded into service, by virtue of what Jesus is, becomes for the soul the enjoyment of all that He is when the service is over, and in a way the measure of this enjoyment. This same change took place in Jesus himself in all his fullness. It is the same for us to our measure, according to the sovereign grace of God; only Paul’s expression assumes that the Holy Spirit acts powerfully in the heart, that he may be free to enter fully into this enjoyment; and it assumes that the Holy Spirit is not contrised.
A glorious Jesus, a Jesus who loved him, a Jesus who put the seal of his approval and love on his service, a Jesus who would take him to himself in glory and with whom he was one; and known by him according to the abundant power of the Holy Spirit, according to divine justice, a Jesus who revealed the Father and through whom Paul had received adoption, was the infinite source of his joy, the glorious object of his heart and faith; and known in love, he filled his heart with that love that overflowed towards all men. What could he wish for his listeners better than to be what he was, apart from his connections? How, enjoying such love, could he not wish for this or not be filled with this broad affection? For the Lord Jesus was the measure of this.
We notice in this interesting account that at the moment when Paul could have been the most troubled, at the moment when his walk was, it seems, the least obviously according to the power of the Spirit, and when he put disorder in the Sanhedrin by arguments that he himself perhaps hesitates to justify then entirely, the Lord, full of grace, appears to him to encourage and strengthen him. Then Jesus appears to Paul to tell him that, as he bore witness to him in Jerusalem, he will also have to bear witness in Rome.
The following verses have been compiled for your edification and grouped together for your better understanding.
- Herod Agrippa II
Acts 25:13 A few days later, King Agrippa and Berenice arrived in Caesarea to greet Festus. Acts 26:1:27 Agrippa said to Paul: You are allowed to speak in your defense. And Paul, having extended his hand, justified himself in these terms. 27 Do you believe in the prophets, King Agrippa?… I know you believe in it.
- Paul, general references
Acts 7:58 dragged him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses put their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. Acts 8:1 Saul had approved of Stephen’s murder. On that day there was a great persecution against the Church of Jerusalem; and all, except the apostles, dispersed to the lands of Judea and Samaria. Acts 9:1:22 However Saul, still breathing the threat and murder against the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest, 22 Yet Saul was becoming more and more strengthened, and he confused the Jews who inhabited Damascus, demonstrating that Jesus is the Christ. Acts 11:25 Barnabas then went to Tarsus to look for Saul; Acts 12:25 Barnabas and Saul, after fulfilling their message, returned from Jerusalem, taking with them John, nicknamed Mark. Acts 13:2:25 While they were serving the Lord in their ministry and fasting, the Holy Spirit said: Set me apart Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. 25 And when John finished his run, he said: I am not the one you think; but behold, after me comes the one from whose feet I am not worthy to untie the shoes. Acts 14:19 Then from Antioch and Icon came jews who won the crowd, and who, after stoned Paul, dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. Acts 15:12 The whole congregation remained silent, and Barnabas and Paul were listened to, who recounted all the miracles and wonders that God had done by them in the midst of the Gentiles. Acts 27:1:23 When it was decided that we would embark for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a center of the Augustus cohort, named Julius. 23 An angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve appeared to me that night,
-the man of vision: of Christ: Acts 9:3-6 As he was on his way, and as he approached Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 He fell to the ground, and he heard a voice that said to him: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? 5 He answered, “Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said: I am Jesus whom you persecute. It would be hard for you to rebel against the prods. 6 Trembling and seized with fright, he said, Lord, what do you want me to do? And the Lord said to him, “Get up, enter the city, and you will be told what to do. Acts 16:9 During the night, Paul had a vision: a Macedonian appeared to him, and prayed to him: Go to Macedonia, help us! 2 Co 12:1-4 We must boast… This is not good. Nevertheless, I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago was delighted to the third heaven (if it was in his body I do not know, if it was out of his body I do not know, God knows). 3 And I know that this man (whether it was in his body or without his body I do not know, God knows) 4 was raptured into paradise, and that he heard ineffable words that a man is not allowed to express.
- Slander, false accusations:
1 S 1:14 and he said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Pass your wine. Ne 6:7 you have even established prophets to proclaim yourself king of Judah in Jerusalem. And now these things will come to the king’s knowledge. Come, then, and let us consult together. Jb 2:5 But stretch out your hand, touch his bones and flesh, and I am sure he curses you in the face. Jb 22:6 Thou shabby unintendedly took away pledges from those who were naked, and deprived those who were naked of their garments; Jer 37:13 When he was at Benjamin’s door, the commander of the guard, named Jireija, son of Scelemia, son of Hanania, was there, and he seized Jeremiah, the prophet, saying: You pass to the Chaldeans! Mt 5:11 Blessed will you be, when you are insulted, persecuted, and falsely said of you all kinds of evil, for me. Mt 27:12 But he did not answer the accusations of the chief priests and elders. Lk 6:7 The scribes and Pharisees observed Jesus, to see if he would do a healing on the Sabbath: it was in order to be subject to accuse him. 1 Pet 3:16 and having a good conscience, that even where they slander you as if you were evildoers, those who decry your good conduct in Christ may be covered in confusion.
- Examples of Honour to Sovereigns
Gen 41:43 He put him on the chariot that followed his; and they cried out before him: Kneeling! This is how Pharaoh gave him command of the whole land of Egypt. 1 S 10:24 Samuel said to all the people, “Do you see the one whom the Lord has chosen? There is no one in all the people who is like him. And all the people cried out: Long live the king! 2 S 19:16 Schimei, son of Gera, Benjamite, who was of Bashurim, hastened to descend with those of Judah to meet King David. 1 The 8:66 On the eighth day he sent the people back. And they blessed the king, and went into their tents, joyful and with hearts content for all the good that Jehovah had done to David, his servant, and to Israel, his people. Dn 3:9 They spoke and said to King Nebuchadnezzar: O king, live eternally! Acts 26:2 I consider myself happy, King Agrippa, to have today to justify to you all the things of which I am accused by the Jews,
From all the above, we note that the Lord interprets in grace all that happened to his servant Paul and all his conduct, at the moment when he could have felt what was painful in his position, and be overwhelmed perhaps remembering that the Spirit had told him not to go up to Jerusalem, for doubt is torment at the moment of trial. Indeed, hisown eyes havingbeen opened, he was given the task of opening those of the people of the nations so that they might have access by faith to the light, to freedom, to the remission of sins, and to the heavenly part of the saints. If the Lord had to exercise discipline for the good of Paul, because of the condition of his servant, and to make him progress toward perfection, he was with him in discipline. Nothing is more touching than the tenderness and opportunity of this grace. Thus, called by Jesus Christ to an extraordinary ministry among the nations, Paul was not disobedient. Let us not be so to perform the most modest and easiest services that the Lord has entrusted to us! For Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, does not think of the crown of the man before him, but of his soul! Let us not allow ourselves to be stopped by the appearance of men either; rather, let us think of their eternal fate. Our prayers are with you all.
PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE OF JESUS CHRIST AS LORD AND PERSONAL SAVIOR
I now invite every person who wants to become a new creation by walking in the truth, to pray with me the following prayer:
Lord Jesus, I have long walked in the lusts of the world ignoring your love for humans. I admit to having sinned against you and ask your forgiveness for all my sins, because today I have decided to give you my life by taking you as Lord and personal Savior. I recognize that you died on the cross of Calvary and rose from the dead for me.
I am now saved and born again by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lead me every day to eternal life that you give to all who obey your Word. Reveal yourself to me and strengthen my heart and faith, so that your light may be shining in my life right now.
Thank you Lord Jesus for accepting me into your divine family, so that I may also contemplate the wonders of your kingdom.
I will now choose a nearby watering point to baptize myself by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
All adoration, power and glory are yours, now and forever and ever. Amen!
I would be happy to react to any questions and comments you may have, before sharing with you tomorrow about Paul’s departure for Rome, sailing and shipwreck.”
May the Lord Jesus Christ bless you abundantly.
David Feze, Servant of the Almighty God.