| CHAPTER 26
Paul’s speech to King Agrippa and the people with him takes up the whole of
this chapter. In verses 1-3, Paul begins his speech. He says all the nice
things that he can about Agrippa. Then in verses 4-11, he mostly speaks
about his life before he became a Christian. Verses 12-18 tell how Paul
became a Christian. Verses 19-23 speak about Paul’s life since he became a
Christian. Verses 24-29 tell how Festus ended Paul’s speech. Then Paul
speaks just to Agrippa. Verses 30-32 tell us what Agrippa and Festus said to
each other afterwards.
We can split the chapter up like that. But we need to see what Paul did. He
tells these people the Good News. He does this in verses 7 and 8. That was
for the Jews. Then in verse 18 we have the Good News again, more for the
Greeks this time. In verse 20 the Jews and Greeks come together. Then in
verse 23, Paul sets out the Good News about Jesus again.
We should remember that Paul is not now in a Court of Law. Paul does say
that he is ‘on trial’ (verse 6). But Agrippa is not able to judge Paul.
Paul’s appeal has blocked anything that Festus might want to do. Paul must
now go to Rome.
Paul probably speaks in Greek. He has at most only had a few hours to get
ready. [26.1] Perhaps Paul had most of this speech ready, just in case it
was needed.
Verses 1-3: Paul begins his speech to Agrippa
(Verse 1) Agrippa tells Paul that he may speak. Paul stretches his hand out.
He salutes the king. (Verse 2) Paul says that he is happy to speak about his
case to Agrippa. (Verse 3) Agrippa, he says, knows all about Jewish ways. He
also knows that the Jews do not agree with each other about some things.
Festus, of course, did not know very much about the Jews. Paul does not
expect to be brief!
Verses 4-11: Paul’s early life
(Verse 4) So far as we can tell, the Jews who were Paul’s enemies were not
in Caesarea. Paul says that they know what he was like. But they will not
talk about it. They know how Paul had lived since he was a ‘youth‘ or young
man. (Not ‘a child’ as in the NIV.) ‘My own country’ here is the province of
Cilicia. There Paul grew up in the city of Tarsus. Then he came to
Jerusalem. (Verse 5) Paul took great care to keep the Jewish law, like the
Pharisees. [26.2] (Verse 6) Now, Paul says, the Jews’ religion was not only
about the Law. God had given promises to the Jews. That was ‘to the
fathers’, in past ages. The promise which God gave was that the Messiah
would come. Paul says to Agrippa: ‘The Jews hate me because I do believe
what they say that they believe’. (Verse 7) The Jews of Paul’s day were all
the twelve tribes of old Israel. Paul does not know anything about ten ‘lost
tribes’.
There is another idea. Some of the Jews thought that if only all Israel kept
the law for a day, the Messiah would come. This was one reason why the Jews
tried so hard to keep the Law. Of course, Paul knew that Jesus was Christ,
the Messiah. He had come and He had kept the Law. Israel had not kept the
Law.
Then another thing becomes clear. For Paul, the promise is not only that
Messiah would come. It is also the promise that the dead would rise to new
life. Most of the Jews believed that. (Verse 8) They believed that the dead
- many of them - would rise. So they should be quite ready to say: ‘Yes! God
has raised one Man. That Man is God’s Son, Jesus’. God had raised other
people in Old Testament times. So it was a thing that the Jews should
believe.
For most of the people there that day, Paul’s question was different. These
people were mostly heathen. They believed in many ‘gods’. These ‘gods’
tricked one another. They shared power. They fought one another. No one
could think of them ‘raising the dead’. When you believe in one God who has
all power, and all goodness, it is different. Such a God can raise the dead.
If the Jews believed that God raised Jesus from the dead, it would help
their faith. It would make stronger their faith that God would raise the
dead at the last day.
In verse 9, Paul moves on to the time just before he became a Christian.
(Verse 10) Paul honours the Christians when he calls them ‘the saints’. They
were God’s holy people. Paul had been cruel to the Christians. This was not
only in Jerusalem. The leading Jews agreed with what he did. (Verse 11) He
tried to make the Christians speak bad things against Jesus. We do not know
what other cities he went to. Still, it seems that his journey to Damascus
was not the first one. Paul says that he was quite mad at this time. The
chief priests thought that he was a fine chap.
Verses 12-18: Paul tells how he became a Christian
(Verse 12) Paul tells of his journey to Damascus. See 22:6-16 and 9:3-19.
(Verse 13) It was the hottest part of the day when Paul and his party might
have had a rest. Paul, no doubt, wanted to get to Damascus. Paul talks about
the light from heaven. (Verse 14) The whole party fell down when they saw
this. Only Paul heard the voice which spoke. This was the voice of Jesus.
Jesus uses Paul’s old name, ‘Saul’. He says ‘Saul, Saul’. Very often in the
four Gospels, Jesus gave people their names twice like this.
A ‘goad’ was a sharp pointed stick. An ox often did not want to do what a
farmer wanted it to do. Often the ox did not want to do anything at all. The
farmer wanted the big, heavy animal to move and to work. So he poked or
prodded its back legs with the goad. That hurt the ox but it usually worked.
The ox moved forward. It tried to get away from the goad. If it did not, the
farmer would poke it again. If it kicked back against the goad, the goad
would hurt it much more. [26.3] No doubt the farmer’s goad was long enough.
He did not want the ox to kick him!
What Jesus says is that He is like the farmer. Paul - or Saul - was like the
ox. Jesus wanted him to go forward. Jesus wanted him to become a Christian.
Jesus wanted him to get to work. When Paul saw the Christians, that was like
the goad. He heard Christians pray. He saw that they were brave when he was
cruel to them. He saw how great their love for Christ was. He saw their love
for one another. This and much more besides, was Christ poking Paul. The
more Paul kicked against the goad, the more it hurt him. The only way to end
this was for Paul to obey Christ.
(Verse 15) [26.4] Paul calls Jesus ‘Lord’. Perhaps he does not yet know how
much this means. The Lord answers ‘I AM’. When Paul is cruel to Christ’s
people, he is cruel to Christ Himself. Far too often Christ’s people have to
suffer for their faith. It is still true today, that when Christ’s people
suffer, Christ in glory feels for them.
(Verse 16) God has work for Paul to do. Paul does not say here that he was
blind for three days. He does not say anything here about Ananias’s visit to
him in Damascus. But much of what Paul says now sounds rather like what
Ananias said to him.
Now God does not promise Paul here that he will be great. God does not
promise him power in the church. He does not promise that he will be famous
for ages to come. God promises him plenty of work. The word ‘servant’ here
is a word which we can find several times in the New Testament. This word
once meant ‘under-rower’. Some of the ships of those days had to be rowed.
The wind did not always drive them along. So there were men who sat on
benches in the ships. They had long oars. They had to pull on the oars
together to make the ship move. In a big ship or ‘galley’ there would be two
or three lots of oars, one above the other. So there would be two or three
lots of men, one above the other. It would not be at all nice to be
‘under-rowers’ with other men on benches just above your head. It would be
noisy, hot and smelly. So this word for ‘under-rower’ came to mean a humble
servant. That was what God called Paul to be. That is still God’s call to
those He chooses to serve Him.
(Verse 17) Paul will sometimes be in danger from the Jews. He will also be
in danger from people who are not Jews. God will keep him safe. God will
send Paul to these people. So (verse 18) Paul sets out the Good News. [26.5]
1) People cannot see. They are blind to God’s truth. They need God’s
Spirit to open their eyes to see it.
2) People have their backs to God. They need to turn right round to face
God. That is what we mean by conversion.
3) People are in darkness. Luke 1:78 speaks about people who ‘sit in
darkness’. They cannot move safely because it is so dark. They cannot
make a move to find God. Death throws a dark shadow over them.
4) Where there is a shadow, there is a light behind it. The Good News
brings light into peoples’ minds. (See Psalm 27:1.) It is the light
which shines beyond death.
5) Then people are in the power or authority of Satan, that is the
Devil. We must come under the power and authority of God. It is Jesus
Who has already broken the power which Satan had over us.
6) Then God will forgive their sins. This is the only way that we can
get rid of sin.
7) God will give us faith to put our trust in Him.
8) Then God will make us holy.
9) Then God will give us a share in the good things which He gives to
His people. We shall have a place among them in glory. We may be alone
now. We shall not be alone then.
This is the Good News of what God will do for us. Paul says more in verse
23. Agrippa and any Jews who were with him would have understood this.
Probably Festus and the Romans did not.
Verses 19-23: Paul’s life as a Christian
(Verse 19) God from heaven had spoken to Paul. He had told him what to do.
Paul was quick to obey God. (Verse 20) In a few words, Paul sets out what he
did. This verse takes us from Acts 9:20 to 21:29. We learn that Paul at some
stage preached in Judea. Compare this with Galatians 1:22. Paul must have
preached in the churches in Judea on a later visit to Jerusalem.
We can see that Paul does not really want to talk about himself. Once again
he sets out the Good News. It is for Jews, but also for people of other
nations.
1. They should repent: they should change their minds. They must turn
right round.
2. They should turn to God. They should turn away from sin.
3. What they do should prove that there is a real change in their lives.
It is important for Paul to say that he had only one message. Many people
hated the Jews, and even feared them. Not many years after this, 20,000 Jews
died in Caesarea when the Jewish War began. Almost all the Jews in the city
were killed. The Romans and even the Jewish King, Agrippa, would be pleased
that Paul had no special message for the Jews. They were not ‘God’s master
race’. (Verse 21) That was the real reason for what the Jewish leaders in
Jerusalem did to Paul. They did not like it because Paul had the same
message for Jews and for people who were not Jews.Now this was just what
Festus needed to know. King Agrippa would be able to tell Festus that this
was right.
(Verse 22) Paul might have said much more about what had happened to him. He
had needed God’s help. Without God’s help he could not have kept on with his
work. Many a Christian down the years has been able to say this. More, Paul
can say that he feels that God helps him that very day. God helps him as he
makes this speech.
We should see that Paul has one message for both the small and the great. He
has some great people who listen to him now. But he does not have one
message for the poor and another message for the rich. The Good News is for
the king! It is only at judgment that we read of the great first, then of
the small. The Good News is always first for the poor. See 1 Corinthians
1:27 and 28. [26.6]
Then Paul adds that his message agrees with what the Old Testament prophets
had said. It agrees with what Moses had said. So in verse 25, Paul sets out
the Good News yet again. This time he sets out what Christ has done.
(a) Christ, the Messiah that God promised, has come into the world.
(b) Christ has suffered and died, as the prophets said that He would.
(c) He has risen from the dead.
(d) Christ has proclaimed a message which brings light. [26.7] This has
come to both Jews and to the other nations.
So Paul has set out the Good News four times in this speech. See verses
8; 18 and 20. Verse 8 has to do with our hope. Verse 18 has to do with the
work of God’s grace in us. Verse 20 has to do with the oneness of the Good
News. Now in verse 23, we have the work of Christ. Of course, Paul may have
said more than we have here in Acts.
Verses 24-29: Festus breaks in
(Verse 24) Festus could stand no more. Probably he had thought that King
Agrippa and the other people present would have heard something different.
Perhaps he thought that they would hear about Paul’s travels and adventures.
Festus shouts Paul down. Other people might want to do the same! Felix
could! He tells Paul that he is mad. Back in verse 11, Paul had used the
same word. He was mad before he was a Christian. He was mad when he tried to
destroy the Christians. Most people thought then that he was a fine chap.
Now that he speaks the sober truth, Festus says that he is mad. Festus
clearly knew that Paul spent his time in study. He says that ‘too much study
is driving you mad!’
(Verse 25) Paul’s reply is polite. (Verse 26) King Agrippa knew the facts
about Jesus. But that did not make the king a Christian. He knew the facts,
but he did not want to know what they meant. (Verse 27) At some point here,
Paul and Agrippa start to talk in Aramaic, instead of Latin or Greek. Festus
and most of the people there no longer understand. Paul asks Agrippa whether
he believes the Old Testament prophets. When Paul adds: ‘I know that you
do’, he makes it all the worse for Agrippa. Agrippa knew where Paul wanted
to lead him. The king could not say: ‘No! I do not believe the prophets’. He
was, after all, a ‘Jewish’ king! So Agrippa just says to Paul: (Verse 28)
‘In a little you try to make me a Christian‘. Most Bibles take ‘a little’
here to mean ‘a little time’. Really, Agrippa just says something because
Paul has made things difficult for him. So (verse 29) Paul gives his answer.
He prays that Agrippa and all the other people there might become
Christians. He wants them to become like him, but not in chains. [26.8]
Verses 30-32: Agrippa and Festus
(Verse 30) All the most important people got up and went out. (Verse 31) It
may be that Festus had to tell Paul what they said to each other. Festus and
Agrippa may not agree with Paul. But Paul should not be put to death or in
prison. At this time, it was not against Roman law to be a Christian. (Verse
32) Festus cannot just set Paul free. This is because Paul has appealed to
Caesar. |