Acts Chapter 26

Paul’s Defense Before Agrippa/Festus

Paul had already made his defense to Festus (25:6-12), so now he will address Agrippa. Furthermore the purpose of the speech was for Agrippa information. When given the cue by Agrippa Paul stretched out his hands and began a recital of his Christian experience. First, he expressed gratitude that he was permitted to present his case before one who, being a Jew was conversant with the customs and questions which prevailed among the Jewish people. In his early life, Paul was an exemplary Jew. The Jews would have to admit, if only they were willing to testify, that Paul had followed a pathway of the strictest orthodoxy being a consistence Pharisee. Now he was on trial for no greater crime than the fact that he clung to the hope of the promise made by God to the Jewish fathers in the Old Testament.

The flow of Paul’s argument here seems to be as follows: in the Old Testament God made various covenants with the leaders of Israel, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and Solomon. The principle covenant had to do with the promise of the Messiah, his coming to deliver the nation of Israel and to reign over the earth. The Patriarchs of the Old Testament died without seeing the fulfillment of this promise. Does this mean that God would not carry out the terms of the covenants? He would assuredly do so! But how could He do it when the fathers are already dead? The answer is “by raising them from the dead.” thus , in a very direct way, Paul links the promises made to the Old Testament saints with the resurrection of the dead.

Paul pictured the twelve tribes of Israel as earnestly and ceaselessly serving God, hoping to see the promises fulfilled. This reference to the twelve tribes is important in view of the current teaching that ten of the tribes of Israel have been lost since the captivity. Though they were scattered among the Gentile nations, Paul saw them as a distinct people, serving God and looking for the promised deliverer. This was Paul’s crime! He believed that God would fulfill his promise to the fathers by raising them from the dead. What was so incredible about this? Paul asked Agrippa and all those who were with him.

Reverting to the story of his life, Paul recounted the savage and committed campaign he waged against the followers of the Christian faith. With all his strength he opposed the name of Jesus of Nazareth. With authority from the chief priest, he imprisoned many of the Christians in Jerusalem. When they stood before the Sanhedrin, he gladly cast a vote against them. Over and over again he arranged punishment for those whom he found in every Synagogue, and he did all he could to force them to deny their Lord. (When it says that he compelled them to “blaspheme” it does not mean he was successful, but he tried to do it). Paul’s hate campaign against the Christians had overflowed from Jerusalem and Judea to foreign cities.

Paul once again recounts his conversion. It was while he was on one of these foreign expeditions that a transforming experience occurred in his life. He was en route to Damascus, equipped with official papers authorizing him to arrest the Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for punishment. At midday he was overcome by a vision of glory. A light from heaven shone upon him, brighter than the midday sun. After he had fallen from his beast, and to the ground, he heard a voice asking him this probing question: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks (ox goads). These were sharp pointed instruments used to force stubborn animals to move along. Paul was kicking against the goads of his own conscience, but even more important, against the convicting voice of the Holy Spirit. He was fighting against God himself. Paul asked, “Who art thou Lord?” The voice answered. “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” Jesus? How could that be? Hadn’t Jesus been crucified and buried? The truth quickly dawned on Paul’s soul. Jesus had indeed been buried, but He had risen from the dead! He had ascended back to heaven, from where He was now speaking to Paul.

Next Paul gives a condensed summary of the commission which was given to him by the risen Lord Jesus Christ. He was told to rise and stand on his feet. He had this special revelation of Christ in glory because he was appointed to be a servant of the Lord and a witness of all he had seen that day and all of the great truths of the Christian faith which would be made known to him. The promise that Paul would be delivered from the Jewish people and the Gentiles must be understood as meaning deliverance in general until his work was done.

Paul would be sent especially to the Gentiles to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Through faith in the Lord Jesus they would receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who are sanctified. Having been thus commissioned, Paul explains to Agrippa that he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Both in Damascus and in Jerusalem, throughout all of Judea and then to the Gentiles Paul preached to men that they should repent and turn to God, doing works that prove the reality of their repentance.

Paul states that this is what he was doing when the Jews seized him in the temple and tried to kill him. But God had given him protection and help, and he continued to testify to all with whom he came in contact, preaching the message which the Prophets and Moses preached in the Old Testament. The message was that the Messiah would suffer, that he would be the first to rise from the dead, and that he would show light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.

Being a Gentile, Festus failed completely to understand any of Paul’s argument. He accused Paul of being mad (crazy) as a result of too much learning. With no trace of irritation or temper, Paul simply and quietly denied the charge and emphasized that his words were those of truth and reason. Paul expressed confidence that the king knew the truth of what he had been saying. Paul’s life and testimony had not been a secret. The Jews knew all about it, and doubtless the report had reached Agrippa.

Addressing the king directly, Paul asked “king Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? Then Paul answered his own question, “I know that thou believest.” The force of the argument is unmistakable. Paul was saying in effect, I believe all that the prophets said in the Old Testament. You too believe their testimony, don’t you, Agrippa? How then can the Jews accuse me of a crime deserving of death? Or how could you condemn me for believing what you yourself believe?

That Agrippa felt the force of Paul’s words is indicated by his sarcastic remark “almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”. Whether Agrippa was speaking in sincerity or in jest, Paul answered with deadly earnestness. He expressed the fervent wish that whether with little persuasion or with much, both Agrippa and all others present might enter into the joys and blessings of the Christian life, that they might share all Paul’s privileges, that they might become like him except for the chains. After conferring together they were all forced to admit that Paul had done nothing deserving of death or chains. Perhaps with a little tinge of regret, Agrippa said to Festus, if Paul had not appealed to Caesar he might have been set free. At this point we naturally wonder why the appeal to Caesar could not be cancelled. Whether or not such an appeal was unalterable, we do know that it was God’s purpose that the Apostle to the Gentiles should go to Rome for the trial before Caesar.

Questions/Answers?
Who were the ten lost tribes of Israel?

After the death of Solomon the kingdom spilt into two kingdoms. The southern kingdom consisted of Judah and Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob. The northern kingdom was comprised the other ten tribes which was centered around Samaria and Israel. Because of their sins the Assyrians in 722 B.C. took them into captivity. Historians have debated as to what happened to the ten lost tribes down through history with no right or wrong conclusion (See II kings chapter 17).

Read more!

Acts Chapter 22

Paul Addresses the Crowd

At the end of our last study (chapter 21), Paul’s audience wanted to kill him thinking that he had profaned the temple by taking a gentile into the inner court of the temple. Once Paul was in Roman custody and requesting permission to speak, he spoke in Aramaic rather than Greek. As soon as they heard their native tongue they were surprised and their shouts ceased, at least for the time being. Paul would defend himself in three parts: (a) his conduct before his conversion, (b) his conversion, and (c) his commission to minister. The vocatives Men, Brethren, and fathers with which Paul began his speech are those Stephen used (7:2). Paul began with his roots as a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia; his education was at the feet of the great rabbi (teacher) Gamaliel, and his instructions in Judaism. He gave special emphasis to his zeal as a Jew. Paul related how he had persecuted the Christian faith (this way), filling the prisons with those who believed in Jesus.

The high priest and the Sanhedrin could bear witness to the thoroughness of his methods. It was from them that he received letters authorizing him to go to Damascus and bring back Christians from there to Jerusalem to be punished. Up to this point in Paul’s message the Jews could understand perfectly, and if they were honest, they would have to agree that what had been said was true. Now Paul will tell them of an event that changed his life forever. As Paul neared the end of his journey to Damascus he was confronted with a great light from heaven. The fact that it happened about noon, here recorded for the first time, indicates that the light was more brilliant and glorious than the sun itself. Struck to the ground by the intensity of the light, the persecutor heard a voice from heaven saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me”? Upon asking “who art thou” he learned that it was Jesus of Nazareth who was speaking to him from heaven.

The men traveling with Paul saw the light and heard the sound of the voice (9:7), but they did not hear the actual words that were spoken to Paul. In other words they were conscious of noise, but not articulate speech. Having had this private audience with the Lord of glory, Paul made a complete commitment of his spirit, soul, and body to the Lord. This is indicated by his question “what shall I do Lord”. The Lord directed Paul to go into Damascus and there he would receive his instructions. Blinded by the light, he was led by the hand into the city.

In Damascus Paul was visited by one named Ananias. Paul describes him to his Jewish audience as a devout man according to the law, having a good testimony with all the Jews who dwelt there in Damascus. Ananias testimony as a respected member of the Damascus Jewish community would carry a lot of weight with the hostile audience. Ananias after addressing Paul as brother demanded that he receive his sight. It was then Paul first looked upon Ananias face. In verses 14-16 we learn for the first time what Ananias said to Paul. He informed Paul of several key points. First, he stated that it was God the Father who had ordered the events on the Damascus road. The reference to “that just one” is a reference to Jesus Christ, a title used by Stephen in Acts 7:52 also. This is important because it qualified Paul as an Apostle.

Second, the men to whom Paul was to present the gospel included Gentiles, kings and Jews (9:15). Finally, Paul was told to arise and be baptized, and wash away his sins. Now, for the first time, we learn of an experience Paul had toward the close of his first visit to Jerusalem after conversion. While praying in the temple, he fell into a trance and heard the Lord commanding him to leave Jerusalem quickly because the Jews would not receive his testimony concerning Christ. It seem incredible to Paul that his own people would refuse to listen to him. After all they knew what a zealous Jew he had been, how he had imprisoned and beaten the disciples of Jesus, and how he had even been an accomplice to the murder of Stephen. But the Lord repeated his command for Paul to depart quickly because now he will send him far from Jerusalem to the Gentiles.

Up to this point the Jews had been listening to Paul quietly but when his mention of going to the Gentiles with the gospel, this was too much for the crowd. Filled with rage and jealously they cried out for Paul’s life. The people in the mob threw off their cloaks and flung dust in the air an expression of intense anger. The commander who could not understand Aramaic was confused by everything that had just happened. He was determined to get to the bottom of this event even if it meant scourging Paul. As the preparations for the scourging were moving ahead, Paul quietly asked the centurion if it was legal to scourge a Roman citizen when he had not be found guilty of a crime. As a matter of fact, it was unlawful to even to tie up a Roman citizen before his quilt was proven.

The centurion quickly went and told the commander to be very careful of how they treated Paul, because he was a roman citizen. This brought the commander quickly to Paul side. On inquiry he learned that Paul indeed was a Roman citizen. There were three ways a person could become a Roman citizen. First, citizenship was sometimes granted by imperial decree as a reward for services rendered. Second, it was possible to become a citizen by birth, this was the case with Paul; he was born in Tarsus, a free Roman city and his father was a Roman citizen. Finally, it was possible to purchase citizenship often at a very high price. The commander explained that he brought his citizenship with a large sum of money. Paul stated he was born free.

The commander was obviously nervous for bounding Paul which was unlawful. Anxious to know for certain why the Jews wanted Paul dead, the commander decided to carry out the proceedings in a legal and orderly manner. Therefore on the day after the mob scene in Jerusalem, he had Paul taken out of prison and brought before the chief priests and the Sanhedrin.

Questions/Answers
Why was Paul baptized?

First, it is evident that Paul was thoroughly converted on the road to Damascus, yet at that time water baptism was still required for salvation (Mark 16:16) thus he was called upon to “wash away his sins” by water baptism, not that water in itself could wash away sins, but an expression of faith. When God said water baptism was necessary to salvation, faith would respond by being baptized (Acts 2:38). Water baptism is a natural symbol for washing or cleansing as this passage and many others indicate (Mark 7:1-5 where baptizo is twice rendered wash and where it is used alternately with nipto, another word for wash; also Heb. 9:10 where the original word is baptismos ). It should be observed here that Paul relates what took place at the time of his conversion. He was converted under the economy of the kingdom gospel where water baptism was required. When Ananias in chapter 9 came to Paul, why didn’t he tell Paul to believe, repent, and be baptized? Paul had talked with Jesus (9:1-19), he believed. Paul had three days to think about all that he had done (9:9), he was repentant. Ananias came and baptized Paul.

Read more!