Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Acts 26 (selected verses quoted):
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”My Understanding: Paul, in chapter 22 of Acts, gave his testimony of his conversion. When the crowd heard him say that Jesus had told him to leave Jerusalem because the people there would not accept Paul’s testimony about Jesus, and that Jesus had told him that he was sending him far away to the Gentiles, they raised their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He’s not fit to live!” Paul then ended up before the Sanhedrin – the ruling council – (chap. 23) there was a dispute among the council between the Pharisees, who believed in the resurrection of the dead and the Sadducees, who did not, Paul was taken to the barracks, and that night Jesus visited him and told him to “take courage,” because he was still to testify about Jesus in Rome.
…“On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. 14 We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15 “Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’
“‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
19 “So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. 20 First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. 21 That is why the Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. 22 But I have had God’s help to this very day, and so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— 23 that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”
24 At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you insane.”
25 “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. 26 The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”
28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”
29 Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.” …
There was a plot afoot to kill Paul, so he was transferred to Caesarea. Following this (chap. 24), Paul came before Felix. The charges against him were that he was a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world, that he was a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, and that he had even tried to desecrate the temple. Paul exclaimed that the charges were false and that they could not be proved against him. He also proclaimed that his conscience was clear before God. Felix kept Paul under arrest (with some privileges and freedoms) for two years. Then, Paul was brought before Festus (chap. 25), where Paul once again exclaimed that the charges against him could not be proved. Paul appealed to Caesar, and a few days later Paul appeared before King Agrippa (chap. 25-26), which brings us then to today’s passage.
Before King Agrippa, Paul shared his testimony again. He told the king of his background, how he lived as a Pharisee previously, according to the strictest sect of the Jewish religion. He had been convinced previously that he should oppose the name of Jesus. He put many of the saints in prison, and when they were put to death, he had cast his vote against them. He went from one synagogue to another to have believers in Jesus Christ punished, and he had tried to force them to blaspheme. He even went to foreign cities to persecute them. But, then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus where he was going to persecute and arrest even more believers in Jesus Christ. Jesus stopped him while he was on the way.
Jesus asked Saul/Paul, “Why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” My commentary said this was “A Greek Proverb for useless resistance – the ox only succeeds in hurting itself.” When Paul was persecuting Jesus’ followers, he was, in fact, persecuting Jesus. Jesus was telling him here that this was useless resistance against Jesus and against his followers, because Paul was only hurting himself. And, that is true of our lives, as well. When we resist Jesus by rejecting his truths or even by rejecting or persecuting those of his who are following him in all truth and obedience, we are only hurting ourselves. When we refuse to forgive others, for instance, it eats away at us inside and it causes us emotional and physical stress and it hurts us in other relationships. Not only that, but it keeps us from living victorious Christian lives that are free in the Spirit, and we will live defeated, selfish, flesh-driven lives that will never bring us true peace and joy.
There are several accounts in the book of Acts of Saul’s conversion. Others go into much more detail with a play-by-play description of the events as they unfolded. Paul appears to have summarized his encounter with Jesus here in these next several verses, which is my most favorite of all the accounts of Saul’s conversion. Paul’s description here of his assignment from God said Jesus told him that he was to get up and stand on his feet. Saul had just been confronted with Jesus Christ and with his sin against God and against God’s people. He thought he was doing the right thing before, and that he was doing it for God, so he was humbled and broken in spirit to realize the magnitude of what he had just done to God/Jesus.
Sometimes, when we are confronted with the magnitude of our sin against God when, perhaps, we had convinced ourselves that we were following God, that reality can be so hard that it might be difficult to get back up and to feel as though God could possibly ever use us again or at all because of how badly we had sinned against him. Yet, our God is the God of second chances, and when we fail him and we confess and repent of our sin, he tells us to “get up and stand on your feet.” To stand means to be spiritually upright, to fight resolutely for something as opposed to retreating, to be a witness for Jesus, to hold one’s ground on a position on a belief, and to be steadfast (unwavering). So, to “get up” means to move beyond the point of sorrow over our sin and to move to the place where we do the opposite of what we had been doing before, which is the meaning of repentance. And, then to stand means to be resolute, determined, committed, faithful, and unwavering in our determination to no longer be who we were before but to obey God from this point on.
Jesus then told him that he was appearing to him to appoint him “as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you.” Now Paul had his assignment. Once he got up and he took his stand, he was to be a witness for Jesus Christ. I love one of the other accounts of this story of Saul’s conversion where Ananias was instrumental there in giving Saul his assignment. He said to him, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up…” I believe there are many believers in Jesus Christ that are stuck right there and have not moved any further. They have met Jesus on their way of living lives that were persecuting Jesus Christ. Jesus confronted them with their sin and they were humbled before God and repented of their sins. They may have even moved to the point of getting up and taking a stand for Jesus and having done so, Jesus gave them their assignments, but they didn’t go any further and contented themselves with just “believing” in Jesus but not truly following through with what they know Jesus has asked them to do with their lives. And, Jesus is saying to them today, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up! And, go do what I have commanded you to do for my name’s sake.”
Saul had his more general commission in the knowledge that he was to be a witness for Jesus Christ and that he was to tell the people what Jesus was going to show him. Next, Jesus gave him an even more detailed description of what his assignment was. He was to go to whomever God sent him to and he was to “open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” We know that Jesus Christ is truly the one who opens men’s eyes and who turns them from darkness to light, yet Paul was to be Christ’s instrument in telling the people how they could turn (repent – change directions) through the power of Jesus Christ and because of what he had done for them in dying on the cross for their sins so that they could go free. As we read scripture, we realize that Paul’s commission here was not so unique to him, though. We, as followers of Jesus Christ, are all commanded to be witnesses and to share the gospel message with those who don’t know Jesus and to preach repentance (darkness to light) so that people can be saved. Not only that, we are commissioned to make disciples, teaching them to obey God’s commands. So, we are not all that different from Paul in what Jesus requires of us. He is telling us still, today, to go, to be his witnesses in sharing with men how their lives can be transformed from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God so that they can receive forgiveness of sins. And Jesus is saying, “Now what are you waiting for? Go!”
Then Paul said something that I believe is very significant and key to understanding the true message of the gospel and of how one can be saved. Paul said, “I preached that they should repent and to turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds. That is why they seized me and tried to kill me.” Paul said in another writing that if he was still preaching circumcision, then why was he being persecuted? Men will persecute you when you tell them that they need to repent (turn from their sin and turn to God in obedience in following his commands) and especially if you tell them that genuine faith = repentance and obedience, and that genuine faith is faith that is proved by our lives. Many people just want to believe that they can pray a prayer of salvation, have their ticket to heaven, and then continue to live their lives for themselves. Oh, how wrong! Oh, what a slap in the face to Jesus for what he did for us in taking upon himself all our sins on the cross, in suffering and dying for us, and in being raised from the dead, triumphing over sin, death and hell and by setting us free, not only from the penalty of sin, but from the control of sin over our lives. Genuine faith and repentance is proved by whether or not we truly turned from our sin and are walking in obedience to God, not in absolute perfection, for we will still sin, but with an attitude that seeks after God, that desires to please him, but that moves beyond just emotional desire but that walks in the Spirit of God and that obeys his commands.
The king thought Paul was out of his mind; that he was insane. After all, Paul said that he learned all this from a vision from God/Jesus. And, he relayed that Jesus, a man they considered dead, was speaking to him as a voice from heaven. Try telling people that God is speaking to you through dreams and visions and see what they tell you. Even though the Bible says that in the last days people will receive dreams and visions from God and will prophesy, many churches today do not recognize that this is truly a manner in which God speaks to his children, but he does. The test is to see if the message agrees with scripture or not. Paul told the king that he was saying “nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen – that the Christ would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to his own people and to the Gentiles.” The Bible also tells us what is going to happen in these last days and how there will be false christs that will arise, that there will be wolves in sheep’s clothing that will come in among us, that there will be a great deception, that believers in Jesus Christ will be persecuted and killed for their faith, etc., and yet if God visits us in a dream or a vision to give us understanding of how that is being played out in our world today, then we are written off, too, as “insane.”
Paul’s response back to the king was to ask him if he believes the prophets. I believe the Lord would have me ask that same question today. Do we really believe what the Bible teaches concerning the events of the last days? If we do, then why do so many believers in Jesus and in his word so easily dismiss any believers whom the Lord has chosen to reveal how, in all practicality, these events are unfolding before our very eyes today? Why is the thought - that we might actually be under a deception in our own nation at the hand of our own leaders - so easily dismissed without even inquiring of the Lord to see if it is true or not? Should we not want to check it out to see if we are, indeed, being deceived? Should we not want to inquire of the Lord to see whether or not what we are hearing from other believers is true or not? The Bible says that we are not to despise any prophecies and we are not to treat them with contempt lest we put out the Spirit’s fire, but we are to test everything. Yet, so many just disregard anything they don’t want to hear without even checking it out to see if it is true or not. Oh, how easily we are deceived. We need to wake up and we need to inquire of the Lord concerning what is truly going on in our nation, in our world, concerning the times we live in, and to seek God’s face concerning anything he might want to show us, his servants, concerning the reality of the prophecies of scripture being fulfilled in our day and time and what he would have us to do with that knowledge.
The passage concludes with the king asking Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?” Paul’s response was, “Short time or not – I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.” Paul was speaking of his relationship with Jesus Christ – that he hoped that anyone in his hearing might believe in Jesus by repenting of his or her sin, by turning to God in faith and obedience, by proving his faith and repentance through his life, and then by accepting God’s assignment to be a witness for Jesus and by telling others how they, too, can come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior and can be set free from sin – the penalty of and control of over their lives – and how they can now live in freedom. And, that is where I leave you, as well, with the hope that all that are reading this will come to know Jesus, too, by repenting and by proving that their faith is genuine by their actions.
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