Acts Chapter 26: The Defense That Became a Sermon

The audience assembled in the great audience hall was the most impressive Paul had ever addressed. Agrippa and Bernice arrived with great pomp. The commanders and the prominent men of the city came in. Festus ordered Paul brought in. Agrippa said: you have permission to speak for yourself.

Paul stretched out his hand — the orator’s gesture, commanding attention — and began. He was not primarily defending himself. He was preaching. The defense was the frame. The gospel was the content.

The Pharisee Before the King

He established his credentials: my manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by Yehovah to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain as they earnestly worship night and day. For this hope, O king, I am accused by Jews.

Why is it thought incredible by any of you that Yehovah raises the dead? He placed the resurrection question not as a Christian novelty but as the fulfillment of Israel’s ancient hope. Every Pharisee in Jerusalem believed in resurrection. Every synagogue prayed toward the resurrection. The question was not whether Yehovah could raise the dead. The question was whether He had done it in the case of Yeshua of Nazareth. Paul’s answer was: I know He did. I met Him on the road to Damascus.

The Damascus Road One More Time

This is the third time Luke records Paul’s Damascus road account, each time shaped for the specific audience. Before the Jerusalem crowd he emphasized his Jewish credentials and the Torah-observant character of Ananias. Before the Sanhedrin the account was cut short by the riot. Before Agrippa — a man who understood Jewish hope and Tanakh prophecy — Paul tells the most complete version.

The voice had said to him: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads. A goad was a pointed stick used to drive oxen. An ox that kicked against it only drove the point deeper. The image acknowledged what Paul already knew on some level — that in persecuting the followers of Yeshua he had been fighting against something he could feel the weight of, something that kept pressing against his resistance even as he pushed back. The Damascus road was not an ambush. It was the moment the resistance finally broke.

The commission Yeshua gave him on that road was comprehensive: I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of the adversary to Yehovah, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Paul had spent his entire ministry since that day doing exactly this — in Damascus, in Jerusalem, in Antioch, in Cyprus, in Galatia, in Macedonia, in Athens, in Corinth, in Ephesus. Declaring to both Jews and Gentiles that they should repent and turn to Yehovah and perform deeds consistent with that repentance.

For this the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. To this day I have had the help that comes from Yehovah, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass: that the Messiah must suffer and that by being the first to rise from the dead he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.

Almost

As Paul said these things, Festus said in a loud voice: Paul, you are out of your mind. Your great learning is driving you insane. Paul said: I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I am speaking true and rational words. For the king knows about these things, and to him I speak boldly. For I am persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner.

Then Paul turned to Agrippa directly: King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe. Agrippa said to Paul: in a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian? Paul said: whether short or long I would to Yehovah that not only you but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am — except for these chains.

Almost. That is the word that hangs over Agrippa’s response. In a short time would you persuade me. It is either genuine openness that did not fully yield or deflection dressed as engagement. We do not know which. What we know is that the king who was an expert in Jewish law and prophecy, who understood everything Paul was arguing, who had heard the most complete and carefully constructed presentation of the gospel Paul ever gave in Acts — walked away. The king rose. Bernice and Festus rose with him. They withdrew and said to one another: this man is doing nothing deserving death or imprisonment. And Agrippa said to Festus: this man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.

He could have been set free. But then he would not have gone to Rome. Yehovah’s promise and Paul’s citizenship and Agrippa’s almost all worked together to put Paul on a ship bound for the emperor’s court. The almost was not wasted. It was part of the route.

Next: Acts Chapter 27 — Storm, Shipwreck, and a Promise That Did Not Sink