So wow, King Agrippa had wanted to hear about Paul. He wanted to hear from him. He wanted to see this political circus for himself. Yeah, he asked for this. And he had no idea what was coming.
is headed for conviction. You'll hear about it today. On More Than Inc.
Well, hey, good morning. This is More Than Inc., and I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jim. And we are here at our dining room table doing what we always do when we want to talk about the scriptures, talk about what God has written for us to learn. It's not just ink on the paper.
I thought you were going to say what we always do at our dining room table because sometimes we eat. We eat at the same table. But on Saturday mornings, when this airs, we are always talking about the Word of God here at the table. And we left off with kind of a cliffhanger last week. We're in the middle of Paul's defense against King Agrippa, before King Agrippa, sorry, not against Agrippa.
Agrippa, he expects to be a willing and a listening audience. And Agrippa's a big toot. And Paul's very glad to be making his defense for Agrippa because Agrippa was a pious Jew, apparently, and had a good understanding of Jewish affairs and Jewish religious function and all of that. Which is in contrast with the two Roman governors who he's told this story to, who just their eyes just glazed. Over, they don't get why the Jews in Jerusalem are so mad at Paul.
They don't know the culture well enough.
So, if you remember, he started off in his defense kind of talking about how he grew up as a Pharisee in the strictest sect, the strictest sect of Judaism.
Sorry, he says, and I'm on trial because of the hope of resurrection of the dead. And then he begins to talk about how bad he was before in that capacity, that he was a henchman, he was an axeman under the authority of the Jewish high priest to seek out those who were believing in the name of Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah.
So he went way out of his way, and he details all the many things he did to oppose them: locking them up and going into their homes and dragging them out, casting his vote against them when they were sentenced to death, punishing them, trying to make them blaspheme, persecuting them even to foreign cities. He was a bad guy. He was. And so that brings us right up to the edge of the trip to the foreign city of Deborah. Damascus, where he was going, presumably to persecute the believers in Jesus there.
And then what happened on the road that changed himself? And we noted this last time: the great irony in his portrayal of his previous life, because what he says in that portrayal is, you know, I was a mainstream Jew. Right? I was one of them. Just like these guys are chasing me right now.
And I was a zealous, ambitious for, you know, promotion Jew. I was arresting Christians. And so, I mean, the great irony is the fact that the people and the approaches they're taking right now is exactly who he was before Jesus.
So it leaves you kind of hanging in the lurch. Like, well, then, what happened? Yeah, and why are they so angry with him? What happened to you, Paul, if this is true about you? And that's where we left him.
And that's a question hanging in everyone's mind, including Agrippa, who now a cultured man of the Jews, he's going to understand better than the other governors.
So now Paul is going to move from the life before to the life after. Meeting Jesus.
Well, and bear in mind that this is a very public event. The previous ones have been kind of private audiences, but this one is in a meeting hall with Roman soldiers in the audience and all the prominent men of the city. There's lots of people in attendance, and Paul had been in Caesarea for two years with people coming and going visiting him.
So he was probably somewhat infamous at this point. Everybody in town probably knew who he was. Everyone's listening. This is like a first-century TED talk. This is a big deal.
He's talking to a lot of people who are curious to find out what happened.
Okay, so he's talked about his own history up to this point. I mean, yeah, now he's getting to the important part.
So, what happened? Verse 12 of chapter 26.
So, Paul goes on: this is Paul speaking. In this connection, that is persecuting the Christians. In this connection, I journeyed to Damascus, which, by the way, if you don't know, is in Syria. Right, it's outside of Israel. It's quite a ways away, and it still exists today.
I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and the commission of the chief priests.
Okay. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven brighter than the sun that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goats. And I said, Well, who are you, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you're persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you. delivering you from your people. and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God. that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
Oh, stop right now.
Now we're at the high point of the sermon. Paul meets Jesus on the road to Damascus as Paul is persecuting the very followers of Jesus. Yeah. But Jesus doesn't convict him and say, hey, you're persecuting my followers. He says you're persecuting me.
Yeah. So just as bad.
So readers, listeners, go back to Acts 9 and read Luke's account of this event because there's some interesting details here that are different. And I'm just going to trust you to go back and read that and look at those because that's what a good Bible student does. It's right at the beginning of chapter 9. Of chapter 9. Yeah.
Yeah, and there's more detail here as well. There's more details. Because we hear a lot more of Jesus speaking here than we do in the first account. And is it interesting that he says, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It's hard for you to kick against the goads.
Well, you know, it occurred to me that Paul thought he was the one goading the believers of Jesus, right? I'm the point of the spear. And Jesus says, ah, hmm. No, you're not. No.
I'm doing something. In fact, various commentators have tried to come up with what this figure of speech is. Yeah, it's an interesting kind of a proverb. But I mean, it's a goat. You poke an animal to make it move, right?
And the pokes are usually somewhat painful and alarming. And so I've always taken this to mean that the whole unfolding events of the early church and the statements about the biblical substance about Jesus being the Messiah, the Old Testament evidence of the Messiah, these were things that were kind of poking Paul, I think. And so as they poked Paul, he resisted it like a stubborn animal does. Yeah, because you poke an animal because it's resisting. Right, and you want it to move a particular way.
So I think all the evidence of the growing church and the evidence about Jesus as really a very likely candidate for the Messiah, I think these are things he pushed away. And those goats poked him in the flesh. They irritated him. And instead of pushing him in a direction toward Jesus, it just enraged him. Right.
So, this is a pretty good picture of what a goat does to an animal. All these events that God has been using to poke Paul, and all he's done is resisted. Yeah. Right.
It's a great picture. Isn't it hard for you to kick against the goads? Why are you so angry? Look where this has brought you, you know? Yeah, I think it's just a wonderful thing because God had Saul, who became Paul, in his sights from the very beginning.
You know, it wasn't a sudden change. And so God's been designing Paul's experience up to this point to bring him in a direction to be pro-Jesus, not anti-Jesus, but the goats are just making him furious. Boy, we have known people like that. We have totally known people like that. Especially when the evidence is so overwhelming, you know, and you just want to resist it because you just do not want to believe it.
You just don't want to believe it. When the truth is indisputable, but you don't want to believe it.
Well, that puts you in a... desperately uncomfortable position. Yep, yep. And in fact, in Paul's early ministry, you know, the very first glimpses we get of him going out and speaking for Jesus, he's out there proving that Jesus is the Messiah from the Old Testament. In a sense, he is goading other people with this.
He's still a man who likes to goad. Right.
So the same guy who felt poked by all these facts is now trying to poke other people. The results didn't turn out really well in those particular cases. But still, this is a guy that God's been corralling for quite some time. But this, where we just stopped, is probably my favorite passage, my favorite verse in the entire book of Acts in verse 18, when Jesus says to him, you know, I'm delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I'm sending you, and here's the purpose. To open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, and for the purpose that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.
Yeah, isn't that a great statement? You know, I have adopted that as a pattern for prayer for myself for certain people in my life who are so bent on a particular direction and their eyes are just blinded that there is no cure for blindness but a supernatural one. And so I just pray, God, open their eyes so that they will turn from darkness to light. Yeah. Yeah, we pray that a lot, especially in this community we're in, because it's very apparent to us that there's a blindness.
You can state a lot of things about the facts of reality about Jesus, but there's just a blindness. And in the same way, when that blindness goes away, when those scales fall off the eyes, you know. The change in perception is so radical and so dramatic. You know, I mean, it's like, it's just like you were blind and now you're not. Yeah.
Yeah. That's exactly right. It is.
Well, and what strikes me here is that this is Paul. He's identifying with this statement profoundly because he himself was so blind to the truth of that scripture that was goading him that he didn't perceive himself as in need of forgiveness. Right.
He didn't perceive himself as a sinner. He didn't see that he needed to believe in Jesus in order to be made holy. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that comes out contemporarily right now when people say, Savior?
A Savior? Who needs a Savior? What do I need being hiding from? Yeah, exactly. There's the first step in salvation is really understanding you need it.
You need it. Yeah. And what your current state is, and that you're living in darkness and that you're living under the power of Satan. And I mean, all these things, which are just causing just grotesque outcomes in your life. But through the forgiveness of sins, you can find a place.
I think that's a wonderful inheritance statement. Through all of these things, you can find a place among those who are sanctified by faith. And by the way, I've got to retranslate all my religious words, sanctified. In this case, well, in all cases, actually, it means being set apart in a different direction. It's like, you know, you've been called to go another place, to be set apart in another kind of way.
Right.
A holy place.
So it involves this idea of being set apart for something holy, not a profane use. Right.
And, you know, and in a microscopic fashion, that was exactly Paul's case as well. He didn't realize it. He's set apart for something much more important to do rather than arresting. To actually go around and find new Christians, you know, whose blindness has been removed, who understand these things, that what's being offered to them is a life moving from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to the power of God, and that the forgiveness of sins, your track record of failure. Can be dealt with because you've been set apart for something much more important.
That's just great. I would love to have heard his voice as he spoke this. Yeah. Yeah. The power probably of the emotion of his own conversion would have been very present.
Yeah. Yeah. And this is his account of the first person statement of Jesus himself. Jesus is saying this straight up. I think it's just marvelously rich in a short matter of time here.
Yeah. I just love it. We better read on.
Okay, we better read on.
Okay. Although we like to dwell on this section right here. I just love that verse. Go back and read that a few times. Write this down on a piece of paper on your bathroom mirror.
Acts 26:18. It's just really beautiful. It's the way to pray. Right, exactly. And this is Jesus speaking firsthand, according to what Paul remembers.
Yeah. Okay, 19.
So Paul goes on. Paul goes on after that stunning statement. Catches his breath. Right.
Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles. A hush falls over the crowd, and also to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. Huh, that sounds like John the Baptist. Wow, yeah, yeah.
So he has this massive, massive experience on the road to Damascus. And he says to King Agrippa, and by the way, because of that, I was obedient. I did what Jesus told me to do. I'm not just some, you know, going off half crazed in this whole thing. Jesus says, this is what I want you to do.
So that's what I did.
So I went to Damascus. I went to Jerusalem. I went to Judea. And also, dun-dun-dun, to the Gentiles. Which was the beginning of the story that got him imprisoned in the first place, right?
The mention of the Gentiles that enraged the Jews so furiously that the Tribune had to yank him up the stairs and grab him out of their hands. Right.
And I think the same emotional reaction is happening right here without the description of it, because he's saying that everything that I'm telling you about Jesus as being the Messiah applies to the Gentiles. It's not just for the Jews. If they would repent, and repent means to literally to turn around, to change your mind and go in a different direction. Which, you know, when I said this a second ago, that this sounds exactly like John the Baptist, when the Jewish leaders in the days of John the Baptist came to him and said, Well, what must me do to be saved? And he said, Repent and do deeds in keeping with repentance.
In other words, it's not just an emotional experience, it is a change of life. It's a genuine outcome of your life. Right.
Rather than just saying it with your lips, there should be a genuine outcome of the turn of change. Changing, of turning away and turning toward God.
Something ought to be visibly manifest when you make a genuine repentance. Not just words. Which Paul has just described about himself. Exactly. Because for him, it was a gigantic turn.
But in saying that's true for Jews and for Gentiles, that's when he says in verse 21 here, for this reason the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. Right.
And that's it. For this reason, 21, the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. And to this day, to this day, I've had the help that comes from God. And so I stand here testifying both to small and great. That's big people and small people, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass.
That the Christ 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. Wow. Ha wow.
So Paul goes back to his opening statement that what I'm doing is still mainstream Judaism. And oh, by the way, it's mainstream prophets and it's mainstream Moses. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not doing anything that wasn't already spoken of in the scriptures.
And in fact, it reminds me of Jesus, you know, walk back to Emma. Those two guys made a note of that, right? Yeah. That he opened their minds to understand the scriptures from Moses through the prophets. Right.
Right.
That's in Luke 24. But you know what occurred to me? Here's a little study guide thing for you all who are listening. You can take this phrase, light to the Gentiles, and feed it into your concordance, and you'll turn up some references in Isaiah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, some other places too, but particularly the ones in Isaiah, because they so specifically relate to Messiah. Yeah, yeah. God's plan for the Gentiles was not an afterthought. No. It had been from the very beginning.
But God's plan with the nation of Israel was specific that Israel would itself be kind of a proclamation to the world to the Gentiles about the offer that God has for this hope that Paul's talking about. You find that all the way back in Deuteronomy. Right, it goes way back.
So if there's a distinction between Israel as a nation and the Gentiles as the outside nations, the real distinction isn't really who benefits from God's promise of inheritance to this hope. The real difference is the fact that God wanted to use Israel as a mouthpiece to the world, to be a light to the Gentiles, which is an Ezekiel passage.
So that's really not unusual.
So I'm glad that Paul came back around to this because he's saying, I'm not making this part up. I'm not establishing a new sect of Judaism. I am in the middle of core Judaism as it has always been. Yeah, which includes, by the way, the Gentiles. He's fulfilling Judaism when he talks about what Christ has done for us to be able to participate in that hope.
Because God so loved the world, he gave his only son. That includes Gentiles. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And all of this, as John the Baptist said, and now Paul has said a couple times, hinges on repentance.
Are you willing to admit who you really are, the nature of your sins, your inability to change that, incur any kind of favor with God, by changing your baby? I mean, repentance is where it starts, which is why when John the Baptist came, that was his message. And that was the first message out of Jesus' mouth that we have recorded. Repent because the kingdom of heaven is near. Repentance.
Turn and go another direction. Right, right.
So, and now we've got to look at the response of the Roman authorities who are listening to him. Do you want to pick it up at verse 24? Yeah. And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul. You are out of your mind.
Your great learning is driving you out of your mind. He clearly didn't catch what was going on. But 25. But Paul said, No, I'm 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'm persuaded that none of these things has escaped his notice, for this has not been done in a corner. King Agrippa, turning his attention to him, King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe. It's getting pretty personal now. This is really something.
Do you believe the prophets? And let's just keep going for a second because this is a great drama. And Agrippa said to Paul. in a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian? And Paul said, Whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who hear me this day might become such as I am.
Well, except for these chains. Wow. Very powerful. Very powerful. So, Paul again appeals back to the prophets.
The prophets told us about this. The prophets warned us about this. Festus doesn't know anything about these prophets. But King Agrippa, you do. But you do, King Agrippa, right?
I mean, this is really quite, this is compelling. But, King Agrippa, you, you do. Do you believe the prophets? I know that you believe. Oh my gosh.
Which is, if you believe the prophets, do you believe what the prophets are saying about the Messiah? That he has to be a suffering Messiah? Do you believe that? I know you believe that. Yeah, so Agrippa just sidesteps the whole thing.
Yeah, so he says this is a longer conversation. In such a short time, you think I'm going to change and become a Christian? Is that what you're saying, Paul? And Paul just takes up on it. He doesn't back off on that.
I would wish that anyone who heard this do it. Whether it takes a short amount of time or longer. Right.
Yeah. I wish that you would be like me, except for there's a little humor moment, except for these chains, you know, which crinkle as he does that. You kind of wonder if there was a kind of a sigh of relief over the pressure's off in the audience at this point. Yeah. But it is interesting, you know, Agrippa.
Do you believe the prophets? I know you do. Wow. Wow, what about what boldness in front of this huge audience at this gigantic gathered event? Yeah.
Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? Because I know you do. Ah. Wow. So let's finish this off.
So 30.
So the king rose. Breaking the tension. Yeah. The king rose, and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with him, and when they had withdrawn, they said to one another, you know, this man's doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment. And Agrippa said to Festus, This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.
Hmm. Yeah. Wow. Even this conversation is a sidestep. Agrippa, you believe the prophets, don't you?
I know you do. And then and then he slips back into the legally he's basically here. If he hadn't appealed to Caesar, you know, he'd be out of here. He'd be out of all of our hair. Yeah, you could have let him go and we wouldn't have to deal with it.
We wouldn't have had this embarrassing date. You know. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, the way you stop this kind of awkward moment of conviction is you rise up and you leave the room. Right.
And that's exactly what he did. And if Agrippa stands up, everybody else stands up. Right.
Because he's the high card in the room. That's right. When he leaves, everyone gets to leave. But I've seen this happen in reality when I talk to people about Jesus. I remember this a couple of years ago, where you get to a certain point where all they want to do is get up and leave the room because you can't deal with what you just heard.
Right.
So. But, you know, you let people go. You do. Because what they're saying is, I got to think about this a little bit more.
Something's triggered in me.
Something's hit home. I can't just say yes right now. I got to deal with this. And so that's what Agrippa does. I've always wondered years after this whether this had a profound change in Agrippa.
Yes. But we don't know. Because this is so dramatic and this is. you know agripid Do you believe the prophets? I know you do.
And if you remember, this whole audience took place because the night Agrippa arrived, Festus filled him in and then he said, Well, I want to hear this guy myself. Right.
Right.
So his interest was peaked from the beginning. His curiosity is there. And I think little did he know how confused, really. How personal it was going to be. Yes.
Yeah. Yeah. And that's, you know, that's what the Holy Spirit does through people like Paul in these situations. Paul isn't just enabled to do. to do a bold uh what do I want to say, defense of the gospel, he he takes it right into Agrippa's lap and and says, you know, you need to deal with this truth.
And I I know you believe the prophets.
So what do you say about this Jesus, who lines up directly with what the prophet said? What do you say, Agrippa? Who would have ever believed that in such a big event like this, in this big meeting hall, that Agrippa himself, the king of the region, would find himself at this point of conviction so much so that he has to stand up and leave the room? Under the inspecting glass, yeah. Yeah, every eye is on him.
So much drama, so much drama. Yeah, it's just really a great scene. Don't you wish you could have heard the rest of the conversation? Whether we're talking about it in private? Yeah, yeah.
But it is nice to have Agrippa, a guy who really understands the culture, he understands the offense of the Jews, for him to come right out and for Luke to write down the page for us. He says, This man is doing nothing to deserve death or imprisonment.
Now, this doesn't solve Festus' problem with sending him to Rome. Which we started off with a while ago. Wow, yeah. Because now Agrippa even says there's no reason to send him to Rome, there's no offense to send him to Rome. Except the Lord Jesus is intending for him to go to Rome.
That's right. Which Paul has his clear eye on, right? He's had that promise. The Lord Jesus stood before him and told him that we're going to Rome.
So, I know.
So, he knows he's going there. But Festus is still in a pickle. He's got to write something. He's got to write some kind of introductory letter to Caesar to justify why he's wasting Caesar's time with this man, Paul. And it it seems like at this point he has Agrippa has not been a help in that regard.
So we're getting very close to the end of Acts. And we know that Acts ends with Paul in Rome waiting for his hearing. Waiting for Caesar. Yeah. So I would encourage you to read ahead.
There's only a couple more chapters. Yep, yep. But before he gets put in a boat and set off, Paul has had an amazing audience in Israel up to this point, starting with Felix.
Well, no, starting with the Sanhedrin. Yeah, the Sanhedrin themselves. They got what he was saying. And then off to Felix, who was totally flummoxed by it, and Festus, who doesn't know what's going on, who's convinced Paul is crazy. And then to Agrippa and Bernice.
He's kind of kicked up the chain of command. Who I think has caught it. He got it, but he's not willing to confront it. I mean, what an incredible sequence of audiences he's had to fulfill what Jesus said to him in Acts 9. You know, you're going to be speaking to kings and Gentiles, important people, and here, people big and small.
And he hasn't even got to Rome yet. Hasn't even got to Rome.
So let's see how this continues on as the story completes. I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And we're glad you're with us. And more drama unveils next week here on More Than Inc.
There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note. That's amazing. They all agree if he hadn't appealed to Caesar, he could have been set free. Yeah, this is the third authority.
From Felix to Festus to Agrippa, they're all agreed. No, it's unanimous. Wow. There's nothing to convict here. Yeah, fascinating story.
But now we're going to inflict him on Caesar. We'll read more next week. But This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
