THE LIVING CHURCH
Meditations in the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 26:19-23

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PAUL is continuing here his defence before King Agrippa. There are five points of instruction we can note in these few verses. The first is Paul's obedience to his calling from God. Paul tells Agrippa that he was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. When we turn back in Acts to chapter nine and verse 28 we find Paul speaking boldly in Damascus concerning Christ, immediately after God had sent Ananias to him so that his sight, lost in his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, could be restored. Paul goes on in verses 19,20 telling Agrippa, that he followed this preaching with preaching in Jerusalem, and then throughout Judea.

Obedience to the will of Christ in our lives is the essence of Christian living. Christ is our Lord. Like Paul we have been bought with the price of the life of the Son of God, and we have to say with Paul that we are slaves of Jesus Christ. Our business is to find out what Christ's will for us is and to do it. Further it is Christ's will that all his disciples should be witnesses, and though our calling in life may not be to some full time service in ministry within the church, yet we must be obedient to Christ’s command to witness to the Gospel whenever we can, and look for opportunities to be presented to us for witness by Christ. There is such a great need for people to hear the saving news of Christ.

Next, Paul outlines the message he proclaimed. In the second part of verse 20 Paul tells Agrippa that he called people to repent and turn to God and to prove this repentance and turning in their lives. Christ came into the world to save sinners. Repentance is the starting point of salvation. When we turn to God for mercy from our hearts, God shows us by his Spirit the free forgiveness which Christ has won for us, and which we can receive by faith. This turning to God is not real unless it changes our lives. When we are forgiven we are raised to new life with Christ, and this can not have happened without a hatred of sin and a deep love for Christ being experienced in our lives, which finds its expression in seeking to be holy and live for Christ in our world.

Then in verse 21 Paul testified to the fact that it was because he served Jesus that he was being persecuted by the Jews. This tells us that a person can be very religious and very sincere, and still be wrong in their religion, and still be alienated from God. This was the state of the Jews in the New Testament times.

This is why they did not recognise or receive their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul's experience also warns us, as we have seen before in these meditations, that service for Christ has its dangers. Those who belong to Christ face persecution in this world, and the more faithful we are to Christ, the more likely we are to be persecuted. This is because the world has an antipathy and dislike of Christ at heart.

However the next point we learn from Paul's defence is one of comfort and strength as we face the fact of opposition in the world to Christ, and to those who live for Christ. Paul testifies in verse 22 that God was with him in all his service. Paul expresses this by saying that he had God's help up to this very day of his trial before Agrippa. Notice what Paul is saying. Firstly that through all the trials, difficulties and sufferings he endured for the Gospel, God helped him. That is God brought him through, strengthened him, guided him, gave him power, delivered him. Paul is also saying that even in his bonds before Agrippa he knew God was with him. and his help would give him the victory to do God's will for him successfully. This help is true for all of us who have believed and become the disciples of Jesus.

Lastly Paul states this glorious truth, that the Gospel of Christ is the golden thread that runs through the whole Bible, Old and New Testament. Paul's gospel was the same message that the prophets and Moses proclaimed. God's message is one message of love. Christ was crucified in the plan of God before the foundation of the world. The Gospel is the key to life, and the key to history. The Gospel is the saving word, which when believed saves the world from its evils and troubles, because it reconciles people to God the creator of the world, and brings us back to God in obedience and trust.