God Opens Eyes and Raises the Dead!

Acts 26:1-18

Paul's Early Life

1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "You are permitted to speak for yourself."

So Paul stretched out his hand and answered for himself: 2 "I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because today I shall answer for myself before you concerning all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, 3 especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which have to do with the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.

4 "My manner of life from my youth, which was spent from the beginning among my own nation at Jerusalem, all the Jews know. 5 They knew me from the first, if they were willing to testify, that according to the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. 6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers. 7 To this promise our twelve tribes, earnestly serving God night and day, hope to attain. For this hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused by the Jews. 8 Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?

9 "Indeed, I myself thought I must do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 This I also did in Jerusalem, and many of the saints I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. 11 And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.

Paul Recounts His Conversion

12 "While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, 13 at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. 14 And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' 15 So I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. 17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.'

Here Paul was permitted to tell his side of the story to king Agrippa as promised by Felix the governor.  The apostle was thankful to be allowed to tell him his side, beginning with his apologetic response to the accusations of his fellow Jews.  Paul called out the king’s knowledge of Jewish customs and laws to set the stage for further understanding and perspective of Paul’s defense of the gospel.  He took time for a brief recap of his life as testimony and how his search for knowledge of the scriptures and the Law provided the impetus for him to become and live as a devout and dedicated Pharisee to keep all he learned in practice.  He moved quickly into the promise of God to His people which the devout Jews and he both pursued and hoped to arrive at and lay hold of those promises.  This promise of Genesis 3:15 offered the victory over original sin and Genesis 22:17-18 promised this blessing to all nations through Abraham’s Seed who is Jesus the awaited Messiah and God’s only Son (Genesis 22:16) given through faith as Abraham had (Galatians 3:9) to trust God in offering to sacrifice his only son.  He relayed the promise of God’s giving His Son instead (John 3:16) as a sacrifice instead of Abraham’s as the promise they all waited for since that time which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom Paul preached to them that they Lao might obtain that same promise which they served God day and night for that they might attain it.  Paul then added the question of the credibility and necessity of the resurrection as the centrality of the gospel’s proof and power to give life to dead men (John 5:24, Ephesians 2:1, 5, Colossians 2:13) as always part of the promise from the beginning (Job 19:25-26, Matthew 22:31-32) of their faith and calling to trust God’s work (John 6:29) of belief in His work in His only Son as their father Abraham had done.  Paul continued to recall how his zeal apart from this truth had led him to persecute those of this faith as he did “many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.”  He summed up his testimony with his conversion on the road to Damascus where he was to further his well-meaning but errant efforts to please God.  He was met by this divine Jesus who stopped him in his tracks as the Law stops many a self-righteous mouth (Romans 3:19-20) with the question of why Paul was persecuting Him through his destruction of His people.  He then told how this Jesus the Messiah and hope of the world long promised gave him this purpose and mission to serve God and be a witness of this salvation seen and further explained by God to him to tell others, both to his own people and the nations as promised to Abraham long ago before there was an Israel or a Jew.  This mission of the gospel was summed up as turning the blind Jew and Gentile alike to light out of the darkness of sin and hopelessness of death with the promise of eternal life in Christ as they were released from the grip of Satan the adversary since the beginning as promise in Genesis 3:15 and brought to know God in Christ according to His forgiveness of sins and gaining of an inheritance that does not fade away (James 1:3-5), eternal in heaven!  It is by the cleansing of Christ which is the spiritual circumcising of the guilty sin-filled heart (Romans 2:28-29, Philippians 3:3, Colossians 2:11) which makes the believer holy and right with God, just as promised (Deuteronomy 30:6) long ago.  This is a proper testimony and witnessing pattern for us as well, recounting our conversion based on the scriptures which define and explain it that others may join us in receiving Christ (John 1:12) as the good news in light of the bad news of our hopeless condition we are all born into as inherited from Adam who passed sin to us in our spiritual DNA and eliminated by the new person (Galatians 2:20) in Christ by whose perfect DNA we now are being transformed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).  God opens our eyes and raise dead men to both life now in the inner man and after our death!  This is the gospel we bear witness to of God’s work in and for us; the experiences of our lives are the proof of His work and salvation which cannot ever be taken away from us.