ALMOST PERSUADED
ACTS 25:23–26:32
NASB
23 So, on the next day when Agrippa came [a]together with Bernice amid great pomp, and entered the auditorium [b]accompanied by the [c]commanders and the prominent men of the city, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. 24 Festus said, “King Agrippa, and all you gentlemen here present with us, you see this man about whom all the people of the Jews appealed to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly declaring that he ought not to live any longer. 25 But I found that he had committed nothing worthy of death; and since he himself appealed to [a]the Emperor, I decided to send him. 26 [a]Yet I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the investigation has taken place, I may have something to write. 27 For it seems absurd to me in sending a prisoner, not to indicate also the charges against him.”
26:1 Agrippa said to Paul, “You are permitted to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and proceeded to make his defense:
2 “In regard to all the things of which I am accused by the Jews, I consider myself fortunate, King Agrippa, that I am about to make my defense before you today; 3[a]especially because you are an expert in all customs and [b]questions among the Jews; therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently.
4 “So then, all Jews know my manner of life from my youth up, which from the beginning was spent among my own nation and at Jerusalem; 5 since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion. 6 And now I am [a]standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; 7 the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews. 8 Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?
9 “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And this is [a]just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the [b]saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to [a]foreign cities.
12 “[a]While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, 13 at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, [a]brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. 14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the [a]Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? [b]It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have [a]seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; 17 rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, 18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’
19 “So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, 20 but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. 21 For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death. 22 So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; 23[a]that [b]the Christ was [c]to suffer, and [a]that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”
24 While Paul was saying this in his defense, Festus said in a loud voice, “Paul, you are out of your mind! [a]Your great learning is [b]driving you mad.” 25 But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, most excellent Festus, but I utter words [a]of sober truth. 26 For the king [a]knows about these matters, and I speak to him also with confidence, since I am persuaded that none of these things escape his notice; for this has not been done in a [b]corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets? I know that you [a]do.” 28 Agrippa replied to Paul, “[a]In a short time you [b]will persuade me to [c]become a Christian.” 29 And Paul said, “[a]I would wish to God, that whether [b]in a short or long time, not only you, but also all who hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains.”
30 The king stood up and the governor and Bernice, and those who were sitting with them, 31 and when they had gone aside, they began talking to one another, saying, “This man is not doing anything worthy of death or [a]imprisonment.” 32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”
25:23 [a]Lit and Bernice [b]Lit and with [c]I.e. chiliarchs, in command of one thousand troops 25:25 [a]V 21, note 1 25:26 [a]Lit About whom I have nothing definite 26:3 [a]Or because you are especially expert [b]Or controversial issues 26:6 [a]Lit being tried 26:10 [a]Lit also [b]Or holy ones 26:11 [a]Or outlying 26:12 [a]Lit In which things 26:13 [a]Lit above the brightness of 26:14 [a]I.e. Jewish Aramaic [b]An idiom referring to an animal’s futile resistance to being prodded with goads 26:16 [a]Two early mss read seen Me 26:23 [a]Lit whether [b]I.e. the Messiah [c]Lit subject to suffering 26:24 [a]Lit The many letters [b]Lit turning you to madness 26:25 [a]Lit of truth and rationality 26:26 [a]Or understands [b]I.e. a hidden or secret place 26:27 [a]Lit believe 26:28 [a]Or With a little [b]Or are trying to convince [c]Lit make 26:29 [a]Or I would pray to [b]Or with a little or with much 26:31 [a]Lit bonds
NLT
23 So the next day Agrippa and Bernice arrived at the auditorium with great pomp, accompanied by military officers and prominent men of the city. Festus ordered that Paul be brought in. 24 Then Festus said, “King Agrippa and all who are here, this is the man whose death is demanded by all the Jews, both here and in Jerusalem. 25 But in my opinion he has done nothing deserving death. However, since he appealed his case to the emperor, I have decided to send him to Rome.
26 “But what shall I write the emperor? For there is no clear charge against him. So I have brought him before all of you, and especially you, King Agrippa, so that after we examine him, I might have something to write. 27 For it makes no sense to send a prisoner to the emperor without specifying the charges against him!”
26:1 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak in your defense.”
So Paul, gesturing with his hand, started his defense: 2 “I am fortunate, King Agrippa, that you are the one hearing my defense today against all these accusations made by the Jewish leaders, 3 for I know you are an expert on all Jewish customs and controversies. Now please listen to me patiently!
4 “As the Jewish leaders are well aware, I was given a thorough Jewish training from my earliest childhood among my own people and in Jerusalem. 5 If they would admit it, they know that I have been a member of the Pharisees, the strictest sect of our religion. 6 Now I am on trial because of my hope in the fulfillment of God’s promise made to our ancestors. 7 In fact, that is why the twelve tribes of Israel zealously worship God night and day, and they share the same hope I have. Yet, Your Majesty, they accuse me for having this hope! 8 Why does it seem incredible to any of you that God can raise the dead?
9 “I used to believe that I ought to do everything I could to oppose the very name of Jesus the Nazarene.[*] 10 Indeed, I did just that in Jerusalem. Authorized by the leading priests, I caused many believers[*] there to be sent to prison. And I cast my vote against them when they were condemned to death. 11 Many times I had them punished in the synagogues to get them to curse Jesus.[*] I was so violently opposed to them that I even chased them down in foreign cities.
12 “One day I was on such a mission to Damascus, armed with the authority and commission of the leading priests. 13 About noon, Your Majesty, as I was on the road, a light from heaven brighter than the sun shone down on me and my companions. 14 We all fell down, and I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic,[*] ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against my will.[*]’
15 “‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked.
“And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. 16 Now get to your feet! For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my servant and witness. Tell people that you have seen me, and tell them what I will show you in the future. 17 And I will rescue you from both your own people and the Gentiles. Yes, I am sending you to the Gentiles 18 to open their eyes, so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me.’
19 “And so, King Agrippa, I obeyed that vision from heaven. 20 I preached first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that all must repent of their sins and turn to God —and prove they have changed by the good things they do. 21 Some Jews arrested me in the Temple for preaching this, and they tried to kill me. 22 But God has protected me right up to this present time so I can testify to everyone, from the least to the greatest. I teach nothing except what the prophets and Moses said would happen —23 that the Messiah would suffer and be the first to rise from the dead, and in this way announce God’s light to Jews and Gentiles alike.”
24 Suddenly, Festus shouted, “Paul, you are insane. Too much study has made you crazy!”
25 But Paul replied, “I am not insane, Most Excellent Festus. What I am saying is the sober truth. 26 And King Agrippa knows about these things. I speak boldly, for I am sure these events are all familiar to him, for they were not done in a corner! 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do —”
28 Agrippa interrupted him. “Do you think you can persuade me to become a Christian so quickly?”[*]
29 Paul replied, “Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.”
30 Then the king, the governor, Bernice, and all the others stood and left. 31 As they went out, they talked it over and agreed, “This man hasn’t done anything to deserve death or imprisonment.”
32 And Agrippa said to Festus, “He could have been set free if he hadn’t appealed to Caesar.”
[26:9] Or Jesus of Nazareth. [26:10] Greek many of God’s holy people. [26:11] Greek to blaspheme. [26:14a] Or Hebrew. [26:14b] Greek It is hard for you to kick against the oxgoads. [26:28] Or “A little more, and your arguments would make me a Christian.”
In the early years of the church, many Roman rulers thought nothing of exterminating Christians. Around AD 100, Pliny the Younger wrote to the emperor, Trajan, explaining his process for identifying and slaughtering Christians in Bithynia-Pontus, where he had been appointed governor:
The method I have observed towards those who have been brought before me as Christians is this: I asked them whether they were Christians; if they admitted it, I repeated the question twice, and threatened them with punishment; if they persisted, I ordered them to be at once punished: for I was persuaded, whatever the nature of their opinions might be, a contumacious and inflexible obstinacy certainly deserved correction. There were others also brought before me possessed with the same infatuation, but being Roman citizens, I directed them to be sent to Rome. But this crime spreading (as is usually the case) while it was actually under prosecution, several instances of the same nature. An anonymous information was laid before me containing a charge against several persons, who upon examination denied they were Christians, or had ever been so. They repeated after me an invocation to the gods, and offered religious rites with wine and incense before your statue (which for that purpose I had ordered to be brought, together with those of the gods), and even reviled the name of Christ: whereas there is no forcing, it is said, those who are really Christians into any of these compliances: I thought it proper, therefore, to discharge them. Some among those who were accused by a witness in person at first confessed themselves Christians, but immediately after denied it; the rest owned indeed that they had been of that number formerly, but had now (some above three, others more, and a few above twenty years ago) renounced that error. They all worshipped your statue and the images of the gods, uttering imprecations at the same time against the name of Christ. They affirmed the whole of their guilt, or their error, was, that they met on a stated day before it was light, and addressed a form of prayer to Christ, as to a divinity, binding themselves by a solemn oath, not for the purposes of any wicked design, but never to commit any fraud, theft, or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble, to eat in common a harmless meal.[226]
Times have changed for Christians over the past twenty centuries, and no more so than in Western countries where the culture rests on a long heritage of Christendom. Even though the tide has begun to turn against Christianity in the West in recent years, we don’t suffer the kind of wholesale slaughter that many of our forebears came to accept as the price of discipleship. (God forbid that it should ever occur again.) Consequently, it’s difficult for us to imagine what Paul faced when he stood before the most powerful men in the world. His journey began with a mock trial in Jerusalem, where the high priest and the temple officials demanded his execution for no reason other than their own jealousy and hatred. That led to his protective custody in Caesarea and two more trials in which godless men used Paul like a pawn in their bid for more power and money. Each appearance before the bēma [968] raised the stakes as each judge wielded more authority than the one before.
Roman persecution of the Christians had not yet begun, but Paul didn’t know whether it might not start with him. He likely saw the church and Rome on a collision course, for two reasons. First, the church had been growing exponentially around the empire and would soon become a force the Romans could not ignore. Second, the Christian worldview could not have been more antithetical to everything Rome treasured —Jesus, not the emperor, was Lord; Christianity was the only true religion, not one of many options in a pluralistic society; and God’s laws, not the laws of Rome, had the final say in the life of the follower of Christ. So each trial increased the probability of Paul’s death.
Paul’s next stop on the road to Rome was Agrippa II, whose influence in Rome towered above both Festus and the high priest. Only Paul’s Roman citizenship could protect him from instant execution at the whim of an angered Agrippa II, but with a wave of his hand or nod of his head, he could still make Paul’s life miserable. Even so, Paul had to declare the truth and leave his fate in the hands of God.
Although the truth of Paul’s innocence would become clear to Agrippa (26:32), and Paul’s reasoning in support of the gospel would receive a hearing, the king would not be persuaded to act in any way. Even so, Paul’s actions would set the pattern for all faithful believers standing before earthly powers to give account for their beliefs.
— 25:23-27 —
Luke highlights the vast difference between Agrippa and Paul by describing Agrippa’s entry with great “pomp” (25:23; phantasia [5325]), a term that emphasizes the concept of appearance. One lexicon notes that the term implies “a cheap display of high status.”[227] Agrippa entered the hall with attention to pageantry; Paul entered in chains (26:29). A company of high-ranking commanders[228] and influential city leaders surrounded Agrippa; Paul stood alone. Agrippa wielded great human power; Paul carried divine truth. This encounter, with all its contrasts, would become the first of many between Rome and Christendom.
Festus had arranged for the meeting, which could have been held privately. Instead, he invited everyone connected with Rome so he could make them witnesses to his political dilemma and perhaps create accomplices in his decision. With enough support among the elite in Caesarea, he could silence any objections raised by the temple. To accomplish this, he turned his political dilemma into a parlor game. He said, in effect, “I need your help in solving a puzzle. Those irrational Jews in Jerusalem have put me in a bad position, demanding that I hand over a Roman citizen for execution when they don’t even have a case against him. He has appealed to Rome, which is his right, but it’s ridiculous to send him without a credible charge. So, here’s your assignment: Help me draft a reasonable charge for the letter to Caesar.”
Politically, it was a brilliant move. He put all of Caesarea, including Agrippa, in his shoes so they could appreciate his quandary, and he made them allies against the temple officials.
— 26:1-3 —
Paul heard the speech given by Festus. He had an excellent view of the political landscape; he understood the complex interactions, he knew exactly what each party wanted, and he saw what the procurator was doing. Even though he had little time to arrange his presentation —Luke offers no indication of advance notice —Paul’s lifetime of experiences had prepared him for this moment. He had spoken at length before audiences of all kinds: Jewish and Gentile, superstitious and philosophical, Hellenized and primitive, ignorant and academic —the whole gamut of humanity. And he had had two years to assess his situation.
The gesture of raising his hand (26:1) put him in a class of orator that cultured people were used to hearing. His opening remarks included compliments, which also followed the conventions of good speech. He didn’t say anything untrue, but he found a way to affirm Agrippa. The king had not distinguished himself as a practicing Jew like his father, but he nevertheless understood the “customs and questions among the Jews” (26:3). The term translated “questions” (zētēma [2213]) refers to complex issues or matters of dispute. The king had a working knowledge of the theological matters creating tension between the different factions of Judaism.
— 26:4-7 —
The main body of his speech began with the expression “so then” (men [3303] + oun [3767]), which connected what he was about to say with what he had just stated. He affirmed that Agrippa knew the theological disputes that kept Jews continually fighting among themselves, “so then,” he should appreciate why Paul’s opponents hated him so passionately. Paul positioned the dispute as just one more “question” among many (cf. 26:3).
Paul admitted that the story of their disagreement went back many years to a time when he had been a shining example of their theological position, which included a great anticipation of the Messiah. The trouble had begun when he broke ranks and accepted Jesus Christ as “the hope” that all Hebrews had longed for since Moses (26:6). The men of the temple had tried to accuse him of other infractions, such as blaspheming the Law and desecrating the temple, but Paul exposed their hidden agenda. They had killed their Messiah, and they wanted to kill anyone who believed in Jesus Christ (26:7).
— 26:8 —
Paul’s rhetorical question appears to disrupt the flow of his argument. The Pharisees, who represented the majority of Jews, believed in resurrection. The Sadducees, who had led the campaign to kill Jesus, had rejected Him before his followers claimed He had risen. Moreover, Jewish beliefs aside, the issue of resurrection could only alienate his audience. Believing in resurrection defied the predominant worldview in the empire, and Paul’s assertion was not unlike preaching a round globe to a flat-earth audience. In terms of mounting a legal defense, the question of resurrection didn’t fit here. It did, however, serve his greater purpose. Rather than use the occasion to win acquittal, he looked around the room and saw a fulfillment of a prophecy given about him long ago. Jesus had said, “He is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (9:15).
Resurrection had nothing to do with Paul’s defense, but it’s central to the gospel. All of Christian theology hangs from this core issue.
— 26:9-11 —
His argument resumed with another “so then” (men [3303] + oun [3767]) connecting his next statement to his opening thought and saying, in essence, “I was in full agreement with the Pharisees, so then I did many things hostile to the name of Jesus” (see 26:9). Paul confessed to having stood with the temple authorities against those who believed in Jesus as the Christ and proclaimed His resurrection (26:10-11). His hatred for Christians also put him in good company with Herod’s father, Agrippa I, who had killed the apostle James and tried to kill Peter. Paul had led the persecution that killed the Jesus-following sect of Jews and had set out for Damascus as their representative on an errand to round up Christians (26:12). He made this confession to explain how and why he made a 180-degree theological turn.
He had believed and behaved as he did because he thought he understood God and His plan. He didn’t change to spite his former colleagues or to advance a political agenda or to increase his own power or wealth. His present circumstances should have been proof of that! If he had any selfish motive for breaking ranks with the temple, he could have solved his problem long ago by recanting his belief in Jesus. He changed his theology because a direct encounter with the risen Christ had revealed the truth about God and His plan.
— 26:12-18 —
Paul related the details of his conversion experience to explain how he could make so dramatic a change so suddenly and with such certainty. A personal, direct confrontation with the risen Christ had proven that the resurrection stories were true and that God had a plan Paul had not comprehended. In this recounting of the event, he revealed some new details. Jesus had spoken to him in “the Hebrew dialect” (possibly a Jewish dialect of Aramaic) to remove any doubt about the identity of the voice (26:14). He also revealed that the Lord had chastised him for resisting God’s plan. The expression “kick against the goads” pictures a herd animal kicking the shepherd’s stick. Like the modern image of “banging your head against a wall,” it conveys the ideas of futility and hurting yourself while resisting the inevitable. Paul’s audience would have recognized it from Greek literature as a common metaphor for opposing a god.
Paul also compressed the message he had received over several days into one extended conversation. Twenty-first-century Western historians might object to what they perceive as an inaccuracy, but Eastern storytellers did this frequently, and their audiences didn’t interpret the timing as necessarily literal. They cared more about relationships and conversations; when people talked, and for how long, were secondary concerns. Some members of this audience would have been delighted to hear that the Hebrew God had repudiated what they considered Jewish arrogance and had approved Paul’s ministry to Gentiles. They might have thought, Ah, no wonder the Jews in Jerusalem hate this man so much.
Paul concluded his quotation of Jesus with a clear statement of the gospel (26:18). The assembled “Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel” (9:15) heard the offer of salvation from the lips of Christ as recounted by His apostle.
— 26:19-23 —
Paul told the story of his encounter with Jesus to establish an important point. His devotion and obedience was to a person, not a sectarian idea. He didn’t risk his life merely for the sake of a theological point of view; God had established a relationship with him and had called him to become part of a plan heralded by all the prophets, which had been in motion since Moses. He had been given a crucial role in the plan of redemption, in which he would tell Jews and Gentiles alike about Christ’s atoning sacrifice and the destruction of evil (26:18).
Paul’s description of his ministry should not be viewed strictly in terms of chronology, but rather as one of priority. In this speech, he literally said, “To those in Damascus first and to Jerusalem and to the district of Judea and to the Gentiles, I was declaring repentance and turning to God” (my translation). Some see an apparent discrepancy in his letter to the Galatians, where he stated that after his time in Tarsus and Syrian Antioch, “I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ” (Gal. 1:22). But I don’t see a discrepancy. After Paul returned from Arabia (Gal. 1:17) and had to escape from Damascus (Acts 9:23-25), he came to Jerusalem and was “speaking out boldly in the name of the Lord” (9:28) before another plot formed against him. To preserve his life, the disciples relocated him to Tarsus. So Paul did indeed attempt to evangelize Judea, though not for very long. Even so, the chronology of his ministry was not his point. He intended to show that his own people had always been a priority to him throughout his ministry to the Gentiles. He turned to the Gentiles out of necessity because the Jews, for the most part, rejected the gospel. In every city he visited, he spoke in the synagogues first and then, when rejected, turned to the Gentiles.
Paul’s priority on ministry to Jews further invalidated the charges against him. He had not forsaken his own people; they had forsaken him by rejecting the truth of their own Scriptures concerning the death and resurrection of their Messiah. Contained within this last statement in 26:23 was a countercharge. The temple had forsaken its duty to proclaim the “light” God had given them to steward (cf. Isa. 42:6; 49:6).
— 26:24-29 —
If these verses represented the apostle’s verbatim address, this speech would have taken fewer than five minutes to deliver; however, we must remember that Luke recorded a summary of Paul’s address, not a transcript. This is implicit when Festus expresses his admiration for the extent of Paul’s knowledge, commenting on his “great learning” (26:24). This suggests that Paul had supported all of his statements with logic and Scripture. Indeed, Paul affirmed, “I have declared words of truth and rationality” (26:25; my literal translation).
Festus suggested that the apostle’s great knowledge was “driving [him] mad” (mania [3130]) because, in the Greek worldview, resurrection was a logical impossibility. Paul’s response suggested that Agrippa held a broader perspective than the Greeks. Paul also presumed knowledge of the Scriptures on the part of Agrippa, suggesting that he had prior knowledge of the king’s theological leanings. The apostle pressed Agrippa to affirm in public what he perhaps believed privately concerning “the Prophets” (26:26-27). If the king affirmed the Old Testament Prophets as Scripture, he would have aligned himself with the Pharisees —while his aristocratic peers were mostly Sadducees —and his belief in resurrection would have made him a laughingstock among his Gentile colleagues. Moreover, if Agrippa affirmed the writings of the Old Testament, he would affirm the basis for Paul’s reasoning, and to affirm Paul’s reasoning would be to affirm belief in the gospel.
Paul used the insult from Festus to lead Agrippa down a theological path he did not want to travel. He apparently held out the possibility of resurrection and had at least some respect for the Old Testament prophets, but he didn’t like where the logical trail led. So he responded with a joke. The original Greek manuscripts did not contain punctuation corresponding to the modern question mark, but it’s best to see Agrippa’s response as sarcasm: “So, in a short time you will persuade me to become a Christian?” Regardless, Agrippa ended his part in the hearing.
The apostle responded with a reaffirmation of his commitment to the gospel, his God, and his ministry. His mention of “chains” is most likely literal, which indicates that his status had changed. When he first came to Caesarea under Felix, he lived in relative comfort in the Praetorium, able to receive guests, guarded loosely, perhaps even able to move about the compound freely. Somewhere along the way, however, his status had changed. After Festus heard the charges against Paul, he may have feared the apostle’s escape. Furthermore, when Paul appealed his case to Caesar, he effectively turned his case into a criminal matter (yet without formal charges, hence the hearing before Agrippa). Consequently, his custody was no longer a matter of his own protection; Festus had a duty to deliver him to Rome.
— 26:30-32 —
Luke includes this final conversation between Festus and Agrippa to vindicate Paul of any wrongdoing. The Pharisees (23:9), the commander in Jerusalem (23:29), the procurator, Felix (24:27; by his inaction), and Festus (25:25) all agreed that the apostle had committed no crime and did not deserve his circumstances. Now Agrippa added his opinion to the rest, stating that Paul might have been set free except for his appeal to Rome. Of course, the king spoke purely in legal terms. Felix and Festus both struggled with a political problem that prevented them from ignoring the temple. Besides that, Paul’s release would almost certainly result in his death unless he spent the rest of his life on the run in the wilderness.
APPLICATION: ACTS 25:23–26:32
The Limits of the Gospel
Paul’s powerful defense of Christian truth before the social and political leaders of Caesarea prompts two observations concerning the good news and what it will not accomplish for humanity.
First, hearing about Christ doesn’t automatically bring internal changes. Some hear the good news of Christ all their lives yet never respond in belief. They go from Sunday to Sunday and Bible study to Bible study without making a decision concerning their eternal destiny. Each time, they close the Bible and say, “Well, we’ll meet again.” They apparently think that if they spend enough time in church they will become Christian enough to deserve heaven. It is true that spiritual awakening can be a journey. But for those who die on the way —that is, before making a decision to trust Christ —hell awaits, not heaven. The grace of God presents us with an opportunity for salvation from sin, and He requires nothing more than trust in His Son; but without a response, the truth accomplishes nothing in the unbeliever.
Second, responding to Christ doesn’t instantly remove external chains. Despite what many religious hucksters may tell you, becoming a child of God doesn’t release the powers of good fortune from heaven to exempt us from the evils of earth. Some would have you believe that it’s God’s will for His people to live lives that are healthy, wealthy, and free from troubles, and if you do struggle with difficulties, it’s because you don’t have enough faith. A brief review of Paul’s life should be enough to dispel that bit of heresy. In Caesarea, he stood in chains, alone, and poor as dirt because he believed in Jesus as the Messiah and faithfully followed God’s plan for his life. Difficult as it is to understand, God’s plan for His people might not lead to our living in comfort and privilege, but to endure difficulties just like His own Son and the apostles who followed Him.
Responding to Christ doesn’t remove our chains of affliction —in this life. Our health, wealth, and freedom from troubles will come in the life to come, when our lives in the fallen realm of evil and sin have ended. He has promised victory at the end of our strife. He has promised to carry us through our difficulties in the here and now to give us a hope and a future beyond anything we can imagine. That is the promise of the good news.