Written by Shauna Archer
Today I want to share what I’ve learned as I have studied the whole chapter of Acts 26. This is a fascinating chapter of the Bible. I hope you read it with eyes wide open.
The apostle Paul is in chains and some serious hot water. He has spent years traveling and sharing the message with Jews and Gentiles alike, that they should follow a new risen Messiah. The Jewish leaders have had enough of Paul and want to nip this Christianity thing in the bud by putting Paul to death. Paul is brought before King Agrippa and the governor Festus decides to make a show of it, as we read at the end of the previous chapter, by inviting local leaders and officials to witness the proceedings. Agrippa tells Paul to share his defense.
What does Paul do? He simply tells a story, the story of his miraculous conversion to Christ. Someone has said that the story that Paul tells here is the world’s first Christian testimony. I particularly love the part of the story where Paul is confronted by Jesus in verse 14 saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Saul doesn’t know who might want to stop him in his tracks. He has rejected Christ so thoroughly that he doesn’t know any heavenly being whom he could possibly be persecuting. Because he doesn’t get it, he actually has to ask, “Who are you, Lord?” When Christ reveals Himself, Saul eventually becomes Paul the Apostle, the messenger of Christ to the world. He does a complete 180 in his life.
After telling his story, Paul turns to King Agrippa and takes it one step further by basically delivering a first-century altar call, suggesting that his accusers and any others in the room join him in faith in Christ. Verse 29 says, “I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”
Paul didn’t beg for his life, he didn’t provide a strong defense of his innocence, he didn’t throw himself at the mercy of the King. Instead, he used this opportunity to focus on Jesus who had saved and changed him completely. He then courageously asked the others in the room, despite their higher position in life, to become like him as one following after the Lord Jesus Christ. Given his one shot in front of the King, Paul chose to share the life-changing message of the gospel that had so radically shifted and eternally altered his entire life.
My life was radically shifted at our recent Holy Spirit Encounter weekend and the Pastors’ Retreat that followed. I met Christ in a fresh way and was delivered from some heavy baggage that I had carried around all these years. I tell you that to say that Jesus is still in the business of doing radical things like changing hearts, restoring lives, repairing brokenness, and redeeming those who are far from God. I’m summing up my life and this experience in two words – Jesus wins.
We can look at this chapter through a human lens and say Paul didn’t win his freedom or his innocence. He gained nothing.
Or we can look at it with spiritual eyes and see all that was gained for the Kingdom that day because of Paul’s boldness and faith as a man changed by the gospel of Christ. We could say Jesus wins. I hope you fully know that reality today.
